'96 Panner Young finally tasting October

Rangers' franchise player has waited a decade to see the post-season. 

Photo courtesy of Goldpanners.com

 

After completing his MVP season with the Goldpanners in 1996, Michael Young went pro. By 2000, he'd reached the major leagues; since 2001 he has been a permanent fixture with the Texas Rangers, and despite being shuffled around the field and seeing highly-touted stars come and go, he's been the constant in a sea of change.

Through it all, Young has put together a pretty impressive resume. Six consecutive all-star appearances. Career .302 batting average. A Gold Glove. Consideration, lukewarm as it may have been, for MVP on several occasions. An MLB-best .331 average in 2005. But there's been one thing missing:

A playoff appearance.

That will all change tomorrow, when the Texas Rangers take on the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS. The first pitch is slated for 1:35pm eastern.

During spring training, team President Nolan Ryan -- whose son played for the Anchorage Bucs -- predicted that the Rangers would win 92 games en route to the post season. They fell just short of that, with 90 W's on the standings board, but with second-place Oakland struggling to break even (81-81) on the year, those two wins didn't make a whole lot of difference. Now, with over 1500 playoff-less games to his credit (good, or should I say bad, enough for second among active players) Young will finally get his shot.

Scouting Report: DJ Crumlich

SS DJ Crumlich
2010 Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks
Height: 6'1" - Weight: 185lb
Level: DI Sophomore
School: UC Irvine
Draft Eligibility: 2011 (DI Jr.)
Prev. Draft: N/A
Scouting Video
Posts regarding DJ Crumlich

When the All-ABL picks were announced shortly before the end of the season, I knew I had to get another look at Gold Glove winner DJ Crumlich of the Goldpanners. Fortunately I had several more chances to form an opinion on the talented UC Irvine shortstop, both live and on video, before the year wrapped up. I've been playing with his scouting report all off-season and, encouraged by his selection as a top-25 prospect in the ABL by Perfect Game, I'm now releasing my thoughts on Crumlich for all to see. Here's my take on the guy:
 
Description: Standing 6'1", Crumlich has a pretty average, athletic middle-infielder build. He stays loose at the plate, draws hands back as he loads up, and then drops them into the swing slot right before swinging with a small-to-moderate stepping stride.

Fastest Guns in the ABL

Six of the quickest catchers of the 2010 ABL at a glance

As someone who's just kind of dabbling into the scouting world, one thing I really liked to take to the park with me this season was the stopwatch. A lot of other scouting info can only be gained only through experience and judgment, and while I think my talents in those areas are developing, there's nothing like empirical evidence. And one area in which I managed to gather data was catchers' moves from home to second base.

This can be accurately defined as a "glove to glove" time; that is, from the time the pitch hits the catcher's mitt until the ball hits the glove of whoever is covering the bag. Therefor it includes not only the strength of the catcher's arm but the quickness of his hands.

Below I've included all the catchers who've shown what I consider to be above average moves to second in 2010. And since we're prospecting here, I'm going to by MLB standards. Obviously this is significantly higher than college standards, so the handful of guys listed below are exceptional in this category. Sometimes a catcher will also make a "lazy" throw down to second, or maybe they juggle the ball a bit, so I've thrown out any obvious statistical outliers and averaged what was left.

But first, I'd like to make a few caveats. First off, these are all based on a small sample size so there may be a significant margin of error. Second, just because a guy didn't make this list below doesn't necessarily mean that his arm sucks. There could be plenty of other reasons why so-and-so didn't make the cut, up to and including the fact that I never got a time for some catchers in the league. so with that out of the way, here's the data:

Goldpanners to play abbreviated 2011 season

Panners will be "adjunct member" in 2011; make full return in 2012

Sightings such as this may be more rare in 2011
as the Goldpanners will play an emergency-
shortened schedule.

Faced with overwhelming costs imposed by the loss of the team's "Olympic Village" housing complex and debt racked up from running without access to the public water utility, the Goldpanners of Fairbanks have decided to scale back their ABL league schedule and shake things up for the 2011 season, according to this press release on the team's website.

