Billy Petrick: From the majors to the Frontier

Here's a link to a New York Times story about former Chicago Cubs pitcher Billy Petrick, who made it to the big leagues in 2007 before his right shoulder gave out on him. He ended up in the Frontier League last season, pitching in 11 games for Windy City before blowing out his right elbow. If it weren't for bad luck, Petrick would have no luck at all.

Read the story here.

More notes from camp

The picture is not a scene from Wild Things spring training, though it's not a stretch. The intrasquad game was stopped twice Monday because of weather - early in the game by rain (again) and late by lightning.

There are still 20 pitchers in camp - Jace Smith will arrive Friday to make 21 - and I've seen all 20 throw at least one inning except closer Jon Lewis, who left after two batters today because of a blister on a finger (insert here the "I got blisters on my fingers" yell from The Beatles' "Helter Skelter").

Manager Mark Mason said he started with 12 pitchers vying for five rotation spots. He's now down to eight starting pitchers. Mason didn't say who the eight are, but here's a guess that some are Craig Snipp, Jason Neitz, Rick Austin, Eric Evans, Nick Peterson, Justin Edwards and Sean Heimpel. I don't know if Smith is included in the eight. Kendrick Martin might be another potential starter.

- The best defensive play in the intrasquad game was made by first baseman Aaron Janusey, who made a diving catch on a line drive to rob Ernie Banks of a double down the right-field line.

- Catcher Steve Pickerell (death in family) has not reported to camp but Washington seems solid - at least defensively - at catcher. Kris Rochelle has looked good in camp and lefty-hitting Alan Robbins is another catcher with a strong arm.

- While Washington will have some interesting roster decisions to make, especially with the pitching staff, the Frontier League team with even tougher decisions is Rockford. The Riverhawks have four veterans and three L2 players (including former Wild Things third baseman Robbie Knapp) on their roster. The Frontier league limit is three Vets and two L2s.

- Windy City placed Billy Petrick, who pitched in eight games for the Chicago Cubs in 2007, on the 14-day disabled list.

From the majors to the Frontier League

In case you didn't see this on the other league sites, the Windy City ThunderBolts signed former major elague pitcher Billy Petrick to a contract for the 2009 season.

Petrick was a third-round draft pick of the Chicago Cubs and pitched in eight games (0-0, 7.45 ERA) out of the bullpen for the Cubs in 2008. He was bothered by shoulder injuries and spent almost all of last year on the minor-league disabled list, pitching in only eight games in Class A.

Petrick will be the fifth former major leaguer to play in a Frontier League game. Corey Thurman pitched in 49 games for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2002 and 2003 before going 2-3 in six starts for Florence in 2005. One of Thurman's wins was an eight-shutout-innings performance against Washington. He made it back to Triple-A but pitched last year in the independent Atlantic League.

Scott Sobkowiak was a former top-10 prospect of the Atlanta Braves and pitched the final inning of the final game of the 2001 season for the Braves. He pitched for Rockford in 2003 and 2004. Ben Diggins was a top pitching prospect for Milwaukee and made five starts for the Brewers in 2003. He tried to make it as a hitter with Windy City and lasted 17 games.

There also was former Wild Things hitting coach Joe Charboneau, who took one at-bat for Canton in 2000.

I recall that Kalamazoo, at its tryout camp a couple of years ago, found a guy who had briefly played in the majors with Florida but was never able to get him to sign and onto the field in the regular season.