A Tale of Perseverance, Uncertainty and Dissapointment; The Javier Martinez Story

If I say the name Javier Martinez it might ring a faint bell in the back of some BSA owner's minds.  But I am not talking about the one who appeared in 435 games and once saved 27 games for the Sacramento Mentalists.  No, I am talking about the slick fielding middle infielder who was released by the Maui organization earlier this month.  The Martinez who spent the last 6+ seasons in Maui's AAA affiliate in Denver, the Mile High Broncos.  Martinez never received more than 200 plate appearances in any of those seasons, but kept coming back to spring training every year.  Martinez's story does not being there in Maui 6 years ago, not even close.  We must go back further....much further to tell his whole tale.

As a 21 year old in the first year of a crazy idea called the VBL, Martinez played for Indiana University in the year of 2007.  A star by no means, he got by with the glove.  While not having the strongest arm, he always had the softest hands, got to balls other players didn't and turned the double play almost poetically.  He was drafted in the 2007 amateur draft by the Shelton Mighty Smiths and would play most of his first professional season in A ball in the city of Gates Mills, a small suburb of Cleveland.  He would play 129 games in Gates Mills, hitting 25 doubles and racking up a 2.4 WAR before a trade that would send him to the Kansas City Kings organization.  The Kings would send him to AA Bakersfield where he would play out the rest of the 2008 season and start for the Saboteurs for the entire 2009 season.  While not with the bat, he was a key component of a Bakersfield team that would bring home Northwest League titles on both of those seasons.

As 2010 rolled around the rumors about the league getting a complete makeover turned to be true.  The cities scrambled and re-named and an expansion draft was held.  The now 24 year old Martinez would be selected in the 71st round by the newly named Quebec Les Capitales.  He would be assigned to AA Granby, a small town 150 miles outside of Denver.  Martinez would join a team that featured some names you might now know.  Former MVP Luis Padilla, SP David Evans and SP Mal Windham.  He would play in 100 games for Granby before a late season call up to AAA Montreal where he would struggle in the only 9 games he would see that season for a team that would finish an abysmal 19-143.  Would you believe that Cordell Gibson would be on that team and wouldn't see the minor leagues once sense?  

An interesting thing happened in 2011 as Martinez would sent to start the season in A ball Waterloo where he would play in 4 games before being shipped back to Granby where he would start 88 games despite struggling with the bat.  Near the trade deadline he was included in a trade with the Vista Panthers.  Now playing for his 4th franchise, the Panthers would send him to A ball affiliate Chula Vista where he would play 5 games before the organization felt he would be better used in AAA Santa Monica, which is 140 miles north on I-5.  Martinez would play out the last part of the season with Santa Monica playing in 21 games and posting an eventual -0.3 WAR with his newest team.  Turning 26 in the off season he was now no longer considered a prospect....if he ever was considered one, he would start the season in a new city, AA affiliate of the Vista Panthers, the San Diego Smashers.  He would travel the 133 miles back south down I-5 where he would be sparingly used during the season and only see 105 plate appearances in 28 games played. 

After the 2012 season he would become a minor league free agent and would eventually sign a minor league deal with the Denver Dynasty and would be assigned to AA Ocean Park, which lies in the southwest corner of the state of Washington.  This would make the 10th city that Martinez had played in since being drafted out of Indiana at the ripe age of 26.  2013 was an interesting year.  Lingering foot injuries would keep him sidelined for much of the season and whether or not he was in the doghouse of because of injury, he would see the field in all of 2 games during the entire season and not get an AB.  But Martinez did not give up.  

Before the 2014 season, the Denver franchise was bought by Glenn Polyn, who would relocate to St. Charles.  The AA affiliate of Ocean Park would move to Culver City, a suburb of the city of Los Angeles, and just 7 miles down the road from where he played 3 years earlier in Santa Monica.  As a full time starter in 2014 he put up his best season since 2009 in Bakersfield, which was coincidentally just 120 miles North of Culver City.  His 2 home runs would would bring his career total to 7, where his 1.3 WAR would place him 6th on the team.  His above average season would have the St. Charles organization assign him to AAA Vancouver for the 2015 season, just 320 miles North of where he spent 2013 in Ocean Park.  Injuries kept him out of the lineup for much of the season, but when he was healthy towards the end of the season he played well.  Hitting .318 in 44 AB.  His parent club the St. Charles Sheens were in need of a body when veteran 2B Jeff Haris went on the DL and something happened for Javier.  After 12 minor league cities, he was being balled up the bigs!  The 28 year old would see the bench taking everything in before he got his chance.  He was called to be a defensive replacement in the 8th inning of a tight game with his former organization, Vista.  He would play 2 defensive innings before getting his first career at-bat.  Never known as a wiz at the plate he took a few cuts and eventually hit a harmless grounder on the infield for an out.  Later that week, Harris would come off the DL and instead of sending him back to AAA, Martinez was traded to the Maui organization, where he would be sent not to Maui, but to their AAA team, Mile High.