Assuming a role that team GM Don Dennis calls "adjunct membership", the Goldpanners will sharply curtail their Alaska Baseball League schedule. Their games against ABL opponents will mostly occur during the first half of the season, starting on June 8th. While the team should should face all the other teams of the ABL, their schedule will include fewer road matches against the teams of southcentral Alaska.

In order to keep costs down and keep the Goldpanners tradition alive and exciting for their fans and players, the team will be shaking things up for the remainder of the summer. They will be looking at attending at least one tournament outside of the state that will get their players a little closer to home before disbanding, perhaps the international Kamloops tournament.

"There will still be plenty of excitement. It is basically the last three weeks of the AK season that will be lost," says assistant GM Todd Dennis,"although we will likely be competing in the Kamloops International Tournament in the first week of July (a tournament Fairbanks has won more than any other team)."

2011 Draft Eligibles: Goldpanners of Fairbanks

Cabral, Meaux and Newman lead a class of likely Goldpanner draft picks.

Ryan Cabral could be a nice pick-up for a pro team
in the 2011 MLB draft.

The Goldpanners have an interesting list of draft eligible players this year. I think that 2010 was a stronger year in the top-prospect department than 2009; however, most of the more recent season's big name Goldpanners seem to be juniors. The result is a lot of players who will probably get drafted in 2011, and definitely beyond, but it's difficult for me to find an upper tier of players who I can predict will be drafted in, say, the first ten rounds or so in the upcoming spring. Regardless, I'll go out on a limb and suggest a few possibilities:

Ryan Cabral: Cabral is one guy who not only stood out to me, but as a senior won't be pushed down to the middle of the pack due to a lack of signability. Cabral moved from the pen to the starting rotation when he came up to Alaska and really took advantage of his lively fastball with pro-caliber velocity to pick apart the ABL's batters. He went 5-0 with a 2.47 ERA overall, and was the Panners' workhorse as he pitched consistently well over a team-best 54.2 IP. His efforts landed him a first-team All-ABL selection.

Jesse Meaux: Meaux was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 44th round as a junior last year. Obviously he made what should turn out to be a smart choice and went back to school instead of signing, as I imagine that re-entering the draft as a senior will only increase his draft stock. The rightie Meaux is a bit of a soft thrower, but he's got great control and does a good job of locating his pitches. His hard work paid off this last spring as he moved from the mid-week starter job into the weekend mix.

Legend of the Last Frontier: Bill "Spaceman" Lee

In the mid 60's, the Goldpanners launched a personality into orbit that still hasn't landed.

Photo courtesy of Goldpanners.com

I won't dance around the issue here. Bill Lee is quite possibly my favorite baseball player of all time, and was so before I even knew that he was a Goldpanner. You might have got a hint of that since I'm always keeping tabs on him in the Odds & Ends section, but anyway, I'm not entirely sure why that is. Maybe it's because he's in his 60's and he's still making appearances on mounds (amateur and pro) from Fairbanks, Alaska to Santiago de Cuba. Maybe it's because he took the eephus pitch, made it even more ridiculous than it already was, and named it the "Leephus". Maybe it's because he smoked copious amounts of dope and didn't care what anyone thought about it. He's just one of those guys that's so larger-than-life, you either love him or you hate him.

Of course, that's not to say that he wasn't (or should I say, isn't) a good pitcher. With a career 3.62 ERA and 119 wins to 90 losses at the major league level, he definitely wasn't bad. With the Goldpanners in '66 he posted a 1.35 ERA with 58 strikeouts in 60.1 IP, mostly in relief; in '67 he 7-4 with a 2.25 ERA and 83K's in 84 innings as a starter. But he was known as much for his free spirit as for his success on the mound.

Lee didn't have very good velocity on his fastball, so instead of trying to throw hard, he tried to throw really slow. That's where the "Leephus" comes in. For those of you who don't know, the Eephus pitch (or, in this case, the Leephus) is essentially the change-up from hell. The pitch was invented by Rip Sewell back in the 40's, is typically thrown about 50 miles per hour and is basically just lobbed up to the plate with a nice "rainbow" throw. This pitch was surprisingly successful, but it cost Lee and the Red Sox the 1975 World Series when he gave up a two-run homer off the pitch in game seven.

