Let’s take a look at few more transactions from the last few months.

1. The San Francisco Giants released Stephen Branca (Staunton 2008, 2010), a free agent sign in 2012. Stephen played at two levels in 2012, hitting 252/303/362 in 163 at-bats. In 2013, he hit 234/300/314 in 137 at-bats at Augusta in the South Atlantic League.

2. The Baltimore Orioles released both Steve Bumbry (Woodstock 2009) and Trent Mummey (Winchester 2009).

Bumbry is a name some of us would recognize: his father is Al Bumbry, who played for the Orioles for 13 years starting in 1972 (andSteve Bumbry Frederick bball card ended his career with the Padres). Steve only got to play five years after being drafted in the 12th round in 2009, and all of them were in the minors. He hit a total of 244/342/411 in 1,394 at-bats. He maxed out at Double-A Bowie.

Mummey has struggled with injuries throughout his time in the minors. He was drafted pretty high- the 4th round in 2010 out of Auburn. He hit 237/327/360 in only 717 at-bats over 5 seasons. The highest level he reached was High-A Frederick (a place I’ve been to many, many times). Baseball America postulated that he might get scooped up by a different organization. We’ll see.

3. The Houston Astros released Ryan Dineen (Covington 2010-11). ATVL named Ryan the 10th best hitter in the league in 2011, and he was later drafted in the 25th round in 2012. Ryan had 468 at-bats in his 2 years in the minors, and he hit 218/324/269.

4. The Kansas City Royals released Jon Rauch (Harrisonburg). Jon, a 6-11 behemoth, was drafted in the 3rd round in 1999, and has had a solid major league career for 8 different organizations. Over his career, he’s 43-40, 3.90 in 556 games (11 starts). He has 62 saves, a 1.240 WHIP, 2.7 BB/9, and 7.2 K/9 in 595 innings. Baseball reference claims he’s made more than 15 million bucks over his career.

5. The Los Angeles Angels have released Joel Capote (Luray 2010). A 28th round draft pick in 2012, Joel has hit 281/370/398 in 573 at-bats over two years.

6. The Boston Red Sox have released Nathan Minnich (Winchester 2010-11), Scott Cousins (Harrisonburg 2005), and Drew Turocy (Waynesboro 2010), and Miguel Rodriguez (Woodstock 2010) retired. This leaves not a single former Valley Leaguer in the Red Sox’s system. Boo.

Minnich, a 8th round pick in 2012, hit 223/339/318 in 283 at-bats over two seasons. (He hit for a ton of power when he was in the Valley!)

Scott Cousins from when he played Low-A ball
Scott Cousins from when he played Low-A ball

Cousins has been a bench player in the major leagues off and on since 2010. He is probably best known for being the runner in the play at the plate that injured the Giants’ Buster Posey. The fun part of this story is that the Texas Rangers have since signed Scott, and they have plans to turn him into a lefthanded pitcher– a position he last played in college- at San Francisco. I’ll be following this story as it develops!

Turocy won the sprint competition at the 2010 All-Star game, as I recall. He hit 276/321/370 in 732 at-bats over 3 seasons.

Rodriguez was drafted in the 36th round in 2012. In two seasons, he received only 133 at-bats, and hit 173/224/226.

That will do for now. A part III, and possibly part IV, coming later!