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.
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Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged Banner Island Ballpark, Stockton Ports
The Visalia Rawhide finished off a mini-series sweep of the powerful Stockton Ports with a 2-1 win Thursday night to advance to the Division Finals against Bakersfield.
The Inland Empire 66ers did the same as they went 13 innings to pull off a 5-4 win over Lake Elsinore and advance to the Division Finals against Lancaster.
VISALIA – 2
STOCKTON – 1
Andrew Barbosa (VIS) – W, 5 1/3 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
Rudy Flores (VIS) – 2-for-4, HR (2)
Socrates Brito (VIS) – 2-for-4, 1 Run
Chris Lamb (STK) – 5 2/3 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K
Brendan McCurry (STK) – 2 1/3 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
Jaycob Brugman (STK) – 2-for-3, 1 Run
LAKE ELSINORE – 4
INLAND EMPIRE – 5
Clint Sharp (IE) – 6 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
Danny Miranda (IE) – 3 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
Anthony Bemboom (IE) – 3-for-6, 1 2B, 1 RBI
Dennis Raben (IE) – 2-for-5, 1 Run
Elliot Morris (LE) – 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
Alberth Martinez (LE) – 3-for-6, 2B, 3B, RBI, 2 Runs
Benji Gonzalez (LE) – 2-for-5, RBI, 1 Run scored
The Division Finals start on Saturday:
INLAND EMPIRE @ LANCASTER – 6PM
VISALIA @ BAKERSFIELD – 7:15PM
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Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged Bakersfield Blaze, inland Empire 66ers, Lake Elsinore Storm, Lancaster Jethawks, Stockton Ports, Visalia Rawhide
Steve McQuail went deep three times as the Visalia Rawhide roughed up the Stockton Ports for a 13-3 win in the North division playoff opener in Visalia Wednesday night. Brandon Sinnery went six innings, allowing three earned runs, and then Keith Hessler and Johnny Shuttlesworth went three scoreless innings out of the Rawhide bullpen to seal the win.
STOCKTON – 3
VISALIA – 13
Visalia leads series, 1-0
Brandon Sinnery (VIS) 6 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
Johnny Shuttlesworth (VIS) – 2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
Steve McQuail (VIS) – 4-for-5, 3 HR, 5 RBI
Rudy Flores (VIS) – 2-for-4, HR, 4 RBI
Matt Olson (STK) – 3-for-4, 2 2B, RBI
Beau Taylor (STK) – 2-for-2, HR,
In the South division mini series, Inland Empire came from behind late with two runs in the eighth and one more in the ninth to post a 4-2 win over Lake Elsinore.
INLAND EMPIRE – 4
LAKE ELSINORE – 2
Inland Empire leads series 1-0
Dennis Raben (IE) – 2-for-4, HR, 2 RBI, 3 Runs scored
Raymond Hanson (IE) – 5 2/3 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K
Jeremy Baltz (LE) – 1-for-3, BB, RBI
Bryan Rodriguez (LE) – 6 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
Comments Off on RAWHIDE, 66ERS WIN PLAYOFF OPENERS
Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged inland Empire 66ers, Lake Elsinore Storm, Steve McQuail, Stockton Ports, Visalia Rawhide
Photo: Steve Cummings/CalLeagueHeat.com
Stockton’s Matt Olson and Modesto’s David Dahl are part of David Laurila’s SUNDAY NOTES piece tonight on Fangraphs.com. Olson leads the Cal League in homers with 37 and has walked a lofty 117 times, which pushes is OBP to .405. He checks in as the Oakland A’s #2 prospect by MLB.com’s rankings.
Dahl is the #10 overall pick from the 2012 draft and he slashed .302/.341/.496 for the lo-A Asheville Tourists in 89 games this season. Dahl played 29 games in Modesto before heading back to Asheville this week. Laurila’s piece has several quotes from the Alabama native.
FanGraphs.com is an invaluable resource of analytical baseball features. The way to look at this game is up to the consumer. You can take a nostalgic view (none of these guys can carry Mantle’s jock) and you can go strictly by the number-crunching ideology (WAR, etc.) Fangraphs asks pertinent questions, researches appropriately to get to answers, and does it all with an approach that would be enjoyable if you had the conversation with its writers in the bleachers. You can take a break to grab a soda mid-article. Watch an AB. The intelligent baseball discourse is always there. My favorite site, as you can tell.
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Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged David Dahl, Matt Olson, Modesto Nuts, Stockton Ports
Saturday night I made it up to Stockton to see the Ports host the Modesto Nuts, a matchup of teams at the opposite ends of the North division standings. The game was a one-sided affair, with the first-place Stockton club swinging hot bats while starter Jake Sanchez went seven strong innings to lead the Ports to a 13-1 win.
It’s always good to see a game at Banner Island Ballpark and on this visit the weather was perfect for a night of California League baseball. The crowd didn’t look to be as big as the announced 3,012, and it was smaller than my previous trips there. But the home team didn’t disappoint as they raced to an easy win.
