May is looking better.

I should return more often.  Of course just as I write how flat the Biloxi Shuckers have been while I’ve been away, the team goes on a season-high four game winning streak.  In addition to the wins Thursday and Friday, which I wrote about in my last post, the Shuckers have also won this Saturday and Sunday.  Pretty impressive, especially when you consider it has been on the road.  I joked about how I wondered if the coaches hadn’t given the guys the “lollygaggers” speech from Bull Durham on the bus ride to Pensacola.  Something has clicked between here and there.

No, our batting woes haven’t been solved – Victor Roache, Johnny Davis, and Jacob Nottingham are still in slumps – but enough hitting has come alive in this streak that maybe there’s reason for hope.

Saturday’s victory was due in large part to a great day for P Bubba Derby.  Not only does he pitch five shutout innings for his first win at the double-AA level, but he also helps his own cause with an insurance RBI, with the first hit of his professional career (according to the game accounts).  At 5 hours and 11 minutes, I commend the team for sticking to it into the extra innings, again on the road.  You began to wonder if in some the games with a large number of errors, or the shutout games, if the guys didn’t just let up at some point, but that definitely wasn’t the case Saturday.

Sunday’s win, like Saturday’s, had decent pitching, and enough bats coming alive to make the difference.  Clint Coulter went 1-for-2 with 2 RBI’s, Dustin DeMuth went 2-for-5 with 1 RBI, and my man Mauricio Dubon had just another (for him) average day at the office, going 2-for-4.

They say when coming out of a slump, hitting is catching.  Let’s hope Nottingham, Davis and Roache get the fever.  And the Brewers send us more left handed pitching.

If April were a fish.

I’ve been away for a while, so what have I missed the last couple of weeks with the Biloxi Shuckers?  Turns out, not much!  In the last 17 games, the Shuckers have an underwhelming 6-11 record, including a God-awful home field MGM Park record of 2-8.  They sit one game off the bottom of the Southern League standings, thanks only to the more God-awful Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, and to Biloxi’s first back-to-back wins since the start of the season.

[And my guess is that the Jumbo Shrimp aren’t all that upset over their start, seeing how they are the darlings of Minor League Baseball with their new, even-more-cutesy-than-“Shuckers” branding, and are making tons of money off their Jumbo Shrimp branded merchandise.]

I took a closer look at the box scores of the games, as well as accounts from Chris Harris, The SunHerald, and WLOX, to see what has been going on – or hasn’t been going – to see what’s gotten us to this point.

Oh my Lord, it is blindingly obvious.  Where the heck is Shuckers hitting?  In these past 17 games, in which we have gone 6-11, we scored 3 or fewer runs in 12 of those games.  We sit at the very bottom of Southern League team batting, ranking dead last in batting average (.205), runs, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, total bases, slugging percentage, and RBI’s.  We are second to last for OBP.  Game after game I see where we produced nothing with runners in scoring position.   Victor Roache, Johnny Davis and, most shockingly,  Jacob Nottingham are all hitting below .200.  And MGM Park seems to provide no advantage at all to this team, so far. [Average attendance through the ten games has been 2771, which is not that bad considering school is still going, and the team has not been giving the fans much to cheer about.]

The pitching has been better, if not stellar.  The Shuckers are in the middle of the pack as far as team ERA goes, at a respectable 3.03.  A bright spot on the staff has been starter Jorge Lopez, who has a top ten ERA of 1.73, and is third in the league in strikeouts.  What we really need, though, is another left-handed reliever – to augment the Nick Ramirez experiment – and a LH starter or two.  [Yeah, I know, they grow out back in the garden. Excuse me a minute while I go pick a couple off the tree…]  I can’t help but think a couple / three more southpaws on the squad would give us a few more wins.

What we really need, though, is for our bats to finally awaken.  You know this has to have the Brewers organization’s attention.  Victor Roache is hitting 50 points below his career average.  Johnny Davis is hitting 80 points below his career average.  And Jacob Nottingham is inexplicably hitting 50 to 100 points below his career numbers.  If these guys, along with the rest of our bats, can just get back to where they have been in the past, then the team will start getting more W’s.  I hate to go there, but is having the manager’s brother on staff as the hitting coach not working out any more?   Perhaps as they get their second look at opposing pitching?

