A’s Sign 10 Players
Posted: April 21, 2014
Last year’s Most Valuable Pitcher Taylor Schwarz will be back for his seventh season with the Sheboygan A’s. He heads a host of signings this week as the A’s begin to knuckle down for their 52nd season which is only weeks away.
Other returning to the club are pitchers Brandon Winfield, a lefty, and Bryce Taylor, a right-hander, who hails from Melbourne, Australia and, like Winfield, is playing for Marian University; outfielder Sam Mattheis from Wisconsin Lutheran, and infielder Jordan DeBoer from Marian.
Schwarz was 5-2 last year with a 2.77 ERA and a pair of shutouts. He led the club with 62 strikeouts and only 13 walks in 65 innings pitched. He was named to the Northeastern Wisconsin League’s first team as a pitcher.
The former South High School standout played his college ball at Madison College, North
Carolina-Greensboro, and UW Parkside. He doubles as an infielder.
Winfield returns after a stint in the Northwoods League. In 2012 he recorded 10 saves, which in one season broke the club’s career save record. The team’s Sine Qua Non Award winner that year, he went 2-6, taking the ball at every turn, ready or not, and led the club in innings pitched. Winfield is currently 3-1 with a 4.03 ERA at Marian.
Taylor was 4-3 with a 2.37 earned run average and really came into his own as the season wore on. He finished fifth in the Wisconsin State League with a 2.02 ERA in 22 innings. He is currently 1-1 and 4.09 at Marian.
Mattheis, an outfielder, is starting his third year with the A’s. He hit .279 in 48 games last year, spending most of his time in right field. He is currently hitting .338 in 21 games at Wisconsin Lutheran.
DeBoer joined the club late last season and played in only a dozen games, but he was a difference-maker, hitting .360. DeBoer is also a pitcher who was 1-0 with a save last year. He is currently hitting .359 in 19 games for Marian.
The A’s also report adding a number of first year players.
From Marian are catcher Ryan Blise, outfielder David Miklavcic, left-handed pitcher AJ Alessi, and first baseman TJ McCoy, and from UW-Milwaukee comes Blake Fleischman, a red-shirt first baseman.
Blise is hitting .375 in 14 games at Marian, McCoy is at .357 in seven games, Miklavcic .368 in 19, and Alessi has no decisions in nine innings pitched.
Fleischman had a tremendous prep career at Germantown where he was a 3-time all-Suburban Conference player, an all-area player, and an all-state selection. He led the North Shore conference in most offensive categories and broke Germantown’s school records for hits, doubles and runs batted in.
The A’s open their 52nd season at Manitowoc on May 28, and play their home opener May 30, a 7:30 p.m. game against Menasha, the club that beat the A’s 4-3 with a run in the bottom of the ninth inning of the rubber game of the best of three championship playoff.
Prior to the opener, the public is invited to see the results of Project G.R.I.L.L., a year-long grill design-and-build from paper to product program that teamed students from participating schools with area industries. Industry personnel guided students who designed and built working grills. The public can view the Grills at Wildwood Park from 5 p.m. to gametime.
The club’s big fund-raiser, the WAMI-winning Bella Cain show, is set for the Lakers Ice Center on Saturday, May 3. See sheboyganbaseball.org for information.
The Sheboygan A's are members of the Wisconsin State League and Northeastern Wisconsin Baseball League. The A's have helped develop more than 43 players that have reached professional baseball, including 2002 World Series Champion Jarrod Washburn (Anaheim Angels). All Sheboygan A's home games are played at Wildwood Baseball Park in Sheboygan. Connect with the A's on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
