{"id":14820,"date":"2011-03-24T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=14820"},"modified":"2011-08-31T21:31:14","modified_gmt":"2011-09-01T02:31:14","slug":"major-league-mormons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2011\/03\/major-league-mormons\/","title":{"rendered":"Major League Mormons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-14845\" style=\"margin: 10px;\" title=\"0a-phillies-roy-halladay\" src=\"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/0a-phillies-roy-halladay-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"0a-phillies-roy-halladay\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>Last year was major for Major League Mormons\u2014or at least for one of them. This makes the third year that I have looked at what those of us who follow these Mormons want to know each April, and I&#8217;m wondering if I should look at this information more often.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->These Major League Mormons are, of course, those playing baseball professionally.<\/p>\n<p>Last year was significant mainly because of one Mormon: Roy Halladay. The Phillies ace had perhaps the most successful season of any pitcher in baseball history. After winning the opening game for his team, Halladay then threw the 20th perfect game in baseball history on May 29th, and when the Phillies made the post-season, went on to throw only the second post-season no-hitter in baseball history. Throwing two no-hitters in a single season is remarkable itself\u2014its only happened 5 times. Add the fact that one was in the post-season (when competition is stiffer) and the other was a perfect game, and Halladay&#8217;s pitching last year was unique.<\/p>\n<p>If you follow baseball, (and maybe even if you don\u2019t) you may find it   interesting to know which players you see are Mormon, and who might   make it to the Majors this year. The team you follow may include a   Mormon player you don\u2019t know about, or you might like to know about the   Mormon players on visiting teams.<\/p>\n<p>My own lists of Mormons who have played in the Majors include about 75 Mormons (including  inactive LDS Church members and  others with Mormon heritage) who have played in the majors. This is my third compilation of those Mormons who are actively playing in both the Major Leagues and in the Minor Leagues. I&#8217;ve managed to find a lot of additional information, especially on Mormons playing in the Minors.<\/p>\n<p>[I don&#8217;t claim my information is complete or absolutely accurate.   Some of it comes from information I collected years ago, and some comes   from personal information that I&#8217;ve not yet been able to verify in   documentation. Any clarification or additional information would be very   useful.]<\/p>\n<p>So, here is a quick guide to the Mormons on major   league rosters, or who are listed as being on minor league teams at this time, and therefore may   be brought up to the majors during the year or in future years:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Current Roster Players:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>John Buck<\/strong> \u2014 starting catcher \u2014 Florida Marlins<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jacoby Ellsbury<\/strong> \u2014 starting outfielder \u2014 Boston Red Sox<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kyle Farnsworth<\/strong> \u2014 closer \u2014 Tampa Bay Rays<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jeremy Guthrie<\/strong> \u2014 starting pitcher (right handed) \u2014  Baltimore Orioles<\/li>\n<li><strong>Roy Halladay<\/strong> \u2014 starting pitcher (right handed) \u2014 Philadelphia Phillies<\/li>\n<li><strong>Matt Lindstrom<\/strong> \u2014 right handed bullpen pitcher \u2013 Colorado Rockies<\/li>\n<li><strong>Brandon Lyon<\/strong> \u2014 right handed bullpen pitcher \u2014 Houston Astros<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mitch Maier<\/strong> \u2014 backup outfielder \u2014 Kansas City Royals<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mitch Talbot<\/strong> \u2014 starting pitcher?? (right handed) \u2014 Cleveland Indians<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Minor League Players who may make the majors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Jacob Borup<\/strong>\u2014right handed starting pitcher \u2014 Philadelphia Phillies organization<\/li>\n<li><strong>Matt Carson<\/strong> \u2014 left field \u2014 Oakland As organization<\/li>\n<li><strong>Brandon Duckworth<\/strong> \u2014 right handed bullpen pitcher \u2014 Boston Red Sox organization<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bryce Harper<\/strong> \u2014 left field \u2014 Washington Nationals organizations<\/li>\n<li><strong>Blaine Howell<\/strong> \u2014left handed bullpen pitcher \u2014 Cincinnati Reds organization<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kyle Hurst<\/strong> \u2014 right handed bullpen pitcher \u2014 Los Angeles Angels organization<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cale Iorg<\/strong> \u2014 Shortstop \u2014 Detroit Tigers    organization<\/li>\n<li><strong>Aaron Jensen<\/strong> \u2014 right handed bullpen pitcher \u2014 Seattle Mariner&#8217;s organization<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jon Nelson<\/strong> \u2014 outfielder \u2014 Joliet JackHammers<\/li>\n<li><strong>Chris Shelton<\/strong> \u2014 first base \u2014 New York Mets organization<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kent Walton<\/strong> \u2014 outfielder \u2014 Oakland A&#8217;s organization<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jordan Whatcott<\/strong> \u2014right handed bullpen pitcher \u2014 Philadelphia Phillies organization<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Free Agents:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Bobby Crosby<\/strong> \u2014 backup shortstop \u2014 was with Pittsburgh Pirates<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Mitch Jones<\/strong> \u2014 right field \u2014 was with Pittsburgh Pirates  organization<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jared Price<\/strong> \u2014 catcher \u2014 was with Oakland A&#8217;s  organization<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Players who may be Mormon:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Eric Byrnes<\/strong> \u2014 left field \u2014 Seattle Mariners<\/li>\n<li><strong>Willie Eyre<\/strong> \u2014 pitcher \u2014 Texas Rangers  organization<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kam Mickolio<\/strong> \u2014 pitcher \u2014 Arizona Diamondbacks organization<\/li>\n<li><strong>Egan Smith<\/strong> \u2014 left handed bullpen pitcher \u2014 Toronto Blue Jays organization<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jordan Smith<\/strong> \u2014 right handed bullpen pitcher \u2014 Cinncinnati Reds organization<\/li>\n<li><strong>Brad Thompson<\/strong> \u2014 pitcher \u2014 Houston Astros  organization &#8211; (released)<\/li>\n<li>Other remote possibilities: Jay Brossman, Ryan Khoury, Cole Miles, Matt Spring, Dallas Christison, Tyson Brummett, Steve Hirschfeld, A. J. Murray, Tanner Robles<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jeremy Guthrie, along with Roy Halladay, remains the strongest of the  Mormon  players. Guthrie, the ace of the Orioles pitching staff for a few   years, is an active LDS Church members from what I&#8217;ve read.<\/li>\n<li>As far as I can tell, no Mormon players had their debut in the Majors last year.<\/li>\n<li>Many of these players have served LDS missions, including (at least)  Jeremy Guthrie, Matt Lindstrom, Blaine Howell, Kyle Hurst, Jon Nelson and Cale Iorg.<\/li>\n<li>Garrett Nash (Oregon State), Mark Pawelek (?? &#8211; from Springville HS), Taylor Cole (BYU), Rob Folsom (Oregon State) are all players in college or post high school that could be drafted.<\/li>\n<li>Troy Cate, Shawn Estes, Nate Gold, Chase Leavitt, Brandon Taylor, David Jensen have apparently retired or otherwise left baseball.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Enjoy the season!!<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: medium none; float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=18376b9f-d7df-4ad0-b77b-977e4973b8d2\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" \/><\/a><span class=\"zem-script more-related\"><script src=\"http:\/\/static.zemanta.com\/readside\/loader.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last year was major for Major League Mormons\u2014or at least for one of them. This makes the third year that I have looked at what those of us who follow these Mormons want to know each April, and I&#8217;m wondering if I should look at this information more often.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":14845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mormon-life"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/0a-phillies-roy-halladay.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14820"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14843,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14820\/revisions\/14843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}