The San Jose Giants announced the 2015 coaching staff this week, headlined by Russ Morman taking over as manager. The Giants missed the playoffs in 2014 but finished over .500 at 73-67 overall. Morman and his staff will look to get San Jose back into the post-season mix in 2015. Here’s the new staff roster:
Russ Morman – Manager
Lipso Nava – Hitting Coach
Mike Couchee – Pitching Coach
Garrett Havig – Athletic Trainer
Mike Lidge – Strength and Conditioning Coach
FULL STORY at SJG website
The Visalia Rawhide announced the 2015 coaching staff and front office this week which included promotions and new personnel. The club is coming off a berth in the Cal League Finals and has put the administrative pieces in place as it prepares for the 2015 season:
Press Release
VISALIA—After a highly successful 2014 season, the Visalia Rawhide have never been more set to take on a new season both on the baseball field, and in the front office.
FRONT OFFICE STAFF
The Rawhide front office now has 10 members. With just one new face in the front office, the Rawhide will have their highest number of veteran staff in club history.
Eric Clark, a Visalia native, is the sole addition to the staff, joining as a Ballpark Operations Coordinator & overseeing the Food and Beverage operation. Eric has worked in the Rawhide kitchen seasonally for the past 5 seasons, and is looking forward to his new role in the front office. Eric and his wife have a young daughter, Joleigh.
The Rawhide are happy to announce several promotions:
Other returning staff include:
In recent years, the Rawhide front office has received recognitions for California League Executive of the Year (Tom Seidler), California League Female Executive of the Year (Jennifer Pendergraft), California League Organization of the Year, Visalia Medium-Sized Business of the Year, and Minor League Broadcaster of the Year (Donny Baarns).
COACHING STAFF
The 2015 Rawhide coaching staff is in place, as former Major League catcher J.R. House will manage the 2015 Visalia Rawhide, the Arizona Diamondbacks announced today.
Arizona also sends former minor league infielder Jon Matthews to Tulare County as the Rawhide Hitting Coach, while 10-year Major League veteran Gil Heredia returns for his 3rd season as Pitching Coach.
House, 35, played in parts of 5 Major League seasons for the Pirates, Astros, and Orioles, and enjoyed 12 professional seasons overall; he made his Big League debut in 2003, and retired after the 2011 campaign.
House spent last season as Manager of the Hillsboro Hops, the Diamondbacks Short-Season Class A affiliate. He led the Hops to the Northwest League championship, as they went 48-28 in the regular season and defeated Vancouver in the league finals. This will be his 2nd managerial season overall. He originally hails from Charleston, West Virginia.
Matthews, 42, also makes his Visalia debut as Hitting Coach in 2015. Matthews is from Centerville, Iowa, and was a 42nd round selection by the Colorado Rockies in 1994. He spent last year at South Bend as the SilverHawks batting guru, and begins his 2nd season in the D-backs farm system.
Gil Heredia, meanwhile, returns for his 3rd season as Rawhide Pitching Coach. It will be his 6th year in the D-backs organization. He spent parts of 10 seasons in the Major Leagues, making his debut with the San Francisco Giants and ending his career with the Oakland A’s, where he once defeated Roger Clemens in a playoff game.
With a new Diamondbacks front office in place and exciting draft picks working their way through the system, the Rawhide coaching staff figures to have plenty of talent to work with. The club won the North Division Championship last year, before falling in the decisive 5th game of the California League Finals.
“We look forward to having J.R. House and the rest of this terrific coaching staff lead the 2015 Rawhide,” said club General Manager Jennifer Pendergraft. “It will be our 9th season with the Arizona Diamondbacks, who have been a great partner to the ballclub and the Visalia community.”
The Lancaster Jethawks have announced their 2015 field staff, with both new and familiar faces in the various roles. After winning his second California League championship in three seasons, Rodney Linares has moved up to AA Corpus Christi to take over the managerial position there.