If our batting remains absent, this could be a long, long season.

 

Anxieties, alright

What was I saying about anxiety?  Jeez.  After being blasted 13 to 6 last night to the Montgomery Biscuits, my anxieties over the Biloxi Shuckers has changed from the “are we really this good, or are they really that bad?” variety, to “OMG, can these guys just suddenly drop all attention and effort on a dime?”

You’ve all heard a score, then be told “it wasn’t that close.”  Well, that’s true in this case.  It was 11 to 1, in the second inning.  The Shuckers got 3 runs in garbage time in the ninth.  Nine errors. Nine!

Last night during the game I joked the Shuckers were so eager to get back to Biloxi for the home opener, they’ve left for the bus three hours early.

Let’s get this one behind behind us as quickly as possible.  And guys, if you want to ever make The Show, you’ve got to show you can maintain focus and effort every night, every inning.

Winning Streak Anxieties, and What Folks Are Saying About Louis Ortiz

I have to admit, I’m not so sorry the Biloxi Shuckers lost yesterday.  After three straight wins to start the season, there was a part of me that was, ironically, beginning to worry. We have charged out of the gate doing so well, that I wondered if it wasn’t all because we are so good, but that the Montgomery Biscuits were really that bad.  Had we caught them as flat as the Mississippi Delta?  Well, yesterday’s 6 to 1 smack down put an end to any of that thinking!  We should be able to put that L behind us easily, since we’ve won this series regardless of what happens tonight.

BTW, did anyone else catch this little nugget on the team’s website article about yesterday’s game?

A starting pitcher is expected to be added to Biloxi’s active roster in advance of the finale

So we’ve got new pitching coming?  Great!  I really hope it’s a lefty.  Our grand experiment Nick Ramirez is the only LHP on the roster presently, and while he has done wonderfully so far, you just can’t compete consistently these days in pro ball without more options in left-handed pitching.  The last thing Nick needs is to be over used, his performance lag as a result, and his prospects drop as a result.

 

Now, onto Louis Ortiz.  MLB Pipeline has our RHP ranked at number 60 in the Top 100 Prospects for 2017.  MLB Pipeline has also said the Brewers had the league’s #1 overall farm system following last summer’s trade deadline.

60. Louis Ortiz. Scouting grades: Fastball: 60 | Slider: 60 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 50 | Overall: 55

Ortiz combines stuff and feel better than most young pitchers. His strong build allows him to maintain his 92-97 mph fastball deep into ballgames, and his low-80s slider gives him a plus second pitch. Ortiz threw his changeup sparingly as an amateur, but has developed it enough as a pro to where scouts view it as a potentially average pitch. Meanwhile, a clean and repeatable delivery has helped to make Ortiz an accomplished strike-thrower early in his career.

Much like Brinson, Ortiz impressed last summer in his brief Brewers debut, posting a 1.93 ERA over six starts at Double-A Biloxi. He lacks projection in his physical 6-foot-3 frame and needs to stay healthy, but Ortiz has both the stuff and command profile to develop into a No. 2 starter.

“A No. 2 starter”?  That’d be alright!

 

I also found Ortiz in John Sickels list of top 200 MLB prospects, coming at #120:

120) Luis Ortiz, RHP, Brewers, Grade B

 

Can’t wait for the team to finally get home to Biloxi.  Being a weeknight, school night, I really hope the turnout Wednesday is good.  The Biscuit fans came out, lets hope the Shucker fans do, too.

What Folks Have Been Saying About Mauricio Dubon

First off, about last night’s win, the second straight against the Montgomery Biscuits, to start the new year.  Jorge Lopez was excellent on the mound (6.0IP/0H/0ER/7SO), and the Shuckers got 11 hits off Biscuits pitching: our biggest feasters were Victor Roache (3X5/2RBI), Michael Reed (2X4/1HR/2RBI), and Mauricio Dubon (2X4). And Jacob Nottingham made this great throw to ixnay a SB attempt.  Can’t help to feel good about what we’ve seen so far.

