Transactions — Feierabend, Carrizales, Gutzler, Torres, Farfan and Gelphman
By: Frontier League Journal
Tags: Transactions, Knuckleball, Baseball, Ryan Feierabend, Frontier League

Lake Erie Crushers

April 8: signed LHP Ryan Feierabend, a 35-year-old veteran of the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays organizations, but also played in the KBO. He has been in organized baseball since 2003, so that’s experience for you right there. I wonder if his new team will also have him as a coach, being able to really help the younger players who are barely getting their toes in the pro baseball water. Karl Gélinas, with the Quebec City Capitales, has been in that role for a few years.

On the pitching side, as a starter for the Crushers, it will be interesting to see is the arsenal he’ll use, having developed a knuckleball in 2017 as a member of the KT Wiz of the Korean Baseball League, throwing it almost 70% of the time. His fastball averages 85 mph and he also presents a changeup. In 2020, he was in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (Taiwan) and started 10 of the 11 games he appeared in (4.74 ERA, 8.7 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9).

I’d be interested in knowing when was the last time a knuckleballer was in the Frontier League. Will ask around and come back to you.

For an in-depth look at his career and the knuckleball in baseball, Jay Jaffe of FanGraphs has you covered here.

Sussex County Miners

April 8: signed OF Omar Carrizales, 26, to a contract extension. The left-handed batter from Venezuela offers a combination of speed and contact skills, but not much power. He has been a member of the Rockies and Yankees organizations since his signing in 2013 at the age of 18. Here is a video from a scouting report, although it dates back to 2016:

Tri-City ValleyCats

April 8: signed OF Brandon Gutzler, a right-handed batter who has never produced an OBP under .400 in his time as a college ball player (Ohio Valley Conference). He has never played pro ball, so keep an eye on him and how he adapts to the level of competition, but just reading the reports on Prep Baseball Report is encouraging. Look at these stats:

April 8: signed RHP Wilmer Torres, a 24-year-old relief pitcher from Venezueal. He throws his fastball at 92–95 mph, along with curveballs and changeups. He was in the San Diego Padres organization until 2018, when back issues came up during Spring Training, but after that the info is scarce, so probably injury-related.

April 7: signed LHP Onas Farfan, a 27-year-old with a great story behind his ascension, which you can read about by following this link. Injuries have marred his promising career (a 21st round pick in the 2014 amateur draft by the Twins) and he last pitched in 2017 with the Cleburne Railroaders in the American Association. It could make for a great comeback story if he has some form of success.

Ottawa Titans

April 7: released LHP Evan Grills.

April 6: signed 3B Zane Gelphman. The info on this right-handed batter are few and far between. Defensively, he can play the infield and outfield corners, but from the limited numbers I’ve seen, 1B / LF would be preferable for him. At the plate, Gelphman has shown a good mix of contact and discipline since 2017 with the Oklahoma Baptist Bisons in the NCAA, but also a good power output, although it was mainly produced at a lower level of competition, so keep an eye on him in 2021 to see how he adapts to pro ball after only 245 AB in the Pacific Association.

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Il n’y a pas de meilleur sentiment que d’écrire sur le baseball lorsque la météo à la maison décide enfin de coopérer et montre à quel point cet été pourrait être splendide.

Nous sommes autour de la marque des 50 jours restants d’ici Journée d’Ouverture de la saison de la Frontier League et je me sens formidable! Non seulement il y a beaucoup de signatures / acquisitions à discuter, mais il y a aussi des décisions difficiles qui devront être prises pour les équipes canadiennes. Quelles seront les histoires à surveiller au cours de la saison? Quel joueur émergera de nul part et sera signé par une équipe des ligues majeures? Quelle équipe surprendra et se rendra en séries? Comment la nouvelle version de la Frontier League sera-t-elle accueillie par les fans?

Comptez sur moi et sur les autres sites / pages de réseaux sociaux / podcasts pour vous tenir informé. Le partage de notre contenu permet également de faire grandir l’intérêt pour la ligue et balle indépendante, donc si vous aimez ce que nous faisons, assurez-vous que les fans de baseball autour de vous sachent que nous existons.