Baseball in Fort Wayne

Archive for December, 2007

The Fort Wayne Baseball Federation (FWBF), having developed roots in the Summit City that dig back to 1931, has launched a website.

This new resource provides the public with information about the league, its officials, rules, team information and more. It’s divided into two sections: one for the Colin Lister League (age 19 and under) and the Red Carrington League (age unlimited).

FWBF is one of the most storied baseball franchises in Northeast Indiana and the whole state for that matter. Formed in 1931, the league has fielded teams that have gone on to win state, national and even global championships.

The site can be found at www.fwbaseballfed.org. I’ve also added it to the links section on this site.

[tags]Fort Wayne Baseball Federation, FWBF, amateur baseball, semi-pro baseball[/tags]

Yesterday (December 21), the Pittsburgh Pirates announced that they had signed the former Fort Wayne Wizards right-handed starting pitcher, Mike Thompson, to a minor league deal and invited him to Spring Training.

Mike Thompson was a fifth-round pick by the San Diego Padres back in 1999. He spent parts of the 2000 and 2001 campaigns in Fort Wayne with the Wizards where he appeared in 7 total games, striking out 18 hitters and walking almost as many over 32.1 innings. He broke into the big leagues in 2006 with Padres. While there he we 4-5 over 19 games with a 4.99 earned run average. He broke camp with the Padres in 2007 and appeared in seven games before being downgraded to Triple-A Portland. In that role, the 27-year-old Thompson pitched in 23 games; going 4-11 with a 6.29 ERA. In 132 2/3 innings, he struck out 71 batters and walked 40.

[tags]Mike Thompson, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, Starting Pitchers, Free Agents, Minor League, Fort Wayne Wizards, Fort Wayne, Ft. Wayne, Baseball in Fort Wayne[/tags]

Approximately one month ago, the Houston Astros signed former Wizard Yordany Ramirez to a Major League Contract. Today, the ‘stros added another former Fort Wayne Wizards player in starting pitcher, Jack Cassel.

Astros general manager Ed Wade signed 27-year-old right-hander to a $400,000 Major League contract and added him to the team’s 40-man roster. Cassel made 27 appearances for Triple-A Portland this year. Twenty-four of them were starts and three were complete games. He finished 7-14 with a 3.91 ERA.

“He’s a sinkerball guy, he pounds the strike zone,” Wade said. “He had an opportunity in September and pitched well for them. He has an opportunity to come into a setting where we’re inviting competition, and we’ll see where his skills go. We had a couple of clubs interested in signing him, and he viewed our opportunity as favorable.” [source: MLB.com]

Cassel, was called up from Triple-A on Friday, August 10th to join the parent club Padres. He debuted after coming in for the starter, Wil Ledezma, in the third inning. He earned his first Major League win on September 17th as a spot starter for another former Wizards pitcher, Justin Germano.

Cassel was drafted in the 25th round of the 2000 draft and was released in 2006 before resigning with the Friars as a free agent. He appeared in Fort Wayne over three seasons (2000-2002), plyaing in 74 games and logging over 200 total innings pitched while compiling 148 strikeouts.

More about Jack Cassel.

[tags]Jack Cassel, Houston Astros, Baseball in Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne Wizards, San Diego Padres[/tags]

Several outlets are reporting that former Wizards infielder; David Freese has been traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for center fielder Jim Edmonds.

With the Wizards in 2006, Freese had 204 at-bats in 53 games. He scored 27 runs on 61 hits and 21 walks with 13 doubles, 2 triples and 8 home runs. Freese also collected 43 runs batted and struck out 44 times. His batting average was .299. He spent all of last season at High-A Lake Elsinore and has yet to see time at Double-A or above.

From Geoff over at Ducksnorts,

I actually like Freese quite a bit every time I saw him in ’07, he was pounding the ball to right and right-center. He reminds me of Kouzmanoff, although at age 24, Kouz was dominating the Eastern and International Leagues to an even greater degree than Freese dominated the Cal League last year. The Padres don’t have a great track record with mid-level corner guys Tagg Bozied and Greg Sain come to mind but we’ll see.

Here is a clip of a Freese at-bat while with Lake Elsinore. I found it on YouTube, so I can’t really attribute proper credit.

More at: ESPN.com | Yahoo | MLB.com | SI.com

Future Redbirds has a good post and analysis of Freese in this post.

[tags]trades, David Freese, Jim Edmonds, Baseball in Fort Wayne, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals[/tags]

The San Diego Padres have announced the promotion of Former Wizards manager, Randy Ready to manager of the club’s Triple-A Portland affiliate. Another former Wizards coach, Max Venable has been promoted to hitting coach at Triple-A Portland.

