Dynasty has three clients who will be starting their 2009 campaigns in various independent leagues. Gerard Haran will start the season with the Atlantic League’s Newark Bears, Brendan Murphy will be with the Frontier League’s Kalamazoo Kings, and Paul Rutgers will be with the Golden Baseball League‘s Tucson Toros.

Independent Leagues are respected by MLB scouts.  Many players have been able to come out of various indy leagues to have successful careers in Major League Baseball.  One league that is getting some good press is where Rutgers will be starting the 2009 season: The Golden Baseball league.

The GBL is only going into its 5th season of existence, and is seeing nice revenue growth year-to-year.  Interestingly, two Stanford students dreampt up the league and started it with $5 million from outside investors.  While mainstream leagues are being stunned by the economic downturn, losing sponsor after sponsor, the GBL has mostly been unaffected.  In fact, two years ago, the GBL fielded 6 teams; this year it will start with 10 teams.

Many of the independent leagues have not started their seasons or are just beginning this week.  The GBL does not start until the middle of May.

If you want information about Dynasty’s Professional Baseball Placement Service, please click here to email us.

Independent Baseball Outlook from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Going into this season with Newark, Gerard was told that he would be sitting on the bench more often than taking swings due to the fact that the team was bringing a lot of established players back from last year. Because of that unique situation, Gerard has only played in thirteen games, which is tied for second lowest for a position player. In fact, the guy that he is tied with in games played and the only guy that he beat in games played are both sitting with a batting average of .238. Gerard even has the same amount of RBIs in 13 games (11) as Bobby Hill, who has seen action in 28 games. So what gives?

Either the Newark Bears need to wake up and smell what the New Jersey native is cooking or an MLB team needs to snatch this kid up before he reaches his prime. Last night, the Newark Bears beat the Lancaster Barnstormers 8-3. Gerard brought his home-field crowd some excitement in the fifth inning, when he blasted a three-run homerun (his second homerun in 41 total at bats on the season).

Haran was once Baseball America’s best prospect for position players and third best player overall for Division III schools. He caught the eyes of Willie Randolph and Omar Minaya when he received the College Baseball Player of the Year award in 2007. The St. Louis Cardinals did not give him enough at bats to prove himself in his short stint with the organization. Which MLB team will step up and allow the slugger to show his skill at the plate and behind the plate?

Scouts: Are You Watching Haran? from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

• Baseball: Gerard Haran has been tearing up the Atlantic League with the best team in Independent Baseball. As of writing this post, Gerard is tied for fourth on the Newark Bears in batting average with a .333 AVG. He was instrumental in the organization’s recent 9 game winning streak, driving in the winning runs with a 2 out single in one of the match-ups. Haran should start getting looks from MLB teams soon. Dan Leatherman has been scorching the competition in the Washington Nationals extended Spring Training down in Florida. In 4 games of work he logged 7 innings with a 0.00ERA, 11 strikeouts, 3 walks, and gave up one solitary hit. Someone took notice, because he is currently on his way up to the Hagerstown Suns (A). If you are near Hagerstown, MD, you should stop by a game, because if Dan puts up similar numbers, he will be in double A in no time.
• Bowling: Chris Loschetter is the newest member of the always growing Dynasty Bowling Division. Expect more additions soon, as Bruce Falcon is busting his butt daily to bring more respect to this sport that does not get the credit it deserves (just look at its Sunday ESPN ratings). We also developed some nice player profiles for our clients, which should help with marketing them to corporations.  One of our interns will be making plenty of cold calls today.
• Entertainment: Lauren Jones will be making a guest appearance on FX Network’s Rescue Me, a show that focuses on the professional and personal lives of New York City firefighters after the trauma of the September 11, 2001 attacks, which is going into its 5th season. Danielle Wolfe was winning the competition to become Miss Tempe12.com and seemed to have it in the bag, until the eventual winner grabbed thousands of votes out of nowhere right before the polls closed. Shady tactics will not bring Ms. Wolfe down. The President of Tempe12.com is reviewing the results, but in our minds, Danielle will always be the champion.  Last note: I have a conference call with a potential client today who would be a very welcomed addition to the Entertainment Division.  More on that as it develops.
• Football: We recently finished compiling our official confidential recruiting list for the 2009 NFL Draft. Interns have been hard at work gathering contact information, 40 times, etc. for the players that we have targeted to become part of Dynasty’s first class of football clients. We cannot wait to start talking to some of the guys that we have highlighted and hope that they wish to join our family. I should not have to mention that we will not contact anybody who is less than a Junior in college, and absolutely nothing will be in writing. In addition, we are wrapping up signing a person who is going to head the football division. He is currently studying for both the Florida bar exam and the NFLPA examination, which will be taken at the end of July.
• Basketball: Working on finishing up the contact information for our 2009 NBA Draft recruiting list. More to come on this front in the future.

Dynasty Notes – Part 12 from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

So if you are not one of the 0.0001% who end up getting drafted, subsequently climb up the Minor League ladder, and then make your Major League debut, what are you to do? There are many Independent Leagues in America that display tons of talent. Many of those players end up making it into the MLB for the first time or back into the MLB after being found by a scout while playing Indy ball. In fact, a couple of Dynasty clients are attempting to do just that. Dan Leatherman was with the Minnesota Twins organization and Gerard Haran was with the St. Louis Cardinals. Both of them were cut this past offseason. Leatherman has scored a contract with the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the Northern League and Haran just signed a contract with the Newark Bears. Major League scouts have already been commenting on Leatherman, and the Goldeyes have not yet played a single game with him on its their roster.

Another route is the open tryout. In fact, Leatherman first made it into the Twins organization by showing his skills at such a tryout. Undrafted out of college, he was not deterred and decided to take a shot in the dark. It just so happens that they liked him enough to provide him a roster spot. While odds are against you getting chosen out of the myriad of participants in an open tryout, what is there to lose? Nathan Rode of Baseball America was on my wavelength when he decided to tryout for the Detroit Tigers this past Spring Training. Teams hold these tryouts every year. While only one player was selected out of Rode’s group, it shows that the possibility of being discovered exists. Leatherman’s story is another case-in-points.

Life is not over for a baseball player if he is not selected in the Amateur Draft. It is also not the end of the road if he is cut by an MLB organization. Life is all about second chances, but you will always have to prove yourself. It may take busting your ass in open tryouts or independent baseball.

Destined For The MLB? from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules