HarbourCats beef up roster with six player signings

Cameron Cotton

The HarbourCats announced six more player signings today, including a pair of Alex Real’s teammates at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and the fourth B.C. boy to join the team. All but one are in their freshman season of college.

Cameron Cotton is a 6-2, 205 lb. right-handed pitcher from Danville, California (a suburb of San Francisco/Oakland). He’s in his freshman season at Cal Poly and a new teammate of ex-HarbourCats John Schuknecht and Jordan Ellis. Cotton had an outstanding season in his senior year of high school, compiling a 7-2 record with a sparkling 0.80 ERA and holding opponents to a paltry .151 batting average. He also struck out an astounding 15.2 batters per nine innings while walking only 3.3 hitters per nine. This guy can also swing the bat, as he hit for a .434 average with 3 homers in only 53 at-bats.

Carson Schneider is a freshman pitcher from Albuquerque and one of the two (and counting!) UNM Lobos headed to Victoria this summer. The 6-2, 175 lb. southpaw registered a 10-1 record and a 1.92 ERA in his senior year at Sandia High School and was named to the All-State team. His underlying numbers are excellent: 64 strikeouts and 22 walks in 58 ⅓ innings pitched. He will likely pitch in relief for the Lobos this spring.

Brandon Feldman

The latest local boy to be signed, Brandon Feldman, led the Victoria Eagles to the provincial title last season. The 6-0, 185 lb. right-handed pitcher and corner infielder won both the MVP award and the PBL batting title -- by a whopping 54 points. Not only did he hit .439 and post a .715 slugging percentage with 3 homers and 35 RBI in 123 at-bats from the right side, but he was also the Eagle’s closer and finished the regular season with seven saves and a 2.04 ERA (although his control is a bit of a concern with 11 walks issued in his 13 ⅔ innings on the hill). Fans of the Eagles may remember that Feldman played third base and picked up the save against the Mariners in last May’s exhibition game at Royal Athletic Park. He is now a freshman at Otero Junior College (La Junta, Colorado), so he’ll pick up some valuable experience before coming back to Victoria to play in front of the hometown crowd. Since the junior colleges wrap up their season much earlier than the NCAA schools do, there’s a great chance that Feldman could see some early-season action at Royal Athletic Park in the June 5th exhibition game against his old squad and/or in the first regular-season home series that starts on June 10th.

John Grimsley

John Grimsley has committed to the University of San Diego for the 2015 season, but he’s currently in his senior year at Concordia Lutheran High School in Tomball, Texas. The talented centre fielder will surely be one of the youngest HarbourCats on the team this summer, but he will bring an impressive set of skills into his West Coast League debut. He’s an extremely speedy runner and a line-drive machine who can get on base and change the face of the game in an instant. As a junior in high school, Grimsley led his team in steals, runs scored and home runs and was named second-team All-State. In spite of his small stature -- perhaps no more than 5-8 and 160 lb. -- he’s described as a hard-nosed player with a strong and athletic body. He sounds like the kind of player who can get the (normally enthusiastic) RAP crowd really buzzing. He also has a very good arm and covers a lot of ground out in centre field.

Grimsley is also the son of former major-leaguer Jason Grimsley. The two-time World Series champion racked up a 4.77 ERA over 15 MLB seasons, but the senior Grimsley is perhaps best known for his off-field activities. Yes, he’s the guy who crawled through an air conditioning duct at Comiskey Park in 1994 to reach the locked umpire’s room containing Albert (don't call me "Joey") Belle's confiscated bat. Grimsley then replaced the corked bat with a normal one in one of the most bizarre capers in MLB history. On the darker side, he was also involved in a hard-to-believe PED drama in 2006 and 2007 that rivals the current Alex Rodriguez/Biogenesis scandal.

Jacob McAdams

Outfielder Danny Collier is the second member of the UNM Lobos to sign with the HarbourCats for the 2014 season. The 6-0, 175 lb. left-handed hitter is in his freshman season at UNM after attending Sandia High School in Albuquerque with his UNM teammate, Carson Schneider. Collier was twice named as an All-State outfielder, and he hit .515 with no homers, 24 RBI and 17 steals in 97 at-bats in his senior year of high school. At this point of his career he’s mainly a singles hitter, so he may fit in well at the top of the HarbourCats batting order.

Jacob McAdams is a freshman right-handed pitcher from the University of Arizona, the 24th-ranked NCAA baseball team. The 6-2, 195 lb. utility player graduated from Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale, Arizona. He can also play both corner infield and corner outfield positions as well as catch, so he’ll be a handy guy to have on the team. McAdams’ high school stats are not readily available, so we’ll have to wait for the Wildcats season to begin on February 14th before we can get a better read on him. In the meantime, you can always check out his promotional website.