Blue Crabs head into expansion draft

Friday, Jan. 4, 2008

Through the draft, the Blue Crabs will acquire the negotiating rights to seven players, one from each of the existing teams in the league. Manager Butch Hobson views the expansion draft as a chance to build the core of his team, which he hopes will be strong up the middle.

“You try to build your team around the catcher, second base, shortstop and center fielder,“ Hobson said. “Now, I like offense and we are going to get some guys that can score runs. This approach has worked well for me in the past.“

In terms of a pitching rotation, Hobson hopes to find three experienced pitchers and two younger prospects, but will settle for pitchers who place a premium on accuracy.

“I am going to look for pitchers who have low walks per innings pitched, guys who can throw strikes,“ Hobson said. “These guys might have some higher ERAs, but that’s OK, so long as they can throw strikes.“

By Tuesday, the other seven teams in the Atlantic League will announce which 13 players they choose to protect in the draft. The other 12 on the roster will be available for the Blue Crabs to claim.

In the week leading up to the draft, the Blue Crabs will contact the available players to determine if the prospects are healthy, interested in returning to the Atlantic League and willing to sign with the organization.

The seven players chosen by the Blue Crabs will not automatically be on the roster, but rather the team will receive exclusive negotiating rights with the players. Every player in the Atlantic League is signed to a one-year contract.

According to the Blue Crabs director of marketing Andy Frankel, the team will try to sign the players as soon as the rights are secured.

Although Hobson has never managed a team that drafted in an expansion draft, while with the Nashua Pride, he had to decide which players to protect when the Camden Riversharks joined the league in 2001. According to Hobson, teams do not always keep their 13 best players.

“A team that is going to have a lower budget this year might have to think about releasing high-priced guys,“ Hobson said. “When we protected players, I looked at reasons why I should keep guys. I might have hung on to guys who were local, guys who were popular with fans, and, of course, guys who produced.“

Hobson also suggested that teams might opt to not protect some of their top players if they think that a major league team might offer them a contract.

After the expansion draft, the Blue Crabs’ next opportunity to sign players will come at the Atlantic League tryout camps, the first of which will be held in Surprise, Ariz.

According to Hobson, who has also managed the Boston Red Sox, the tryout camps are a good place to scout young talent.

Hobson will attend the camp in Arizona, which is the league’s first West Coast camp, and Andy Etchebarren, the team’s bench coach, will attend the second camp in early February in Lakeland, Fla.

According to Frankel, Atlantic League teams typically fill the bulk of their rosters with more experienced players, who are capable of playing at a higher level, but will not join a team until after the major league teams are well into spring training.

“The Atlantic League is typically an older, more experienced league,“ Frankel said. “Most of the players have professional experience and many prefer playing in an unaffiliated league, because that way they are not pigeonholed into playing for one franchise in the major leagues.“

In addition to preparing for the expansion draft, Hobson has also been calling players who have played for him in the past to see if they are interested in coming to Southern Maryland.

As he works to structure his team, Hobson keeps one thought in mind.

“Our goal and our focus is to win in our first year,“ Hobson said. “We want to be in the playoffs at the end of the season. I think that if you go out and do your homework, that you can put together a team that can compete in the first season.“

E-mail Stephen Demedis at sdemedis@somdnews.com.