Raul Valdes

Former Jackals’ southpaw Raul Valdes has been claimed off waivers by the New York Yankees and assigned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Valdes was designated for assignment by the St. Louis Cardinals on August 12.

The Cuban defector has spent the majority of the 2011 season with the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds, also appearing in seven games at the major league level for the Cardinals.

Valdes made his major league debut with the New York Mets in 2010, appearing in 38 games out of the Mets’ bullpen and going 3-3 with a 4.91 ERA. Valdes was also lights out with Triple-A Buffalo in 2010, posting a 3.00 ERA with a 4-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio while working primarily as a starter. With New Jersey in 2006, Valdes went 7-3 with a 2.81 ERA in 17 games (12 starts).

Gunderson, a 26-year-old from Lakeway, TX, was acquired from the Grand Prairie AirHogs of the American Association where he appeared in seven games and posted a 7.71 ERA in 9 1/3 innings pitched. The reliever was originally drafted by the Washington Nationals back in 2007. Throughout his career, Gunderson has spent two separate stints at Triple-A New Orleans in the Florida Marlins system. Entering 2011, he had posted a career record of 11-9 with a 2.53 ERA in four seasons.

Ellis joins the Jackals after beginning the season in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. The 27-year-old was an 11th round pick in 2007 and has spent his entire career with Arizona. He reached Triple-A with the Reno Aces every year from 2008 through 2011, posting a career record 15-12 with a 4.06 ERA. The Wake Forest product has not pitched below the Double-A level since the beginning of the 2008 season.

Michael Moore

On Monday, the Jackals signed 25-year-old right-hander Michael Moore. Moore, a South Carolina native, began the 2011 season in the North American League with the Lake County Fielders, but was granted his release last week along with most of the Lake County roster. With Lake County, Moore was 2-2 with a 3.88 ERA in seven games (five starts)

Moore had a solid season in 2010 with the Frontier League’s Traverse City Beach Bums, going 9-6 with a 3.28 ERA and allowing just 85 hits in 98.2 innings over 18 starts. During his first professional season in 2009, Moore pitched briefly in the Northern League with Joliet and Fargo-Moorhead. Despite the fact that he’s in his third season, Moore will qualify as a rookie under Can-Am League roster rules.

“Right now he’s going to start out in the bullpen,” Jackals’ manager Joe Calfapietra said. “He’s been primarily a starter the past couple years but we’re going to see how he pitches out of the bullpen and see where he fits in.”

Dustin Cameron

Dustin Cameron, a right-handed reliever who appeared in 11 games for New Jersey in 2009, had his contract purchased by the Philadelphia Phillies from the American Association’s Grand Prairie AirHogs on July 7. Cameron, currently in his sixth professional season, was recently assigned to the Advanced-A Clearwater Threshers in the Florida State League and has appeared in two games in his first affiliated action.

Seven Jackals’ alumni are currently active in affiliated baseball, including a pair at the major league level (A’s reliever Craig Breslow and Cardinals’ reliever Raul Valdes).

New Jersey traded Jeremy Slayden to the Rockland Boulders for a player to be named later on Thursday

Following their series at Worcester earlier this week, the Jackals made several roster moves. New Jersey signed outfielder Nick Santomauro and released left-handed pitcher Ryan Kulik. The Jackals also traded outfielder Jeremy Slayden to the Rockland Boulders in exchange for a player to be named later.

Santomauro, a North Caldwell native, spent the past two seasons in the New York Mets’ minor league system after being selected in the 10th round of the 2009 draft out of Dartmouth College, where he was the Ivy League Player of the Year that spring. In seven starts, Kulik was 2-3 with an 8.91 ERA. Slayden was batting .252 with seven home runs and 20 RBIs in 37 games. With the signing of Jordan Newton on June 24, Slayden’s playing time had decreased as of late with New Jersey and he should be able to get more consistent at-bats with Rockland (Slayden batted cleanup and played left field in his Boulders’ debut Thursday night).

Ed Ott (left), a former major league backstop, has helped Myron Leslie develop in his first season as a starting catcher

Story and photo by Andrew Prezioso.

New Jersey Jackals catcher Myron Leslie is a work in progress. Although that may sound strange for a 28-year-old player in his eighth professional season, Leslie is learning as he goes how to be a catcher in his first full season behind the plate.

