SL1 Birmingham Barons

Royce Ring Traded to the New York Mets

Published on July 1, 2003 under Southern League (SL1)
Birmingham Barons News Release


BIRMINGHAM, AL – The Chicago White Sox have announced that they have acquired second baseman and perennial All-Star Roberto Alomar from the New York Mets for three minor league prospects. Those three players are current Barons closer Royce Ring, former-Baron closer Edwin Almonte and infielder Andrew Salvo.

Ring, the White Sox number one draft choice from a year ago, is currently ranked third in the Southern League with 19 saves and sports a 1-4 record with a 2.52 ERA and leads the Barons with 36 appearances. He was named the Southern League pitcher of the week for the week of May 9th through May 15th after he recorded four saves in four chances for the Barons. Coming into the season, the highly touted closer from San Diego State was ranked by Baseball America as the 10th best prospect in the White Sox organization.

Almonte played for the Barons in 2000-01 with his most productive season coming as the team's closer in 2001. During that season, Almonte set a Barons and Southern League record by recording 36 saves. Joe Valentine matched that number in 2002 but Almonte has been extremely productive as a closer. In the past two seasons, he has notched 62 saves to lead all of the minor leagues.

Salvo, a second baseman, started the season with High-A Winston-Salem but was sent down to Low-A Kannapolis after just six games. At Kannapolis, he hit .235, (23-for-98) with a homer and six RBI in marginal play. For his career he is a .284 (143-for-503) batter with five homers and 65 RBI in 151 minor league games. He was drafted in the 22nd round out of the University of Delaware in the June 2001 first-year player draft.

The deal ended Alomar's disappointing 1½ years with the Mets where he was a bust batting just .262 with two bombs and 22 RBI this season. Roberto joins his brother Sandy Alomar Jr., who has played three-plus season in Chicago, on the White Sox roster.

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Southern League Stories from July 1, 2003


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