After bringing back Danny Newman, the Italian Baseball League club CARIPARMA added another piece to the pitching staff. Mihai Burlea joins the fifth-place finisher from 2008 and is going to be the first Romanian in Italian Baseball history. He comes from the Dutch Hoofdklasse club RCH MEDIA MONKS. Besides Newman and Burlea, manager Gilberto Gerali can rely on Michael Jared Natale, Roberto Corradini, Filippo Mori and Mattia Salsi to pitch in 2009 for PARMA.
The 25-year-old Burlea started his baseball career with DINAMO BUCHAREST in his home country, before going to the United States, attending Eastern Arizona College and the Northwestern College in Iowa the past two years. In last year’s college season the right-hander had a 9-4 record with an ERA of 3.06 and 74 strikeouts (41 walks) in 79 1/3 innings. In May he returned to Europe and came to the Netherlands. In ten games for RCH he had a 4-5 record with an ERA of 2.23. In 64 2/3 innings he punched out 68, while walking 40.