Minor Leagues | The Baseball Zealot

Shawn Roof: News from Double-A

I always enjoy getting emails especially when they come from former Illini players. Shawn Roof updated me on his latest since he got promoted to the Tigers’ AA squad, the Erie Seawolves.

Roof is enjoying the slightly cooler weather in Erie, PA (compared to Single-A weather in Florida, at least). However, the biggest change is everyone is that much better at the higher level. "The defenses are unbelievable, and you really have to earn your hits." Pitchers are learning to work the counts better too, apparently. Roof says, "Unlike before if you’re ahead in the count you’ll see a fastball, but now you see more 2-0 curveballs, and 3-2 curveballs."

A big highlight for Roof recently was when the Seawolves got a chance to face big leaguer Fausto Carmona.

He had a pretty good sinker and induced a lot of ground ball outs, but he sure didn’t overpower us like I thought he would, so that was cool to see that you can hang in there against guys like that. I had a infield base hit off of him. I hit a chopper up the middle, and he jumped up and knocked it down but I beat it out.

Shawn did have a bit of bad news. Former Illini and Oriole draft pick Kyle Hudson is out with a broken hand. Hud looks to be back in a couple weeks.

I want to say that though I relate a lot of baseball related stuff from Shawn, I should mention he never neglects to ask about me and the family. One of the nicest guys I know.

Good luck Shawn!!

Peoria Chiefs and Dayton Dragons scuffle

The Cubs single A team, the Peoria Chiefs got into a bit of a scuffle with the Dayton Dragons in Dayton last night.

And that’s putting it mildly. Judge for yourself.

The conflict started when Dragons Angel Cabrera and Zack Cozart were hit by pitches. The situation was exacerbated when Cozart was hit in the head.

Cabrera retaliated by sliding with his spikes held high, Ty Cobb-style. That when the sparks flew and WWIII started between the two teams.

In all, 15 players were ejected. The men in blue decided to reverse the ejections mostly because of staffing issues. No one wanted pitchers playing outfield. Is that an acceptable excuse for reversing the ejections for everyone? Watch the video and tell me.

After a delay of over an hour, play resumed and the Dayton Dragons defeated the Chiefs 6-5.

Rumor has it that Ryne Sandberg was out of town for the Hall of Fame weekend.

BZR interviews Erik Manning of Future Redbirds

Baseball Zealot Radio got a chance to interview Erik Manning tonight. Erik writes for FutureRedbirds.net, a website that scouts Cardinals prospects in their farm system.

In show 46, we talk a bit about Future Redbirds and the tools he needs to scout the players. He then gives us a snapshot of the current Cardinals’ farm system. Who’s hot and who’s not.

I couldn’t let Erik off the line without asking him about the big league so we talked a little about the NL Central race, one that’s shaping up to be a humdinger.

thanks, Erik!

PS don’t miss the Amaury Marti Facts page on Future Redbirds!

Length: 31:53

Date Recorded: 7/24/08

Listen to Episode 46	Listen to the show via iTunes!
Listen to other Baseball Zealot Radio episodes	BZR Podcast Feed

Former Illini Roof moving on up

Roof during his Illini days

Shawn Roof, who only last spring played shortstop for the Illini and then was drafted by the Tigers, has gotten a promotion. After playing the bulk of this summer for the Tiger’s A team, the Lakeland Flying Tigers, he’s going to Double-A ball.

He’s now playing for the AA Erie Seawolves.

“I came up here not knowing what to expect and just wanted to play defense well and try and do some things at the plate to help the team,” Roof said. “I’m moving runners and, luckily, a few balls have fallen in.”

Good luck, Shawn!

U of I 2008 draftees beginning to make their mark

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!

RYNO GIVEN THE HEAVE-HO

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!

Hill’s all right in AAA

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.

Wrigley Field – A Perfect Place for Minor League Baseball

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.

Baseball Reference makes awesome improvements in Minor League stats

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!

Former Illini starting out well in A ball

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!!