Stavisky signs
Slugger with Lancaster team

Port Allegany native Brian Stavisky, once on the doorstep of major league baseball, is taking a career detour this season.

Stavisky, an outfielder, this week signed a contract with the Lancaster (Pa.) Barnstormers, a professional baseball team based in the Freedom Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.

There's little doubt in anyone's mind that the 27-year-old slugger will tear up Atlantic League pitching. As recently as March, officials from the Oakland Athletics were forecasting Stavisky as a prospect to join their big-league club this season.

The Atlantic League is not affiliated with major league baseball.

Stavisky's recruitment to Lancaster is tied to the arrival of former major league outfielder Von Hayes as the Barnstormers' manager. Stavisky played for Hayes with the Midland Rockhounds of the Class AA Texas League during the 2005 and 2006 seasons and the Class A California League in 2004 in Modesto.

Overall, Stavisky has hit .306 in six pro seasons after