The two Canadian pitchers with ties to Dutch Baseball, Leon Boyd and Ryan Murphy, have been released by their respective clubs according to Honkbalsite.com. Boyd had to part ways with the Toronto Blue Jays organization after just one season. Murphy was fired from the Taiwanese club Brother Elephants after just one game this spring.
Boyd, who pitched for DOOR Neptunus until the end of the 2008 season and has a Dutch passport, impressed during the World Baseball Classic last March pitching for the Netherlands, which led to a contract with the Blue Jays. He was quickly assigned to the Double-A team in New Hampshire, where he had an ERA of 5.47 in 36 games. He struck out 38 in 52 2/3 innings, while walking 43. Also a stint with the High-A in Dunedin didn’t help solving his control problems. Reading his blog CanaDutch he seemed optimistic going into Spring Training after productive work-outs throughout the offseason.
Murphy was named Hoofdklasse MVP and best pitcher following the 2009 season, where he led the Konica Minolta Pioniers into the Holland Series, where they lost to Neptunus. During the winter he was playing in Australia, even reaching the championship series of the Claxton Shield tournament. His performance in down under also helped him to get in contact with the Brother Elephants of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. In his lone appearance he allowed six hits, four runs and two walks in 3 1/3 innings.
According to the report on Honkbalsite.com both pitchers are currently talking to non-Dutch clubs about a contract for the 2010 season. However Murphy remains eligible to pitch for the Pioniers, if he is not finding another team.