Ty Bubalo has a face that people were really getting used to in
Vancouver. The high school draftee had been in the system for four
years, three of which included time in the Great White North, and
though he struggled in the early part of 2005 while hitting through an
injury, the Oakland Athletics decided that the Bubalo’s late season homerun explosion was not enough to warrant another year in the system.

For many ex-minor league players, their career is considered over when
they get that call telling them they’re on the 4pm flight home. But
many have decided to take one more roll of the dice, trying out for
indie leagues in hope that they’ll catch on, get noticed, and be
brought back into the system by another major league team.

Fans of Ty Bubalo will be happy to hear he’s rolling the dice. In fact,
the Oregon native whose father coached in the NWL at one time has found
a new home in the Frontier League, with the Evansville Otters.

The Frontier League has only been around for a little over 13 years,
but it covers a lot of ground, with teams in cities from Illinois to
Missouri, and Indiana to Pennsylvania. Players who have graduated from
the Frontier League to the majors include Brian Tollberg, Morgan
Burkhart, Brendan Donnelly, Matt Duff, George Sherrill, Terry Pearson,
JJ Trujillo, and Jason Simontacchi.

The official press release quotes the Evansville manager saying of Bubalo, "I
heard good things about Bubalo’s work ethic behind the plate; it will
be good to have an experienced catcher with four years of affiliated
ball under his belt."

As a player in the Athletics’ system, Bubalo hit for a .214 average
with 9 home runs and 51 RBIs in 106 games, which kind of sucks, but
doesn’t do the guy’s talent anything close to justice. Bubalo can
crank, and if he gets a chance to play a full season without injury
niggles, I suspect Bubalo has every chance of finding his way back into
the minors.

And if he doesn’t, well, at least he gets to play some more ball. That doesn’t suck much, does it?