Saturday, Sep. 12, 2009

A blast from a past Posse

By Eric Degerman, sportstricities.com

I love irony, and here was a little delicious double dose that came through the mailbox of Herald interactive media director Andy Perdue on Friday...

"Hi Andy,

I just thought y'all might find it interesting that the Salem-Keizer player (Ryan Lollis) that got the game winning hit in the 13th inning last night is my younger brother. This is significant because I was a pitcher for the 1999 Tri City Posse championship team of the Western League."

It was signed "Collin Kerley."

Kerley, a right-hander, made 18 starts in the independent Western Baseball League for the Posse that season. According to BaseballReference.com, that marked Kerley's final season in pro ball. He is now 39 and appears to be working for an insurance agency in Houston, Texas.

Talk about a much younger brother. Lollis, 22, graduated from Houston Christian High School and was drafted in the 37th round out of the University of Missouri by the San Francisco Giants.

The left-handed hitting outfielder turned in a solid season for S-K manager Tom Trebelhorn, who, ironically, was the Posse's first manager in 1995.

On Thursday, Trebelhorn guided Salem-Keizer to its third Northwest League championship in four seasons. Two of those titles have come at the expense of the Dust Devils. That's an overdose of irony.

In other Dust Devils news, Baseball America released its Top 10 Prospects for 2009 on Friday. It ranked Christian Friedrich, a former Dust Devil left-hander, as the No. 8 prospect in all of baseball.

His combined season in the South Atlantic League with Asheville (N.C.) and the California League as a Modesto Nut produced a 6-5 mark with 159 strikeouts in 120 innings. Two other amazing stats were just five HRs allowed and only 43 walks issued.

He's 22, so it's not impossible that he'll be with the Rockies next season. And the Rockies quietly have stockpiled young arms that rival those of the Giants.