As my interest in Minor League history grows, I have found myself surfing more and more for sites with historical insight. Among the most prestigious of these sites is the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) Minor Leagues Research Committee. For years, the committee put out newsletters, but lately their focus has been on the epic role of filling in the Baseball Reference Minor League Baseball historical stats. After contacting the committee, Committee Chair...
This is one of my favorite interviews because it started out on such a positive note. Nimmo had been hit by a pitch on his shoulder a couple days before and still wasn’t feeling right (he ended up sitting out until August 11 before returning with two straight multi-hit games leading into the All-Star break), so he finished up batting practice early and we sat down to talk. I knew I had to tell...
A few weeks ago, I wrote about what I thought was one of the more interesting promotions in the Florida State League this year, the Dunedin Blue Jays “Turn Back the Clock Night“. After writing the post, I decided to contact the Dunedin team and ask about the promotion, how it came to be, and how it went. Big thanks to Craig Dunham for setting this up and many thanks to Vincent Caffiero for...
Clay Holmes was my third choice to write about last week for MiLB.com, a fact that stands more as a testament to the amount of interesting talent on the State College Spikes than Holmes’ ability on the field. (For the record, my first two choices were Luis Heredia, who was pitching and therefore unavailable the day I went down to Lowell to get my interview done, and Tyler Gaffney, whose unavailability I only found...
In Part Two of our interview with longtime major and minor league baseball executive Mike Veeck, we talk about where his father might be operating if he were alive today, his favorite place to run a team, and why baseball in Florida is a tough sell. This is something I’ve always wondered about. Given the current economic climate in baseball, if your dad was alive and operating in the present day, would he be...
For quite a while now, Mike Veeck has been on our list of people to interview. The son of Hall of Fame owner Bill Veeck, Mike has worked in baseball for nearly forty years at the major league, affiliated minor league, and independent minor league levels. After a few emails to help set things up, we finally connected on the phone late last week. Below, in the first of our two-part interview, we spoke...
Staten Island’s Saxon Butler was the subject of my fourth New York-Penn League Notebook this season, which ran last Friday on MiLB.com. I caught up with Butler prior to the Yankees game against the Lowell Spinners on July 16 and he immediately made me feel good about choosing him for my story, launching a long homerun to right field in the third inning. I also have to feel good about my timing – Butler...
My third New York-Penn League Notebook this season featured Deven Marrero, the Red Sox first pick in this year’s Draft. As seen in that story, I tried to focus largely on how Marrero handles the pressure and attention that comes with that. We also discussed a trip he made to Fenway after he signed and touched briefly on Jose Iglesias, the highly regarded Red Sox prospect who was in Lowell on a rehab assignment...
The focus of the second New York-Penn League Notebook this season was Tri-City ValleyCats outfielder Andrew Aplin. Houston’s fifth-round pick in this year’s draft, he came to the New York-Penn League following a successful three-year career at Arizona State. He hasn’t stopped hitting since he arrived in Troy, leading the league in batting average (.388), on-base percentage (.495), OPS (1.107), and stolen bases (14) through his first 25 games. I spoke with Aplin when...
Mahoning Valley Scrappers outfielder Tyler Naquin was the first player I wrote about this season in the New York-Penn League Notebook at MiLB.com. Through 18 games, he is hitting .296/.412/.408 with nine RBI and three stolen bases. The 15th-overall selection in last month’s draft, he is the highest-drafted player to see action in the NYPL so far this season. (He could be supplanted by a few different players before season’s end, including Carlos Correa,...
2012 05 14 Scranton Wilks Barre/ Empire State Yankees vs Pawtucket Red Sox