Here is Lancaster’s staff for 2015:
Manager: OMAR LOPEZ
Pitching Coach: DON ALEXANDER
Hitting Coach: DARRYL ROBINSON
Developmental Assistant: RAMON VASQUEZ
Trainer: MICHAEL RENDON
Comments Off on LANCASTER 2015 FIELD STAFF ANNOUNCED
Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged Lancaster Jethawks, Omar Lopez
As the hot stove season has blazed this month, many of the deals that the big league clubs have been making have included Cal League players of note. When a prospect performs well in the minors, he might be getting closer to his parent club’s active roster…or he might be making himself a valuable commodity on the trade market.
Here are some of the recent deals and the California League players that were included:
Let’s start with the many moves the Padres have made, which pulled in Lake Elsinore players, and others.
JUSTIN UPTON TO SAN DIEGO
J-Up was dealt to the Padres with a minor leaguer for a package of prospects that included 2B JACE PETERSON (LE ’13) and OF MALLEX SMITH (LE ’14)
DEREK NORRIS TO SAN DIEGO
Norris also went to the Padres, along with RHP SETH STREICH (STK ’14), with Oakland receiving RHP R.J. ALVAREZ (IE ’13) and another pitcher, Jesse Hahn. Alvarez was with the Angels and included in the Huston Street trade in July. The Padres have now shipped him to Oakland in this deal.
MATT KEMP TO SAN DIEGO
As the Padres bulked up, Kemp was acquired in a trade with the Dodgers and San Diego sent three players to LA. C Yasmani Grandal and RHP ZACH EFLIN (LE ’14) went north along with RHP JOE WIELAND (BAK ’10). More on Eflin in a minute, but Wieland was with the Rangers org when he was shipped to the Padres in a 2011 deadline deal that sent reliever Mike Adams to San Diego.
WIL MYERS, 3-TEAM DEAL WITH TB, SD, WASH
The Padres filled out their 2015 outfield by acquiring Myers in an 11-player, 3-team deal. RHP BURCH SMITH (LE ’12) went to Tampa Bay and RHP JOE ROSS (LE ’14) went to the Nationals
JIMMY ROLLINS TO LOS ANGELES
The Dodgers got their stop-gap shortstop to, hopefully, span the distance from Hanley Ramirez to Corey Seager. It cost them Eflin and LHP TOM WINDLE (RC ’14).
JUSTIN RUGGIANO TO MARINERS
The Mariners acquired OF Justin Ruggiano from the Mariners for RHP MATT BRAZIS (HD ’13)
CASEY MCGEHEE TO GIANTS
San Francisco filled the void left by 3B Pablo Sandoval’s departure with another veteran, Casey McGeheee. Going to the Marlins was RHP KENDRY FLORES (SJ ’14). (Joe Ritzo has a story up on Flores on the SJ Giants blog HERE)
MATT LONG GOES ANGELS-TO DODGERS-TO BREWERS
OF MATT LONG got to do the LA shuffle in a couple of minor deals. Long, who played for Rancho Cucamonga in 2009, was with Inland Empire in 2011 as part of the Angels organization. The Angels flipped him to the Dodgers for C Drew Butera, but the Dodgers then sent Long to the Brewers along with LHP JARRET MARTIN (RC ’12, ’13) for a minor league catcher.
The last day of the Winter Meetings is when the annual Rule 5 Draft is held and on Thursday there were eight recent California League players taken in the Major League and AAA phases. The Rule 5 Draft involves players who were unprotected by their parent clubs being eligible for selection by the other major league clubs. (Check MLB.com’s “About” page HERE)
According to the protocol, the players selected in the major league phase, four of them having played in the California League since 2012, will be on their new clubs’ major league active roster for the duration of the 2015 season. If not, they will be forfeited to their previous organizations.
If you’ve paid attention to the major league phase of the Rule 5 Draft, you know that the big-name success stories who have come out of this draft’s history include Johan Santana and Josh Hamilton. But, for the most part, these are players who weren’t placed on their organizations’ 40-man rosters within the stipulated four or five years of signing due to the fact that they haven’t had the hoped-for performance over time in the minors.
It’s another chance to get the career going for talented players who, for whatever reason, haven’t climbed their organizational ladder in a timely manner.
