MARION, Ill. - The Southern Illinois Miners have exercised contract options on potential returning players for the 2010 season. Frontier League rules require teams to designate all players with whom they wish to retain contractual rights for the upcoming season. However, today’s announcement does not guarantee that each of these players will be in uniform when the team breaks training camp in May.
The list of players who received option renewals includes 2009 All-Stars Joey Metropoulos, Ryan Bird, Stephen Holdren, Brad Miller and Tony Roth in addition to Joe Augustine, Will Block, Landon Camp, Mike Damchuk , Kevin Dooley, Bradley Goldsmith, Adam Hale, Travon Jackson, Ryan Kussmaul, Jake McMurran, Brad Meier, Jereme Milons, Brad Netzel, Adam Revelette, Brett Scarpetta and Danny Zeffiro.
The Miners also exercised option rights on three players who signed with major league organizations during the 2009 season, catcher Brendan Akashian, shortstop Gered Mochizuki and outfielder Eric Suttle. By exercising these contractual rights, the Miners will maintain Frontier League rights on these players if they want to return to the league.
In addition, the Miners also exercised the option rights on retired pitchers Ryan Mitchell and Tony Bradley. In the event that these players wish to return to professional baseball, the Miners would maintain their playing rights.
The Miners declined the contract options on Andrew Sweet, Chris Crescenzi, Mike Obradovich and Jim Viscomi. These players are now free agents and able to negotiate with any team.
“We have begun to send out 2010 contracts to players and expect to make announcements very soon,” Miners Manager Mike Pinto said. “There are a lot of very good players from last year who will be returning for next season.”