Three transfers and a commit

Dickson, Newalu and Vawter-Scoggins move up from juco; Richter goes DI

Zach Vawter-Scoggins is headed to Valdosta
State for the 2011 NCAA season

 Fall semester is in full swing and the boys of college ball are already into full-on team practice and gearing up for fall scrimmages. As we try to catch up with who went where in the summertime college-ball shuffle, we've uncovered three more ABL players who will be transferring from junior college up to four-year ball, and one former prep star who will be moving into the college game.

2010 third-bagger and Glacier Pilots masher O'Koyea Dickson will be moving up from the College of San Mateo, will be a Seawolf in 2011. No, Alaska Anchorage isn't adding a baseball program; Dickson has transferred to Sonoma State of the Division II CCAA conference. Sonoma State is one of the more noteworthy DII baseball programs in the country, turning out three mid-draft picks and an indy-ball signee in 2010. Dickson was a mid-summer pickup for the Pilots in 2010 and brought a sweet power swing (scouting video) to the Anchorage club.

Another 3B, Blake Newalu of the 2008 Mat-Su Miners, is on the move. Newalu will be leaving Chipola CC behind for the University of Mississippi. "Ole Miss", of course, plays in the Division-I Southeastern Conference (SEC) and gave rise to first-round, #5 overall pick in the 2010 MLB amateur draft, Drew Pomeranz. The Rebels have also been awarded eight consecutive NCAA regional seeds, so Newalu will be in good company talent-wise and have a good opportunity to continue making a name for himself.

9/11/2010 Odds & Ends - Housekeeping Edition

"Spaceman" notches another pro win; Gorgen heads to D-Backs.

The oldest pitcher to win a pro game.
Photo courtesy of Goldpanners.com

Hey folks, we've got some actual news this week. And I'm backing that up with some info on where this blog is headed. Basically, it's time for some "fall cleaning" around here and I want your input, so see below!

- So oldschool Goldpanner Bill "Spaceman" Lee won his outing for the indy Brockton Rox this past week and has apparently become, at 63 years of age, the oldest player to win a professional baseball game. It took him only -- wait for it -- 63 pitches in 5 1/3 innings to pick up the victory, and he did not walk a man. Here's one little article on the event.

- In some pro prospect news, former Anchorage Bucs reliever Matt Gorgen has been sent packing to the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. He was a "player to be named later" in the Chad Qualls trade, and was leading the class-A Southern League in saves this year with 22. Matt was previously with Tampa Bay.

- Considering that it's the off-season and things have slowed down a bit, and we've got some time to figure things out before the next season, I'd like to open up the floor to any suggestions or comments about how to improve 49thStateHardball.com. Tell me what you like, tell me what you don't like. Tell me something you'd like to see that I don't do. Tell me something that I do do, that you don't want to see. It can be about the content of the site, the layout, a specific type of article, whatever. One specific idea I've been toying with since, well, the beginning of this site has been moving from a classic blog format to something more like a news-style website as far as the layout and organization is concerned, so any comments in that department would be much appreciated!

Scouting Video: DJ Crumlich

SS DJ Crumlich
2010 Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks
Height: 6'1" - Weight: 185lb
Level: DI Sophomore
School: UC Irvine
Draft Eligibility: 2011 (DI Jr.)
Prev. Draft: N/A
Posts regarding DJ Crumlich

9/4/10 Odds & Ends

Hey everyone, it's Saturday, you know the drill. I'm really at a loss for good things to "fill out" this post this weekend, so I figure I'll just throw up the two things I've got real quick and go to work on one of the real articles I've got ready to post up next week. Here we go:

- If all goes well, the Mat-Su Miners will have a new concession stand at Hermon Brothers Field next season. According to their website, the new foundation has been poured and will begin construction after the state fair (at the adjacent fairgrounds) ends. I personally don't know what was wrong with the old one, it seemed as good as any I'd seen in the league. It also seems like the clubhouse/restrooms could use some work and possibly giving the umpires a better shed to dress in would be nice. But hey, as a person who loves food almost as much as I love baseball, I will not complain about any measures that will increase my face-stuffing pleasure.

- In other ballpark related news, for those of you who are sitting around in Fairbanks with nothing to do, why not head down to Growden for the Goldpanners' park cleanup work/party? It starts at 10 AM Alaska time, and I'm sure they won't mind if you show up a little late either.