That summer in 2015 would start a 6+ year stretch of Martinez playing for the team in Denver.  He was always used as a utility player, but always proving his worth with the glove.  Mile High would mark his 14th team with his 5th franchise.  As the Tropics struggled in 2019 and 2020, Martinez saw his playing time drop for younger players and as 2021 rolled around, Martinez was in his 14th professional season as a 35 year old.  While he play admirably this season in 41 games, compiling 1.0 WAR, the writing was on the wall.  He was released on August 11th.  Now we sit at August 29th, 80 days to Martinez's 36th birthday and his career BSA stat line looks like this:

1 G, 1 PA, 1 AB, .000/.000/.000.

He is one of only 3 players currently in the BSA to get a single AB and not get a hit.  The others being 34 year 1B Gerald Booth (currently a free agent) and 32 year old 2B Dennis Lowney (currently with Birmingham's AAA club).  Martinez is looking for a last chance.  Looking for a 15th team to join and looking for that first career hit.  With rosters expanding just this week, who will give him that chance?  His glove is still very worthy for a utility position up the middle, someone has to have room.  Will Martinez get the chance to get that first hit and retire after a long 15 year trek or will he retire with a single, hitless at-bat?

GO JAVIER

Gianluigi Ciottone; A Long Road to the Majors

With their 1st round pick and the 31st overall pick in the 2016 amateur draft, the Jersey Shore D-Bags selected SP Gianluigi Ciottone, a 4-year starter form the University of Nebraska.  Starting 42 games as the primary ace of the staff, Ciottone averaged over 11 K/9 while accumulating an ERA of 3.58 and a WHIP of 1.19. Ciottone was 22 at the time of the draft and while his third pitch (changeup) wasn't that strong, Jersey management viewed him as a mid-rotation starter who was matured enough to a candidate to shoot up the minor league ranks quickly and possibly see the major league roster in as little as a year.  They were wrong.

After being drafted he was sent to AA Gainesville where his current talent should have pushed him, but he was dominated.  He walked 6.5 batters per 9, which resulted in more walks than K's and led to a 2-9 record with an abysmal 8.02 ERA in 14 starts.  Perplexed by the results he started the 2017 in A Manhattan where he did walk 2 batters less her 9 while his K/9 nearly doubled.  He was still getting hit fairly hard but his BABIP of .354 led Jersey brass to believe it was more a defensive problem than Ciottone's pitching.  Towards the end of the 2017 season he was sent to AA and slotted in the bullpen to ease him into a starting role.  In 11 appearances at age 23, he pitched 12.2 innings, gave up 15 hits, 3 HR, 8 walks and struck out 10.  Good for a 7.82 ERA to finish out the year.  Again perplexed by these results he would again start the 2018 season in A ball.  He turned 24 during the 2018 season making him one of the older players in the league.  While he did improve on his rate stats, he still gave up more hits than innings pitched and was still walking over 4 batters per 9.  

When the 2019 season rolled around, management really had no other option than let him pitch in AA.  When he was drafted, ownership pictured him starting the season in the BSA already, while in reality he barely had any success, even in A ball.  His 24-25 year old season in AA he finally started to show some promise.  Maybe it was because he was taken completely out of a starting role.  He pitched 77 games out of the bullpen, mainly in the setup role.  In 90 innings he allowed 75 hits, 41 walks and struck out 108 batters.  While still walking 4.1 batters per 9 he was back up over 10K per 9 for the first time since college.  As the 2020 season rolled around, Ciottonne was now 25, in his last half a season considered a prospect and hadn't seen AAA yet.  At this point, a 1st round pick should be considered a bust.  Gianluigi would start the year in AAA as a member of the Tuscaloosa bullpen.  He would only see 6 games before injuries on the big league club pushed him into the starting rotation.  In 32 starts he would win 10 games while posting a 5.44 ERA to go along wit ha 1.67 WHIp and a .357 BABIP.  The good news was his walks had fell below 4 per 9 for the first time in his professional career while his K's stayed at 8 per 9.  Maybe there was hope.  He was added to the 40 man roster before the Rule V draft and would head back to AAA to start the 2021 season.  In 9 starts he would go 4-1 posting a 3.67 ERA (best ever since college) as well as lowering his walks to 2.8 per 9 innings.  When Jose Lara forgot how to pitch Jersey came calling and Ciottone would make his debut.

3 days after his 27th birthday and a month short of 5 years after being drafted, Ciottone started against Madison and while he didn't earn the win he pitched 6.2 innings giving up 2 runs on 8 hits while walking 3 and striking out 2.  He would go on to win his next 4 starts and would undeafeated in his first 7 starts compiling a 4-0 record.  Ciottone would  go through a rough patch in his next starts giving up at least 5 ER in all 4 going 1-3 before just last week having the best start of his career.  Against division rival St. Louis, the team Jersey is also chasing for the Wild Card, Gianluigi would throw his first career complete game, holding the Browns to 1 run on 6 hits, walking just 1 while striking out 4 in a 7-1 win.  In 12 starts for Jersey he has a record of 6-3 a 4.06 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP.  

While it may have taken a lot longer than expected and while he isn't an ace the 1st round pick of 2016 looks like it is finally starting to pay off.  One interesting fact about Gianluigi is that since being draft in ever level he has never had a BABIP lower than .310 and has had a FIP lower than his ERA in every single stop he has made along the way.  That's 8 stops including this year in the BSA.  Does he have misleading numbers? Is the defense that bad?  Is he just unlucky?  It's really hard to say at this point.  If he keeps it up though he will find a spot in the Jersey rotation for the foreseeable future though.  He is set to pitch against the Titans in today's sim down in Toronto against a tough lineup.  With both teams looking for a win to stay in the playoff picture we will see how he succumbs to the pressure.

GO D-BAGS