A couple of weeks ago, I made the short trek from Indianapolis to Ft. Wayne, Indiana to see the Great Lakes Loons play the Ft. Wayne Tin Caps. I have to say that the Loons front office was simply amazing. Chris Mundhenk (President and GM) and Brad Tunney (Announcer and Director of Communications) started by accomodating my request and making it all happen! Ben Schulman and John Nolan of the…
Time to check in again with a bit of an update on some Dodger minor leaguers. I can’t help but believe that the pipeline misses the rookie league plugged in between the Arizona Complex League and single A. There just seems to be too many players for the ACL. Dominican Summer League The start of the international signing period that usually starts on July 2 has shifted to January, but…
A short Super Bowl Sunday, busy at work weekend, random thoughts post. • My last post was replaced by the tragic news of the death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter and the 7 others who lost their lives in the crash of the helicopter in Calabasas, California • This is written on Saturday morning, and I wouldn’t mind at all if this post is replaced by one, announcing the happy…
I realize that there are those that are collectors when it comes to baseball memorabilia. I think most of us that have followed the game for a long time have come to realize that ballplayers are just people. Normal guys with an extraordinary talent that we all wish we had. I’m kind of “ho-hum” about having an interest in getting autographs. I understand that there are those that enjoy the…
The minor league season is quickly drawing to a close. It seems impossible but it is so. The good news is that five of the Dodgers affiliates will extend their season a bit by competing for the league championship. Those five affiliates are AZL Dodgers Mota, Ogden Raptors, Great Lakes Loons, Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, and Tulsa drillers. End-of-Season All-Stars to date: Some leagues have not yet announced the All-Stars. Twenty-year-old…
The strength of the Farm system is unquestionably the pitching. It is not even close. The breakdown of the MLB Pipeline Top 30 prospects is: 12 – RHP 2 – LHP 4 – Catchers 5 – SS/2B 4 – 3B/1B 3 – OF Baseball America pretty much resembles MLB Pipeline’s prospect list except BA includes reliever Josh Sborz, and OF Carlos Rincon, replacing Braydon Fisher, Marshall Kasowski, and Leonel Valera….
I watched OKC last night and while Clayton Kershaw was obviously a little rusty, he was throwing free and easy. While they don’t show the radar gun in AAA, it looked to me that Clayton was around 90 MPH. He’s ready and I think he will be pitching for the LA Dodgers in 5 days. If Edwin Rios can hit at the Major League level (I am not convinced he…
The Loons kick off their 2019 season on Thursday, April 4 away from home against the Lake County Captains. They play the Captains again on Friday before returning to Midland for a six-game home stand, two against Lake County and four against the South Bend Cubs. It should not be too difficult to get a better start to the season after the 2018 season in which they went 7-13 in…
This is part one of a two part series on profiles of the Dodgers minor league managers. Today we will present the full season minor league affiliates while tomorrow we will profile the rookie league managers. Oklahoma City Dodgers – Travis Barbary Barbary is in his first year as a manager in the Dodgers minor league system. He was given a brief profile on LADT when the OKC Dodgers 2019 coaching…
Last Wednesday the Dodgers announced their minor league coaching staffs. There were some changes of assignments within the organization, some not returning, and others added from outside. The shuffling of the assignments is always a bit mind boggling as some coaches move to lower levels such as Justin Viele moving from Rancho Cucamonga to Great Lakes and Seth Connor moving from Great Lakes to Ogden. Others moved up such as…