That's all for this weekend. Told you it would be short. Assuming your employer is not a fascist, you should have a three day weekend coming up, so be safe and eat lots of hot dogs. Come back Monday for our next scouting video and check back shortly thereafter as I preview the ABL alumni who will be going to the Arizona Fall League this year. 

8/28/10 Odds & Ends

Bill Lee will make another pro appearance,
this time with the Brockton Rox.
Photo courtesy of Goldpanners.com

Another Saturday and another Odds & Ends post dished up for you. Things have been quiet around ABL land. Of course all the teams are transitioning from the flurry of the season and back into off-season mode (recruiting, improvements/maintenance to stadiums, etc.) without having much time to make any notable advances on those fronts. It's been kind of a slower week around here, I made my trip back to school for the winter and arrived two days late, so I've either been on the road or had my nose in a book all week. Anyway, there's not much this week, but here are a few quick shots:

- Here's a good one for PannerFans (or fans of the greatest pitcher ever, in my opinion): Bill "Spaceman" Lee (Panners, 1966-97) has signed with the independent Brockton Rox and will pitch one game on September 5th for the team. Of course, Lee is always pitching somewhere, whether it's in a New England adult league or barnstorming from Fairbanks to Havana with whatever bunch of guys he can round up, so I guess this shouldn't come as any huge surprise. But for a day anyway, the Spaceman will be a pro again.

- If you don't read the Peninsula Clarion often, you should check out this week's Clarion Calls. Jeff Helminiak has a couple tidbits on the Oilers, including an update on Jorge Marban's budding career with the Rangers organization (he's been promoted to Spokane of the Northwest League).

UPDATE: Oilers & Panners at NBC World Series

Panners out, Oilers move to Game 16

The National Baseball Congress has issued a press release on their website, and apparently everything I wrote yesterday in my NBC World Series preview is no longer applicable. The changes to the bracket seem kind of convoluted to me, so I will do my best to break down the changes to the bracket in an easy-to-understand format:

- The Oilers move to game 16 in the bracket, the spot originally held by the Goldpanners.

- The Hutchinson Monarchs -- the originally scheduled opponent of the Goldpanners -- are moving to the Oilers' previous spot to take on the League City Hornets.

- Filling the vacancy of the Goldpanners, and occupying the spot held by Hutchinson, will be the Wichita Elite Sluggers. They will be the Oilers' new opponents.

- The Oilers first game has accordingly be changed to August 4, 2010. Time still TBA.

Looking at the Wichita Elite Sluggers, they look to be a similar or perhaps slightly tougher challenge for the Oilers in the first round. But overall, being moved to the separate fork of the bracket looks to be a good thing for the Oilers as there appear to be fewer notable teams that they'll have to pass through on their way to the championship game, but if anyone else has a better take on the situation, by all means let me know. As it stands now, I feel very confident in predicting an Oilers appearance in the championship game.

NBC World Series preview

Goldpanners back out of NBC World Series; Oilers to represent AK for the title.

The Oilers will fight to bring the NBC crown back to Alaska

This just in: The Goldpanners have officially pulled out of the NBC Tournament in Wichita. Reasons cited were early player departures, injuries, and financial concerns following the two million dollar investment in Growden park. What does this mean (other than no Panner NBCWS trophy)? I can see three things happening. First, nothing changes except their opponent gets a first-round bye. Second, the spot could fall to the next willing team -- likely the last-place Glacier Pilots, for a twist of irony -- and the Pilots will get another shot at the crown they fell just short of last season. Third, the seeds could change. The Oilers could take the Panners' spot and, if another team were to go, that team would take the Oilers' current spot. That's a lot of maybes but I'm going to predict that scenario #1 happens and the Oilers become Alaska's sole representative at the NBC tournament in Wichita this year. I'll operate on that assumption until I hear otherwise, so for the purposes of this preview, here's a look at the Oilers' first-round matchup, and a resounding GO OILERS! (I can finally cheer for a team without appearing biased, I like this.)

