Notes From The Nat

MLB teams had until yesterday to add players to their 40-man roster, before the players would be available to all the other MLB clubs in the upcoming Rule 5 draft.  Jay Marshall and Ryan Goleski were taken by the A’s last year (and are now out of the system) but a man was lost, and his name is Jared Burton, a member of the 2002 Vancouver Canadians.

Four former Canadians, and one future Athletic, were added to Oakland’s 40-man roster yesterday, keeping them in the system for the next few months.  RHP Jeff Gray, SS Gregorio Petit, C Landon Powell, and OF Richie Robnett were selected to the MLB roster, as was fireballer Henry Rodriguez, who was with Kane County this season.  Oakland now has two spots available on the 40-man roster.

Gray, a 2005 C’s alumnist, has had an excellent season, and is continuing his success in the Arizona Fall League, after spending 2007 with Sacramento in AAA.  Rodriguez is an up-and-coming prospect with the A’s, and his speeds are Bobby Jenks-like.  Petit spent ‘04 with the Red and Blue, and also played in AAA this season.  Powell was injured with the Rivercats, giving him two injuries that have hampered his professional career (he was sidelined a few years ago, missing a full season of ‘ball).  Robnett was a top pick in the 2004 draft (as was Powell) and reported to Vancouver in late July of that same year.

The additions aren’t too surprising, and with Powell being added you know it means he’ll be ready for the 2008 spring training, otherwise why bother?

The A’s also signed three minor-league free agents, including a name most C’s fans will recognize.  Troy Cate, Todd Donovan and Todd Linden are members of Oakland’s system after being signed over the last few days.  

Cate is a LHP who is in the Mexican Winter League as we speak, and played at Nat Bailey in 2002 as a member of the Everett Aquasox.  His time in the Mariners system brought him to Tacoma in 2003, where he pitched in one game picking up the win, but after four years he was stuck in the California League and went over to the St Louis system.  Side note, he was suspended for 15-games a few years ago for using steroids, hopefully that era of his life is over.

In 2006 he put up great numbers in Palm Beach (Single-A) and Springfield (AA, where he had an ERA of 0.57 in 10 games) but he couldn’t keep up that success in 2007, pitching out of Memphis in the PCL and St Louis in the Majors.  In the bigs, he appeared in 14 games with no decisions, and an ERA of 3.38 coming out of the ‘pen.  He started his career as a starter, but was a reliever in ‘07, and from what the stats say he’s one of those set-up men (ala Kiko Calero, Ricardo Rincon).

The mormon who is also a father, told Joe Weiss of Scout.com, that "I always knew I’d make it," in May of 2004 while still a member of the Mariners organization.

Turning 30 years old in August of 2008, Todd Donovan is not your typical outfielder.  He started his career at the age of 20 with Idaho Falls of the Pioneer League 8 years ago, and has progressed to AAA since.  A career .267 hitter, Donovan was picked up by the A’s last week after being let go by the Rangers.  His career has brought him to stops like Ottawa, Akron, Bowie, Las Vegas, Mobile, and Fort Wayne to name a few.  Most recently, he played for Frisco in the Texas League.

He’s played for six different organizations, with Oakland being the 7th, never making it to the show.  He’s had chances, in Spring Training (and two stints in AAA), and with the big boys during the March training, he has a home-run, three doubles and a total of 9 hits in 36 at-bats.  Batting .250 isn’t terrible but for spring training it could be much better.  Let’s hope he shows Oakland what he’s really got, in what may be his final years as a pro ball player.

Todd Linden may not be a house-hold name to baseball fans, but his brother is in Vancouver baseball houses.  Brother of 2007 Canadians colour-man Mark, Todd has been with the other Bay-Area team his whole career, in the minor leagues.  Todd is 27 and a power-hitting outfielder.  He has a total of 85 home-runs in six minor-league seasons, to go along with eight dingers with the San Francisco Giants, after 502 plate appearances. 

He’s been anything but sloppy in the minors, with a career average of .289 but in the big leagues (and this is in a combined five years in the majors) he has batted only .231.  AAA could be the next move for him (once again) and consider this - he started 2002 in AA and hasn’t been back there since that time with Shreveport (a now defunct AA team).  That’s a long time between four clubs (Fresno - San Francisco’s AAA affiliate, San Francisco and the Florida Marlins who picked him up in the 2007 season, along with Albuquerque with whom he spent time with this year).
 

The Canadians made the usual early off-season hirings to their front office last week, and one of the hirings was predicted for a while.  

Allan Bailey, Spiro Khouri and JC Fraser are now permanent members of the Canadians front office, Bailey coming in as Assistant Ticket Manager, Khouri as Group Sales Manager (taking over for Ben Ekren) and Fraser as Ballpark Operations Manager.

