Baseball in Fort Wayne

Archive for March, 2008

Over the weekend, I spent some time looking up former Wizards to see if I could locate them and to see if there are any on the cusp of breaking into the big leagues. Here’s some of the findings:

• Brandon Kintzler: After sitting out of the 2006 season, Kintzler joined the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the Northern League and took Rookie of the Year honors. His 3.78 ERA was tops on the club and seventh in the league. He went 3-2, walking just seven in over 52 innings. Lefties hit just .200 off him. He has signed on to return for the 2008 season.




• Leo Rosales: He had 26 saves with the Wizards in 2004 and made it all the way to Triple-A Portland where he spent last season before being traded to Arizona. Jim at AZ Snakepit wasn’t too impressed with this spring outing against the Brewers. “However, my first look at Leo Rosales – the broken-handed pitcher we got in the trade for Scott Hairston – was far from impressive. He allowed a hit, tagged another batter, then allowed a three-run homer, and not even to someone impressive like Prince Fielder.”




• Dirk Hayhurst: He won 9 games and struck out 106 with the Wizards in 2004. He spent 2007 with Double-A San Antonio and Triple-A Portland. He’s keeping a “Prospect Diary” for Baseball America. Read his latest entry here.

More to come tomorrow.

[tags]Dirk Hayhurst, Brandon Kintzler, Leo Rosales[/tags]

MadFriars has posted the 2008 Wizards roster. Looks like we’ll get to see some great talent this summer. A lot more to follow here and elsewhere on the Web. Stay tuned.

Seven players who appeared with Fort Wayne last season will open the year with the Wizards and 16 players who were drafted by the Padres organization last summer will be a part of the club.

UPDATE:

The Wizards have issued a press release that provides more details on the roster. They have also announced their annual Meet the Team night.

The annual Meet the Team Night will be held Wednesday, April 2nd at Memorial Stadium from 6:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. Fans are invited to meet the players, get autographs, and purchase new merchandise and souvenirs at the team store.

[tags]Minor League Baseball, Baseball in Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne Wizards, Wizards 2008 Roster[/tags]

It’s the real Opening Day. I’ve watched Mr. Baseball and will visit Rollie Zeider to ask for his belssing on the Cubs. With that, here’s my predictions for 2008:

ALE: Boston
ALW: Los Angeles (California) Angels of Aneheim
ALC: Detroit
WILD: Cleveland

NLE: Mets
NLW: Arizona
NLC: Cubs
WILD: Atlanta

World Series: Tigers Vs. Cubs. Cubs win it in seven thrilling games.

Former Fort Wayne Wizards pitcher, Aaron Fultz, 34, was released by the Cleveland Indians on Friday. Today, he signed a minor league deal with the division rival Detroit Tigers and will report to Triple-A Toledo.

This spring, he went 0-1 with an 11.88 ERA in seven games. Last year, he went 4-3 with a 2.92 ERA in 49 games for the Indians. Fultz provides insurance for the Tigers, who will begin the season with two relievers on the DL. Over his eight year Major League career, Fultz is 25-15 with a 4.26 earned run average while working with the Phillies, Twins, Rangers, Giants and Indians.

Coley Ward (UmpBump) notes over at MLBTradeRumors that: “Bobby Seay is currently the only left-hander in Detroit’s bullpen. So if Fultz can get his act together, there’s probably a spot for him on the big league club.”

Fultz stint with Fort Wayne in 1993 was largely forgettable. It was the inaugural year of the Wizards in Fort Wayne. He joined the club late in the year and appeared in one game; going four innings while giving up 10 hits and four earned runs.

[tags]Aaron Fultz, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, Free Agency, Spring Training[/tags]

A couple of good local college notes this morning:

• Taylor University Sophomore, Nathan Hillery (North Side) was honored by the Mid-Central Conference and NAIA Region VIII Tuesday for his efforts in leading the Taylor. Hillery was recognized as the Mid-Central Conference Player of the Week and the Region VIII Player of the Week. Hillery went 8-for-12 with six runs, two doubles, a triple, and a home run in four games last week. [source: Taylor University]
• According to CBS College Sports, the IPFW Mastodons have yet to play a home game this season, but they are receiving several national rankings for their achievements as road warriors. As a team, they rank 12th in the nation in double plays turned per game at 1.25. They are 40th overall in double plays turned with 20 on the season. The Dons have some national standouts as well.

