From Frontier League to the Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates made a roster move Friday, dropping pitcher Jeff Karstens from the 40-man to add right-handed pitcher Chris Jakubauskas, pictured, who spent much of last season with the Seattle Mariners.

You might recall that Jakubauskas spent three years in the Frontier League – two with Florence and one with Ohio Valley where his manager was Mark Mason.

Karstens was 4-6 with a 5.42 ERA with the Pirates last season. He was acquired from the Yankees in 2008. Jakubauskas was 6-7 with a 5.32 ERA in 35 games after unexpectedly making the majors at age 30.

Update on Mason's former pitcher

Here's a story from mlb.com about Chris Jakubauskas, the pitcher in the Seattle Mariners' organization who spent three seasons in the Frontier League including one with Ohio Valley, where his manager was Mark Mason.

Jakubauskas, who has only 12 games of experience above Double-A, is still in the Mariners' major league camp. On Monday, Jakubauskas pitched five innings in a spring training game against the San Francisco Giants and allowed only three hits and one run. Jakubauskas remains a longshot to make the opening day roster, but it's still amazing that a guy with a 9-15 record in the Frontier League has made it this far into spring training.

Read the story here.

It wasn't good Monday for two other former Frontier Leaguers, including ex-West Allegheny High School pitcher Scott Patterson. The Padres sent Patterson and lefty pitcher Joe Thatcher to Class AAA Portland. Thatcher, who played for River City, holds the distinction of being the first guy to play a game at Consol Energy Park and go on to play in the major leagues.

Mason's connection to majors

Major league spring training begins in less than two weeks, and while there are no former Wild Things in the big-league camps there is one connection to Washington manager Mark Mason.

Right-hander Chris Jakubauskas, who was a pitcher for the Mason-managed Ohio Valley Redcoats in 2005, is a non-roster invitee in the Seattle Mariners' camp.

Jakubauskas spent three seasons (2003-05) in the Frontier League with Florence and Ohio Valley. He had a 9-15 record. Against the Wild Things, Jakubauskas was 2-3 with a 4.55 ERA. Jakubauskas, who played in college at Oklahoma, was selected by an awful Florence team with the No. 1 pick in the 2003 Frontier League draft.

In his one season with Mason, Jakubauskas had a 5-4 record that included one win over the Wild Things.

After leaving the FL, Jakubauskas spent time in two other independent leagues before being signed by Seattle in 2007. He made it to Class AAA last year, going 5-1 in 12 games (nine starts).

Also among the Mariners' 17 non-roster invitees is first baseman Chris Shelton. You might remember him as one of the players the Pirates lost in the Rule 5 draft purge of 2004. That was the year when five of the first six players chosen in the Rule 5 were players left unprotected by the Pirates. There was a big stink in Pittsburgh about losing Shelton because he was the Pirates' minor league player of the year the previous season.