'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.

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:

9/25/10 Odds & Ends

All the random bits for the past week or so.

PG agreed with the league and picked Piscotty
to be the #1 prospect of 2010.

Hey guys. What a week it's been; we had three articles posted right off the bat and then I got bogged down in that dang Goldpanners draft eligible list (which I posted last night). But I had time to jot down some quick odds & ends for the week, and there's some decent ones here this time, so check out these little pieces of news from around the ABL world:

- 2007 AIA Fire OF Kirk Nieuwenhuis, now one of the top prospects in the New York Mets' farm system, is apparently joining the contingent of ABL players in the Arizona Fall League. According to Adam Rubin of ESPN.com's Mets blog, Nieuwenhuis was headed to the Dominican winter league before some roster shuffles deposited him in Arizona.

- It seems like the last season just barely ended, but the teams are out there recruiting like crazy. According to Miners GM Pete Christopher's statement on the team website, they've recruited about 80% of a team for next year. One of those players appears to be UMass Lowell standout Cam Kneeland, who made appearances in both the Cape and New England collegiate league last summer.

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!

Scouting Video: Ryan Gebhart

OF Ryan Gebhart
2010 Peninsula Oilers
Height: 6'0" - Weight: 175lb
Bats: Switch - Throws: Right
2010 Level: DI Sophomore
School: University of Missouri
Draft Eligibility: 2011 (DI Junior)
Previous Draft: N/A

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).

8/21/10 Odds & Ends - Marban Goes Pro Edition

2010 Oiler Jorge Marban is the latest ABLer
gone pro.

Time again for another Odds & Ends post! This one is a little late in the day -- my apologies -- because it's been kind of a wild day for me. But thankfully I had most of the content rounded up in advance, so I was able to pound this one out before nightfall. So let's cut to the chase, because there's some good stuff this weekend...

- First things first, some great news: Oilers' RHP Jorge Marban has signed as an undrafted free agent with the Texas Rangers organization. Apparently he was scouted and signed out of the NBC tournament, so it was definitely worth the trip despite the Oilers' somewhat disappointing finish. If there are any Rangers prospect watchers out there looking for scouting reports or video, I'm afraid I don't have much (I only saw him once in person). He finished the season in Alaska with a 1.38 ERA, 4-0 record, surrendered 13 hits and just 8 walks on 26 innings of work, and struck out a whopping 32 batters. For his efforts he was chosen first-team All-ABL. Jorge is a great NDFA signing for the Rangers, and I'm stoked to see him get his chance at the pro leagues. Best of luck.

- I caught wind of a great blog post on Twitter this week, from the Kentucky Wildcats blog "Cat Scratches", entitled the "20 Greatest Games Since 2006". #10 on the list is a performance by former Glacier Pilot and Kentucky pitcher James Paxton, who (as you probably know considering my recent posts) was the #4 draft pick by the Seattle Mariners in the most recent draft. Great read, check it out.

Oilers say goodbye to Wichita

Sedalia sends Alaskans packing

Wolford and the relief corps kept it close, but the
Oilers' bats couldn't come from behind.

The year is finally over for the Peninsula Oilers, who were bounced from the NBC World Series tournament this morning by the Sedalia Bombers of the MINK league by a final score of 5-3. Alaska's lone representative of the ABL will be packing it in for another long off-season.

This Oilers were roughed up early as Ryan Wooley surrendered four runs in his 4.2 innings pitched. The team's relief corps was largely effective, but the Peninsula crew failed to put enough runs on the board to catch up. Several of their biggest bats -- Wittels, Gebhart, Bermudez, Charles, and Theunissen -- went hitless on the day.

The devastating blow comes less than a day after the Oilers kept their championship hopes alive with a wild 4-3 victory over the League City Hornets. The Alaskans snatched the victory with a ninth-inning walk-off single from the bat of James Lilley. All of that was for naught, though, as today's loss seals the team's fate.

On that note, I would like to congratulate the Peninsula Oilers on a great season. It may not have ended the way they had hoped, but this is a vastly improved club from last year and they deserve all the praise that can be heaped upon them. Well played, Oilers.

Oilers force their way past San Diego

Peninsula advances in NBC tournament on a 3-1 win

Eddie Orozco threw 5.1 innings of three-hit baseball.

The Oilers must not have partied too hard after last night's 8-0 trouncing of the Rock City Red Sox in Wichita, because they were able to get out of bed in good enough form to dispatch the San Diego Force in today's early game by a final score of 3-1.

