Notes From The Nat

I don’t know why I just found this out now - but the Yakima Bears have announced a new logo for the 2008 season.

The logo is easily one of the best in the Northwest League, and the hats and jerseys are even better.

Announced on November 20th, the Bears will have a new logo, uniforms, hats and a youth logo as well.  Unfortunately, the only known photos of the new gear aren’t available for saving to computers, so I can only link you the page (to see the pictures click on the photo gallery).

The Bears, who are apparently in the festive spirit, are also giving fans a chance to park for free at all of their Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday games.  There are 15 games in total when you can park for free, but there are still 23 when you must park for 5 dollars.

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 The Canadians are probably a few months away from announcing their future logo, but has it been already put on the internet?

On sharkbite.ca, there is a logo, where the description is "Vancouver Canadians baseball mascot concept". 

Is this a good logo?  Is it even the future logo of the C’s?  Post your comments down below. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: What a shame to see the Bears trash what was one of the best logos in the NWL, and replace it with logos that are just so pedestrian. There’s no history there, no modernity either, just letters and some terrible stock images. The road logo, in particular, is a shocker.

Not sure where the C’s concept logo came from, but if it’s close to what’s coming in February, I’m comfortable with it. I like the big V, and a beaver is a natural fit for the last Canadian minor league ball club. I’d still like to see a new name for the team, personally, but at least this brings the team closer to what is the best sports logo in Vancouver proper - that of the Vancouver Giants.

It was reported by Baseball America last week that 2002 Vancouver Canadian side-armer Shawn Kohn was released by the A’s, after six years in the system, bringing him to AAA Sacramento.  The University of Washington product had good seasons as a mamber of the organization, but with all the recent minor league signings (and trades aka the Dan Haren trade), his release was only a matter of time.

Today, the Oakland Clubhouse talked to Keith Lieppman, as he explained of four more minor leaguers getting the boot. 

Trent Peterson, 2003 Canadians southpaw, was let go, after playing most his A’s career in Stockton and Midland.  He’s had an average few years, but he should be picked up by another MILB team.

Michael Rogers, a 2004 top pick in the first-year draft, will have to find a new team to work for, after a very poor couple of seasons.  He was one of the most hyped players in Vancouver back three years ago, but didn’t really show off his skills, going 1-2 with a 4.87 ERA in Canada.

That was his second lowest ERA in the organization, which gives you a good reason why he was let go.  He was a starter-turned-reliever that never really blossomed into something big.

Two years ago TJ Franco came to Vancouver (in 2005), as a closer who ended up being sent to Kane County just days later, and that was just the beginning for the 30th round pick who turned more than a few heads with the A’s.  He split his time between Kane County and Stockton after that, as a starter, but the thing that ended his Oakland stint was the 5.73 ERA in the California League. 

The final player released was Ramiro ‘The Arm’ Mendez.  Ramiro was with Arizona in 2006, before being sent up to Vancouver at the end of the year, where he blasted six home-runs in just 28 games.  He started 2007 in Vancouver, but was immediately sent to the Midwest League, after opening his season with a .600 average in three games.  He struggled with the Cougars, batting .200 in 35 games.

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The C’s are changing up their seating chart for 2008, removing the General Admission, Premium Festival and Premium Festival Reserved sections, combing them all to make a ‘Reserved Grandstand’.  Here is what Ticket Manager Jason Takefman said in response to a question about the new chart.

You are correct; every seat at The Nat will be numbered this year, ensuring
each fan will get their very own numbered seat without fear of losing it to
get up to the concession stands, bathrooms, or to walk around and stretch
their legs.

This makes the most sense for Fireworks Nights, when the stadium is full and if you leave your seat, it’ll be gone by the time you get back.  The Box Seats will remain the same, as will the Service Master Diamondclub sections. 

The Arizona Diamondbacks made a pair of huge deals Friday, sending closing sensation Jose Valverde to Houston for Chad Qualls, Juan Gutierrez and former playoff hero Chris Burke, while also acquiring Dan Haren and Connor Robertson from Oakland, giving up six prospects.

Yes, the one-game Vancouver Canadian Robertson is on his way out from Oakland after making his MLB debut this season, with the All-Star pitcher Haren.  Oakland picks up pitchers Brett Anderson, Greg Smith, Dana Eveland and positional players Carlos Gonzalez (OF), Aaron Cunningham (OF) and Chris Carter (1B).

After being named Midwest mid-season all-star, LHP Brett Anderson was added to the Baseball America Low Class A All-Star team this off-season, complimenting his combined 11-7 win-loss record from stints in the Midwest League and Visalia of the California League.  He had a 3.07 ERA, as well as striking out over a batter an inning in 23 games as a starter.  The best part?  He turns 20 in early 2008.