Ready, 47, enters his fifth season in the Padres organization, having managed at Fort Wayne (2004-06) and Double-A San Antonio (2007). He led the Missions to a 73-66 (.525) overall record and the Texas League Championship. His club swept the Texas League honors with third baseman (and former Wizards player) Chase Headley being named Player of the Year. Former Wizards pitcher, Josh Geer was named Pitcher of the Year.

In his three years with Fort Wayne, Ready guided the Wizards to a 208-209 mark (.499). Selected by Milwaukee in the fifth round of the 1980 First-Year Player Draft, Ready’s professional career spans 19 years, including parts of 13 Major League seasons with the Brewers (1983-86), Padres (1986-89), Phillies (1989-91, 1994-95), Athletics (1992) and Expos (1993). He batted .259 (547-for-2110) with 107 doubles, 21 triples, 40 home runs, 239 RBI and 312 runs scored in 777 Big League games.

Venable, 50, takes over as Portland’s hitting coach after serving in the same capacity at Single-A Lake Elsinore (2007) and Single-A Fort Wayne (2005-06) over the previous three seasons. Venable’s previous coaching experience also includes five seasons in the Atlanta Braves minor league system from 1994-98. He began his coaching career in 1994 as manager of the Braves Rookie-level Idaho Falls club, later managing at Rookie-level Danville (1995) and coaching at Single-A Durham (1996) and Triple-A Richmond (1997-98).

Originally selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the third round of the 1976 First-Year Player Draft, Venable played parts of 12 Major League seasons with the Giants (1979-83), Expos (1984), Reds (1985-87) and Angels (1989-91). He hit .241 (337-for-1397) with 57 doubles, 17 triples, 18 home runs, 128 RBI and 64 stolen bases in 727 games. His son, Will Venable, is also a former Wizards player and currently an outfielder in the Padres organization.

[Source: MadFriars.com]
[tags]Randy Ready, Minor League Baseball, Max Venable, Josh Geer, Chase Headley, Will Veneble, Fort Wayne Wizards[/tags]

If you happen to be in the Auburn, Indiana area on Sunday (12/16), stop by MJ’s Bookmark between 1-4PM for a DeKalb County Authors Open House! Sixteen local authors are slated to be present for book signings, discussions and more!

Of course, I will be there signing copies of Baseball in Fort Wayne – so if you don’t have one already or are looking for the perfect Christmas gift for the baseball fan on your list . . . Hope to see you there!

Mj’s Bookmark Inc. ~ 414 S. Main St. ~ Auburn, Indiana ~ 260-925-2330

[tags]book signings, DeKalb Count Authors, MJ’s Bookmark, writers, Baseball in Fort Wayne[/tags]

As most of the world knows by now, the George J Mitchell Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball was released yesterday. I’m not going to opine about the value, relevance or what this means to the future of Major League Baseball, but if you want to read the report in it’s entirety, it can be found here [courtesy of MLB.com] I suggest downloading it to your computer and reading it from there as it is quite long.

While I only moderately perused the content, and I know that it does not provide a complete list of names, I was pleased to see only one former Fort Wayne Wizards player named in it. Beginning on page 232 of the report, it discusses the findings regarding Naulty. It reads:

We contacted Naulty as part of our effort to interview former players. During his telephone interview, Naulty admitted to using steroids, on and off, for seven years, and human growth hormone for one year. Naulty used performance enhancing substances while playing in both Major League Baseball and in the minor leagues.

Naulty started using steroids as a minor league player, before the 1993 season, because he needed to put on weight. Naulty learned about steroids from other players. After starting his steroid regimen Naulty reported to spring training for the 1993 season approximately 20 pounds heavier and throwing five miles per hour harder than he did the year before. Naulty said that he went “from an A-ball pitcher to a major league prospect in a matter of two years.”

Naulty purchased steroids and human growth hormone through illegal dealers. Naulty was aware of at least four gyms in Orange County, California, where he could obtain steroids.

Naulty believes that his use of steroids made him injury prone. He suffered a number of injuries, including a torn triceps muscle, a torn groin muscle and numbness in an arm from the loss of circulation, that he attributes to his use of steroids. Naulty said that he had stopped using steroids by the time he played for the Yankees in 1999. Naulty lost muscle mass and arm strength once he stopped using steroids.

Naulty repeatedly expressed remorse for using steroids during the course of his interview. He told us that “if I could give back a little bit of something good then I would like to.”

