Any time I read about some intrepid soul venturing out to see as many baseball games as possible, I get a little bit jealous. But when I read about an RV that will be hitting 60+ minor-league ballparks across the United States, and also chowing on pancakes, I just have to write about it. It seems that the International House of Pancakes will be celebrating a 50th anniversary soon. To share the wealth, they’ve...
The Z-meter tracks the story arcs of 25 top prospects (or players we just like) on their way to the bigs. It is named after current Washington Nationals star Ryan Zimmerman, who made the transition from anchoring the University of Virginia to starring in MLB in one year. Promoted: Evan Longoria, 3B, Durham (AAA) to Tampa Bay Rays (MLB) Luke Hochevar, RHP, Omaha (AAA) to Kansas City Royals (MLB) Max Scherzer, RHP, Tucson (AAA)...
All season, the Los Angeles Dodgers organization has handled Clayton Kershaw, Baseball America’s 7th ranked prospect, with kid gloves, limiting the 20-year-old third-year pro to 43.1 innings in nine starts in order to keep him available for as long as possible. Presumably, that meant keeping him in the minor leagues, at AA Jacksonville, until the Dodgers needed his golden left arm in their rotation. Okay. The Dodgers need his golden left arm in their...
The Z-meter tracks the story arcs of 25 top prospects (or players we just like) on their way to the bigs. It is named after current Washington Nationals star Ryan Zimmerman, who made the transition from anchoring the University of Virginia to starring in MLB in one year. Promoted: Evan Longoria, 3B, Durham (AAA) to Tampa Bay Rays (MLB) Luke Hochevar, RHP, Omaha (AAA) to Kansas City Royals (MLB) Max Scherzer, RHP, Tucson (AAA)...
This story is the perfect storm. It involves the insanely entertaining Dmitri Young, a short stint in the Bus Leagues with the Harrisburg Senators (Nationals), and Washington Post Bogger Dan Steinberg. If you’re not familiar with Mr. Steinberg, he has one of the best jobs a writer can get – he gets the legitimacy of the Washington Post mixed with the free-form quest for entertaining subject matter that defines blogging. And, he’s a damn...
If there’s one thing I know about our readership, it is that you-all are very, very curious about Jay Bruce. As central HQ for Jay Bruce worship on the web, we’ve decided to help you out. This feature will tell you everything we can glean from the vast wine-dark seas of Internetia, so we can all anticipate what the pundits will be talking about when Jay is inevitably called up within the next week or...
With Atlanta’s Chipper Jones making an early run at Major League Baseball’s first .400 batting average in 67 years, I thought it might be fun to look at similar seasons at the minor league level. The data at Baseball-Reference’s minor league site goes back as far as 1992, a seventeen year span in which there have been ten .400 seasons. Sort of. The thing with these stats is that the minimum number of plate appearances necessary...
The Z-meter tracks the story arcs of 25 top prospects (or players we just like) on their way to the bigs. It is named after current Washington Nationals star Ryan Zimmerman, who made the transition from anchoring the University of Virginia to starring in MLB in one year. Promoted: Evan Longoria, 3B, Durham (AAA) to Tampa Bay Rays (MLB) Luke Hochevar, RHP, Omaha (AAA) to Kansas City Royals (MLB) Max Scherzer, RHP, Tucson (AAA)...
You may have noticed that last week I kind of skipped the whole “Spotlight on” series. I realized that doing a link dump every other day was overkill, and also noticed that nobody was clicking on the links. So, instead, I’ll be doing something a little more fun – looking at specific teams and prospects that grab my interest. Today, I’m checking out the Huntsville Stars (Brewers) as suggested by reader Andrew. They have...
Here at Bus Leagues, we get by with a little help from our friends. With hundreds of minor-league teams and stadiums in the United States alone, we don’t even entertain the notion that we can visit all of them. That’s where helpful readers come in. A friend of the site who comments under the moniker “willenvelope” offered us some shots taken at Waterfront Stadium, home of the AA Trenton Thunder (Yankees). There’s no way...
2012 05 14 Scranton Wilks Barre/ Empire State Yankees vs Pawtucket Red Sox