OK, now on to Mauricio Dubon.  Patrick Magee at the SunHerald wrote this very good introductory article about our new shortstop, but I always like to see what other folks around baseball – not necessarily those within the Brewers organization or writing for hometown fans – have to say about our players.  Here’s three that I found.

First, Trevor Hetzer at FOXSports.com back in December listed Dubon along with past Shucker Brian Woodruff and future Shucker(?) Lucas Erceg as three players who “could shoot up the prospect charts” if they were to repeat the successes they had last season.

 

John Sickels of MinorLeagueBall includes Dubon in his list of top 200 MLB prospects for 2017, placing him at number 118, with a grade of B, and this comment:

Dubon is probably the outlier here but I think he made real progress with his hitting in 2016.

 

And the suburban-Milwaukee newspaper The Gazette had this report on Dubon’s very nice progress during this year’s spring training.

 

He’s gone 3X9 in his first two games with us, so he’s certainly starting out fine.  Here’s hoping this keeps going, and the comparisons to Orlando Arcia begin!

Shuckers 6 Biscuits 2 On Opening Night

Now that’s a nice way to start the season! The Shuckers weathered the Biscuits’ pitching uber prospect Brent Honeywell, then feasted on their bullpen to turn the opening-night festivities in Montgomery rather sour for the home team, by beating them 6 to 2.  Radio announcer Chris Harris was reporting he was even hearing a smattering of boos by the end of the game.

Honeywell only allowed three hits in his six innings of work for Montgomery, but the Shuckers made good use of one of those hits, by turning a walk and a hit-by-pitch into two runs.

Our Aaron Wilkerson more than matched Honeywell, allowing only one earned run, and striking out eight in his 5 2/3 innings of work.

The first appearance of Nick Ramirez in his grand pitching experiment went quite well, as he got us through a scoreless inning despite walking two.

I love the fact we stole four bases last night, in five attempts. I would be delighted if this became a regular feature of our team.

And it was very satisfying to see Jacob Nottingham starting the season going 2 for 3 with an RBI, and Angel Ortega going 2 for 4, with 3 RBI.

But finally, I got to show some love for Thaddeus Krzus. We’ll miss the lovable geek and his updates during the radio breaks, and sometimes sharing the announcing booth with Harris. We hear he has moved on up in the biz, and is now the radio guy for another minor league team. All the best to him.

The “new” Thaddeus Krzus is Erik Bremer, who I know nothing about, but who did a fine job last night. I read somewhere he might be joining Chris Harris in the broadcast booth, so we’ll see how well they work together.

On our way 140-0, right?

Finally, a New Season: Catching up on Our Biloxi Shuckers.

Well, a new season starts tonight for the Biloxi Shuckers, as they play their first game of the season up in Montgomery, against the Biscuits.  As for every minor league team, and for every minor league season, it takes a little bit of time to get reacquainted with returning players, and to get acquainted with the new players.

Now, local media does a fine job in getting us up and going as knowledgeable fans.  Shuckers radio announcer Chris Harris has a wonderful blog, and the SunHerald’s beat writer Patrick Magee likewise does a very good job in covering the team.  However, these guys have a home team perspective – which is absolutely fine – but as a fan I’m also always interested to hear what other writers with other perspectives have to say about our team.  National writers, and writers on up and across the Milwaukee Brewers universe also have a lot to say about the Shuckers, and I think it’s valuable to keep tabs on what they’re saying, too.

Across the off season I kept track of some of the things I saw written about the Shuckers, from reporters outside of Biloxi.  Over the next several posts, I’ll relay what I found.

For Biloxi Shuckers on the roster tonight, I have a couple articles each discussing Nick Ramirez and Jorge Lopez, and three articles each about Louis Ortiz and Mauricio Dubon.

But the player receiving the most attention, by far, in the off season press has been Jacob Nottingham.  No less than seven articles I saw included discussions about our returning catcher.  From what I read, the story seems to be how the Brewers organization is still counting on him to be their catcher of the future, but what he needs to do to overcome a lackluster 2016 season, and make a case to move beyond Double-A.

