New Ulm Sports Central - Preserving and Sharing New Ulm Area Sports History

Hoffmann to play in fall league
By Jim Bastian, Journal Sports Writer

The following article was published by New Ulm Daily Journal sports writer Jim Bastian Sept. 22, 2009 and by being posted to the New Ulm Sports Central website, becomes a saved historical record search ready on this website and by being created as a PDF, becomes an object document for hard copy and digital retention. Other material relating to this and other reports during 2009 are found on the "Keeping Jabs on Jamie" feature initiated May 1, 2009.

NEW ULM - Jamie Hoffmnann's baseball season will continue for the next three months as he
will be playing in the Dominican League with Leones del Escogido of Santa Domingo.
Hoffmann said that his parent team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, had recommended that he play
this fall.
"I had talked to a few other winter ball clubs - one in Mexico and one in Venezuela but the
Dodgers were the ones that set me up with the Dominican team," he said.
He said that the fall ball season will begin on October 7 and runs until after Christmas.
"It all depends on how long they want me to stay there and how things work out," Hoffmann said
on Monday.
This was a year where Hoffmann had more ups than downs as he played with the Dodgers for 14
games and hit his first major league home run.
"This was a year where I had more learning experiences," he said. "In the last little bit here I
have learned the baseball side of the game."
In a 48 hour span, Hoffmann was put on waivers [a business decision the Dodgers said], was
taken off of their 40-man roster and was then given a bonus to re-sign with them.
"I did not realize that things could be taken away just like that," Hoffmann said. "Maybe it made
me a little smarter. I still want to approach the game on the field the same way. But I know that I
have to take care of the other way to because again it can be taken away from you. Things
actually worked out better for me than before. I learned from that and at the same time am sitting
in a pretty good position. I'm pretty happy about it."
Even though Hoffmann re-signed with the Dodgers, he is not on their 40-man roster. That means
that he is eligible for the Rule 5 draft which begins on December 8.
Any major league team can draft him and if they do, they must put him on their 25-man major
league roster for at least one year.
"That was a big part of the contract that myself and my agent wanted with the Dodgers,"
Hoffmann said. "We wanted to make sure that I was still eligible for that draft and if another
major league team wanted to take a chance, they could."
Hoffmann said that he would love to be in the major leagues next year.
"That is my goal no matter what team it is with," he said. "But I need to improve on some little
things that will help me out in spring training next year."