IBL alumni storm the Atlantic

The Atlantic League, that is. In the likely event that you've never heard of it (I hadn't), the Atlantic League is a ten-year-old independent baseball league in the northeastern U.S. "Independent" means it's not affiliated with any of the MLB's farm systems. The level of play is estimated to be equivalent to AA or AAA minor league ball (where AAA is the highest level of the minor leagues).

Two IBL alumni, both pitchers from the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, have recently been signed by Atlantic League teams. First, Rafael Bergstrom was signed by the Bridgeport Bluefish, and now Jason Benson has joined the Lancaster Barnstormers. Bergstrom and Benson both played well in the IBL, and were among the league's best pitchers - hopefully I'll have more to say about pitching stats in the future - but I find it curious that they were signed so quickly, long before other players with better numbers.

In any case, I thought I'd take a look at their performance in the Atlantic League, but then I found that Ari Alexenberg has already done it.

If more IBL players move to other established leagues, it will be interesting to see what we can learn from the comparison about the IBL's overall level of play.

Note the comments on this post about Benson's Barnstormers debut. Someone noted that "his ERA is a bit high" - if only he knew about the home run factor at Gezer!