Jonathan Powell at OutsidePitch previewed Nottingham for the Arizona Fall League, by noting the fall-off of his performance from his 2015 numbers.  Powell’s assessment was that Nottingham’s “blocking and receiving skills still need considerable development.”

Before the 2016 season, Nottingham was ranked the No. 66 prospect by Baseball Prospectus (15^thfor the Brewers) and for good reason.

During the 2015 season, he was on an offensive tear, batting .316/.372/.505 with 17 home runs, 82 runs batted in, and a pair of stolen bases in only 119 games. His defense, although admittedly raw, also began to develop, as he continued the trend of improving his fielding percentage behind the plate, up from .988 in 2014 to .993 in 2015. He also boasts a top notch 32 percent caught stealing rate throughout his minor league career.

But Nottingham still struggles in some areas and the weaknesses of his game have already started to manifest, starting last year and continuing into his first full season in Double-A — his blocking and receiving skills still need considerable development, as he allowed 19 and 21 passed balls in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

Offensively, he also experienced a down year since joining the Brewers organization in the Khris Davis trade in February. This year, he hit .234/.295/.347 with only 11 home runs and 37 RBI. On a positive note, he did also steal nine bases, a large uptick from a minor league career high of four.

The production may also largely be chalked up to poor offensive production all around, as the Shuckers produced the least amount of runs in the Southern League (471) by a large margin (next team up had 510) and also possessed the worst average (.235), on-base percentage (.304) and slugging (.338).

 

Matt Eddy at BaseballAmerica had this to say about Nottingham in a chat last October:

Yes, I do like Biloxi C Jacob Nottingham’s potential. I tried hard to justify getting a catcher on this list, and he turned out to be the candidate with the highest offensive ceiling with a strong chance to stay behind the plate. The SL was just too advanced for Nottingham — a 21-year-old high school catcher — but that shouldn’t be the case next season when he repeats Biloxi. It’s going to be all about putting in the time behind the plate and improving his footwork to improve his pop times. Nottingham, who caught a league-leading 98 games, should be able to hit about .250 with average to above power. He’s a good buy-low for fantasy players.

 

Also in October, John Sickels at MinorLeagueBall reviewed his performance for last season since he had ranked Nottingham as one of the top 50 hitting prospects at the top of 2016:

36) Jacob Nottingham, C, Brewers, Grade B+: Very shaky Double-A season, still just 21 but stock down.

 

Jonathan Powell, in an excellent article including several notable past, present and future Shuckers, gave this update on Nottingham’s “improvement” in the Arizona Fall League:

The only catcher in the Brewers top 30 prospects, Nottingham has shown equal parts raw talent and rough around the edges.

He had a down year with Double-A Biloxi in 2016, batting .234/.295/.347 with 11 home runs, 37 RBI and nine stolen bases in 112 games after showing excellent potential the year prior – Nottingham’s poor numbers could possibly be attributed to Biloxi’s overall poor production, as they ranked last in the league in many offensive categories. By contrast, in 2015, he established a .316/.372/.505 batting line with 17 home runs, 82 RBI and two stolen bases in 119 games.

His talent is largely rooted in his offensive abilities, as he still has quite a bit of refinement behind the plate in terms of blocking and receiving skills, according to MLB Pipeline, but given that he is only in Double-A, still has time for improvement. If nothing else, he could see a move to first base, another position the team is short on in terms of high-potential young players.

So far in the AFL, he is showing improvement in terms of production but still has a modest line, batting .256/.268/.385 with one home run and five RBI. He’s taken only one walk to nine strikeouts.

 

Eddie Mathews gave this pretty succinct review of his 2016 season at BrewCrewBall.  Note his optimism for this year.

Jacob Nottingham spent the 2016 season in the AA Southern league with Brewers’ affiliate Biloxi. The Shuckers finished 72-67, and Nottingham was the regular catcher for the whole season, starting 94 of the 139 games. He also started 2 games a first base.

Jacob did not have a good season offensively. In 456 plate appearances he only walked 29 times and struck out 138. His 11 homers were a disappointment, and a slugging average of .347 was much lower than you would hope for.

