John Holdzkom’s baseball career seems as strange as the spelling of his last name.

This is a 6-foot-9 pitcher who was drafted in the fourth round by the New York Mets in 2006.

Three years later, he missed the first half of his minor league season because of a club-imposed suspension. Then he missed most of the latter half of that 2009 campaign with a right elbow injury.

That injury lingered into 2010 as he only pitched five innings that season. He didn’t pitch at all in 2011 and was signed by Cincinnati as a minor league free agent in 2012.

Holdzkom pitched only eight innings that year.

This was a guy going nowhere.

Thank goodness for independent baseball.

Holdzkom spent all of last year and the first portion of this season pitching in the independent American Association. He did tours of duty with Sioux City and Amarillo in that circuit before pitching one game with San Angelo of the Independent United League this year.

The major leagues must have seemed so far away.

The Pirates signed him as a minor league free agent on June 23, he pitched for the Altoona Curve for two weeks, then was promoted to Class AAA Indianapolis.

Holdzkom struck out 27 in 21 innings at Indy, sported a 2.49 earned run average with a couple of saves and joined the Pirates earlier this month.

At 26, this guy is suddenly pitching in a pennant race — and doing quite well. He was unscored upon in his first six appearances, struck out the side in his major league debut in St. Louis, has allowed one hit while striking out 11 of the first 19 hitters he’s faced in the major leagues.

Moral of the story?

Independent professional baseball is a viable option for guys who still believe they’re good enough to chase the dream, but can’t convince any major league organization of that.

Back in 2007, the Slippery Rock Sliders of the Frontier League gave Butler County a taste of this level of baseball.

The Sliders were managed by Greg Jelks — who had a cup of coffee in the big leagues with the Phillies — and were 29-66 on the season. The team played 66 of its 96 games on the road and averaged a league-worst 713 fans per home game.

No one from that team went on to the major leagues. Only eight players, in fact, were in uniform for the Sliders all season.

It didn’t matter,

Leagues like that are worthwhile.

Twenty-six former Frontier League players have reached the major leagues. Five of them are playing for big league clubs this season.

Holdzkom has likely earned himself a future in the Pirate bullpen. This is a guy who hits 97 miles per hour repeatedly with his fastball and he has touched 100.

Without an independent league to fall back on last year, he’s probably not pitching for anybody.

This guy can be found walking around the Pirate clubhouse these days with a big smile on his face.

Want to wipe it off?

You’d have a better chance trying to hit his fastball.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle