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There are just over two weeks left of the 2011 regular season and many of the races for playoff spots are already as good as over.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\nThere are just over two weeks left of the 2011 regular season and many of the races for playoff spots are already as good as over.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Angels are putting pressure on the Texas Rangers in the AL West, while both the St. Louis Cardinals and possibly even the Tampa Bay Rays are hanging in there ready to take advantage of any late-season meltdowns suffered by the Milwaukee Brewers and Boston Red Sox.\u00c2\u00a0 However, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good chance that the eight teams currently in the playoff spots will be battling it out in October.<\/p>\n
Despite this, there are still plenty of reasons to take an interest in the games played by the non-contenders. \u00c2\u00a0Some of these teams have players that are trying to finish the season with a flourish in the hope of picking up an award or two: the Dodgers being a great example with Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw being in the running for MVP and Cy Young honours.<\/p>\n
Additionally, all teams will take advantage of the expanded rosters allowed in September to call up some younger players and let them gain experience in playing at the Big League level.\u00c2\u00a0 Short spells in the Major Leagues like this are often referred to as the player getting a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccup of coffee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, but from a European baseball perspective the focus is on one player getting a cup of cappuccino.<\/p>\n
In the early hours of last Tuesday European time, the Seattle Mariners issued a press release <\/a>announcing that they had called up three players to their Major League roster.\u00c2\u00a0 With all due respect to Michael Saunders and Steve Delabar, the name that jumped out was that of Alessandro \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAlex\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Liddi.<\/p>\n Alex Liddi is a 23-year old third baseman and he is an Italian baseball player.\u00c2\u00a0 He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not Italian on account of a distant relative\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s passport or because his uncle runs a pizza parlour.\u00c2\u00a0 He was born and raised in San Remo, Italy\u00c2\u00a0and \u00e2\u20ac\u201c most importantly \u00e2\u20ac\u201c developed as a ballplayer in his homeland until the Mariners signed him as a free agent in 2005.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n Liddi made his Major League debut on Wednesday 7 September against the Angels \u00e2\u20ac\u201c collecting his first hit on Friday against the Kansas City Royals \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and it was the source of much celebration and pride in the European baseball community.\u00c2\u00a0 While this was first and foremost a considerable personal achievement by Liddi, it was also a validation of a wider initiative designed to create a pathway for the best European talent into Major League organizations.<\/p>\n The Major League Baseball European Academy takes place every year, bringing together young players from the continent for three weeks of expert coaching.\u00c2\u00a0 This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s event took place in Italy during August and the 48 players worked with coaches such as Art Howe, John McLaren, Bruce Hurst, Lee Smith, Felix Milan, German Geigel and Wally Joyner.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only does it give those players excellent tuition, it also gives them a platform on which to impress scouts.<\/p>\n Liddi was signed by the Mariners following his attendance<\/a> at the first ever staging of the Academy back in 2005.\u00c2\u00a0 He has worked his way through the levels in professional baseball Stateside, starting in the Rookie league as a 17 year old in 2006 up to his full season in Triple-A this year.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Can Liddi make it in the Majors and be part of an exciting young Mariners infield with Justin Smoak and Dustin Ackley?<\/p>\n One thing is clear, the 6ft 4 inch tall, 230 lb Italian can hit a baseball a long way. He showcased his power in Spring Training with two grand slams and hit 30 longballs in Triple-A this season, including three in one game.\u00c2\u00a0 Power is always a valuable commodity, so that gives him a good chance.<\/p>\n Liddi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s career as a Major Leaguer will now depend on his development in terms of making consistent contact against Big League pitchers.\u00c2\u00a0 His 30 homers in Triple-A were accompanied by 170 strikeouts and a .332 on-base percentage, so an impartial observer would say that he has a fair way to go before proving that he can be a regular in the Majors.<\/p>\n However, as a baseball fan in Europe, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not impartial when it comes to Liddi.\u00c2\u00a0 He has shown incredible commitment to make it this far as a professional ballplayer and here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hoping that he can take the next big step.<\/p>\n Seeing-eye singles<\/strong><\/p>\n There is plenty of healthy rivalry between Italy and the Netherlands when it comes to baseball supremacy, so in the name of diplomacy it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth picking up on some positive Dutch news.\u00c2\u00a0 Back in March, I wrote about<\/a> plans to build a new ballpark in Hoofddorp and to bring some Major League baseball to Europe.\u00c2\u00a0 Mister-Baseball reports<\/a> that a delegation was due to fly to New York last week to present the final bidbook to MLB.<\/p>\n Alex Liddi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s September call-up is big news among European baseball fans, but even we have to admit it is not quite as big a story as the return of Stephen Strasburg from Tommy John surgery.\u00c2\u00a0 Two starts in and the signs are encouraging that the last twelve months will simply be a slight bump in the road for an extraordinary talent.\u00c2\u00a0 With Jordan Zimmerman making a positive comeback from the same surgery this year and Bryce Harper expected by many to make his Major League debut at some point next season, things could be getting exciting in Washington very soon.<\/p>\n While we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re on the subject of teams providing hope for their fans, can we still see the 2011 season as being a positive year for Kansas City?\u00c2\u00a0 The win-loss record still makes for depressing reading, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to be expected with so many youngsters making their way in the Majors.\u00c2\u00a0 Their fans can at least see a brighter future and Alex Gordon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good season has been great to see after the former top prospect struggled over the last couple of years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Seattle Mariners announced last week that they had called up three players to their Major League roster. With all due respect to Michael Saunders and Steve Delabar, the name that jumped out was that of Alessandro \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAlex\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Liddi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4],"tags":[553,127],"class_list":["post-11942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-hit-ground-ball","category-mlb-2","tag-mlb-2","tag-seattle-mariners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11942"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11957,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11942\/revisions\/11957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}