Leslie, the Jackals’ opening day catcher, only caught occasionally in practice in high school and college to showcase his skills for scouts before being drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the eighth round of the 2004 MLB Draft as an infielder. It wasn’t until the New York Yankees purchased his contract from the Jackals in March 2010 that Leslie started to catch in games at the professional level.

He started the 2011 season with the Trenton Thunder, the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate, but was released after appearing in three games and not playing catcher. But when he was re-signed by New Jersey on May 24, Leslie was thrust into the starting catcher role, which has yielded good results so far.

“Now, I’m even more comfortable than I was at the beginning of the year and at the beginning of the year, I was miles ahead of where I was last year,” Leslie said. “Now I definitely feel like a catcher and even in a few weeks of the season so far I feel like I’ve progressed even more.”

A big reason that Leslie has advanced as a catcher is because of New Jersey pitching coach Ed Ott, a former catcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates and California Angels. Ott, who caught 502 games over a seven-year major league career, had a similar experience as Leslie. Prior to being called up to the Pirates in 1975, Ott, who began his career as an outfielder, had spent just one season behind the plate. Ott’s experience transitioning to a physically and mentally demanding position has helped him in teaching Leslie.

“I think it took me two weeks to figure out I was supposed to keep my eyes open,” Ott said. However, the coach said that his transition was made easier because he was playing in Triple-A where pitchers had better control of their pitches than in a league like the Can-Am where pitchers still have the tendency to lose command.

One thing that Ott tried to fix right away was Leslie’s glove position. Ott said that Leslie had been taught to be a ‘turtle’, or a tall catcher who an organization had tried to make small.

“That’s not exactly what you want,” Ott said. “You want that big, square frame back there for pitchers to throw to. It also makes him a lot better on balls above his head.”

This year has not always been smooth for Leslie. In a game against Pittsfield this month, Leslie was charged with four passed balls, which Ott attributed to Leslie going back to his ‘turtle’ ways.

Despite those struggles, Leslie didn’t let it affect him.

“He kept a positive attitude,” Ott said. “As a matter of fact, he walked into the office and told our manager, Joe Calfapietra, that it won’t happen again. He said that he got a little tired and lazy back there and things happened.”

“It’s one position where you can’t take a pitch off.”

Coming out of college, some teams looked at Leslie as a catcher, something that he said he was a little hesitant about doing because of all the work associated with it. And even though he had seven years of professional experience and undergone a number of position changes before, those changes did not provide him any advantage in his latest move.

“It’s definitely completely different than anything else,” Leslie said. “I almost feel like all the other position changes I had, I could take certain things from there. Pretty much the only things I could take [to catcher] were things I could naturally do, just natural athleticism and arm strength. I had to learn from the beginning how to be a catcher.”

Leslie has also had to learn how to deal with a pitching staff. He has to figure out the best way to get out the opposing lineup in a variety of circumstances, which has added to the mental strain of catching. But while that has added more to his transition, it has also aided him at the plate. He is hitting .290 this year and has hit four homeruns with 16 RBI.

“Even though you are a little beat up and tired, you’re constantly in the ballgame, you’re constantly thinking of what pitches to throw to set hitters up and you utilize that at the offensive end,” said Ott, who hit .259 during his big league career. “That’s why he’s done so well at the offensive end this year; he’s relating to calling the pitches, calling ballgames and expecting what they’re going to throw in a given situation.”

But it will take more than a better offensive approach for Leslie to get re-signed by another organization. He still has to improve in some areas, such as blocking balls in the dirt, according to Ott, before another team gives him another chance. Ott said that if Leslie continues to progress at his current rate though, he expects the Florida native to get picked up again.

“As far as the progress that he’s made so far since he’s been here, I think he’ll be ready next year,” Ott said.

Although Leslie said that he tries not to think about how close he is to being signed by another team, he does use it as motivation.

“I try to remember that I’m playing for something,” Leslie said. “Sometimes the grind of the season, you get going through the motions and all that, you have to have different ways of getting going.”

Provident Bank Park, the new home of the Rockland Boulders, is anything but a cookie-cutter design

Greetings from the brand new $38 million home of the expansion Rockland Boulders, Provident Bank Park! This rustic-yet-modern ballpark, tucked in the shadows of the Ramapo Mountains in Pomona, N.Y., hosts the Jackals in their three-game series this weekend against the Boulders and is definitely one of the more unique minor league ballparks built recently. Let’s take a tour of the quirkiness…

Rockland’s towering center field wall, which resembles Fenway Park’s Green Monster but sits roughly 100 feet further from home plate, stands approximately 35 feet high. It conjures up images of Yale Field, the former home of the Can-Am League’s New Haven County Cutters, which featured a 25-foot-high wall in center field that was made out of steel from an old battleship.