Bailey joined the Canadians in the ‘07 season, and was seen in the Ticket Office, as well as the Will Call table outside Nat Bailey’s gates.  He is a former McGill Red Bird, where he played baseball for five seasons.  He played 3B and pitcher in his time in as a Red Bird, and was a reliever from the mound.

Fraser was an intern in 2007, helping with the Stadium Operations.  A former advisor to the Nepal Tourism Board, he is certainly a great addition to the club.

Khouri was a Game Day intern this season, putting on the contests you all saw from the stands, which is a key part of your Nat Bailey experience.  He is now the Group Sales Manager, hoping to attract groups of over 20 to our beautiful ballpark.  His hiring has been expected for a few weeks, and the Canadians have to be happy that he will be staying on with the team.
 

A few weeks back, when discussing the likely new Sacramento Rivercats manager at Athletics Nation, I made the following comment: 

I’m guessing Todd Steverson goes to Sac-Town
He’s marched through the system like a prospect player, and he’s had good success along the way.And if the A’s keep Robnett around, all the more reason, since Steverson has managed him at every level and should be due a shift to AAA by now.

Nailed it.

River Cats Introduce Todd Steverson as New Manager; Announce ‘08 Coaching Staff - 11/08/07
West Sacramento, Calif. - The Sacramento River Cats and Oakland Athletics named Todd Steverson as the third manager in River Cats’ history, Oakland Athletics officials announced today. Steverson replaces Tony DeFrancesco, who was named the Athletics’ third base coach in October. Pitching Coach Rick Rodriguez and Hitting Coach Brian McArn will return for their 8th and 4th seasons respectively with the team to round out the coaching staff.

Steverson, Rodriguez and McArn will be joined by Athletic Trainer Brad LaRosa in his first season both with the A’s organization and at the Triple-A level.Steverson, who spent 2007 as manager of the Athletics’ Double-A affiliate Midland RockHounds and the previous two seasons (2005-06) at the helm of the Single-A affiliate Stockton Ports, has a lifetime managerial record of 214-203.

The 36-year-old Los Angeles, Calif. native joined the A’s organization in 2004 as the hitting coach for the short-season Single-A Vancouver Canadians. He spent the previous five seasons in the St. Louis Cardinals farm system at Single-A Palm Beach (2003), Single-A Potomac (1999; 2001-02) and Single-A Peoria (2000).Steverson had a seven-year playing career that included major-league appearances with Detroit (1995) and San Diego (1996).

He finished his minor league career in 1998 with Triple-A Memphis of the Pacific Coast League. Steverson was originally drafted out of Culver City (Calif.) High School by the Cardinals in the sixth round of the June 1989 amateur draft but elected to attend Arizona State University. Three years later, in 1992, he was a first-round draft pick (25th overall) by the Toronto Blue Jays.

I love this. I talked to Steverson back in 2004 when he was with the Vancouver Canadians, and asked him if he was bothered about getting promoted through the system, or if, like pitching coach Lefty Lefferts, whether he just enjoyed coming out every summer and being down with a little ball with the kids.

He replied, "Yeah, I wanna go to the Majors again, sure. But it’s not like when you’re playing, where you’re trying to make it up a level every season or your career is over. It might take a while, so I’m going to just have fun with it, make sure I get better at it every year, and what happens happens. Either way, whether it’s short season or AAA, it’s still the best job in the world to be with a ballclub."

Regardless of his patience, Steverson has been jumping up levels as fast as most of those he’s coached, and it’s been clear the A’s like what he brings.And as someone who sat behind him all season in 2004 and listened to what he was telling players, and laughed as he’d sneakily slide ten bucks through the fence to buy tickets for the 50-50 draw between innings, and saw kids climbing all over him after games, and host families counting him and his family as friends, I can say the A’s know what they’re doing by taking guys like this into the Family o’ Muppets.

As for the rest of the Sac-town coaching staff: (more…)

I want to answer a question by Stock, regarding Dan Kilgras.  He left or was removed as president of the team on the 18th of February, and has since helped BC sports legend Joe Kapp create a website regarding the former BC Lions’ career.

Kapp’s site is informative on the former QB who wore #22 at Empire Stadium, but doesn’t mention Kilgras’ name.  I do know he helped, because Greg Douglas ran a feature about it in the Sun a few months ago.

Back to the story.  Last week I passed on info from the Oakland Clubhouse on the A’s minor league free agents, and now I can tell you the other teams’ players who will be available to every MLB team.

There are five former single-A C’s, and a pair of AAA Canadians who weren’t re-signed, as well as a few notables.

From the ‘99 Canadians, Chad Harville (Arizona) and Frank Menechino (San Diego) are done with their respective teams.  Harville was pitching in AAA Tucson this season, going 6-4 with a 3.71 ERA in 47 appearances.