The Stockton club has Oakland’s top three prospects on its roster, SS Daniel Robertson, 1B Matt Olson and 3B Renato Nunez, as well as #18 (Ryon Healy) and #20 (Jaycob Brugman). It’s a pretty potent offense for the Ports and the club banged out a season-high 20 hits while putting up the 13 runs. The 1-2-3 hitters, Robertson, Healy and Olson, combined to go 10-for-15 with six RBIs and six runs scored.
As if that wasn’t enough, C Beau Taylor went 4-for-5 with a double, a homer and four RBIs. And the bottom of the order came through as well. The No. 8 and No. 9 hitters, 2B Wade Kirkland and CF Zeke DeVoss, went a combined 4-for-8 with five runs scored.
It made for a rough night for Modesto’s pitchers. Starter Ben Alsup went 4 1/3 and allowed 10 hits and six earned runs. The relief corp didn’t fare much better as Shayne Broyles, Alving Mejias and Peter Tago allowed seven more runs to score, six of them earned.
With Stockton’s offense in high gear, starter Jake Sanchez allowed just one earned run while walking one and striking out 12 over seven innings. He pitched out of danger in the first, allowing a single and a walk and throwing two wild pitches before stranding runners at second and third.
Then he allowed a solo homer to the Nuts’ Dean Espy in the second inning that made it a 2-1 ballgame. But the next 11 Modesto batters went down in order and the Ports started pulling away. A three-run fourth inning for Stockton was the beginning of five-straight innings of scoring while the Nuts never again dented the scoreboard.
For the Nuts, the top three hitters in the batting order had one hit apiece in addition to Espy’s homer, and that was it for the offense. Stockton earned its 70th win of the season, overall, while Modesto lost for the 84th time.
**********
A walk around Banner Island Ballpark is as enjoyable as any other Cal League park, with the right-field grass area sitting in front of the beautiful river setting. Stockton’s baseball past is on display with a giant banner on the first-base side showing four recent players who have gone “from Stockton to Oakland.” There is also a listing of all former Stockton players to make the majors in the concourse under the main grandstand.
There looks to be more on the way from this current roster. Olson (34) and Nunez (29) are the top two homerun hitters in the league while Olson has a .401 OBP and has drawn 101 walks. Robertson took over the position of the organization’s top overall prospect when SS Addison Russell was dealt to the Cubs last month in the trade that brought Jeff Samardzija to the A’s. So there appears to be plenty of talent still in the pipeline.
All photos: Steve Cummings/CalLeagueHeat.com
Comments Off on ROAD TRIP: STOCKTON
Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS, ROAD TRIPS
Tagged Beau Taylor, Daniel Robertson, Matt Olson, Modesto Nuts, Renato Nunez, Ryon Healy, Stockton Ports
A full Wrap tonight as the Cal League heads into the home stretch of the season. The 2nd half has just few weeks left, with the playoff races heating up. There’s been a ton of transaction action in the league recently, some involving big names, but the teams on the field keep grinding. Here are a few items and observations on this Friday night:
FRIDAY NIGHT FINALS
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Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged California League, Daniel Carbonell, jayson Aquino, Josh Hader, Stockton Ports, Teoscar Hernandez
Photo: MiLB.com
PITCHER OF THE WEEK – CHRIS LAMB, LHP, STOCKTON
Lamb threw seven innings of shutout ball against San Jose and also came out of the bullpen for two clean innings against Inland Empire to earn his second Cal League Pitcher of the Week award. Over the eight innings, Lamb allowed four hits, walked two and struck out seven.
Photo: MiLB.com
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK – MARQUEZ SMITH, 1B, BAKERSFIELD
Smith continued his hot hitting against Cal League pitching, posting a .520/.613/1.040 line. Over the week he belted three homers and four doubles and has the highest batting average among active Cal League players at .323, as well as leading the circuit in OPS (1.044).
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Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged Bakersfield Blaze, California League, Chris Lamb, Marquez Smith, Stockton Ports
RHP Mark Appel turned in a clean six-inning outing against the Stockton Ports on Thursday night as Lancaster posted a 5-2 win. The top overall pick in the 2013 First Year Player Draft, Appel has famously struggled this season, entering the contest with a record of 1-5 and a 10.80 ERA.
But after making what Appel called a minor mechanical adjustment, the Astros’ #2 prospect put together what has clearly been his best outing to date: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K.
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Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged Brady Aiken, Lancaster Jethawks, Mark Appel, Stockton Ports
Photo: MiLB.com
PITCHER OF THE WEEK – CHRIS LAMB, LHP, STOCKTON
Lamb was recognized for a solid start at High Desert, going 6 IP while allowing 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB and 11 K’s. The lefty has converted to full-time starting duties with the Ports and improved to 3-1 at week’s end. Drafted in the 11th round in 2011, Lamb was a starter at two levels in 2012 before going to the bullpen in 2013 for all 32 appearances at Beloit. Back in the rotation now that he’s in Stockton, Lamb has put together a string of good outings.
