The Victoria HarbourCats knocked off two baseball adages with one toss.
“You can never have too much pitching,” said HarbourCats GM Jim Swanson.
Or too many local players.
The HarbourCats took care of both Monday by signing six-foot-four right-handed hurler Brett Hull, a graduate of Lambrick Park Secondary and out of the Victoria Eagles program. Hull is in his freshman season at Otero Junior College in Colorado.
Hull is the eighth Canadian, and seventh Islander, on the HarbourCats’ roster, which is now at 39 players. He joins Kelly Norris-Jones, Alex Rogers, Matt Bryan, Eric Hegadoren, Griffin Andreychuk, Brandon Feldman and Darren Honeysett.
But nothing will be handed to them just because they are local.
“They have to come in and battle [for positions] and they know it,” said Swanson.
Also signed Monday was six-foot-two, right-handed pitcher Tim Peabody, a freshman who is 3-1 with a 3.33 ERA in 17 relief appearances in carrying on a family sporting tradition at Loyola Marymount. His uncle, Tom Peabody, was nicknamed the Human Bruise and a part of that high-scoring Loyola Marymount basketball team that overcame the mid-season death of star Hank Gathhers to make the 1990 NCAA Elite Eight.
A busy day of HarbourCats signings also include Sean Watkins, a heavily recruited right-handed pitcher from Serra High School in California who is headed in the fall to NCAA Division 1 at Loyola Marymount, and catcher Jake Lesinski, a wide-bodied five-foot-11, 220-pound freshman at Cal Poly after hitting .365 last year in Grade 12 year at Edison Secondary in Huntington Beach, Calif.
Attrition hit the roster hard when deep into the HarbourCats’ inaugural season in 2013. The club is wary of letting that happen again.
“We plan to carry 40 to 42 players this season. That will set up great internal competition. And it makes sure we have ourselves covered if the ranks get thin,” said Swanson.
The current breakdown is 18 pitchers, four catchers, eight infielders and nine outfielders.
The WCL is a summer league for top-rated players from the U.S. NCAA. There were 57 MLB draft picks playing in the WCL in 2013.
The HarbourCats open their 54-game 2014 WCL season June 6 in Kelowna against the Falcons. The home opener at Royal Athletic Park is June 10 against the Cowlitz Black Bears from Kelso/Longview, Wash.