The Selmer, Tennessee native last reached the MLB in 2006, and was a PCL Mid-Season All-Star this year.

Menechino was a fan favourite back in his days with the team, but his age has to be a factor in whether he’ll play pro ball again.

The soon-to-be 37-year-old split the year between Colorado (AAA) and the Portland Beavers (also AAA).  His season ended early on August 5th, no word on if he retired or was injured.  He had a .375 average this season with 3 dingers and 16 doubles in just 38 games.

2007 was a rebound year for the 5′8 infielder, after batting .193 in what might be his shortest year ever - playing in 18 games.

Two original single-A Canadians are free agents, RHP Marcus Gwyn and IF Marshall McDougall.

Gwyn has bounced around between teams in his career, and played with the LA Angels this season (appearing 3 times, accumulating a 11.81 ERA).  He had 47 chances in AAA, and he capitalized going 2-1 with an ERA of 3.79.   

McDougall has appeared in the farm systems for the Texas Rangers, Oakland A’s and most recently the LA Dodgers.  He is currently in the Mexican Winter League, playing for Naranjeros de Hermosillo.  Sporting number 50, he is batting .316 after 19 games.  In the season, with AA Jacksonville and AAA Las Vegas, he batted .283 in almost 140 games.

Marshall is married and has a son Mason, so retiring might not be the last thing on his mind.

Matt Allegra is a minor league free agent for the 2nd time, this time after being let go by the Minnesota Twins.  He batted .241 in 106 games for the AA New Britain Rock Cats.  Allegra was a home-run hitting champ with the C’s, picking up all-star honours in 2001.  I’m sure Rob Fai, who was media relations manager here during Allegra’s tenure, would agree he was a top Canadian.

The final player who is ‘free’ is Eduardo Sierra.  Known for allowing a lot of hits and having a high ERA, Sierra is in the Dominican Winter League where after two games he hasn’t allowed an earned run.  He’s still young (25) but he’s been shuffled a few times which may be concerning for GM’s.

Jamal Strong, a former Everett Aquasox top prospect, and Erubiel Durazo who was released at the start of the year by the A’s, were released by the Bronx Bombers.  Durazo should stay on with another MLB team.

And now to my favourite part of the post - Mark Kiger baby!  Kiger was sent packing by the Mets, and this follows a huge ‘argument’ between NFTN and Kigers’ family a few months ago.

It was really fun to watch (I let Chris feed the story) and no offence to the Kigers - but this can’t be a surprise.  He was battling with John McCurdy and Brant Colamarino with the Canadians and I can’t say he stepped up to the challenge.   I’m going to make an assumption - within two days his wife will come over here and yell at us for talking about him getting released.

According to her, he left under his own terms from the A’s system last year and made it seem like our fault that we didn’t know.  When I see "Released: Mark Kiger" I don’t know why he was released or how but forgive me for not knowing, geez.

Remember Nick Walters?  If you didn’t catch a C’s game in the first two weeks of the season, you’d scratch your head and ask yourself who he is.  Well, Walters quickly moved up the A’s farm ladder this season, starting out in Vancouver, then going to Kane County, before quickly advancing to Stockton.  He did get demoted to the Cougars, but he still had a great year after a couple of sour seasons with the White Sox organization.

Walters was about to be available to any minor league team - thanks to Minor League free agency - but according to the Oakland Clubhouse on Scout.com, that won’t happen.  Along with Walters, Brad Ziegler the sidearm phenomenon and Danny Borrell will remain with the A’s, hoping to quickly progress to the Big Leagues.

The OC later released the names of players who are now open to finding contracts with any MLB team (most will get a minor league contract though).  Players of interest to C’s fans are easy to be found.  From the original 2000 C’s, to guys like Casey Myers who played in Vancity as recent as 2006 (on a rehab stint, after earlier playing here in 2001).

Those players are Myers, southpaw Ron Flores, 2002 closer Jeff Muessig and 2003 OF Luis Perez.

Myers was plagued with injuries throughout his career, while Flores progressed to the Majors, doing a pretty good job with the A’s.  Flores finished 2007 with a 3.57 ERA with Oakland, and an even better 2.72 with the River Cats during his 40-game AAA stint this season.

Muessig’s story is some-what similar to Myers’, injury wise.  He could’ve have bought a pad in Stockton, because he spent much of the last few seasons in the single-A city.  He did reach Midland, but after struggling in the California League, his effectiveness was probably questioned.

Perez was one of the better hitters in C’s history - but injuries killed the Venezuelan who had spent 8 years in the A’s system.  Playing with Dustin Majewski and Andre Ethier in the C’s outfield way back when, Perez wasn’t the better known player on the ‘03 roster but he certainly left his mark on the Canadians.