Independent Outlook

In this series I'll focus on players from the Independent Leagues who could use a shot with an affiliate. Some of these guys have played affiliated ball before, but none will have MLB experience. The reason behind this is that I want to highlight players who you may not know about. I'll have another feature on former MLBers now in Indy Ball another day. There are five main independent leagues, the North American League, the Can-Am League, the American Association, the Frontier League, and the top league, the Atlantic League. To start we will look at a player from two of the leagues starting with the Atlantic League.

Mike Loree
Position: RHP
Team: Long Island Ducks (Atlantic League)
Age: 24
Height/Weight: 6'6"-220
MLB Draft: 2007, 50th Round (SFG)

Loree is not the typical "prospect" but that's what this series is about. He was one of the final draft picks of the 2007 draft coming out of Villonova University where he won 20 games over four years, graduating as a 20 year-old (yep, you read that right, a September 1987 birthday graduated in 2007). As such he was young coming up, but was still pushed by the Giants after signing.  He posted great numbers for the Giants Rookie ball team in 2007, and great numbers as a 21 year old in the Northwest League (SS-A) (4-3, 2.44 ERA, 15 Starts). In fact in his first two seasons Loree walked a whopping 8 guys in 97 innings while striking out 95. Yeah 11.875 K's per 1 BB, and he was only 21. At one point during his 2008 campaign Loree started the year by recording outs on 62 of the first 63 batters he faced. His manager during that time was Tom Trebelhorn (a Major League vet) who was quoted as saying:

"It's the most phenomenal pitching I've ever seen in my life. I don't know if anybody's ever pitched this good. I don't care if you're talking about the Northwest League, the Gulf Coast League or the Major Leagues.  He has good command of his fastball, he pitches ahead in the count. If someone exposes a weakness, he exploits it. I don't know that anybody's ever pitched this good." --Tom Trebelhorn

So 2009 rolls around and Loree arrives in Augusta for Low-A ball. He goes 8-9 in 21 starts and posts a 4.67 ERA, but still strikes out 70 to 26 walks (so not quite as impressive) but he is only 22 years old, yet during spring 2010 he is released by the Giants and latches on with the Newark Bears of the Atlantic League (widely compared to between AA-AAA). While things were not pretty, the team was 53-86 and Loree went 6-9 (quite impressive actually) but overall was hit hard, in 130 IP he allowed 170 hits, 21 HR and walked a career high 43. But the positives were still there, despite allowing 108 runs, 20 were unearned meaning he was frequently hurt by his defense. Furthermore, he struck out 119 (also a career high), and keep in mind he was only 23 playing at a level much higher than he had in the past.

For 2011 he signed with the Long Island Ducks and has flourished. Thus far after starting primarily as a reliever, Loree has transitioned back to the rotation where he has dominated. He has won 7 starts in a row, and is 9-1 overall. He has posted an incredible 1.73 ERA, and has a 1.09 WHIP. He has struck out 68 over 62.1 innings and walked only 15. He is also only 24 years old, and seems to have perfectly adjusted to the Atlantic League. At only 24, Loree is in the perfect position to join a team at the AA level now, and test the waters. If he performs well I suspect he'd be able to adjust to the AAA-level and potentially be a Major League contributor by 2012.

Sign me up as a believer in Mike Loree, I can think of a ton of organizations that could use a Triple-A or Double-A starter that could mature into a MLB Back-end rotation guy.