While the Rockland Monster (I’m told the guy who comes up with the nicknames is on vacation) may be a pitcher’s new best friend, the short porch in right field should prove to be an enticing target for the Jackals’ arsenal of left-handed hitters. The foul pole, at a respectable 313 feet, is actually five feet further back than it is down either line at Yogi Berra Stadium, but the waist-high wall runs almost parallel with the back of the right side of the infield. Rockland’s Vic Buttler decided to pay said short porch a visit in last night’s series opener with a three-run liner that may or may not have reached the warning track at most other minor league ballparks.

Another unique aspect of the ballpark is the location of the home and visiting clubhouses. While most ballparks (especially newer ones) feature locker rooms under the stands with tunnels that lead into each dugout, the clubhouses at Provident Bank Park actually sit down the right field line behind the first base concourse. This means players must walk through the stands and down an aisle between seating sections to access the field. As a fan-friendly touch, the Boulders have placed their indoor batting tunnel  right next to the clubhouses behind four large windows, offering fans a chance to watch Can-Am Leaguers take some hacks before the game.

Additional notables include a press box situated down the third base line, bullpens that sit in foul territory but are in the field of play, a “Dugout of Dreams” next to the Boulders’ first base dugout that allows fans to sit in the same bunker as the home team during the game, and, of course, the potential for regular fog delays (as seen last night) due to the fact that the ballpark essentially sits in a giant ditch a mile off the Palisades Parkway.

Mike DeJesus chipped in an RBI single in New Jersey's five-run eighth inning on Saturday night against Rockland

Story and Photo by Andrew Prezioso

Down seven runs entering the bottom of the fifth yesterday, New Jersey first base coach Ani Ramos had some simple advice for Mike Jones.

“There’s still half a ballgame to be played,” he told that inning’s leadoff hitter. That simple piece of advice worked the night before when the Jackals rallied from a nine-run deficit to cut the Rockland Boulders’ lead to one.

But to do that two nights in a row? That seemed just as plausible as Jack the Jackal actually winning one of the between innings tug-of-war contests.

But Ramos knew that this Jackals team could come back again, even against Rockland’s starter, John Muller, who ended up striking out 11 Jackals in 6 2/3 innings.

“This team stays positive throughout and that’s the number one thing you have to do,” Ramos says. “You have to stay positive, you have to absorb the hit and you can’t get fluttered. It’s very easy to yell at umpires, it’s very easy to point fingers, it’s very easy to get negative and have bad character flaws.”

True to Ramos’ words, the Jackals were able to overcome that 7-0 deficit to pick up their fourth win of the year. The ability to come back has become a trademark of this Jackals team, especially recently.

On May 31, the Jackals trailed the Newark Bears, 5-1, entering the second before winning 7-6 in the home-opener at Yogi Berra Stadium. When the Jackals fall behind early, they maintain their belief that they can come back, says shortstop Mike DeJesus.

“These guys can put runs on the board,” DeJesus says. “There’s never a doubt that we are out of the game. We always know we’re still in the game because we can put runs on the board. So we always have the mentality of ‘No losing,’ even if we are down.”

While it may be easy to look at the deficit as a whole, that’s not New Jersey’s approach. Ramos has preached a mindset of trying to win innings en route to a larger comeback, a philosophy his players have adopted as well.

“You can’t try to come back in one inning because then everyone starts trying to do too much and swinging for the fences,” outfielder Jeremy Slayden says. “I think the important thing is to try to chip away. By chipping away, you put up one run, two runs and getting yourself back in the game.

“By doing that, you probably have a better chance of actually putting together that really big inning like we did last night.”

It has been easier for the Jackals to get that mentality because of the veteran experience on this team, says Sladen. In the usual starting lineup, eight of the nine batters have at least three season of experience and the other, first baseman Kris Sanchez, has two years of experience.

“There are a lot of veteran guys on this team and they don’t get frazzled by being down that much,” Slayden says. “It’s easy for us to say, ‘Hey, this is baseball. Now it’s time to stay in the game, stay competitive, have good at bats, take your walks, take your singles.’”