By my count, this brings the number of Fort Wayne Wizards linked to performance enhancing substances to three. Both Matt Lawton and Dan Serafini have tested positive since testing began a few years back.

You can read more about Dan Naulty in Baseball in Fort Wayne on page 103. Photograph courtesy of the Fort Wayne Wizards.

[tags]MLB Steroid Probe, Dan Naulty, Daniel Naulty, Fort Wayne Wizards, Mitchell Report[/tags]

Actually, big deal is an understatement. The $52 million, three-year extension Peavy signed on Wednesday is the biggest deal in San Diego Padres history. The deal comes just under a month after Peavy was names as the unanimous winner of the National League Cy Young Award.

“This contract is not about money to me,” he said. “I think it’s a fair deal for everybody. I didn’t want to do the other players around the league any kind of injustice.” [source: AP]

Peavy also stated that he wanted to stay with San Diego because of the “unbelievable people in this organization. When you talk to Greg Maddux, after 20 years in baseball he said this is the most fun and the best people he’s been around in the game. It doesn’t take much to know that this is the place you want to be.”

You can read more about Jake Peavy in Baseball in Fort Wayne on pages 118-119.

Read More Jake Peavy Related Posts on this site by clicking here.

[tags]Jake Peavy, San Diego Padres, Cy Young Winners, MLB Contracts, Fort Wayne Wizards[/tags]

There are a few items on the net that include information and news about Fort Wayne Wizards alumni. Thought I would recap them for you:

• Top 10 Prospects for 2008 [Ducksnorts]: Geoff does a great job of profiling his top Padres organizational prospects. six of the top ten spots belong to former Wizards; Nick Hundley, Wade LeBlanc, Kyle Blanks, Cedric Hunter, Matt Antonelli, Chase Headley. Geoff also provides explanation on why he chose not to include former Wizards, like; David Freese, Josh Geer, Chad Huffman and Nick Schmidt.
• Maine, Perez to be big cogs for Mets [MLB.com]: With no major additions to the staff this offseason, it’s time for John Maine and former Wizards pitcher, Oliver Perez, to step up. From the article – “Perez often showed flashes of becoming an ace last season, but nearly as often he showed regression. And his history — he produced two straight subpar seasons after his breakout campaign in 2004 — makes his ability to even maintain the status quo an iffy proposition.”
• Mexican Pacific League Notebook [MiLB.com]: “Royals reliever Joakim Soria made his debut on Dec. 2, and it was a rough one. He gave up three runs while retiring only one batter. However, he struck out the side in his lone inning of work on Dec. 5.”

Soria isn’t the only former Wizards player to be active in fall and winter leagues this year. Will Venable (who was surprisingly absent from Geoff’s list), Matt Antonelli, Luke Carlin, Luis Cruz, Nick Hundley, Drew Macias and others are all seeing post-MLB-season action. I’m planning to recap as Spring Training gets closer.

[tags]Baseball in Fort Wayne, San Diego Padres, Fort Wayne Wizards, Wizards Baseball, prospects[/tags]

Former Fort Wayne Wizards pitcher, LaTroy Hawkins and the New York Yankees have reached a preliminary agreement on a $3.75 million, one-year contract; pending a successful physical. The 34-year-old (soon to be 35) right-hander went 2-5 with a 3.42 ERA last season while pitching for the Colorado Rockies for $3.25 million. He had five post-season appearances this year, where he allowed one run and one hit over five innings. Colorado then declined a $3.75 million option; choosing a $250,000 buyout instead.

Hawkins spent the bulk of his 13-year career in the Minnesota Twins organization, appearing with the parent club from 1995 to 2003, when he signed with the Chicago Cubs. He has also played with the San Francisco Giants, Baltimore Orioles and Rockies.

As a Wizards standout in Fort Wayne, Hawkins put together what may be the best individual season performance in the team’s history. Hawkins still holds Wizards records in ERA (2.06), wins (15), complete games (4), shutouts (2), strikeouts in a season (179) and strikeouts in a game (15). Even more impressive is the fact that Hawkins accomplished these totals during the inaugural season of the Wizards organization and they still stand more than a decade later.

You can read more about LaTroy Hawkins’s stint in Fort Wayne in Baseball in Fort Wayne on page 104. Photograph is courtesy of the Fort Wayne Wizards.

Read more about this story at: ESPN.com | MLB.com | | SI.com | Yahoo Sports

[tags]LaTroy Hawkins, New York Yankees, Colorado Rockies, Fort Wayne Wizards, Baseball in Fort Wayne[/tags]