Independent Contractors

The Independent Leagues scattered through-out the U.S. are used by MLB entities in various forms; sometimes a team tries to fill a need and plucks serviceable players, other-times, high-profile agents use the leagues as a method to keep their draft-clients fresh while they hold out for longer contracts, and there's the story of a guy trying to get back to the majors.

Every once in a while, a team can find a diamond in the rough without exposure to other MLB teams. In 2002, the Seattle Mariners had been scouting a pitcher in the Northern Leagues by the name of Bobby Madritsch. Madritsch was a former Reds Prospect who was released when he suffered a shoulder injury in 2000 and in the following year, he caught on with the independent leagues. Bobby had agreed to a contract with the Mariners that would allow him to continue to pitch in the league as he was taking his team to the league championships and he did not want to abandon his friends. However, a rival club in the league decided that they should try to drum up interest in the pitcher so that they could win the championship; so the team called the A's and told them about this lefty who has broken the league's single-season strikeout record. The A's offered Bobby an instant promotion to Double A Midland and more money then Seattle but Madritsch kept his word to the Mariners.

Until he hurt his shoulder earlier this season, Madritsch was going to work off a solid 2004 and the Mariners would have reaped the reward of getting a 3rd starter for practically nothing. On May 24th, the A's purchased RHP Keith Dunn from the Northeastern league and assigned him to Single-A Stockton. Dunn is a former Yankee farmhand who was drafted by them in the '97 draft and pitched with them until 2001, where he latched on with the Quebec Capitales.

While Dunn may be nothing more then rotation filler for a suddenly-depleted minor league system, the question becomes how successful can pitchers from the Independent Leagues be in the Minor/Major Leagues? Here are some statistics from players who have pitched in the Independent Leagues and the A's have been interested in or acquired(thanks to Toby Boyce of Independent Thinking):

Keith Dunn
Year	Team	Lg	Age	Lvl	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WP	WHIP	ERA
2002	Quebec	Neast	23	Ind	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	82	-	-	-
2003	Quebec	Neast	24	Ind	19	19	3	2	0	121.2	115	42	39	5	30	71	2	1.19	2.90
2004	Quebec	Neast	25	Ind	18	17	1	0	0	120.2	130	52	41	12	26	88	3	1.29	3.07
2005	Stockton	Cal	26	A	2	2	0	0	0	11.0	8	4	3	0	3	7	-	1.00	2.45
Nick Brannon
Year	Team	Lg	Age	Lvl	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WP	WHIP	ERA
2004	Fargo-Moorhead	Nthern	26	Ind	19	0	0	0	0	23.1	18	10	6	0	15	23	2	1.43	2.34
2004	Midland	Texas	26	AA	10	3	0	0	0	15.2	10	6	6	2	12	17	1	1.45	3.55
2005	Midland	Texas	27	AA	16	1	0	0	0	24.1	15	14	9	3	23	21	-	1.58	3.36
Evan Fahner
Year	Team	Lg	Age	Lvl	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WP	WHIP	ERA
2003	Schaumburg	Northern	25	Ind	17	0	0	0	6	25.0	10	0	0	0	4	36	4	0.56	0.00
2004	West Tenn.	Southern	26	AA	58	0	0	0	0	77.0	70	35	29	6	34	85	1	1.35	3.39
2005	Midland	Texas	27	AA	21	0	0	0	3	37.0	38	14	13	3	17	34		1.49	3.16
Bobby Madritsch
Year	Team	Lg	Age	Lvl	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WP	WHIP	ERA
2001	Chico	TX-LA	25	Ind	5	0	0	-	0	7.0	14	12	10	-	6	12	-	2.86	11.74
2001	San Angelo	TX-LA	25	Ind	3	3	1	-	0	26.0	14	8	5	-	6	27	-	0.77	1.73
2001	Rio Grande	TX-LA	25	Ind	10	9	3	-	0	60.0	55	25	21	-	34	58	-	1.48	3.15
2002	Winnipeg	Nthern	26	Ind	19	18	2	0	0	125.1	94	35	32	6	36	153	4	1.04	2.30
2003	San Antonio	Texas	27	AA	27	27	2	1	0	158	133	75	64	11	67	154	5	1.26	3.63
2004	Tacoma	PCL	28	AAA	12	12	0	0	0	62.1	61	33	26	3	26	53	3	1.40	3.75
2004	Seattle	MLB	28	MLB	15	11	1	0	0	88.0	74	33	32	3	33	60	2	1.22	3.27
Nick Mattioni
Year	Team	Lg	Age	Lvl	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WP	WHIP	ERA
2004	Fargo-Moorhead	Nthern	25	Ind	24	0	0	0	6	33.0	17	6	6	0	7	32	0	0.73	1.64
2004	Midland	Texas	25	AA	19	0	0	0	3	30.2	24	12	10	3	17	15	1	1.36	2.93
2005	Midland	Texas	26	AA	11	0	0	0	1	22.1	13	4	3	1	5	23	-	0.81	1.22
2005	Sacramento	PCL	26	AAA	7	0	0	0	0	8.2	13	12	11	4	7	3	-	2.44	12.07
Brad Zieglar
Year	Team	Lg	Age	Lvl	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WP	WHIP	ERA
2004	Schaumburg	Northern	24	Ind	4	4	1	0	0	24.0	12	5	4	0	1	26	0	0.54	1.50
2004	Modesto	Cal	24	A	16	15	0	0	0	92.1	94	51	40	11	22	77	0	1.26	3.91
2005	Stockton	Cal	25	A	12	12	0	0	0	65.2	90	47	42	4	10	65	-	1.53	5.80

As you can see, the WHIP's of all Independent Leaguers went up once they entered the Minors; this could be attributed to higher competition. It will be interesting to note if there are any more selections from the Independent Leagues to develop a pattern of what the A's look for in their pitchers.