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You already know that Pete Parise went undrafted, that he played at the University of Pittsburgh, and that he was not truly a pitcher until he hit the Frontier League.  But did you know that his fastball is currently hitting mid-90s and that he is developing a mean sinker and changeup?  The two new pitches go great with his already powerful fastball and slider.  Marlon W. Morgan of the Memphis Commercial Appeal recently talked to Pete and his pitching coach and put together a nice write-up on the young reliever.  Here is an excerpt:

Springfield, Missouri and the Springfield Cardinals are sad to see Pete Parise move on, but are happy with what he was able to contribute to the Double-A club in his short stint this season.  Matt Baker of the Springfield News-Leader talks about Parise’s interesting journey to get to Triple A in his piece, Parise on fast track.  Here are a few snippets:

As Pete Parise finished his senior season at Pitt in 2007, he knew his .285 average and zero home runs weren’t going to give him a chance to play professional ball as an outfielder.

So the New York native followed the advice of scouts and became a pitcher.

Dan Leatherman improved to 4-0 on the year with the High A Potomac Nationals after pitching 2 innings of no run ball.  He struck out two batters and walked none in the process.  Best of all, it was in front of his hometown of Frederick.  And only two days earlier, Leatherman picked up his third win of the season at Frederick, as well.  Leatherman is slowly bringing his ERA down.  It is now at 4.02.  This is a very important year for Dan, and all of us at Dynasty are very proud of him for battling through all the pain and anguish he has suffered to give his team a chance to win whenever the ball is in his hands.  Way to go, Dan!

Just went through a very draining few days of the MLB Amateur Draft, and the fun is not over yet.  We had some guys drop in the round selected because of signability issues, a couple of guys leave us, and we picked up a few new players to advise.  It really is crazy how this business works.  Nothing will be truly sorted out until the signing deadline, which is August 17.  I should have more information about Dynasty’s new clients at that point.  I can almost guarantee that a few of our guys will go back to school for at least another year.

Had a lot of Dynasty’s pitchers get time on the mound yesterday.  Here is how they fared:

Dan Leatherman of the Potomac Nationals went 3.2 innings in relief in a shortened 7 inning game (Potomac played a double header).  He only gave up 1 hit and 0 earned runs.  Dan has been getting a lot of time lately and has lowered his ERA in the process.  On the season, his ERA is sitting at 4.61.  For relievers on Potomac, Dan leads the team in innings pitched with 27.1.

I recently reported in the latest version of Dynasty Notes that Kyle Gunderson was placed on the reserve list by the High A Jupiter Hammerheads merely as a precautionary measure.  Gundy did not feel that his back needed a rest, but his managers wanted to give him some time off.  Well, that rest was short-lived as Kyle made his return to the mound last night.  He came into the game against the Tampa Yankees in the 8th inning and did not give up a single earned run or hit.  That means that Kyle is back to his old tricks.  His ERA with the Hammerheads is down to a 0.82 and the opposition is batting only .175 when he is tossing toward home plate.

Been a while since we last did a Dynasty Notes column (8/25/08 to be exact), so here we go…

Baseball

One of Dynasty’s newest baseball clients, has been on a tear since signing with the sports and talent agency.  Kyle McPherson, a 14th round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2007 amateur entry Draft got the start for the Low A West Virginia Power last night and went 5 innings with 6 strike outs and only walked 2 batters, gave up 2 hits, and just 1 earned run.  You might be wondering why McPherson was taken out of the game after the 5th if he was doing so well.  The Pirates restrict their farm arms to a 70 pitch count.  I happen to think this is a very intelligent idea.

While Kyle Gunderson is racking up the saves, Kyle McPherson is stacking up some wins.  Last night, McPherson got the start for the West Virginia Power and pitched his best game of this young season.  From MiLB.com:

Kyle McPherson held the Lakewood offense in check on Thursday night at Appalachian Power Park, allowing just a run on four hits over six and two-thirds, as West Virginia avoided the sweep with a 6-1 victory over the BlueClaws.

McPherson (3-1) earned the victory in his finest start of the season, snagging his second win of the home stand.

With the Potomac Nationals, Kyle Gunderson was manly used as a set-up man.  He did not expect for his role to change once he was traded to the Florida Marlins organization.  It seems as though the Marlins had other plans, though, and Gundy is not complaining.  In yesterday’s early game, Gundy was called in again to close up the game and earn the Jupiter Hammerheads a win.  Kyle finished of Sarasota by striking out one batter and not giving up a single run in the 9th.  The Hammerheads squeezed out a 1-0 nail biter.

Kyle picked up his fourth save of the season and lowered his ERA to 0.90.  He has 4 saves in as many opportunities.

So Kyle Gunderson’s streak of not giving up a run with his new team, the Jupiter Hammerheads, has come to a close.  We are still very proud of our man for going 7 innings without giving up a single run, before giving up one earned in 2 innings of the first half of a double header.  Gundy got his third save of the season in a 3-2 win and still boasts a strong ERA of 1.00.

Dan Leatherman has also quietly been coming back strong from a short early season slump.  Last night, Leatherman went one inning, struck out two while giving up no runs, and lowered his ERA to 5.17.

It was not that long ago that the Washington Nationals traded away Kyle Gunderson to the Florida Marlins for Logan Kensing.  The trade was understandable for both sides.  The Marlins had given Kensing a chance on their active roster and were not pleased with the results.  The Nationals needed help with its Major League bullpen immediately.  While Gundy had put up great numbers for the Nationals organization since being drafted in 2007, the he was only at High A, still a bit from MLB level.  Unfortunately for the Nats, Kensing was not the answer.  Last week, the Nationals designated right-hander Logan Kensing for assignment.  And to make matters worse, the Nats lost a really good relief pitcher in Kyle Gunderson.

Yesterday was a huge day for Dynasty Baseball.  The division added two new clients, which means that Dynasty now represents 9 players spread out between 6 MLB organizations.  The best part of the two signed players is that neither of them were recruited by Dynasty.  Instead, one was referred by a current client, the other, by another one of our clients and a player who is not even a client of ours.

My boys over at Bus Leagues Baseball interviewed Dynasty client, Paul Rutgers, a couple of weeks ago.  They followed it up with another great interview with a second Dynasty baseball client, Nick Czyz.  As mentioned by Bus Leagues, Czyz should be starting the season with the Everett Aquasox.  I am also a big fan of the team’s logo.  Click here to read the interview in its entirety.  Here are a few select passag

Through 4 games with the Jupiter Hammerheads and 6 IP, Kyle Gunderson has still not given up a single run scored.  Those batting against him are only posting a .136 AVG and Gundy’s SO/BB ratio is 5:1.  Last night, he picked up his first save by pitching the 9th and giving up no hits.  The Hammerheads beat Charlotte 7-4.

Most impressive about Gunderson’s outings has been the way that Gundy is getting his outs.  Almost all batters are grounding out, which is the preferred method for pitchers.  Last night, all three outs were groundouts.