One concern for Nottingham has been whether he will develop into a major-league capable defender. His 6’ 2” 230 lb frame is big for today’s catching model, and while he has been rated with an adequate to plus arm, his work at blocking balls and catching skills has been questioned. He had 21 passed balls last year, but the Biloxi pitching staff performed well enough, finishing third in the league in WHIP (1.26) and fourth in the league in ERA (3.59).

Indeed, the Southern League looks to have been a pitcher’s league last year. The most homeruns any team hit was 109, and the Shuckers hit 81. Nottingham’s total of 11 was actually the 6th most in the league (tied with the proverbial many). We would still like to see better production at the plate from a player we hoped was on track to become a starting catcher at the big league level, but the numbers are not quite as poor as they seem.

Nottingham is only 21, and the Southern League’s median age is 24. This was a big jump for him, and he was one of the youngest regular players in the league. It would appear that the Brewers are committed to Jacob at catcher, and we will probably see him repeating with the Shuckers next year. Continued defensive development, better plate discipline with a higher on base percentage, and better power numbers are the goals, and could lead him to AAA in 2018.

The Brewers are still wide open at catcher for the long term. Nottingham is not blocked by any player; his opportunity is real. A solid season this year and the deeper reading of his stat line will most likely keep him in the Top 10 Prospect list next spring. He is certainly a player to watch next year.

 

BrewCrewBall notes Nottingham landing at number 10 in MLB Pipeline’s list of top catching prospects. But they quickly add “That probably says more about the sad state of minor league catching than Nottingham’s ability, though.”  Ouch!

Power is Nottingham’s best tool, and he shows it to all fields thanks to a combination of strength, bat speed and a leveraged swing. Southern League hurlers exploited his aggressive approach and his strikeout rate spiked as a result, leading some scouts to question the future utility of his bat. They’re also divided on whether Nottingham can stick behind the plate, where he shows an average arm as well as solid catch-and-throw skills but lacks consistency in his blocking and receiving.

With Jonathan Lucroy no longer in the picture, the door is open for Nottingham to become Milwaukee’s catcher of the future. Provided he can get back on track this season in the Minors, Notthingham could be ready for his first big league audition in 2018.

 

The last article I have is also from BrewCrewBall, and in it Nottingham himself discusses his 2016 season:

“I know I have a lot more in me. It’s a grind. It’s a process, and that’s what people sometimes don’t understand. Obviously, I want to get there [to the Major Leagues], but I’m not going to do too much. I feel like I did that a little last year. That’s what I’m learning from.”

 

My next post will review what I found folks were saying about our new and highly touted shortstop Mauricio Dubon.

Post Season Notes on Jacob Nottingham

Feb 21, 2016; Maryvale, AZ, USA; Jacob Nottingham works out in the bullpen during spring training camp at Maryvale Baseball Park. Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

We’re now well into the off-season, and each player is getting their turn at being rated and reviewed, sliced and diced, evaluated and ranked.  I’ll share what I’ve seen lately on our Jacob Nottingham.

First though, here are Nottingham’s official numbers for the year:  G-112 PA-456 AB-415 R-46 H-97 2B-14 3B-0 HR-11 RBI-37 SB-9 CS-2 BB-29 SO-138 BA-.234 OBP-.295 SLG-.347 OPS-.641 TB-144 GDP-10 HPB-8 SH-1 HF-3 IBB-1.

This BA/OBP/SLG/OPS line compares with the .267/.333/.416/.748 line he has compiled over his entire four-year minor league career.  Obviously a drop, so how do the “experts” see him?

Well,  John Sickels at SB Nation Minor League Ball is succinct but not encouraging.  He has Nottingham ranked at 36th on his list of the 50 top hitting prospects in the minors. Sickels gives him a grade of B+, but calls his season “very shaky”, and although he is still just 21, his stock is rated as “down”.  In Nottingham’s defense, let me point out that he wasn’t even on Sickels’ 2015 list.

On the other hand, Jonathan Powell at Outside Pitch Sports Network gives a more detailed review for Nottingham on the occasion of his participation in this year’s Arizona Fall League. Powell states that Nottingham’s blocking and receiving skills still need “considerable” development, pointing out the 19 and 21 passed balls he allowed in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

Trying to find a positive note to his drop in offense, Powell notes that Nottingham did steal nine bases this year, which is the most he has stolen so far in his career.