2010 Peninsula Oilers NBC World Series Team
NBC Roster: Oilersbaseball.com
NBC Scores & Stats: Pointstreak
First game: Tuesday, August 3, time TBA, at League City Hornets
Tournament Bracket: NBC Website

Reflections: Goldpanners @ Miners, 7/30/2010

DJ Crumlich: his glove really is gold

Yesterday's doubleheader between the Goldpanners and the Miners at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer was a pivotal one. At stake in this four-game, back-to-back doubleheader series is first place in the Alaska Baseball League. It's come right down to the wire and this is it. The Panners and Miners split the twin-bill, which sets up a dramatic finish today. On the one hand, the Miners have to win both of these final games to clinch the championship, and the Goldpanners only have to force a split. On the other, the games will go down on the Miners' home turf. So the title really is up for grabs.

Before we get into the nuts and bolts, I'll share a little tale with you. I give the Goldpanners bullpen credit for being classy. After reading The Bullpen Gospels, I expect talk of boobies, lots of poop jokes, and all sorts of hijinx from bullpen crews. Imagine my surprise when I rounded the corner to walk down the left-field line when I overheard the pen having a civil and seemingly informed discussion comparing the religions of the world and sharing opinions on the afterlife. I was impressed, if not a little disappointed to miss my daily dose of boob jokes. So, kudos to the Goldpanners bullpen for being more mature than I.

Anyway, when I wasn't fielding trash-talk from Goldpanners who apparently thought I was a spy for the Miners, or trying to get my daughter to quit playing in the giant mud puddle near the Panners bullpen (unsuccessfully, I might add), I got some good notes on some players I need to round out my reports on. So on that note, I'd like to share some quick observations on strengths & weaknesses of some players.

7/30/2010 Odds & Ends: The Final Countdown edition

Here it is. The last stand. The league title will be determined tomorrow...and then? The off-season. UGH! But, don't worry. 49thStateHardball.com will be with you all winter long to give you your ABL fix. In the mean time, here's some quick shots from the past week:

- In case you missed it, I was the special guest on this week's Valley Sports Huddle on AM 1430, live from Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer. So this was my first radio appearance and it went pretty good I think, other than a couple hitches. Such as when I said "uhhhh" for about 20 seconds while trying to think of a certain pitcher's name (LIAM BARON! I remembered it as soon as I was driving home). But I had a blast talking ABL with host Jeremiah Bartz and I'm always glad to do something to get the good word out there. Big thanks to Jeremiah and the Hometown Radio folks for having me on the air.

- For those of you who are wondering how the NBC tournament will fall out, as far as Alaska is concerned anyway, the bracket is set. The Miners have gone on record saying that they will not go to Wichita, which means the Oilers and Panners are our teams regardless of how the 1-2-3 standings turn out in the league. Miners GM Pete Christopher told me today that the Oilers are already on their way to Kansas. The Panners have to finish out tomorrow with the Miners to see who gets the league title, but it's inconsequential for the tournament as the doubleheader split tonight earned the Goldpanners the #1 Alaska seed spot. So who's playing who when? The Oilers will take on the League City Hornets on Tuesday, Aug 3rd and the Goldpanners will follow up against the Hutchinson Monarchs on the 4th. The complete bracket (in PDF version) is available here.

2010 Player Profile: Martin Medina

#22 Martin Medina
3B - Goldpanners
Height: 5'10" - Weight: 200lb
Bats: Right - Throws: Right
School: CS Bakersfield
Year: Sophomore
Hometown: Ventura, California
All posts regarding Martin Medina

Martin Medina is another one of those Goldpanners who is familiar with the friendly confines of Growden Park. A second-year Panner, Medina returned in 2010 a year older, a year wiser, and a year better with the stick, and has thus far put up a season worthy of first-team All-ABL honors.

Medina was firmly established as an every-day player in the Division I ranks a year ago as a freshman, when he started all 50 games for Cal State Bakersfield -- making him the only player to do so. He followed up in the 2010 collegiate season with a .311 average and team-best 51 RBI. He's also been utilized both ways, proving his versatility by putting up 11 decent innings pitched for the Roadrunners.

The Goldpanners 50th Anniversary Yearbook, in review

Throughout the season, I've picked up most of the ABL teams' programs, media guides, or yearbooks at the parks. Some are better than others, all are worth the meager price, but the one I received in the mail from the Panners has been my favorite thus far. With that being the case, I believe that I owe it to the team to give a review of the fine piece of literature that appeared in my mailbox a couple weeks ago, the Goldpanners of Fairbanks 50th Anniversary Yearbook. 