This win came thanks in no small part to the efforts of right-hander Eddie Orozco (UC Riverside), who three-hit the Force through five and a third innings, striking out 4, walking 2 and allowing no runners to cross the plate. Matt Applegate (Kansas State) finished out the sixth and seventh innings perfectly, Erik Draxton (CS Bakersfield) gave up the only run on one hit (a homer), and Chad Smith (USC) picked up the save with a one-hit inning to close out the event.

On the offensive end of the scoresheet, Pablo Bermudez (Florida Int'l) and Tyler Grimes (Wichita State) had two hits apiece with Bermudez scoring one of the runs, and James Lilley (New Mexico State) and Michael Miller (Cal Poly) each had RBI's. Bermudez has hit safely in each of the Oilers' games so far in the tournament and is carrying a batting average of .429 as of tonight.

With tonight's win, the Oilers advance to face the League City Hornets, who were their original first-round opponent before the Goldpanners-withdrawal-induced bracket shuffling occurred. The game is set to take place at 1:00 p.m. central time (10 a.m. Alaska).

Oilers show no mercy to Rock City

Peninsula team hand Red Sox an early exit via mercy rule

Ryan Gebhart was just one of many hot bats for
the Oilers in Wichita today.

Still licking their wounds from their stunning defeat from the Wichita Elite Sluggers the previous day, the Peninsula Oilers pulled no punches in their outing against the Rock City Red Sox. The Oilers made short work of the opposition in the 8-0 victory, bouncing Rock City from the NBC World Series tournament with a mercy-rule shortened loss.

In contrast to yesterday's loss, the Oilers' pitching in this game was rock solid with Jake Sabol (Central Michigan) pitching an even 6.0 two-hit innings, walking two and striking out four. Ryan Wooley (Alabama Birmingham) pitched the only necessary inning of relief, surrendering two hits but no runs and striking out a pair.

The bats were obviously hot this morning, with everyone reaching base at least once. Ryan Gebhart (Missouri) went 2-for-4 and scored two runs, and Garrett Wittels (Florida Int'l) knocked in a stellar 4 RBI. The team's offensive output was sufficient to put the Red Sox out of their misery and the Oilers were awarded the victory after six and a half frames.

The Oilers will advance to take on the loser of today's 5 p.m. (2 p.m. Alaska time) game between the Liberal Bee Jays and the San Diego Force. Time for the next-round game is TBA. Update: game starts at 1 p.m. central (10 a.m. Alaska).

Oilers drop shocker at NBCWS

Alaskans lose opening match 6-3 to the Sluggers

Garrett Wittels was successful at the plate, but the
Oilers couldn't top the Elite Sluggers on Wednesday.

In an opening-round upset, the Wichita Elite Sluggers handed the Peninsula Oilers -- the Alaska League's sole representative at the NBC World Series tournament -- a stunning upset defeat, plating six runs to the Oilers' 3 and advancing to the next round. The Oilers find themselves in the loser's bracket and facing elimination should they lose another game between now and the title game.

The Oilers' bats picked up nine hits but were only able to push the three runs across. Garrett Wittels led the offense, going 2-for-4, knocking in two of the runs and touching the plate once himself. James Lilley, Patrick Wisdom, and Michael Miller each had two-hits a piece; Miner-turned-Oiler Pablo Bermudez went 1-for-2 and drew two walks on the day.

With as many hits as the team put together, it's hard to imagine losing the game, but the pitching staff couldn't hold up their end of the bargain. After four solid innings by Kellen Moen (7H, 1ER, 6K) things started to unravel. The next four pitchers covered four innings pitched and surrendered five runs. Mike Wolford got the loss for his two-run inning, though it was somewhat of a tough-luck loss as neither run was earned.

Moving into the loser's bracket, the Oilers will get a chance at redemption against the Rock City Red Sox of North Carolina tomorrow. The game begins at 10:30 AM CDT, which is 7:30 AM AKDT.

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

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: Stephen Piscotty

#25 Stephen Piscotty
UTIL - Peninsula Oilers
Height: 6'3" - Weight: 190lb
Bats: Right - Throws: Right
School: Stanford
Year: Freshman
Hometown: Pleasanton, California
More articles regarding Stephen Piscotty

Hailing from the most pleasant town in California (Pleasanton) comes Stephen Piscotty, the big right-handed play-anywhere (including pitcher) guy who has been turning heads all summer in the ABL. Believe it or not, I was actually going to write this profile before he took home league honors for Best Prospect and Silver Slugger in 2010, and that only fuels my desire to get as many words written down about this dude as possible, because it's obvious that he's going places.

