Old Minor Leaguers - National League East

I've found that using the organizational depth tables from Baseball-Reference is the best and quickest way to stay current on the pecking order for each position in all the major league team's systems.

I delved into the National League East ball clubs tonight to see if there were any older ball players who were plying their trade in Triple-A and waiting for a call-up to the majors that may never happen for them again. Here's a list of the 35+ year old players who so far are playing out 2007 exclusively in the minors.

• Right off the bat we see the Mets with two catchers that fit the above criteria: Sandy Alomar Jr. (.717 OPS) and Mike DeFelice (.818). Alomar comes in at 41 and DiFelice is a surprising 38.


• For Philadelphia Pedro Swan, the 36-year old right fielder, is currently hitting at a .731 clip with most of his AB's coming in Double-A. He was just recently moved up to Triple-A.


• Washington represents with Manny Alexander at shortstop with a robust .483. He's 36. Robin Jennings (35) has split time between Double and Triple-A this season and has combined to produce at a .746 clip. Onto Nat pitchers and Chris Michalak whose started 5 games to the tune of a 3.79 clip at the age of 36.

Those are six players for the whole NL East. Robin Jennings and Pedro Swan have seen the least major league action in their careers out of the six. Jennings last played in the majors in 2001 when he played for three teams to the tune of a 88 OPS+. Outfielder Pedro Swan experienced cups of coffee in '00, '02 and '03. His lifetime OPS+ in 25 games is...28.

Chris Michalak's 191.1 career major league innings pitched are spread out through four major league campaigns - '98, '01, '02 and '06. He's put up a respectable 101 ERA+.

Alomar Jr. (1,369 ML games), Alexander (594) and DiFelice (527) have all had significant stretches of time in major league uniforms.

Barring injuries at the major league level who's the most likely to hit the majors first? I'll go with the left-handed pitcher whose parent ball club is severely short on hurlers. The Nationals have enjoyed solid pitching from their front line relievers but their middle relief and three of their five starters have pitched atrociously this spring. It just so happens that Michalak's served as a journeyman starter/middle reliever for the four teams he's played for in the majors during his career.