  Junior infielder Chris Gottschall leads the IPFW contingent with a ranking of 9th nationally in batting average at .486. He is also ranked 50th in the country in slugging percentage at .757 and 52nd in on-base percentage at .524.

  unior left handed starter Brandon Knowling is ranked 12th in the country in ERA, giving up just 1.11 earned runs a game. Knowling, who is 2-0 so far this year for IPFW, is also ranked 63rd in the nation in hits allowed per nine innings at 6.3

  Junior catcher Devin Taylor is 8th in the country in sacrifice bunts per game at 0.38 and 11 in the nation in total sacrifice bunts with 11.

  Senior right handed starter Cole Uebelhor shows up at No. 16 in D-I in walks allowed per nine innings at 0.86.

• Junior catcher Kyle Day (Snider) continues to tear up college ball. He has been in the starting lineup in every game Michigan State and leads the team with a .333 batting average and 15 RBI. His RBI total is tied for sixth in the Big Ten. He is tied for the team lead with 20 hits, and leads MSU in on-base percentage (.414) and slugging percentage (.433). For his career, Day is a .311 hitter and has 74 RBI. Day, who was drafted in the 19th round of the 2007 MLB Draft by the Chicago Cubs, was a preseason All-Big Ten pick by Baseball America and was a Cape Cod League All-Star last summer with the Harwich Mariners.

[tags]College Baseball, IPFW, TAylor University, Michigan State University, Kyle Day, Nathan Hillery, baseball in fort wayne[/tags]

The San Diego Padres have announced their opening day roster after placing outfielder, Jim Edmonds, on the disabled list. As expected, the roster includes several former Wizards.

The Padres’ 25-man roster for Opening Day includes pitchers Jake Peavy, Chris Young, Greg Maddux, Randy Wolf, Justin Germano, Joe Thatcher, Cla Meredith, Wil Ledezma, Heath Bell, Trevor Hoffman, Glendon Rusch and Enrique Gonzalez. Position players include catchers Josh Bard and Michael Barrett, infielders Callix Crabbe, Adrian Gonzalez, Tony Clark, Tadahito Iguchi, Khalil Greene, Kevin Kouzmanoff and outfielders Brian Giles, Scott Hairston, Paul McAnulty, Justin Huber and Jody Gerut.

Of that group; Jake Peavy, Justin Germano and Paul McAnulty are former Wizards.

[tags]San Diego Padres, Jake Peavy, Justin Germano, Paul McAnulty, Opening Day[/tags]

The San Diego Padres have released three more. All of them were Wizards. According to MadFriars.com, the club has released baseman Daryl Jones, catcher Justin Pickett and right-hander Andy Underwood. More cuts are expected by the end of the weekend.

I had really hoped that Daryl Jones would get through for another year. On opening day 2007, I mentioned to the Wizards GM Mike Nutter that I was surprised to see Jones back for a second season (meaning I expected him to move up). Mike said, “So was he!”

Jones was an all-star with the Wizards in 2006. He slugged 12 home runs with 58 runs batted in. The sad reality was that a logjam in the 1B/DH spot existed at the time and Jones was the odd man out and it wound him back in Fort Wayne. Jones did raise his average to .266 in 2007 (from .242 in 2006). But Jones hit just four last season before his year was cut short after just 69 games due to injury.

In 2007, Justin Pickett went 1-for-6 over two games with the Fort Wayne Wizards.

Right-hander Andy Underwood went 6-11 with a 4.92 for Fort Wayne in 2007 and was sent down to extended spring training to work on his mechanics.

Photos: Daryl Jones at First Base with the Wizards in 2007 by Chad Gramling.

[tags]Daryl Jones, Justin Pickett, Andy Underwood, San Diego Padres, Fort Wayne Wizards, Spring Training[/tags]

This week, I had the wonderful opportunity to peruse Scott Bushnell’s Historic Photos of Fort Wayne (Turner Publishing). I know this is a bit of a break from the heavy Spring Training related news that has been appearing here, but I thought readers of Baseball in Fort Wayne (both the blog and the book) would find interest in Bushnell’s compilation.

