Cleaning out the notebook
Received an email notice today that the Wild Things are holding a snowman contest. Build a snowman wearing Wild Things gear, take a picture, send it to the team. Winner gets something.Maybe the winning snowman will be named manager.
* An interesting trade from earlier this month had the Kalamazoo Kings sending shortstop Kyle Higgins, outfielders Jeff Grose, OF Brandon Anderson and OF Josh Short, third baseman Amos Ramon, second baseman Joe Ramos and right-handed pitcher John Brownell to the Lake County Fielders in exchange for three pitchers, an infielder and future considerations.
Basically, Kalamazoo sent six starting position players from last year and their best pitcher to Lake County to be reunited with former Kings manager Fran Riordan. Kalamazoo is starting from scratch under new manager Jamie Keefe.
* The Rockford Riverhawks, formerly of the Frontier League and now of the no-age-limit Northern League, have signed Randall Simon.
That's the same Randall Simon who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and is best known for using a bat to plunk Guido the Italian Sausage during a between-innings sausage race at Miller Park in Milwaukee.
* There are 81 days remaining before Frontier League spring training and the Wild Things still don't have a manager.
* Former Wild Things outfielder Matt Sutton has signed a contract with the Lake Erie Crushers.
* Yancy Yeater, who worked for the Wild Things for four years and coordinated the audio and video at Consol Energy Park before being let go during the offseason purge, has started a Frontier Legaue blog. You can view it at http://frontierleague.blogspot.com/
* Former Wild Things manager Jeff Isom (2002-03) is returning as manager of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, the Milwaukee Brewers' affiliate in the Class A Midwest League.
* Former Wild Things second baseman Ryan Ellis will be the hitting coach of the Savannah Sand Gnats, the New York Mets' affiliate in the Class A South Atlantic League.
Labels: Jeff Isom, Matt Sutton, Randall Simon, Ryan Ellis
posted by Chris Dugan at
3:52 PM
9 Comments:
A snowman contest with an unknown prize. It almost sounds like the Budd Baer faesco of the first year.
Also the email announcing he contest listed new employees since the end of the season but did not list the new head hauncho.
Has he left the team already?
Chris, I am disappointed in you not elaborating on these:
No commentary about what might go down as the most lopsided FL trade ever when the Kings send their best players to their former manager and get zilch in return for them? Four mediocre players that Fran picked up in an expansion draft and "future considerations" for Brownell, Short, Ramos, Ramon, Anderson, Grose and Higgins? This deal smells like something fishy.
What does this deal tell us? Are the Kings going on the cheap this year? How could this deal go down like this?
An Interesting development, don't you think? What do the other fans of the league thing?
While you are cleaning out the notebook, what is the "real" status of the Oakland County Cruisers/Midwest Sliders? Is that going to happen or not this season. Their papers say nothing has happened with the new stadium. Are they going to play in Ypsilanti again? How can they afford to do that with 50 people at games? Does a potential disaster await the FL?
What the trade tells me is the Kings players refused to return to Kalamazoo and the Frontier League, and the only option the team had was to trade them to Fran and get something in return. In the FL, the players hold the power in the offseason. If they don't want to return to your team, you better trade them wherever they want to play so you can get a warm body in return.
The Oakland County thing was something I was holding off on until a later post. However, since you brought it up ...
If you look at the Cruisers' website, you'll notice they have no home games in May and six in June. All six are scheduled to be played in Ypsilanti (like last year). There is a three-game home series in July (6-8) with the site being "to be determined." Then there is another three games at Ypsilanti.
After the all-star break, there is a series at home against the Wild Things. It appears this series (July 16-18) is the first set for the new ballpark in Waterford Township.
However, construction on the ballpark won't begin until late February (sure it will). There's no way it will be ready in July. Expect the Cruisers to be playing at Ypsilanti all year.
Again.
According to the Cruisers' website, they will play only 39 home games instead of 48. I also noticed that Traverse City has purchased three more home games, these from Kalamazoo. The Beach Bums now have 54 home games. They earlier bought a series that was scheduled to be played at Oakland County.
I know Wild Things ownership attempted to buy a home series from Oakland County, but the Cruisers felt dealing with WT ownership was more trouble than it was worth so they ended the talks.
This has not been a good offseason for the Frontier League, which is getting more like MLB in respect - you can buy your success. In MLB you buy top-dollar players. In the FL, you buy more and more home games to improve you chances of making the playoffs.
The Cruisers play 39 home games. The Beach Bums play 54. Anybody want to guess which team will finish higher in the standings?
And THOSE were the best players that Keefe could get in return for those guys? How many were all-stars? As a WT fan, I am glad that they are out of the division and league for that matter. But, since when do the players in the Frontier League have any power whatsoever as to where they play? Your theory about them not wanting to go back to Kzoo makes sense, but I looked at the transactions and it was announced that most of those guys signed new 2010 contracts. If they refused to go back, why would they have signed new contracts. Just like TC having more home games than others, this does not make the FL look very good.
My question is how deep are the pockets of the owners of Oakland County and can they absorb another year of staggering losses if they have to play all season in Ypsilanti? Or do they dump the whole thing into the lap of the FL owners?
I wonder how many more years the Wild Things have in Washington?
10 years would be considered a good run in the Frontier League as few have exceeded this number.
The snowman contest with no announced prize reminds me of the first season Budd Baer faesco. Will they have a contest to name the taxpayer turf?
Also on the email announcing the contest, they listed the new employees since the end of the season. Missing from the list was the new head man Todd Marlin. Has he left already or was this an oversite. If an oversite, wow!!!
Chris: Were you able to access Yancy Yaters web site? So far, I haven't had any luck locating it.
Chris: Were you able to access Yancy Yaters web site? So far, I haven't had any luck locating it.
here is yancy's website
http://www.frontierleague.blogspot.com/
they probably just left him off because they already did an article about him coming to the team a few months ago... i think you all are taking it a bit too seriously if you think the staff made a huge oversite/mistake
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