Powell also wonders if Nottingham’s offensive drop is tied to the Shuckers’ poor production all around, as “the Shuckers produced the least amount of runs in the Southern League (471) by a large margin (next team up had 510) and also possessed the worst average (.235), on-base percentage (.304) and slugging (.338).”  Thanks for pointing that out, Jonathan.

Powell states that the Arizona Fall League should be good for Nottingham, and that seems to be coming true.  “So far through two games, Nottingham is hitting .333/.333/.667 with one RBI and two strikeouts.”

To end his report, Powell still sees potential for Nottingham to develop into the Brewers’ home-grown talent behind the plate.  “[H]e stands as the only catcher in the team’s top 30 prospects. Currently, the youngest catcher on the 40-man roster is Andrew Susac, who will be 27 by the time the 2017 season rolls around (Nottingham, by contrast, will be 22 next spring).”

I’ll be relaying more about our Shuckers in off-season reviews, as I catch them around the Web.

Heading Into Second Home Stand

As the Shuckers begin their second home stand, here are a few thoughts on their first home stand and road trip.

The spanking we put on Chattanooga helped take the bad taste out of the mouth from last year’s Southern League Championship Series. And I’ll say it one last time: We should have had home field advantage in that SLCS, since we had the league’s best overall record, and with home field advantage I betcha we could have taken that series, and completed the perfect Cinderella season.

Were we really that good this weekend in Mobile, or were the BayBears just that bad?  Boy did it seem they were flat, at the same time we were hitting on all cylinders.  I guess we’ll find out as we face this red hot Pensacola team.

It is great to see Tyrone Taylor on a tear.  This offensive production is what we have been hoping, and waiting, to see.  Whatever work they did with him over the off-season has obviously worked!

Brett Phillips is deservedly quickly becoming a fan favorite.  He seems to be quite a fine young man.

Jacob Nottingham is huge.

Pitching has impressed, from the starters down to the bull pen.

On the radio, the Shuckers have Thaddeus Krzus taking over the play-by-play from Chris Harris for the middle innings at home games.  Thaddeus does a serviceable job, in a lovable geeky way, but why do we have an intern calling games?  Is it a cost thing?  Now, I call Mr. Krzus an intern because that’s what his Twitter handle indicates, but on LinkenIn he lists Broadcast Assistant, so I don’t know.  If the Shuckers are looking for another person in the broadcast booth, how about kicking it up a notch, with someone local with major league experience, like maybe Barry Lyons?  Or what is Matt Lawton doing these days?

The SunHerald did a piece fretting about the attendance figures so far at our home games, but almost in the same breath they acknowledged kids are still in school, and there have been other big events competing for folks’ attention (Black Spring Break, the senior golf tournament, high school baseball, today’s Crawfish Festival., etc.).  I’m not worried, yet.

Now, here are some my field notes on the food items at MGM Park:

The highly touted grilled triple cheese sandwich was just meh, but it was made for me during the national anthem, so I’ll reserve final judgement until I can try it again.

The shrimp roumoulade was mostly mayonnaise, with no detectable paprika or Creole mustard, or anything else. Maybe I got a batch that didn’t get the spices sufficiently mixed in. Maybe this was a problem with quality control. I kept the baseball cap it came in, and that is now on my desk at work, so that’s good.

The boudin-on-a-bun was very good. Grilled right in front of me, with freshly cooked veggies piled on.  Now that’s one I can recommend.

There’s so many intriguing food items to try at this ballpark, it’s almost a shame there’s a game going on to get in the way. Almost!

Finally, the Crawfish Boil Races are cute – a fine local adaptation of the famous Sausage Races in Milwaukee.  Are the Shuckers going to keep stats on the races, like the Brewers do?  I know one thing, don’t bet on The Potato.  He’s lame.  No, literally, he appears to be lame.

