After four-game sets to open the season, the Cal League teams switch partners today. Here are the matchups for the slate of three-game series that run through Wednesday:
HIGH DESERT (1-3) at LAKE ELSINORE (3-1), 6pm
SAN JOSE (2-2) at VISALIA (3-1), 6pm
STOCKTON (1-3) at LANCASTER (2-2), 6:30pm
RANCHO CUCAMONGA (3-1) at INLAND EMPIRE (3-1) 7:05pm
MODESTO (1-3) at BAKERSFIELD (1-3), 7:15pm
San Jose’s RHP Tyler Beede threw five scoreless innings in Lancaster, but Danry Vasquez singled in the winning run as the Jethawks beat the Giants, 3-2.
SS Domingo Leyba had three hits and knocked in three runs and 3B George Roberts hit a two-run homer as the Visalia Rawhide beat the High Desert Mavericks, 10-4.
LF Nick Schulz belted a two-run homer in a five-run 4th inning for Lake Elsinore as the Storm topped the Modesto Nuts, 10-3.
RHP Dylan Covey pitched five scoreless innings for Stockton and Ports rode a three-run 5th inning to a 3-1 win over the Inland Empire 66ers.
RHP Jose De Leon struck out 10 over five scoreless innings and LF Devan Ahart doubled in pinch-runner Brandon Trinkwon in the top of the 9th to break a 2-2 tie as the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes topped the Bakersfield Blaze, 3-2.
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Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged California League, Jose De Leon, Tyler Beede
The season is finally upon us as the California League kicks of tonight with a full slate of five games. Each game is the beginning of a four-game set that runs through Sunday. Here are the opening night matchups:
SAN JOSE at LANCASTER, 6:30pm (Tyler Beede starting for San Jose)
HIGH DESERT at VISALIA, 7:00pm
MODESTO at LAKE ELSINORE, 7:00pm
STOCKTON at INLAND EMPIRE, 7:05pm
RANCHO CUCAMONGA at BAKERSFIELD, 7:15pm
News and notes from around the web
(Updated, all teams’ announcements/rosters)
Here are more roster announcements from the various Cal League pages. Opening Night is tomorrow with the first scheduled game in Lancaster as the Jethawks host the San Jose Giants at 6:30PM. The rest of the teams face off later that evening.
BAKERSFIELD BLAZE (Mariners)
INLAND EMPIRE 66ers (Angels)
LAKE ELSINORE STORM (Padres)
LANCASTER JETHAWKS (Astros)
MODESTO NUTS (Rockies)
RANCHO CUCAMONGA QUAKES (Dodgers)
SAN JOSE GIANTS (Giants)
STOCKTON PORTS (Athletics)
VISALIA RAWHIDE (Diamondbacks)
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Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged California League, inland Empire 66ers, Lake Elsinore Storm, Modesto Nuts, Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, San Jose Giants, Visalia Rawhide
News and Notes From Around The Web
This collection of links goes back a little, covering some of the off-season news.
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.
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
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Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged California League, Rule 5 Draft
Photo: K. Ross Way
The 2014 California League season came to an end last week as the Lancaster Jethawks won the championship with a 3-2 series win over the Visalia Rawhide. The Player Development Contract scramble was just heating up and Cal League clubs were mostly re-upping with their parent organizations, but Bakersfield and High Desert had some change coming. High Desert is still undecided.
The flurry of activity at season’s end has been every bit as enjoyable for me as following the daily activities during the regular season. This is the first year that I took a shot at blogging the league and it proved to be a bigger challenge than I was able to handle at times.
Photo: Steve Cummings/CalLeagueHeat.com
I made some very enjoyable road trips, but didn’t get all the way around the league. That’s something I thought I would do easily.
Getting familiar with the rosters was easy enough, but seeing up and down the organizational ladders was always a challenge. I was able to keep an eye on promoted players that starred in the Cal League like Patrick Kivlehan and Ben Lively, among many others. But, despite watching the Transactions page regularly, every so often while searching certain players from around the league I’d be surprised to see they were in AA.
That’s about it for the negatives, and they really have to do with the volume of players, coming and going all season, and the spread-out nature of the league.
Photo: Steve Cummings/CalLeagueHeat.com
The positives of this year are too numerous to list, but they really break down into two categories. The first is the game on the field. I love it and so does anyone reading this right now. I’ve got my reasons and you’ve got yours but however different they are, there’s a ton of crossover. The biggest thing I enjoy in a game, ANY game, is the cat-and-mouse between the pitcher/catcher and the batter. I could watch any AB involving anybody, probably anytime. Even if the first pitch of an AB gets knocked out of the park, you analyze it. Bad pitch call? Good call but bad location? Good pitch, but a better approach from the batter? It goes on and on and on.
