Hudson off to a good start with the Aberdeen Ironbirds

The 2008 Illini draftees have made a good impression so far in the minors. If the first couple weeks are any indication, they are in the pros for a while. 

Former Illini and All-Big Ten centerfielder Kyle Hudson is at the Orioles’ A farm team in Aberdeen.  He’s already off to hot start.  He’s hitting .280 (7 for 33) with 5 rbis with 7 walks.  As he did with Illinois, Kyle is playing centerfield. 

Scott Shaw, who was drafted by the Mets, is spending time with the Brooklyn Cyclones.  In two starts and one relief, he’s allowed two just runs in 14 innings.  In those 14 innings, Shaw’s KOed 18 batters.

Interestingly, one appearance (the relief in which Shaw got the win) was against Hudson’s team, the Aberdeen Ironbirds, but Shaw didn’t have the pleasure of facing off against his old teammate. 

Finally, for those who remember the Illini from before this year, Tanner Roark was a All-Big Ten second team starting pitcher in 2007.  Thanks to Tanner, we won the first game in the 2007 Big Ten Tournament against Iowa.  Well, Roark was declared ineligible in 2008 because of his academics. 

That didn’t stop the Texas Rangers from taking a flier on Tanner in this year’s draft.  And so far, he’s looking pretty good in the Rangers’ team in the Rookie League in the Arizona League.  Roark has been put in the role as reliever in three games.  While three games and five innings is a small sample size, he hasn’t allowed a run yet and has struck out six batters while walking no one. 

Good luck to all!

Tags: Minor Leagues, University of Illinois Baseball by The Baseball Zealot
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Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg is serving the third day of his three-day suspension today. It seems Sandberg, manager of the Peoria Chiefs, took exception with an opposing player bunting for a basehit, while his team was leading 6-0. The feisty manager engaged the other manager in a discussion, which led to a bench-clearing brawl.

Some might say, it’s the minor leagues and this player was just brushing up on his bunting skills, a learning process. To which I’d say, you don’t bunt for a basehit when leading 6-0, a learning process. From a Hall of Famer, way to go Ryno!

Tags: Cubs, Hall of Fame, Managers, Minor Leagues by Teddy Ballgame
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The Cubs’ starter Rich Hill made the most of his second start for the Iowa Cubs yesterday.  He pitched 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball for the win. 

Box Score

For 10+ innings he’s pitched for Iowa, he’s only given up two runs.  Hopefully, it won’t be too long before he’s back up in the bigs where he belongs.  From an article in the Des Moines Register:

“It’s a process,” he said. “That’s what’s so great about this game. It’ll build you up, bring you down and teach you how to get back up again.”

Hurry back, Rich.

Tags: Cubs, Minor Leagues by The Baseball Zealot
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Watching baseball today on WGN-TV the Cubs announced the Peoria Chiefs will play a regular season game on July 29th versus the Kane County Cougars. Ryne Sandberg is the manager of the Cubs A-Ball team in Peoria. Ryno was saying how exciting it will be for the players to play in a big league ballpark. But my question is, will their fans (the guys) enjoy peeing in trofts? Then the Cub announcers said, “This will be the first time a minorleague team has played in Wrigley”. As a White Sox fan, I have to ask, does it get any easier? Hasn’t anybody been paying attention the last 100 years? This is too easy.

Tags: Cubs, Minor Leagues, Uncategorized by Teddy Ballgame
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Baseball Reference is always making improvements but I’m pretty impressed with their latest developments.  Those of you who monitor players in the minors, you’re really going to like this.

First, they have made the leap to displaying up-to-date stats for all minor league teams affiliated with a major league team.   They are displayed in the familiar format that anyone who is used to using B-R.  That is, viewing a player’s page with his career stats and/or viewing a team’s page with its roster.  Historical minor stats for players and teams are kept going back to the year 1992.  B-R also features minor league leaderboards, award winners and draft listings.

Some examples:

2008 Iowa Cubs team page

Carmen Pignatiello’s player page

Pacific Coast League 2008 standings page (with links to sortable batting and pitching leaders)

Second, and I think this is pretty neat, Baseball Reference has set up for each major league team a dynamic listing of minor leaguers in their system sorted by position.  What is essentially a franchise depth chart.  Here is the Chicago Cubs depth chart, for example.