The major league phase of the draft included the following:
| # | NEW CLUB | PLAYER | OLD CLUB | |
| 3 | RANGERS | OF Delino DeShields Jr. | Astros | LAN ’12, ’13 |
| 7 | CUBS | SS Taylor Featherston | Rockies | MOD ’13 |
| 11 | BRAVES | RHP Daniel Winkler | Rockies | MOD ’13 |
| 12 | MARINERS | LHP David Rollins | Astros | LAN ’12, ’13 |
Players drafted in the AAA phase do not have to be placed on the active roster of the selecting club. Players with Cal League ties in this year’s AAA phase:
| # | NEW CLUB | PLAYER | OLD CLUB | |
| 1 | DIAMONDBACKS | RHP Timothy Crabbe | Reds | BAK ’11, ’12 |
| 6 | WHITE SOX | RHP Peter Tago | Rockies | MOD ’14 |
| 12 | BRAVES | C Steven Rodriguez | D-Backs | VIS ’13, ’14 |
| 22 | MARLINS | 1B Harold Riggins | Reds | MOD ’13, BAK ’14 |
Comments Off on RULE 5 DRAFT
Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged Daniel Winkler, David Rollins, Delino DeShields, Rule 5 Draft, Taylor Featherston
Bakersfield has long been a California League town, indeed, 73 years, but the outdated conditions of Sam Lynn Ballpark have put a great strain on the relationship between the city and the league.
Bakersfield is an ideal location for minor league baseball with the size of the city and the environment for baseball, basically warm weather all season long. But the stadium is a huge drag on attendance, both with its outdated design and its location in the metropolitan area.
A move to Salinas, a previous Cal League city, has been rumored, but any plans to move north have been put on hold. The familiar issues that arise in any talks of a new ballpark, like Salinas would need, have reared their head and any plans to move forward have stalled.
So the Blaze stay, for now.
SOURCES
BLAZE IN BAKERSFIELD- FOR NOW by Kevin Riechard at BallparkDigest.com
BLAZE EYE SALINAS… by John Harte at BakersfieldCalifornian.com
Comments Off on BAKO TO SALINAS MOVE HITS SNAG
Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged Bakersfield Blaze, Salinas
Yesterday, November 20, was the deadline for teams to decide which players they would protect from the Rule 5 Draft and it spurred a flurry of transactions. The Rule 5 Draft takes place on the last day of the Winter Meetings, December 11th this year. Players must be placed on the major league roster within four years or five years of being signed, depending on their age, or be exposed to the Draft.
That caused a lot of movement onto and off of various 40-man rosters. Some of the bigger names that played in the California League recently who got protected by being placed on the 40-man include 3B Brandon Drury (VIS), 3B Renato Nunez (STK), P Vincent Velasquez (LAN) and OF Kyle Waldrop (BAK).
Here is a rundown of recent Cal League players that were added to or removed from major league rosters:
PADRES
Added – Taylor Lindsay (IE ’12), Tayron Guerrero (LE ’14) DFA – Yeison Asencio (LE ’13) Traded – Reymond Fuentes (LE ’11) to KC for Kyle Bartsch
MARINERS
Added – Ketel Marte (HD ’13), John Hicks (HD ’12), Mayckol Guaipe (HD ’13)
ASTROS
Added – Vincent Velaszquez (LAN ’13, ’14)
Outrighted Anthony Bass (LE ’09, ’10) to AAA Fresno
GIANTS
Added – Derek Law (SJ ’13), Cody Hall (SJ ’12), Joan Gregorio (SJ ’14), Ray Black (SJ ’14)
REDS
Added – Kyle Waldrop (BAK ’13, ’14),
DIAMONDBACKS
Added – A.J. Schugel (IE ’11), Kevin Munson (VIS ’10, ’11), Will Locante, Brandon Drury (VIS ’14), Socrates Brito (VIS ’14)
DFA – Charles Brewer (VIS ’10), Mike Bolsinger (VIS ’12)
ANGELS
Added – Danny Reynolds (IE ’12, ’13, ’14), Jett Bandy (IE ’12)
DFA – Jackson Williams (SJ ’08), Alfredo Marte (VIS ’10, ’11)
DODGERS
Added – Scott Schebler (RC ’13), Chris Reed (RC ’11, ’12), Zach Lee (RC ’12)
ROCKIES
Added – Tyler Anderson (MOD ’13) DFA – Juan Nicasio (MOD ’10)
ATHLETICS
Added – Renato Nunez (STK ’14)
With the offseason affiliate changes, the Reds left Bakersfield but the Mariners moved in from High Desert. Both the Reds’ and Mariners’ organizational changes are reflected above. Just for the record, here are the moves made by High Desert’s new parent club, the Texas Rangers:
RANGERS
Added – Jerad Eickhoff, Jorge Alfaro, Hanser Alberto, Luke Jackson
DFA – Jim Adduci
Released – Aaron Poreda, Miles Mikolas
Traded Daniel Robertson to Angels for PTBNL
Comments Off on 40-MAN ROSTER CHANGES
Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged California League, Rule 5 Draft
The Arizona Fall League will crown a champion on Saturday when the final takes place starting at 1:08 MT. The Salt River Rafters (17-11-4) will take on the Peoria Javelinas (15-14-3) in a meeting of East vs. West division champions.
