9/18/10 Odds & Ends - Blogging on Blogs edition

Alright folks, I'm off to my usual late start, but my struggles with punctuality have been compounded this week by a crippling addiction to the computer game Hearts of Iron III and an obligation to channel every ounce of dad-ness in my bones as my wife attempts to get a handle on her grad school projects. Fortunately, I had a few little leftovers from the week that didn't get written about, including a few things about some blogs that are probably a million times cooler than this one:

- Jonathan Cisneros (Miners, 2009) has made the jump to pro ball after going undrafted this spring, spending some time in the independent United League. Cisneros was signed by Amarillo and spent a whopping eight games with the club before being traded to Laredo for a player to be named later despite hitting .406 with two homers. In 70 total games in the indy league, Cisneros posted a .375 batting average with 6 HR and 47 RBI. Congrats to Cisneros on inking the deal and posting some big numbers, and let's hope that he might  make the jump to affiliated ball.

- As a newbie prospects blogger, one guy I have come to greatly admire and even relate to is Mike Newman at the blog "Scouting the Sally", in which he scours the Single-A South Atlantic League for big-name prospects and sleepers alike. It occurred to me the other day to look through his backlog of posts for former ABL players, and I turned up a few. Mike's got reports on Matt Thompson (Oilers, 2007), Sean Ratliff (Bucs, 2007) and Joshua Satin (Miners, 2004). I wholeheartedly suggest giving those a read!

- Speaking of other blogs,  I have been invited to participate in the very awesome Bus Leagues Baseball year-end awards voting. I have received my ballot in the good ol' electronic mail and will be doing my duty to baseball to help pick the most awesome minor league players of the year for recognition. A cursory glance over the options shows that at least a couple former ABLers are up for some of the very coveted awards, but of course I will be as unbiased as possible and not let my man crush on all players to have ever come through the ABL taint my voting...at least not a whole lot anyway.

The end! Scouting video on Monday!

6/12/10 Odds & Ends - Actually playing baseball edition

Mark Joukoff will be on the sidelines for the
next couple weeks.
Photo: AnchorageBucs.com

Holy cow, it's actually here. Alaska Baseball is happening for real. And what a start. The Oilers are pacing the league with a 3-0 record (didn't I tell you they'd be better this year?), there have been a ton of tight games and pitching duels, and I can't get enough. I'm obsessed. So here's the dish on this week's odds & ends:

- Let's start it off with a little trivia. Did you know that today is the birthday of the Mat-Su Miners? The Valley Green Giants -- precursors of the modern Miners -- played their very first game on this day in 1976.

- So far we've had a couple ABL draftees sign pro contracts. I already reported (and scooped the world!) that Panners recruit Darian Sandford has signed (real name is Clifford) with the Royals, and that Ryan Cole (Miners, 2009) has come to terms with Houston. Houston and KC have been the most active as far as getting their players to sign. Oakland has been aggressive in coming to terms as well, but the only draft pick out of AK they have is Matt Thomson (Oilers, 2007) who was taken in the 12th round, and so far there's no indication that those two parties have come to terms. Every other team has been pretty quiet as far as signing their draft picks, but we'll continue to monitor the situation.

- We've already got at least one injury on the short season. The Bucs' Mark Joukoff was injured while taking infield practice on Monday; twisting his ankle while leaping for a high throw. He'll probably be out for about two weeks, which means he'll miss about two starts on the hill.

Live blogging the 2010 MLB Draft

Kevin Jacob, drafted by New York Yankees.
Photo courtesy of AnchorageBucs.com

It's day one of the 2010 MLB draft, and I will be doing what I like to call "more-or-less-live blogging" it. Obviously my primary concern will be former ABL players who are drafted, and I'll do a little analyzing as we go along. I just got into the house and missed picks 1-5, but no ABLers yet. I would be surprised if there weren't a few to go off the board here soon, so here we go!

3:39 PM Day 1: No ABL draft picks yet. Gone through picks 1 through 6. Just waiting for the name James Paxton to be called! I'll make the post as soon as it's official, or if someone else (Kevin Jacob? Logan Darnell?) comes up before him.

4:11 PM: Still waiting. I have to confess that this is the first time I've ever watched the draft live. I have to wonder, is it really necessary for teams to be "on the clock" this long in the first round? I mean, if I were a Major League GM, I would start preparing by making a list of my top draft choices and my very first pick would be the highest ranked player left on my list. It wouldn't take a lot of phone calls and hand-wringing or whatever the heck these clowns are doing. But obviously I'm not a Major League GM so I don't know.

6:42 PM: The first/comp A rounds are complete and none of our top draft picks are anywhere to be seen. I checked a few of the big prospect watchers' draft boards and our guys have slid completely off the first-round radar, and the MLB teams seem to agree with their analysis. I wonder when the last time we went through a first round without any ABL players was? In any event, draft day is only one day out of a player's career, and although I expected to have at least one guy out of our league, and as many as three, drafted by now, the second round should be a lot more action-packed. Stay tuned as we pick up the coverage tomorrow.