What a handy way to get a quick snapshot of an organization’s minor league development!

Tags: Minor Leagues, Statistics by The Baseball Zealot
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Former Illini SS Shawn Roof is making the most of his second year in the minors.  Currently, Roof is assigned to the Lakeland Flying Tigers, Detroit’s A team. 

Right now, Roof is leading the club with a .409 batting average.  Hopefully, management is now starting to take notice.  The Lakeland Flying Tigers Blog, a team fan blog certainly has. 

Shawn shot me an email and mentioned that Lars Davis hit a couple homers over the weekend.  The former Illini catcher and Big Ten player of the Year is stationed with the Rockies class A affiliate, the Asheville Tourists. 

Sure enough, Davis homered in consecutive days on April 12-13. 

Good luck to both!!

Tags: Minor Leagues, University of Illinois Baseball by The Baseball Zealot
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Former Illinois catcher Lars Davis has been assigned to the roster of Class A Asheville Tourists. 

Davis, who was the Big Ten Player of the Year in 2007 with the Illini, will join Asheville, which a farm team of the Colorado Rockies.  They are managed by Joe Mikulik. 

By the way, if Mikulik’s name sounds familiar, this is why.

Good luck, Lars!

Tags: Minor Leagues, University of Illinois Baseball by The Baseball Zealot
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What do minor league teams do what with all the players in spring training and the first game of the season weeks away?  Simple.. take part in a logo contest.  SportBiz with Darren Rovell which you can find on CNBC.com is hosting a minor league logo contest.  Logos are pitted against each other and anyone can vote for their favorite.

The Cubs local single-A affiliate Peoria Chiefs are doing pretty well for themselves.  They’ve made to the “Sweet Sixteen” of the best minor league team logos.  Judge for yourselves. 

For my friends in the Quad City area, the River City Bandits are still in the running too. 

One more local favorite (and home to former Illini Brian Blomquist last year) is the Southern Illinois Miners.

Umm.. go Chiefs!

Tags: Humor, Minor Leagues by The Baseball Zealot
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Proof that anything goes when it comes to minor league team promotions, Macon Music of the independent South Coast League is planning an “Eliot Spitzer Night” to capitalize on the latest transgressions of the now former New York Governor. 

The club plans to invite Spitzer to throw out the first pitch and attend the game.  Other plans for the promotion include:

• The Music will give away a trip to New York and a one-night stay at the Mayflower Hotel.
• The ninth fan – or Client No. 9, as Spitzer was known in the prostitution ring – into the ballpark will receive a free Music prize pack.
• Fans with the name Eliot, Spitzer or Kristen, along with any fan from New York, will receive $1 off admission. Any fan who has ever resigned a position will also receive $1 off admission.
• The Music will play Frank Sinatra songs throughout the night.
• Wire taps will be placed around the stadium.
• Fans will be able to use ATMs in the ballpark available for cash withdrawals not to exceed $5,000 per hour.

The Spitzer promo won’t take place till June 13 so time will tell if this scandal will still be front and center in the public’s minds. 

Tags: Minor Leagues by The Baseball Zealot
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Tim Kuda, a popular baseball podcaster who has done the Tim Kuda Show, is switching gears and focusing on minor league action.  His new show is called Minor League Baseball Radio and can be found at http://www.milbradio.com. 

MLBR is a live show which debuts this week with interviews with minor league coaches, prospects and other personnel.  The show is broadcasted live on Monday nights at 10pm. 

Next week’s show includes:

Oakland Athletics Minor League Spring Training Coverage including:

            Conversations with Midland RockHounds Pitching Coach Scott Emerson and top organization pitching prospect Trevor Cahill.

 

Kansas City Royals Minor League Spring Training Coverage including:

            2007 #2 over draft pick and top prospect Mike Moustakas and Wilmington Blue Rocks Manager Darryl Kennedy.

For those who can’t listen to the show live, it is available for download or you can listen at their website.

Tags: Baseball Podcasts, Minor Leagues by The Baseball Zealot
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