Old Minor Leaguers: National League Central

On Sunday I used Baseball-Reference's organizational depth tables to highlight those players age 35 or older that were plying their trade exclusively in the minor leagues so far this season. The NL East produced six such players. Now let's look at the National League Central.

• Division leading Milwaukee has 35-year old Jose Macias working a variety of positions in Triple-A this season. Macias has played rightfield (11 games), third base (7), centerfield (6), second base (3) and leftfield (2).
• The Astros also have two players who fit the criteria. The first is Travis Driskill, age 35, who is being used exclusively as a reliever this year in Triple-A. Driskill has thrown in 11 games and posted a .592 OPS against. Scott Sauerbeck is the other and he's been used as a reliever nine games this year. Sauerbeck is 35 also.
• Chicago has Cory Bailey hurling down in Triple-A this season as a reliever. The 36-year old currently has a 3.31 ERA in 16.2 innings.
• For Pittsburgh, Jose Hernandez is getting owned by Triple-A pitchers this year. A .571 OPS and 25 strikeouts in 83 at-bats is not helping the 37-year old in his quest to return to the majors.

Cincinnati and St. Louis do not have anyone on the above list so the NL East tallies five old-timers playing in the minors this year.

Three of the above were legitimate major leaguers during earlier times in their careers. Macias has played in 659 games, Hernandez 1,587 and Sauerbeck has pitched in 471 games. The latter two have had numerous solid full seasons in the majors. Hernandez has cranked 168 lifetime major league homers and has made one all-star team. Sauerback didn't make the majors until the age of 27 but once he made it he stuck until this season. He sports a lifetime 116 ERA+.

Travis Driskill and Cory Bailey have seen less time then the others on the list but their major league service has not simply been cups-of-coffee. In Bailey's eight major league seasons he saw significant action in three of them and performed very well as a reliever in all three instances. He piled up ERA+'s of 142, 141 and 125 in those seaons. He last pitched in the majors in 2002 with Kansas City. Driskill threw in four consecutive major league seasons from 2002-2005. He saw his inning pitched totals dwindle each year over that period from 132.2 in his rookie year as a 30-year old to one inning in 2005.