Piscotty is a strong pro draft candidate, having been previously selected out of high school in the 45th round by the Dodgers. However, he committed to Stanford and went to school this last season to play for their ball club (making him next draft-eligible in 2012). Down in Palo Alto he paced the DI team with 17 doubles, hit .326 and put up a .454 SLG%. Since coming up with the Oilers he's proven to be one of the team's most consistent hitters, batting out of the meat of the order, and has definitely earned the aforementioned acclaim (and did I mention, 49th State Hardball Player to Watch status?).

Pre-Game: Oilers @ Miners, 7/28/2010

While the boys of the Cape Cod League are prancing about Fenway Park in their 2010 All-Star Game Brought To You By Whichever Big Corporate Sponsor(s) Ponied Up The Money (TM), the blue-collar players of the Peninsula Oilers and Mat-Su Miners will be grinding out one of the last games of the long season that will, in part, determine the winner of the most coveted summer-ball crown this side of the Mississippi: the Alaska Baseball League championship.

CBS might not be there to broadcast the game nation-wide, but this is a very important match-up. The Oilers have to win tonight to keep their championship hopes alive. They're still in contention but they're hanging by a thread. If the Miners take tonight's game, they'll knock the Oilers out of the picture and set themselves up to make a run at the first-place Goldpanners, all on home turf.

Someone will be broadcasting, though. AM 1430 will be airing the Valley Sports Huddle live from Hermon Brothers Field at 5:00pm, and I've been invited to come and talk ABL with host Jeremiah Bartz. You should tune in! The game follows immediately with the first pitch scheduled for six. I'll be there and would suggest that any and all Miners fans, or fans of baseball in general, head on down to the park to check out this pivotal game.

If you can't be there, tune into AM 1430 in the valley, ESPN 1140 down on the Peninsula, or catch the live feed on either station's websites. And check out my Twitter feed. Assuming my BlackBerry behaves from the park today (no promises) I'll bet live tweeting some scouting notes throughout the game.

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.

Photo Post: Oilers @ Bucs, 2010 Showcase

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2010 Player Profile: Ryan Gebhart

Ryan Gebhart
OF - Peninsula Oilers
Bats: S - Throws: R
Height: 6'0" - Weight: 175lb
School: U. Missouri
Year: Sophomore
Hometown: Waco, Texas
All posts regarding Ryan Gebhart

When you think of the top prospects for the 2010 Peninsula Oilers, who comes to mind? I can think of one guy, who shall not be named, that probably comes first on a lot of peoples' lists. But if Ryan Gebhart isn't near the top of your ranking, I think you need to go back and have another look. This is a guy that we could be seeing a lot of in the future, starting with the 2011 MLB draft.

Ryan is an old ABL hand, up for his second year after a successful campaign with the AIA Fire in 2009. One reader commented that Gebhart looked like "a young big leaguer" during the year of '09. At the conclusion of the ABL regular season, Gebhart was adopted by the NBC runner-up Glacier Pilots for the amateur World Series tournament (stats), where he came up big and helped propel the Pilots to the championship game. This past season for Mizzou he was limited to 20 games (all starts). He put up very good numbers in those games, though, and managed to walk 20 times (though he struck out 28).

7/10/2010 Odds & Ends - the Brett and Bret edition

Brett Atwood is Back in Black (and gold)
Photo courtesy of AnchorageBucs.com

Well, it's Saturday, and as happens on (nearly) every Saturday, I'm writing an Odds & Ends post. This week I actually have some interesting stuff to write about. You see, I started taking notes for the O&E throughout the week so I didn't forget all the interesting stuff, and go figure, now I don't have to scratch around for boring junk to fill a page with. How awesome is that?

- Great news: Brett Atwood is in Alaska. He was originally scratched from the Anchorage Bucs' opening day roster, and I had crossed him off the Players to Watch list. Well, he's finally made the trip up and been added to the team. Great to see, because he's a very exciting player and a second-year Buc. Accordingly, I've un-crossed him from the Players to Watch list, and while I was at it I fixed some table wonkiness that I hadn't noticed until that point.

- On the other side of the Bucs transaction coin, their roster has been updated, and just look at how many people are on the DL. We talked about Brian Bello last week; he's one of the DL-listed players so I guess that's a pretty good indication that he went home with an injury. Bummer! Maybe we'll see him next year.