The photos in the book date back to the early-to-mid 1800′s and span the culture and society of Fort Wayne in areas of commerce, industry, leisure, religion and of course, sports. You’ll find many wonderful photographs of buildings, railroad scenes, waterways, churches and sporting events like the Fort Wayne Komets, Zollner Pistons and some of the many baseball leagues that have called the Summit City home.

By my count, there are 6 different baseball related photographs; which include Red Braden, Everett Scott as a member of the Lady Wayne Chocolates, Hall of Famer Mickey Cochrane, The Fort Wayne Daisies, and a fascinating photo of a flooded League Park. There’s even a great aerial shot of the Memorial Coliseum that was taken soon after initial completion. It’s amusing to see the building surrounded by acres of farmland rather than the commercial districts we are all so used to seeing now. If you look, you can also see Municipal Beach Park that later became Carrington Field before being razed for Memorial Stadium.

If you have any tie to Fort Wayne or appreciation for historic photos, you’ll be well served to pick up a copy of this book. Bushnell has done a wonderful job of collecting and synthesizing hundreds of years of history into this tome.

[tags]books, Fort Wayne Indiana, Scott Bushnell, Turner Publishing[/tags]

This Saturday morning at 10 on Talkin’ Sports we’ll be checking in with Fort Wayne Wizards GM Mike Nutter as the Wizards prepare for their home opening weekend starting Thursday night, April 3rd.

We’ll also talk with Fort Wayne Sportszone Magazine’s Dan Vargas about the newest local sports publication and where you can pick one up.

This week we’ll be featuring our Talkin’ Sports Top 5 High School Athletes of the Week. If you know of a high school athlete who had an outstanding week, on or off the playing field, detail the accomplishments and nominate them at talkinsports@wnuy.com.

We have 1 spot left in the Talkin’ Sports Fantasy Baseball League! Sign up at Yahoo.com.
The ID number is 128723, the Password is Y100.

If you have any guest suggestions or an upcoming local sports event or fundraiser that needs publicized, let me know at this e-mail or talkinsports@wnuy.com. You can also visit the show’s myspace page at myspace.com/talkinsportsy100 and give us your suggestions, questions, rants or opinions or check out the weekly blog entries to review past shows.

If it has to do with local sports, let’s talk about it!

Tune in Saturday morning at 10:00 A.M, we’re Talkin’ Sports on Y-100, WNUY 100.1 FM.

Three very different – yet equally interesting – stories involving former Wizards today.

The first involves Freddy Guzman. Guzman played in Fort Wayne during the 2002 season, when he hit .279 with 53 hits and 39 stolen bases over 190 at-bats. Yes, 39 stolen bases. They guy is fast! And that has always been his promise. As MLBTradeRumors reports, “coming up with the Padres, Guzman was highly regarded by Baseball America for his game-changing speed.” He is currently in the Detroit Tigers system. They didn’t have a place for him on their roster, so they placed him on waivers. Since no other team placed a claim on him, he’ll go to their farm system – presumably Double-A.

The second story involves Oliver Perez. Today, while fielding a ball hit by Josh Anderson, Perez fell to the ground. And he didn’t immediately get up, sending the rest of his Mets teammates into near shock. Fortunately, he just had the wind knocked out of him.

And finally, Jake Peavy is getting his number retired . . . by Lake Elsinore. According to The Raw Feed, the reigning NL Cy Young winner will be on hand April 3 when Lake Elsinore opens their season. In his honor, they will retire his number.

After the unveiling of his number 22 in center field, Jake will kickoff 2008 by throwing out the season’s first pitch. The entire Storm team will pay tribute to the hard-throwing right-hander by wearing number 22 Peavy jerseys. When the Storm became a Padres affiliate in 2001, Jake was the first San Diego prospect to take the mound at The Diamond.

To my knowledge, the Wizards have no retired numbers, but Peavy would be a logical first choice should they ever decide to do so.

[tags]Freddy Guzman, Oliver Perez, Jake Peavy, San Diego Padres, Lake Elsinore Storm, New York Mets, Detroit Tigers, Spring Training[/tags]