Strong spring nearly lands Bisenius in Philly
By Terry Hersom Journal sports editor | Posted: Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Bishop Heelan graduate Joe Bisenius pitches for the Philadelphia Phillies during spring training.
A year after starting his season with Clearwater in the Advanced Class A Florida State League, Bishop Heelan grad Joe Bisenius will be pitching next week for the Philadelphia Phillies' top farm club.
And, after a strong spring training performance with the parent Phils, the 24-year-old righthander didn't miss the big jump to the major leagues by all that much.
Monday morning, the Phillies informed Bisenius he would not make the team's 25-man opening day roster and will report, instead, to the Ottawa Lynx of the Class AAA International League.
The 6-5, 210-pound Bisenius, though, will be in Philadelphia this weekend for the club's "On-Deck Series'' with the Boston Red Sox -- two final exhibition games before a season opener Monday at home against Atlanta.
Bisenius, the star pitcher on a Class 3A state championship team at Heelan in 2001, is entering his third full minor league season after being drafted out of Oklahoma City University following his junior year in 2004.
He made 11 appearances that summer, all of them starts, for Batavia (N.Y.) of the short-season Class A New York-Penn League, posting a sparkling 1.43 earned run average. However, he has spent most of the last two seasons in a relief role.
Last year, pitching for the Clearwater Threshers, he made the Florida State League All-Star team, charting a 1.93 ERA in 35 relief stints, striking out 62 batters in 60.2 innings.
Promoted in late July to Reading (Pa.) of the Class AA Eastern League, he logged 23.1 innings in 16 trips to the hill, fanning 33 batters and walking only eight while fashioning a 3.09 ERA.
All of that earned him a spring training shot in the major league camp as a non-roster invitee. And, after appearing seven times, second high on the club for relievers, he surrendered just two runs in 10 innings for a 1.80 ERA.
The reassignment of Bisenius left Clay Condrey and Jim Ed Warden as the two likely survivors in the battle for two remaining spots in the Phillies' bullpen.
Early last month, the Phillies' official Web site, "phillies.com,'' hailed the emergence of the Sioux City native with a feature story, "Bisenius rising through the ranks.''
The story noted that only three native Iowans are currently listed on active major league rosters -- Indianola's Casey Blake, the Cleveland Indians' first baseman; Council Bluffs' Jon Lieber, a veteran pitcher who'll likely wind up in the Phillies' bullpen; and Rangers' infielder Jerry Hairston Jr., who grew up in the Chicago area but was born in Des Moines in 1976, when his father was assigned to the former White Sox farm club, the Iowa Oaks.
Bisenius, though, isn't the only Iowan making a bid to reach "The Show.'' In fact, he's not the only Siouxlander, either.
Former Siouxland Athlete of the Year Adam Boeve, who starred in football and baseball at Central Lyon High School, will apparently open the 2007 campaign with the Indianapolis Indians, the Pittsburgh Pirates' top farm team.
Boeve, drafted out of Northern Iowa in 2003, also finished last season playing 91 games at Indianapolis, another International League club. In three-plus minor league seasons -- like Bisenius, his first season was an abbreviated campaign in the New York-Penn League -- Boeve is batting .290 with 58 homers and 239 runs batted in.
Meanwhile, former Storm Lake St. Mary's all-stater Eric Wordekemper, a Creighton University product, appears headed for the New York Yankees' Class AA Eastern League farm club, the Trenton (N.J.) Thunder.
The 23-year-old Wordekemper had seven starts and four relief appearances in a limited rookie year after the 2005 draft. He then turned heads last season for Charleston of the Class AA South Atlantic League, posting a 1.81 ERA with 69 strikes and 21 walks in 79.2 innings. He made four starts and pitched in relief 35 times while logging seven saves and a 4-3 record.
Wordekemper also finished his season with two perfect innings in relief for Class AAA Columbus (Ohio) of the International League.
On Sunday, after spending most of the spring in the Yankees' minor league camp, Wordekemper pitched one scoreless inning in an exhibition game for the parent club.
Boeve also had just a taste of the exhibition season with the major league Pirates, collecting a base hit in his only spring at-bat for Pittsburgh.
Marshalltown native Jeff Clement, an All-American two years ago at Southern California, will return to the Seattle Mariners' Class AAA farm club in Tacoma, Wash., where he finished up an injury-plagued 2006 campaign.
Clement, who belted national high school record 75 home runs as a prep, played 30 games in the Class A Midwest League two seasons ago after being picked third in the major league's first-year player's draft.
The younger brother of former Morningside College catcher Mike Clement, Jeff began last season at Class AA San Antonio and was quickly promoted to Tacoma, but a knee injury sidelined him for seven weeks, perhaps delaying what most believe to be an inevitable big-league promotion.
