The North East Knights introduced two new players this week. Shortstop Liu Rodriguez and right-handed pitcher Gleb Volodin join the Italian Baseball League team of head coach Daniele Fuzzi.
Rodriguez is a 36-year-old infielder from Caracas, Venezuela. In 2003 and 2004 he already played in the Serie A in Italy for Grosseto and Rimini. In the United States he was a member of the Chicago White Sox organization, playing 39 games in the big leagues in 1995. In the past few years he played for independent league teams in North America. In 2012 the Switch Hitter batted .327/.364/.432 in 65 games for York in the Atlantic League.
While Rodriguez is a veteran player, Volodin is a prospect. 17 years old was developed by Dynos Verona, which is also a team of the North East Knights franchise. After a strong 2011 campaign Fortitudo Bologna lured him away and he joined their IBL2 team in Castenaso. Castenaso is now the IBL2 for the Knights and Volodin will play for Godo in the IBL this year. Last season he had an ERA of 2.61 in 38 innings in the IBL2. He struck out 34 and walked 26 for an opposing batting average of .199.