The other category is the interaction with other baseball folks. That’s the real payoff here, for me. I talk baseball in my head almost all day long. The people I live around are either blind-love fans of one team or another, or fantasy junkies that see everything through that prism. Nobody that really shares my mindset.
Photo: Steve Cummings/CalLeagueHeat.com
With this blog, I’ve gotten to talk baseball around the clock with people who are all-in on the sport just the same as me and their different perspectives are absolutely invaluable. Some of the stuff I’ve posted here only came to me from a tweet or an email question or some other online item that made me think about something, look it up, take a look at this player, etc.
And, believe me, I don’t think what I’ve done here this year is rivaling anything at FanGraphs or BeyondTheBoxscore. Certainly not MLBFarm. The thing I will be doing much, much more of in the future is analysis. The game recaps are pertinent and the Road Trips, I have been told, are enjoyable to read. But next season this space will feature more thoughtful analysis on the players and what the organizations have lined up in their systems.
Photo: Steve Cummings/CalLeagueHeat.com
This offseason I will have posts pertinent to the California League here, with connections to the Arizona Fall League probably being most prominent among them in the near future. (I love the AFL, its kinda like having the Futures Game every day for six weeks). Of course, when High Desert’s affiliation gets finalized I’ll have that here and anything I can find out about the Cal League clubs, what they’re doing this offseason in their communities or organizational hires, etc. But before the 2015 season starts I’ll have a more feature-driven focus to go along with the news-of-the-day stuff.
I will also be diving back into my other blog, HotStoveHeat.com. That’s where I’ve been blogging about player movement and the financial side of baseball, and it wasn’t updated much during this season as I concentrated on the Cal League. But HSH will be my offseason home and in the coming days I’ll be cleaning it up and bringing it up to date as we close in on the Hot Stove season and all its glory: the GM meetings, the Winter Meetings, all the free agency/arbitration/non-tender/qualifying offer/etc. madness.
Photo: Steve Cummings/CalLeagueHeat.com
Thanks to everybody who made this a great year for me. That’s everybody. Cal League fans, the various clubs that gave me access and provided me with info, bloggers who pointed things out and debated various points. And the folks that work at the various parks made every trip like a homecoming as well. I appreciate everybody I was fortunate enough to cross paths with this year through this thing.
I’ve got to make a point about the true working media in the Cal League cities that cover the teams professionally. They all do a top-notch job and make it possible for me to sit here, dead in the middle of this sprawled out league, a long drive from almost all of the cities, and reap the benefits of their insider’s views of the teams.
Thanks, everybody. More to come.
There are just three High A teams that don’t have Player Development Contracts at this point and two of them are in the California League. The Bakersfield Blaze and High Desert Mavericks are joined by the Carolina Indians Mudcats of the Carolina league as the shuffling nears its conclusion. The Reds have moved on from Bakersfield to Daytona of the Florida State League.
On the MLB side, the Mariners didn’t extend their PDC with High Desert and the Rangers and Braves are still looking for High A homes. (The Rangers were affiliated with Bakersfield from 2005-2010).
Here’s where look at where everybody stands as of tonight:
| Club | 2014 Org | 2015 Org | Expires | Extended |
| Bakersfield | Reds | ? | ? | ? |
| High Desert | Mariners | ? | ? | ? |
| Inland Empire | Angels | Angels | 2016 | 12/6/2013 |
| Lake Elsinore | Padres | Padres | 2016 | 9/16/2014 |
| Lancaster | Astros | Astros | 2016 | 8/28/2014 |
| Modesto | Rockies | Rockies | 2016 | 9/12/2014 |
| Rancho Cucamonga | Dodgers | Dodgers | 2016 | 9/16/2014 |
| San Jose | Giants | Giants | Never | Owned by SF Giants |
| Stockton | A’s | A’s | 2016 | 8/20/2013 |
| Visalia | D-Backs | D-Backs | 2016 | 6/13/2012 |
And beyond 2015, there are reports that the ownership of the Bakersfield Blaze is looking to Salinas as a possible future home:
SALINAS HAS EYES ON BAKERSFIELD’S BLAZE – by Zach Ewing/Bakersfield Californian
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Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged Bakersfield Blaze, California League, High Desert Mavericks, Player Development Contracts
