The runner up in the 2008 Italian Baseball League championship DANESI NETTUNO has signed the former Major League pitcher Jeff Farnsworth. The 33-year-old right-hander is currently pitching for the TIGRES DE ARAGUA, since Friday the winner of the Venezuelan Winter League. He now makes the trip to Mexicali, Mexico for the Caribbean Series, which starts on Monday.
Farnsworth was born in Wichita, Kansas, attended Pensacola Catholic High School in Pensacola, Florida, before entering the University of West Florida. In 1996 he was selected in the 2nd round of the amateur draft by the Seattle Mariners and made his professional debut in the Northwest League (Low A) in the same year. He stayed in the organization until the December of 2001, when the Detroit Tigers selected him in the rule 5 draft. He celebrated his Major League debut in 2002, pitching in 44 games with an ERA of 5.79 and 28 strikeouts (29 walks) in 70 innings. It was his only year in the big leagues.
The following seasons he split time between Independent League teams and Minor League affiliates of the Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox. In 2008 he was in the bullpen of Southern Maryland in the Atlantic League, appearing in eleven games (nine starts) with an ERA of 7.01 and 28 strikeouts (29 walks) in 52 2/3 innings. With the beginning of the Winter League season in the Caribes he joined the Venezuelan club CARIBES DE ANZOATEGUI, before transferring to ARGUA right in time for the postseason. Farnsworth had a 2-0 record and an ERA of 2.43 in seven starts during the playoffs with 28 K’s (16 walks) in 37 innings pitched.
