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Perhaps one last hoorah for some in Blue Crabs uniforms
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by EMILY BARNES
Blue Crabs pitcher Dan Reichert could be one of many headed to affiliated ball.
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They flocked to the middle of the infield, embracing one another in a mass of humanity as they leaped for joy in a controlled celebration.
It was official. The Blue Crabs had clinched the first-half Liberty Division crown, accompanied with a playoff berth.
While this was not foreign territory — the third-year Blue Crabs also won the division in the opening half of the season a year ago for the first time — they hardly slighted themselves in the rejoicing category upon taking their celebration into a raucous clubhouse.
With the clubhouse lined in plastic to contain the array of champagne showers and beer baths that doused coaches, players, team staff, — and anyone else in the line of fire — the Blue Crabs threw a postgame party of league championship proportions.
To a man in the organization, the franchise is adamant that a division title is not the team's ultimate goal. The Blue Crabs want to avenge coming up short in last year's Atlantic League championship series to Somerset and having to settle for league runner-up status.
But Friday's division-clinching victory against a Camden opponent on their heels in the standings was an important step in the process of the Blue Crabs capturing the league title.
And holding nothing back in the ensuing celebration was special for the Blue Crabs because there is no given that the entire team will stay together through the second half of the season and into the playoffs.
Team success at the independent minor league level, such as the Atlantic League, is a product of having quality players, who are looking to return to the major league organizational landscape they originally started their professional careers with. That is the No. 1 goal of any independent league player.
The Blue Crabs have their share of worthy candidates for the affiliate minors of the majors.
"Definitely, especially with the team we've got," Blue Crabs shortstop Travis Garcia said Friday during the postgame celebration about wishing the playoffs could start now. They don't begin until the latter part of September. "The way this league is, I'm sure not everybody in this room right now will be here come playoff time. So it's very important to clinch now. I wouldn't be surprised if we lose a handful of guys back to affiliated ball.
"[Manager Butch Hobson] also does a good job of restacking [our roster], so that's to come."
Garcia was among nine Blue Crabs who were signed by major league organizations a year ago. Thus far this season, only a few players from the Blue Crabs have been scooped up by the affiliate minors. And none of those were among the core of the Blue Crabs, unlike this time last year when the team was gutted with many of its household names leaving yet was still a league contender.
"Matt Craig shouldn't have been here," Garcia said of the Blue Crabs designated hitter and corner infielder, who has been among the league's best hitters and just had his team-best 19-game hit streak snapped Sunday. "There are tons of guys on this team that are putting up numbers that I just have a feeling won't be here [throughout the second half of the season].
"Butch will do everything in his power to get rid of them."
That's why Hobson always has been able to assemble talented Blue Crabs rosters since the first year of the franchise's existence in 2008, when it finished tied with the league's best regular season combined record between both halves of the campaign despite just missing the playoffs.
Players understand Hobson has their best career interests in mind and, in turn, they want to reciprocate by contributing to the Blue Crabs' championship goal during their stints in Southern Maryland.
"As good of a team as we have, somebody's got to leave [for the affiliated minors]," Blue Crabs center fielder and hitting coach Jeremy Owens said. "Hopefully, somebody leaves this team because we have some really good ball players. As a hitting coach and Butch as a manager, we take a lot of pride in [guys going to the affiliated minors]. I hope they do get picked up and if they have the opportunity to come back [and help us in the playoffs] … good.
"That's what this league is about, giving a guy a chance to work on something and prove to a [major league] organization that he can still get it done."
Owens listed Craig, Garcia, third baseman Patrick Osborn, first baseman Eric Crozier and basically the entire pitching staff — which leads the league with a 3.17 ERA — as Blue Crabs possibilities of being signed by major league organizations this year.
"I have a good feeling about what we have here, even if we lose [quality players]," Garcia added about the Blue Crabs remaining an elite team in the league if its core members are signed by major league organizations. "You look at a guy like [utility player Shaun] Cumberland, who can play every day.
"We have a lot of depth."
No former Blue Crabs player ever has advanced to the big league level.