Besides the offense keeping its focus on just one inning at a time, it also needs help from the bullpen, which it has gotten the past two games. Jackals starters have lasted just five innings combined the first two games of this series against Rockland while giving up 16 runs which has put the Jackals in a sizeable early hole.

It’s been the bullpen that has become the unsung hero for New Jersey. Relievers have given up just two runs in the 13 innings they needed to pitch this series. Yesterday, Steve Fox, Jeff Gogal and Mike Pontius combined to throw five shutout innings to allow the late offensive heroics.

And even though the Jackals have provided the late-inning dramatics, Slayden says that he would prefer to not to be in that position of trailing late again.

“Today, I have no interest in a comeback,” Slayden says. “I have an interest in putting five runs up in the first inning.”

The late comebacks do help out a team in more ways than in the win-loss record. Slayden says that it helps build team chemistry and gives the team confidence for later in the season.

In the midst of last night’s comeback, it was clear how much it meant to the players in the dugout. As soon as there was a hit with runners on base, the Jackals would all jump up and greet the runner who just scored at the entrance to the dugout.

There’s also a special feeling in the dugout when that type of rally happens.

“The adrenaline is going, we are going nuts,” DeJesus says. “The energy is great and just knowing that no one [in the dugout] thought we were done, that dugout is great. It was a great sight.”

That atmosphere has translated into the crowd where yesterday, the 3,334 fans in attendance were on their feet and cheering by the end of the game.

“I was telling the team at batting practice today that they should increase the ticket prices for this excitement,” Ramos says. “Where else can you get this excitement for $9?”

Mike DeJesus, in his third season with the Jackals, is younger than David DeJesus by four years. The DeJesus brothers grew up together in Manalapan, N.J. along with their oldest brother Eric. Mike played his college ball at Coastal Carolina University, while David enjoyed a career at Rutgers University, winning a Big East championship in the process.

The Newark Bears have three players on their roster with MLB ties. Tim Raines Jr., Todd Gossage, and Burt Reynolds all have connections not only to current or ex-major leaguers, but also to the New York Yankees organization. Raines Jr. is in his third season playing for his father Tim Raines, who is the manager of the Bears. Raines Sr. won two World Series with the Yankees in 1996 and 1998. The father-son combination played together briefly for the Baltimore Orioles back in 2001.

Todd Gossage is the son of 22 year MLB veteran Rich “Goose” Gossage. The Goose pitched for nine different teams in his Hall of Fame career, spending the most time with Yankees (seven seasons.) Todd, the Bears starting second baseman, played in the White Sox organization back in 2009, a team his father played for from 1972-1976.

While the actor Burt Reynolds has connections all over Hollywood, the Bears’ Burt Reynolds has connections to the Yankees just like his teammates. Reynolds is the cousin of the Bombers second baseman Robinson Cano. Reynolds is the Bears first player to come from Newark since the franchise was re-established in 1999.

The league’s major league ties spread outside the state of New Jersey though. Charlie Pagliarulo, infielder for the Pittsfield Colonials, is the nephew of Mike Pagliarulo, who won a World Series with the Minnesota Twins in 1991. Charlie played his college ball at Bentley University and is in his second professional season.

Infielder for the expansion Rockland Boulders, Dustin Smith is the son of Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith. “The Wizard” as Ozzie was known, played his first four seasons with the San Diego Padres before spending the last 15 years of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals. Dustin is in his third year playing independent ball, joining the Boulders this spring.

Story by Matt Sutor

Ramon Nivar has joined the Jackals coaching staff

On Tuesday the Jackals welcomed back Ramon Nivar, who has joined the team’s coaching staff after spending Can-Am League spring training with the Newark Bears this past May.

Nivar, 31, played with the Jackals in 2008 and batted .221 in 23 games before finishing the season with Newark. Nivar split the 2010 season between Double-A Chattanooga and Triple-A Albuquerque in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ organization, batting .292 in 56 contests. He also boasts 42 games at the major league level with the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles from 2003-05. The Dominican Republic native is a veteran of 10 professional seasons.

Angel Flores, who had been on Joe Calfapietra’s coaching staff since he was released by the Jackals on May 26, has inked a contract with the Lancaster Barnstormers of the Atlantic League. The 24-year-old catcher will join former Jackal Adam Godwin on the Lancaster roster.