BY JAMES COOK
TRAVERSE CITY -- New season, new team.
Well, almost.
The Traverse City Beach Bums only plan to bring back a few players off last year's 42-53 team that was last in the Frontier League in hitting.
"It's basically going to be a brand new roster," second-year manager Gregg Langbehn said. "We're just trying to find the right guys. And, unfortunately, that means we've gotten rid of a lot of players from last year. We just made that decision at the end of last summer that we're going to start over."
"There aren't going to be many names or faces that are recognizable by the Traverse City faithful."
That includes pitching coach Roger Mason, a former Major League hurler who lives in Bellaire.
"It's going to be myself and a hitting coach and maybe a volunteer assistant," said Langbehn, who will handle the pitching staff this season. "That's the direction we're taking this year."
Langbehn said he hopes to have a hitting coach under contract in the next week after last year's hitting coach, J.T. Tamargo, joined the Lansing Lugnuts.
As of now, the only position players from last year's team under contract are shortstop Brad Miller, outfielder Brian Lapin and catcher Andrew Franco. Of those three, only Franco is a good bet to be with the team this spring.
Pitchers Kevin Reese, Ryan Kruszka, Steve Roberts and Shawn Joy are back, along with seven new arms so far.
The newest is former Kansas City Royals farmhand Richard Folmer -- a 23-year old righty -- who was signed Tuesday.
He made 25 minor league appearances last season with the Arizona League's Arizona Royals and Idaho Falls of the Pioneer League.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound reliever ended with a 1-2 record and a 4.36 ERA in 23 games out of the bullpen for Idaho Falls, striking out 42 batters in 33 innings pitched and tied for the team lead with eight saves. In 97 career games at Stephen F. Austin, he had 21 saves, including a team-leading 12 saves as a senior.
Langbehn said the team is in the process of signing several more players, although contracts have not been finalized. Among those are an outfielder from the St. Louis Cardinals organization and a veteran Frontier League starting pitcher who is a free agent.
He said the team is also looking for experienced corner outfielders to add to Steve Mazzurco, a New York State League All-Star, and Division II All-American Jason Fobes, who comes from Colorado State-Pueblo -- the same college that produced former Beach Bums pitcher Jeff Williams and catcher Pat Perry.
"There's so many independent league teams and we're all trying to find players," Langbehn said. "It becomes a feeding frenzy, basically. And it's ever worse in a month with spring training for affiliated teams when they start releasing players."
The manager said he has three players penciled in the lineup for 2010 -- catcher Michael Sharp, first baseman Chase Burch and third baseman Bobby Spain.
"The trade for Chase Burch is big," Langbehn said. "We think he can be a game-changer, offensively. We had to give up two good players (David Nathanson and John Alsonso)."
Langbehn hopes Roberts can come back healthy and help solidify an overhauled starting rotation.
"It just tells you a lot about a kid when he's pitching a game with a hernia and he doesn't tell anybody," Langbehn said. "That's kind of what happened to him last summer. Down in Evansville, he came out in the sixth inning and obviously something was wrong. He had to go to the hospital that night and unfortunately, it ended his season right on the spot."
Traverse City has lost three players this off-season to affiliated ball -- catcher John Parham (Seattle), catcher Robbie Alcombrack (Texas) and reliever B.J. Hagen (Houston). Infielder Matt Gaski, a teammate of former TC players David Hurst and Brandon McArthur at Florida, is also drawing interest from the Minnesota Twins.
Beach Bums vice president Jason Wuerfel held the first of two team tryouts in Indianapolis on Jan. 23. Another Indianapolis tryout is slated for March 27, with a May 8 tryout camp in Traverse City.
The Changes
PLAYERS RETURNING
C Andrew Franco
SP Steve Roberts
SP Kevin Reese
RP Shawn Joy
RP Ryan Kruszka
SS Brad Miller*
OF Brian Lapin*
PLAYERS LOST
OF Mike Epping
RP Jeff Williams (Yankees)
C Robbie Alcombrack (Rangers)
RP B.J. Hagen (Mariners)
C John Parham (Astros)
P David Hurst
SP David Nathanson
1B John Alonso
2B James Guerrero
1B Mike Victor
OF Sean Hoorelbeke
OF Michael Campbell
2B Andrew Stafford
OF Scott Billak
SP Brett Bostelman
SP David Dinelli
SP Jason Kiley
RP Jared Locke
RP Nick Pepper
PLAYERS ADDED
1B Chase Burch
3B Bobby Spain
C Michael Sharp
OF Jason Fobes
OF Steve Mazzurco
IF Matt Gaski
IF Kyle Eveland
IF Andrew Crisp
P Justin Deme
P Ben Dollar
P David Slovak
P Bryan Gardner
P Michael Moore
P Andrew Paulauskas
RP Richard Folmer
* Contract option exercised