Biloxi Shuckers’ 194 Day Off-Season Coming To An End – What We’ve Learned

I am so psyched. Today’s exhibition game with the Milwaukee Brewers will bring the Biloxi Shuckers’ 194 day off-season finally to an end. After playing a game with the first Major League team to appear on the Coast in 78 years, and another exhibition game against Jackson State University on Monday, the Shuckers can turn their attention to their Opening Day rematch against the Chattanooga Lookouts.

After last September’s heart-breaking, Cinderella-story-destroying series loss to the Lookouts for the Southern League championship, the off-season seemed awfully, awfully long.  And I still maintain that with the League’s best overall record, we should have had home-field advantage for that series, and who knows if maybe that would have led to a different outcome?  The Southern League Championship was the only thing missing from a season already worthy of Cooperstown.

There were several very noteworthy things that we Shuckers fans learned during this long off-season.  Here are the Top Ten:

10. Immediately after our season came to an end, the Brewers called up six, count ’em six, Shuckers to play the last couple of weeks with the parent club.  Pitchers Yhonathan Barrios, Adrian Houser, Jorge Lopez, & Tyler Wagner, outfielder Michael Reed and infielder Yadiel Rivera were extended the honor, and Rivera was the first to get a hit.

9. The Biloxi Shuckers were recognized as the Minor League Team of the Year by Baseball America, and their thrilling 14-inning home opening victory on June 6, after two endless months on the road, was recognized by MiLB.com as the Minor League Game of the Year.

8. We had to say goodbye to manager Carlos Suberos and GM Buck Rogers, but said hello to new GM Chuck Arnold and manager Mike Guerrero.  Suberos was promoted by the parent club, and we’ll actually get to see him today as an infield coach for the Brewers.  Buck took his talents to the West Coast.  We will miss both, as they were an integral part of the Shuckers’ unforgettable first season.  Arnold’s last stint was as Vice President of Sales for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos.  Here’s hoping a Sales guy is what the Shuckers need for their second season in a new market.

7. Our Jorge Lopez was declared the Milwaukee Brewers’ top pitching prospect, but his 2 1/2 year old son has unfortunately spent most of his life in hospitals fighting an autoimmune disorder. His will obviously be a special story this year.

6. MGM Park was number 21 on Southern Living magazine’s list of 50 Best Places in the South Now.

5. The Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks completed a 5-player trade that had major impacts on several Biloxi Shuckers.   The Brewers’ veteran Jean Segura was sent to the D-backs, and this seemingly cleared the path for our Orlando Arcia to become Milwaukee’s shortstop of the future.  Another Shucker, Yadiel Rivera, appears to be slated to hold down the shortstop position for the Brewers until Arcia is ready for The Show.   The Shuckers’ pitcher Tyler Wagner was also sent to the Diamondbacks.  From the D-backs the Brewers organization got another “highly regarded” shortstop, 19 year old Isan Diaz, who was MVP of the Pioneer League last year, so maybe we can look forward to seeing him here in Biloxi in the next few years.

4. Baseball America ranked the Milwaukee Brewers’ farm system as 9th best in baseball, up from 21st last year, and 29th two years ago. Biloxi Shuckers fans are extremely lucky to land a team just at the moment of that organization’s ascendancy. I hope for the long term viability of the franchise in this market that we don’t get spoiled!

3. Tim Bennett, co-owner of the Biloxi Shuckers, is a Libertarian.  Now, this blog is about baseball, not politics, and I usually couldn’t care less about the political views of players or management.  However, since libertarians are self-declared no-joke proponents of very limited government, and since government played a large role in providing the Shuckers a stadium in which to play their games, I would be very interested to hear how Mr. Bennett reconciles the two.  He was already fascinating to me, for being an African-American part owner of a Mississippi professional sports team, and for being buds with ex-NBA star and Biloxi Shuckers investor Tracy McGrady (“T-Mac”).

2. We landed Jacob Nottingham in a trade with the A’s. MLBpipeline.com called him “one of the best caching prospects in the minor leagues.”

And the most noteworthy thing we learned this off-season?  Well, of course it was the fact that

1. Brett Phillips has the best laugh in baseball.

I can’t wait.  My open-heart surgery last year is a distant memory now.  This year I have the energy and desire to really follow this team and keep up this blog.  Let’s play ball!