In the 29th round of the 1969 draft, the Cincinnati Reds selected Ken Griffey, from Donora Pennsylvania. In his 19 year career, he accrued more than 2,100 hits, 200 steals, and a career .296 batting average. Griffey was a 3 time All-Star and winner of 3 World Series Championships all with the Reds, and is now the manager for the Bakersfield Blaze, the High A affiliate for Cincinnati, he took some time out after...
Baseball America’s 48th-ranked prospect entering the season, Billy Hamilton is known for being among the fastest players in Minor League Baseball. Last year he used that speed to his advantage, becoming the first player in a decade to steal 100 bases in a season. He’s off to another great start this season, hitting .356/.447/.589 with 19 steals in 19 games for the Bakersfield Blaze in the California League. I had a chance to speak...
Anyone who has read Bus Leagues since the beginning knows of our fascination with Cincinnati Reds outfielder Jay Bruce. He was named the top prospect in the game by Baseball America and USA Today shortly after Eric and I started pretending we knew something about minor league baseball, and so we have followed his career arc more closely than that of just about any other player. With Bruce firmly entrenched in the Reds lineup,...
Our annual baseball man-crushes are part of what makes this site what it is — slightly creepy. But seriously, folks. Last year, we latched onto Jamie Owens’ hitting streak. It was a great story that few people ever heard about. The year before that, we gave Jay Bruce, then a Reds farmhand, the nickname “The Deal”, and it turns out he heard about it, and liked it. Turns out our mancrush was legit. He’s...
Thursday was one of those “good news, bad news” days. The good news: I received a copy of Joe Posnanski’s “The Machine” in the mail from Harper Collins (I’m still not entirely sure why this happened, but at least it made me feel important). The bad news: I already bought the book a couple days after it came out. (Actually, I bought two books on that trip to Barnes & Noble: “The Machine” for...
(A blog was nice enough to link to this post last week – I can’t seem to find the name – and one of the commenters noted that I had left out the Cardinals affiliate in the Gulf Coast League, which changes the team’s overall average but not it’s placement on the list. The new numbers are included below.) Pittsburgh Pirates (average: 374 miles) Pittsburgh to… …Indianapolis Indians (AAA): 360 miles …Altoona Curve (AA):...
In baseball circles, the name “Kevin Maas” is legend, representative of a highly touted player who bursts onto the scene and fizzles out just quickly. Joe Charbonneau pulled a Maas; so did Bob Hamelin, I’m inclined to say without looking at his numbers. But this, people…this is just naked aggression toward the man who remains our hero despite having been in the major leagues and theoretically off our radar for a month. Jay, what do...
It’s official: Walt Jocketty and Dusty Baker are dead to me. Hardcore fans of Bus Leagues will recall that up until a few weeks ago, I planned to make a pilgrimmage to the Holy Land of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, to see the Louisville Bats take on the Pawtucket Red Sox. Louisville was, at the time, home to a pair of guys I wanted to see up close and person: outfielder Jay Bruce, the official man-crush of...
Jacoby Ellsbury, the 13th ranked prospect according to Baseball America’s preseason list, has been on the major league roster of the Boston Red Sox for the entire 2008 season to date, one of about eleven names on the Top 100 to do so.* That makes him one of those guys that occasionally slips through the cracks at Bus Leagues: Ellsbury is clearly a major leaguer at this point, but his place on the Top 100...
Nooooooo, Jay, nooooooo! Stop! Not against THAT team! AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! Bruce, Dunn homers lead Reds over Red Sox 3-1 (Yahoo! Sports)
2012 05 14 Scranton Wilks Barre/ Empire State Yankees vs Pawtucket Red Sox