The first thing I look for when I open up a program/media guide/yearbook is the content to ad ratio. I understand that teams need to sell advertisements to put a team on the field, especially in this league, and that the number of ads is probably inversely proportional to the cash reserves of the team in question. So I don't mean to take a cut against a team that may need to sell two pages of ads just to cover the cost of one page of information and still keep the book affordable enough to sell for a buck or two. But I will confess that I prefer a publication that is more content than advertisements. Call me spoiled if you will, but the Goldpanners guide scores big points in this regard. In 22 pages of content + two covers, there are approximately six full pages of ads (if you add up the stray advertisements to equal a full page). As far as these things go, that's a pretty awesome ratio.

So there's a lot of content in here, but what is it? In addition to the standard fare -- current roster, season schedule, photos and biographies of some of the players -- there is a wealth of interesting info in there. Tons of historical information. Some of my favorites include an All-Time Top 50 Goldpanners list (you have to buy the program to see who's on it!), a complete listing of all 1,200 Goldpanners taken in the MLB draft and roughly 200 who've made it to the big leagues, and the starting lineups for every team in the club history.

2003 Goldpanner Brad Davis shines in MLB Debut

Davis, the latest of hundreds of ABL players
to ascend to Major League Baseball.
Photo courtesy of Goldpanners.com

Catcher Brad Davis -- a member of the 2003 Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks -- joined the prestigious club of ABL players to ascend the ranks to Major League Baseball this July 25th. What's more, he immediately proved that he belongs in the big leagues.

In a stellar debut on Sunday, Davis helped shut down the first-place Atlanta Braves (who are, as you may know, my favorite MLB team...good thing for Davis my love of ABL and the Panners transcends my life-long affinity for the Bravos) with two hits, an RBI, and a throw-out at second base of a stealing Matt Diaz. Davis had been on the 25-man roster since Wednesday, but Sunday was his first taste of big-league action when he got the start to spell every-day man Ronnie Paulino. Things obviously smoothed out for the catcher, who had to borrow gear after discovering that he had accidentally grabbed the wrong equipment bag in his haste to leave AAA New Orleans in the dust, and he went on to make a memorable MLB debut.

With his call-up, Brad Davis has become the 198th Goldpanner to play in the major leagues. Approaching the magic number of 200 alumni in the bigs, and countless more sent on to the various ranks of minor league ball, the Goldpanners have firmly established themselves as the most legendary amateur team in the history of the game. Counting alumni like Brad Davis and many more who are hot on his heels in the climb to the top, the Panners can be assured that their legacy will live on into the future.

Photo Post: Goldpanners @ Glacier Pilots, 2010 Scout Showcase

CLICK HERE FOR FULL GALLERY
83 Photos

7/24/2010 Odds & Ends

Reagan Moczygema gets some high-fives.

Here we go, down the home stretch! It seems like this season has just been flying by, and with about a week left to go, we've got a lot of updates. We've seen a lot of players come (and, unfortunately, go) and the championship picture is coming into focus. Here's some odds & ends for the past week:

- If you're interested in the Alaska League for the prospects, you should definitely check out this article in the ADN. They talked about last weekend's Scout Showcase and interviewed some of the scouts who came up. Angels scout Casey Harvie -- who may or may not have been the one who hooked me up with the funky beach towel out of his door prize box (thanks dude!) -- described the league as "the breeding ground of the future". I overheard at the event that there were scouts from 25 teams in attendance, and the ADN article linked above states that a dozen have already been through Anchorage. So I'd say it's pretty safe to say that every MLB team has sent someone through the ABL at least once this season.

- Elsewhere in the media, the Frontiersman has a great article on Miner Reagan Moczygemba, the mid-season pick-up third baseman for the Mat-Su squad. The story is that Moczygemba -- pronounced, I believe, "Moochy Gomba", or just "Mooch" as his teammates call him -- was attending the College World Series as a spectator when he was instructed via text message to call Russ Raley about the spot on the Miners' roster. I've been pretty excited about Moczygemba since he got here, and as the article says, he really helped Anchor the Miners' infield.