And, after a strong spring training performance with the parent Phils, the 24-year-old righthander didn't miss the big jump to the major leagues by all that much.
Monday morning, the Phillies informed Bisenius he would not make the team's 25-man opening day roster and will report, instead, to the Ottawa Lynx of the Class AAA International League.
The 6-5, 210-pound Bisenius, though, will be in Philadelphia this weekend for the club's "On-Deck Series'' with the Boston Red Sox -- two final exhibition games before a season opener Monday at home against Atlanta.
Bisenius, the star pitcher on a Class 3A state championship team at Heelan in 2001, is entering his third full minor league season after being drafted out of Oklahoma City University following his junior year in 2004.
He made 11 appearances that summer, all of them starts, for Batavia (N.Y.) of the short-season Class A New York-Penn League, posting a sparkling 1.43 earned run average. However, he has spent most of the last two seasons in a relief role.
Last year, pitching for the Clearwater Threshers, he made the Florida State League All-Star team, charting a 1.93 ERA in 35 relief stints, striking out 62 batters in 60.2 innings.
Promoted in late July to Reading (Pa.) of the Class AA Eastern League, he logged 23.1 innings in 16 trips to the hill, fanning 33 batters and walking only eight while fashioning a 3.09 ERA.
All of that earned him a spring training shot in the major league camp as a non-roster invitee. And, after appearing seven times, second high on the club for relievers, he surrendered just two runs in 10 innings for a 1.80 ERA.
The reassignment of Bisenius left Clay Condrey and Jim Ed Warden as the two likely survivors in the battle for two remaining spots in the Phillies' bullpen.
Early last month, the Phillies' official Web site, "phillies.com,'' hailed the emergence of the Sioux City native with a feature story, "Bisenius rising through the ranks.''
The story noted that only three native Iowans are currently listed on active major league rosters -- Indianola's Casey Blake, the Cleveland Indians' first baseman; Council Bluffs' Jon Lieber, a veteran pitcher who'll likely wind up in the Phillies' bullpen; and Rangers' infielder Jerry Hairston Jr., who grew up in the Chicago area but was born in Des Moines in 1976, when his father was assigned to the former White Sox farm club, the Iowa Oaks.
Bisenius, though, isn't the only Iowan making a bid to reach "The Show.'' In fact, he's not the only Siouxlander, either.
Former Siouxland Athlete of the Year Adam Boeve, who starred in football and baseball at Central Lyon High School, will apparently open the 2007 campaign with the Indianapolis Indians, the Pittsburgh Pirates' top farm team.
Boeve, drafted out of Northern Iowa in 2003, also finished last season playing 91 games at Indianapolis, another International League club. In three-plus minor league seasons -- like Bisenius, his first season was an abbreviated campaign in the New York-Penn League -- Boeve is batting .290 with 58 homers and 239 runs batted in.
Meanwhile, former Storm Lake St. Mary's all-stater Eric Wordekemper, a Creighton University product, appears headed for the New York Yankees' Class AA Eastern League farm club, the Trenton (N.J.) Thunder.
The 23-year-old Wordekemper had seven starts and four relief appearances in a limited rookie year after the 2005 draft. He then turned heads last season for Charleston of the Class AA South Atlantic League, posting a 1.81 ERA with 69 strikes and 21 walks in 79.2 innings. He made four starts and pitched in relief 35 times while logging seven saves and a 4-3 record.
Wordekemper also finished his season with two perfect innings in relief for Class AAA Columbus (Ohio) of the International League.
On Sunday, after spending most of the spring in the Yankees' minor league camp, Wordekemper pitched one scoreless inning in an exhibition game for the parent club.
Boeve also had just a taste of the exhibition season with the major league Pirates, collecting a base hit in his only spring at-bat for Pittsburgh.
Marshalltown native Jeff Clement, an All-American two years ago at Southern California, will return to the Seattle Mariners' Class AAA farm club in Tacoma, Wash., where he finished up an injury-plagued 2006 campaign.
Clement, who belted national high school record 75 home runs as a prep, played 30 games in the Class A Midwest League two seasons ago after being picked third in the major league's first-year player's draft.
The younger brother of former Morningside College catcher Mike Clement, Jeff began last season at Class AA San Antonio and was quickly promoted to Tacoma, but a knee injury sidelined him for seven weeks, perhaps delaying what most believe to be an inevitable big-league promotion.
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Good Friend wrote on Mar 28, 2007 10:18 PM:
Great Job Joe wrote on Mar 28, 2007 3:38 PM: