Fieger, from Naples, FL., batted .531 in his senior year at Naples HS. Brad’s father, Gene, says his son is “very excited about playing on the Cape.” Based on his performance in his freshman season with the Hurricanes, I’m sure the folks in Falmouth are just as excited to have Brad in the Commodores black and maroon. At Miami in 2011, Fieger started 60 of the Canes 61 games, spending time at first and third base. He batted .280 with two homeruns and 29 RBI. A very impressive stat that jumped out at me is that Fieger struckout only 24 times in 244 plate appearances. 

An interesting note on the Miami website mentions that Gene Fieger is a golf professional who participated in the U.S. Open in 1993 and 1998. If Mr. Fieger makes it to the Cape to see his son play this summer and you happen to see him on a Cape golf course, you may want to be careful about issuing a friendly challenge!

John Altobelli, head coach at Orange Coast Community College, is the new manager of the Whitecaps after Tom Myers stepped down to accept a position in the scouting department of the Chicago Cubs.

Three members of last year’s Whitecaps team will return to Stony Brook Field for a second summer. Washington RHP Austin Voth is the lone returning pitcher. Although he did not have any decisions to his credit, Voth was a key member of the ‘Caps bullpen. He appeared in 14 games – all in relief – and posted a 1.98 ERA and a WHIP of 1.19. Voth struckout 30 over 27.1 innings of work and held opposing batters to a .184 avg. Washington State outfielder Jason Monda was second on the team in batting with a .333 avg. Monda also had 16 RBI and was successful on 13 of 15 stolen base attempts. His college teammate, infielder Trace Tam Sing, batted .242 in 28 games, serving mostly in a utility role. Voth and Monda played for the East squad in the league All Star game.

Fresno State sophomore outfielder Aaron Judge will be a player to watch. Judge was named Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year and Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American. He batted .358 for the Bulldogs with 30 RBI and 11 stolen bases. Judge was the number one ranked prospect in the Alaska League last summer.

Florida State freshman LHP Brandon Leibrandt is expected to play for Brewster. He was drafted in the 48th round by the Tampa Bay Rays last year after posting a 13-0 record with a 0.71 ERA in 79 innings for the Marist School. If the name is familiar, Brandon’s dad is Charlie Leibrandt who had a very good major league career with the Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers. He compiled a record of 140-119 and a 3.71 ERA over 14 seasons. Charlie played in three World Series, winning one with the 1985 Royals.

As with the other teams, we will take a more in-depth look at the Whitecaps roster as we get closer to the season.

It looks like manager Chad Gassman’s defending West Division champions are undergoing a complete transformation with no returnees from the team that posted a league-best record of 29-15 in 2011.

Auburn infielder Zach Alvord played in 22 games for Bourne last summer but will be joining college teammates, outfielder Bobby Andrews and catcher Blake Austin, in Hyannis this year. Alvord batted .254 with a homerun and 10 RBI for the Braves. All three Tigers are sophomores.

Stanford junior RHP Sahil Bloom (Weston, MA.) was on the preseason roster of the Brewster Whitecaps last year but did not come to the Cape. Bloom spent the last two summers pitching in the NECBL, playing for Mystic last summer and New Bedford in 2010. Bloom will be joined in Hyannis by Cardinal teammates Dominic Jose (freshman; OF) and Brett Michael Doran (sophomore; INF).

Virginia RHP Whit Mayberry should bolster the pitching staff. Mayberry appeared in 17 games and was 5-0 with a 3.00 ERA for the Cavaliers. He struckout 32 while walking just 7 and limited opposing batters to a .280 avg.

CodBall will take a more in-depth look at the Harbor Hawks roster when we get closer to the season.

Montville is from Portsmouth, NH where his exploits earned him New Hampshire Gatorade Player of the Year honors after his junior and senior seasons.

A broken hand caused Montville to miss a month of his freshman season with the Terrapins. He started 26 games and appeared in 32 games overall. A 6’2″, 200 lb. righthanded hitter, Montville batted just .211 but his 4 homeruns were second on the team.

Montville will be the first player from the Seacoast area of New Hampshire to play in the Cape League since Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Sam Fuld who starred for Hyannis in 2003.

One item to cross the desk comes from the folks at Cal Poly who have informed us that RHP Chase Johnson has been invited to play for Orleans this summer. Johnson is a 6’3″, 190 lb. sophomore who hails from Fallbrook, CA.

Johnson was drafted in the 26th round by the Texas Rangers in 2010. While splitting time between starting and the bullpen for Cal Poly as a freshman, Johnson compiled a record of 2-5 with a respectable 3.67 ERA. Righty batters hit just .220 off him.  Johnson pitched in the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League last summer for the champion Corvallis Knights. He compiled 3-1 record to go along with a 2.03 ERA in the regular season and was named the number 10 Major League prospect out of the WCCBL by Baseball America.

This fall I started a new blog about fly fishing. I started the blog about fly fishing because I fell in love with the sport a couple years ago. The bug bit me hard.

I haven’t been bit this hard since I first laid eyes on the Cape Cod Baseball League. This blog was my outlet for summer college baseball, and Flyrod Nimrod is my outlet for fly fishing. The net result is that I’ve been fishing a whole lot more than I’ve been writing about baseball.

Speaking of fish and Cape Cod, did you know that True Cod is the fish found in the Pacific Northwest? When I became a co-owner of the Walla Walla Sweets in the West Coast League I thought about starting a new baseball blog called True CodBall! Truth is I love all summer college leagues, and the Cape will always be my first true love.

I started CodBall in those ancient times before Facebook and Twitter. Blogging was the cool new thing. The Cape Cod Times was the only source of regular coverage, and you had to wait until late at night or the next day’s paper to learn even a little bit about the day’s games, plays and stats.

Today, every team has its own social media strateg. And the League has stepped up to provide better coverage. So Cape League junkies like me can follow the league in person or online all the time. Will over at Right Field Fog continues to do an absolutely fabulous job writing deeply (and, importantly, independently about the league).

So whither CodBall? What’s a guy to do? I emailed my co-editors at CodBall recently and proposed we have a conference call to talk about the next phase of our little blog. We’re going to do that early in the New Year.

In this new era of social media, I’d love to get your input before we plan. What should we be producing to engage Cape League fans?

I’d love to hear your ideas. Many of you are lifelong fans of the Cape Leage. Many of you work for the league or for a team. What would you like to see more of?

• Player interviews — We used to produce CodBall Conversations, interviews with players for iTunes.
• Online polls — a question of the day that would survey league fans.
• Essays — more thought pieces by guest authors on summer college baseball
• Fights — more provocative and controversial debates about issues inside the league?
• Start earlier — cover more Cape League prospects. Who are the top high school players and coaches that ought to be in the Cape League?

Let us know what you think — about fishing or baseball.

There is no change to the weekend start times. First pitch for the three Saturday games and four Sunday games that are scheduled for Fuller Field will be 5:30.

While we know that what we see now probably won’t look at all like what we see in June, I think the Braves have put together a very impressive collection of talent. North Carolina infielder Colin Moran, the 2011 Atlantic Coast Conference and Baseball America Freshman of the Year and Louisiana State RHP Ryan Eades, the 2011 winner of the CCBL’s Outstanding Pitcher award, lead a host of returnees. Tommy Coyle (INF; North Carolina), Ryne Stanek (RHP; Arkansas), Brian Ward (LHP; UConn) and Chad Green (RHP; Louisville) are also expected to return to Doran Park for a second season. Daniel Gibson (LHP; Florida) will suit up for the Braves after appearing in 8 games for Yarmouth-Dennis last summer.

An interesting player to follow will be Chris Harvey, a 6’5″, 215 lb. catcher out of Germantown Academy in Pennsylvania. Harvey passed on his senior year of high school and enrolled early at Vanderbilt.

Outfielder Kevin Jordan was one half of the heartwarming story that received a lot of national attention in February when he received a kidney that was donated by his coach at Wake Forest, Tom Walter.

The season gets underway on Thursday, June 14 with Hyannis traveling to Cotuit and Yarmouth-Dennis hosting Falmouth at 5:00. Chatham @ Wareham, Brewster @ Orleans and Bourne @ Harwich will all be 7:00 starts.

The All Star Game is scheduled for Saturday, July 28, and although Fenway Park will be available with the Red Sox playing in New York on that date, the Hyannis Harbor Hawks (@harborhawks) have posted to twitter that the 2012 All Star game will be played on Cape Cod.

The season may end a little later than usual this year. Depending on how many games are needed in the first two rounds of the playoffs, a third game in the championship series could be played as late as August 17.

Following in the footsteps of Mike Yastrzemski (Andover) and Kevin Ziomek (Amherst), just to name two, it is no surprise that Auburn’s Tyler Beede (6’4″, 200 lb., RHP) will suit up for Cotuit next summer. Beede was drafted in the first round by Toronto in this past June’s MLB Draft. There certainly is a strong connection between Massachusetts natives who attend Vanderbilt and the Kettleers.

A couple other Bay State players to keep an eye on are Adam Ravenelle (6’4″, 185 lb., RHP) and  Barrett O’Neill (6’1″, 205 lb., RHP). Ravenelle is a  freshman from Sudbury and Lincoln-Sudbury HS who also attends Vanderbilt. O’Neill, from Ashland via the Dexter School, is a freshman at Virginia. Both will likely be on a Cape League roster in the near future. O’Neill is the nephew of Paul O’Neill who played for Cotuit in 1974 and 1975, winning the batting title in his second season with the Kettleers. Paul will be inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame on November 19. He remains close to many people in the Kettleers organization.