Blue Crabs Sign First Two Players

Team Claims 7 More In Draft, Including Ex-Oriole Halama

The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs have agreed to contracts with a first baseman and an outfielder, making them the first two players on the expansion team that begins play this spring in Waldorf.

Outfielder Steven Doetsch and first baseman Ian Bladergroen, both 24, are expected to sign soon, Blue Crabs Manager Butch Hobson said. Hobson made the announcement Monday, shortly after the team drafted negotiation rights to seven other players from other Atlantic League teams.

Working out of the Blue Crabs' small temporary office on Route 301 in Waldorf, Atlantic League executive director Joe Klein oversaw the selection of five pitchers and two position players in an expansion draft.

Hobson, on the phone from his home in Bakersfield, Calif., put the process in motion with the words: "From the Bridgeport Bluefish, the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs acquire the negotiating rights to right-handed reliever Eric Junge."

Each Atlantic League team was allowed to protect 13 of the 25 players on its roster from being drafted by the league's newest team. Still, Hobson was able to select five players with major league experience -- including Junge, 31, who pitched in 10 games for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2002 and 2003.

The Blue Crabs open their first season April 25, at the Somerset Patriots in New Jersey. The first game in the stadium under construction in Waldorf is May 2, when the Lancaster (Pa.) Barnstormers will come visiting.

The most prominent name on the Blue Crabs' list of potential players is right-handed pitcher Frank Castillo, who started 268 games for six major league teams from 1991 to 2005. Most recently, Castillo, 38, has played for the Atlantic League's York (Pa.) Revolution, where he went 8-4 with a 3.75 ERA in 110 innings.

"Castillo has been around for a long time, and he's a quality right-handed starter," Hobson said.

Extending the Blue Crabs' connection to the Baltimore Orioles, former O's pitcher John Halama, 35, was Hobson's selection from the Long Island Ducks. Halama, a left-handed starter, went 3-1 in 17 appearances for the Orioles in 2006, part of a nine-year major league career with seven teams, including the Washington Nationals.

Blue Crabs co-owner Brooks Robinson was a Hall of Fame third baseman with the Orioles, while the Southern Maryland team's bench coach, Andy Etchebarren, played 12 years as an Orioles catcher.

The team's other selections include left-handed pitcher Anthony Ferrari, 29, from the Camden (N.J.) Riversharks; first baseman and outfielder Eric Crozier, 29, from the Barnstormers; outfielder Mike Lockwood, 32, from the Patriots; and left-handed pitcher R.J. Swindle, 24, from the Newark Bears.

Although the Blue Crabs will have exclusive rights to the seven players among the Atlantic League teams, team officials said they may lose some of them to major league clubs or their farm clubs. Swindle, who was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 2004, is considered a legitimate possibility to be added to a minor league roster within the Red Sox organization.

"The first goal of the Atlantic League is to get guys to play for major league teams or within their farm systems, and we're proud when someone goes up," Klein said.

Even if the Blue Crabs are able to sign all seven draftees in addition to free agents Doetsch and Bladergroen, many names on the roster will not be finalized until this spring. Many players join the Atlantic League after they are cut from a major league team during spring training.

"We've talked to a number of different players, but we have to be patient," Hobson said.

Last weekend, Hobson joined the other Atlantic League managers at the league's first-ever West Coast-region tryout in Surprise, Ariz. Hobson said a few players drew his attention, but most of those auditioning were too young and inexperienced to play in the Atlantic League.

"These tryouts are usually more about gathering names and phone numbers," Hobson said. "They may not help immediately, but they'll help load up the team as you go along."