Photo: MiLB.com
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK – JORDY LARA, 1B, HIGH DESERT
For the second time this season, Lara takes player of the week honors with an impressive 4-homer week. His slash line was .417/.483/.958 and that is in line with what Lara’s been doing to Cal League pitchers recently. Over his last 10 games, the slugger form the Dominican Republic has an OPS of 1.451 and his .347 batting average is tops among active Cal Leaguers. Only Kyle Waldrop and Corey Seager have posted higher batting averages this year and they’re both off to AA.
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Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged Chris Lamb, High Desert Mavericks, Jordy Lara, Stockton Ports
UPDATE: A couple of changes have been made to this listing following the trade in which the A’s acquired Jeff Samardzija from the Cubs. Nothing major, just the #1 and #2 organizational prospects are now gone.
Taking a look at the systems of the parent organizations for the California League teams, here’s an overview of the Stockton Ports’ (Oakland A’s) family tree. Maybe I’m starting with Stockton because I’m intrigued with all the highly-ranked prospects in Stockton. Maybe because it is the farthest north on the map and I’m going top to bottom. Whatever the reasoning, Stockton’s as good a place to start as any in this league. Here’s the map to the majors for A’s farmhands:
Stockton Ports – Oakland A’s
|
Level |
Club |
2013 1st Half |
2013 2nd Half |
2013 Postseason |
|
AAA |
Sacramento (PCL) |
79-65, No Playoffs |
||
|
AA |
Midland (TEX) |
33-37, (4th) |
29-41 (4th) |
No playoffs |
|
High A |
Stockton (CAL) |
38-32 (3rd) |
31-39 (4th) |
No playoffs |
|
Low A |
Beloit (MWL) |
43-27 (1st) |
34-35 (3rd) |
Lost in 1st Round |
(Rankings: Baseball America/MLB.com)
SACRAMENTO – AAA (PCL)
Arnold Leon, RHP – BA preseason #21
MIDLAND – AA (TEX)
Raul Alcantra, RHP – (#3/#4)
Miles Head, 3B – (#22/#19)
Max Muncey, 1B – (#6/#15)
Addison Russell, SS – (#1/#1)Billy Burns, OF – #9 by MLB.com
STOCKTON PORTS – High A (CAL)
SS Daniel Robertson – (#9/ #3)
1B Matt Olson – (#12/ #5)
3B Renato Nunuz – (#5/ #6)
1B Ryon Healy – #13
C Bruce Maxwell – (#28/ #16)
OF Billy McKinney – (#2/ #2)
RHP Nolan Sanburn – (#10/ #10)
RHP Seth Streich – (#25/ #18)
RHP Michael Ynoa – (#4/ #11)
SS Chad Pinder – (#15/ #17)
BELOIT – LOW A (MWL)
Dylan Covey, RHP – (#7/#13)
Bobby Wahl, RHP – (#8/#7)
B.J. Boyd, OF – (#20/#12)
SHORT SEASON AND ROOKIE LEAGUES
VERMONT (SS) New York Penn
AZL – Rookie
DSL – Rookie
So, with a quick overview of the A’s system, you can see that Stockton has a glut of the organization’s talent. You know how A’s GM Billy Beane works. These guys are a long way from MLB arbitration so they’re golden. If they perform, they may be Oakland A’s or they may be bargaining chips. But here’s a look at what some of the Ports on this list have been up to this season.
MATT OLSON – .246/.393/.529, 23 homers which leads the league by a mile
RENATO NUNEZ – .285/.350/.539, 17 homers and 46 RBI. Named to the Futures Game for the World team
DANIEL ROBERTSON – .292/.399/.457
SETH STREICH – 9-4, 2.75 ERA, 91 2/3 IP, 18 BB’s, 92 K’s (3rd in the league), 1.11 WHIP (4th in the league)
The big offensive numbers may or may not be California League creations, but a couple of things should be noted.
So here is the ladder that the players in the A’s organization have to climb and, as we all know, there are no promises that anyone will go from the bottom to the top. But you can see where the Stockton Ports are in the mix and who they have on the current roster. It is an especially good time to get out to Banner Island Ballpark and see some players that have been scouted as prized properties.
The top prospect in the organization, Addison Russell, was just here last year (and for a 5-game rehab stint this season), and A’s cornerstone 3B Josh Donaldson came over from the Cubs in 2008 and played in Stockton on his way to Midland and the majors. There are some familiar names for the Stockton faithful in the levels above, and Ports fans will be seeing some of the talent in Beloit and the lower leagues soon.
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Posted in CAL LEAGUE NEWS
Tagged Addison Russell, Billy McKinney, Max Muncey, Miles Head, Renato Nunez, Seth Streich, Stockton Ports