The two teams break down to major league affiliations this way:
SALT RIVER RAFTERS – Diamondbacks, Rockies, Astros, Marlins, Twins
PEORIA JAVELINAS – Braves, Indians, Royals, Cardinals, Rays
So, only the Salt River club has Cal League ties at this point. Here are the starting lineups for Saturday’s finale, with the recent Cal League players linked to their AFL stat page:
SALT RIVER
8 Marzilli (VIS ’13, ’14)
D Sclafani
7 Rosario
2 O’Brien
9 Kepler
6 Bohn
3 Casteel (MOD ’13)
5 Drury (VIS ’14)
4 Featherston (MOD ’13)
1 DeSclafani
PEORIA
6 Mondesi
4 Valera
9 Salcedo
D Stanley
5 Dozier
2 O’Conner
3 Wilson
8 Starling
7 Carter
1 Almonte
MLB Network goes live with the Championship Game at 3PM ET. Here’s one more chance to see these elite prospects in action prior to 2015’s Spring Training.
Check back here for a look at how some of the recent Cal Leaguers did in the AFL.
Comments Off on ARIZONA FALL LEAGUE FINAL GOES SATURDAY
Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged Arizona Fall League, Brandon Drury, Evan Marzilli, Ryan Casteel, Taylor Featherston
The Stockton Ports have had one of the most beautiful ballparks in the California League since moving into Banner Island Ballpark in 2005. To mark the 10th anniversary, the club has unveiled a new logo and will have commemorative events throughout the year.
See the full announcement on the Port’s OFFICIAL WEBPAGE.
Also at the Stockton Ports page you can find a link to the BALLPARK HISTORY.
Comments Off on PORTS CELEBRATE BANNER ISLAND BALLPARK’S 10TH YEAR
Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged Banner Island Ballpark, Stockton Ports
MiLB.com is running it annual series that names ORGANIZATION ALL-STARS for each big league club. Of all the 2014 California League organizations, only the Reds have not been covered so far and Bakersfield has become a Mariners affiliate with Cincinnati moving to Daytona.
So here are the honorees of the other nine Cal League clubs. (I’ve indicated where a player was only in the league for a few games). As you would expect, the championship team in Lancaster is well-represented. The Stockton Ports show up big for the A’s as well:
| C | Tyler Marlette |
| 1B | Jordy Lara |
| 3B | D.J. Peterson |
| OF | Gabby Guerrero |
| OF | Jabari Henry |
| DH | Patrick Kivlehan |
| LHSP | Tyler Olson ( 5 games) |
| RP | Matt Brazis |
| 1B | Dennis Raben |
| OF | Chad Hinshaw |
| UTL | Sherman Johnson |
| LHSP | Tyler DeLoach |
| RP | Cam Bedrosian (5 games) |
Comments Off on ORG ALL STARS ON CAL LEAGUE TEAMS
Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