If Oakland had acquired LHP Greg Smith last off-season, I’d be ecstatic.  Really, I would.  But now?  It seems like a case of turn-around now, more than prospect for the soon-to-be 24 year old. His Senior Year of University he was 9-0 with a 0.12 ERA, and struck out a Louisiana state record 20 batters in one game.

In his first professional season (all-be-it in short-season), he was named to the Pioneer League All-Star team, in addition to being the league’s pitcher of the year.  He was also named to the Baseball America Rookie All-Star team after that 2005 season.

He moved to the California league in 2006, and was a Post-Season All-Star in that Single-A league, plus he was a High Class A All-Star, per Baseball America.  Why was he so good?  Try going 9-0 with a 1.63 ERA in 13 games, with two comploete game shutouts, allowing just 16 earned runs in 88 innings.  Want the short form?  He was dominant.

This year he was a combined 9-5 with a 3.54 ERA between AA and AAA in the Diamondbacks organization.  He spent this fall in the Winter League with Scottsdale where he went 2-2 to go along with his 2.61 ERA in six appearances.  Still, he’s a good pick-up.

The final pitcher picked up in the trade was Dana Eveland, a 24-year-old currently pitching in the Mexican Winter League.  He stands at 6′1, 240 throwing as a southpaw, where he has a 2.33 ERA for Aguilas de Mexicali, in addition to his 3-1 win-loss-record.  He was 1-0, 1.65 in 9 games (7 started) in the minors this season (between Visalia and Tucson), but when he reached the majors he struggled, allowing 8 earned runs in five innings, despite picking up a win.

The Washington State native is no rookie to the majors, having played 9 times in 2006, going 0-3 with a 8.13 ERA.  He should start the year in Sacramento or Midland.

Moving onto the position players, Carlos Gonzalez is a good person to start with.  Once considered the next top prospect for Arizona, he is an outfielder who has more than a dozen accolades to go with his career.  This off-season in Venezuela, he batted .266 with 11 extra-base hits including two dingers.  In exactly 500 at-bats this season between AA Mobile and AAA Tucson, he had 144 hits, 38 doubles, 3 triples and 17 home-runs.  Maybe not the next Tori Hunter or Ichiro Suzuki, Gonzalez will probably be the next Nick Swisher, to an effect.

1B Chris Carter comes from California, and is what one might describe as a power-hitter.  He was sent from the White Sox to Arizona last week, and is now becoming a member of the A’s organization.  He batted .291 in almost 500 AB’s, sending 25 balls out of the park, and picking up an OPS of over .900.  He was named a Low Class A All-Star this year, and will probably open up 2008 in Stockton or Midland.

The final prospect picked up in the trade is Aaron Cunningham, an outfielder who is 21 and 5′11, 195 pounds.  Between three teams within Arizona’s minor league system this year, he batted .308 with 16 home-runs, 10 triples and 31 doubles, striking out just 89 times.  Cunningham was a teammate of Andre Piper-Jordan at Everett CC, and the Anchorage, Alaska native could be the outfielder of the future.  A well-rounded player, Aaron batted .282 with Scottsdale in the AFL this year, sending two balls out of the park. 

(Nat Bailey Stadium ? Vancouver, B.C.) ? The Vancouver Canadians are proud to announce that Manager Rick Magnante, Pitching Coach Craig Lefferts and Trainer Travis Tims have been assigned to Vancouver (A) for the 2008 Northwest League baseball season.

 Rick Magnante returns for his 3^rd season as Manager of the Canadians compiling a record of 76-75 (.503) guiding Vancouver to 2^ndin the NWL?s Western Division in 2007.  Rick is one win away frombecoming the Canadians Short-Season winningest coach as his 76 wins asManager trail Dennis Rogers 77 (2003-04).  This winter, Rick traveledto Taiwanas Manager of the South African National Team for the 2007 WorldBaseball Championships, and remains active with the South Africanprogram trying to develop their program.  Rick resides in Van Nuys, CA and has been with the Oakland Athletics organizations since 1997 both as a Manager and as a area scout.

Craig Leffertsmakes a triumphant return to Nat Bailey Stadium after missing theentire 2007 season due to health concerns.  Craig?s health is muchimproved and will now focus his efforts on helping Vancouver?spitching staff this coming season.  A major league career that spanned11 seasons, Lefferts pitched in 696 games over his career, placing him87^th all-time in MLB appearances.  ?Lefty? as Craig is knownaround the ballpark also has pitched in two World Series (84-Detroit,88-San Francisco) as well as a career 72-45 record with 101 saves. Craig resides in Arizona; this will be Craig?s 4^th season in Vancouver.

Travis Tims takes over the trainers room for Nate Brooks who this season takes over in Kane County (A).  Tims is a graduate of Western Kentucky University graduating with a B.A. in Sports Medicine.

The release from the Canadians goes on to mention how a hitting coach has not been announced as of today, but the name will be released as soon as it is official.

After talking with Rick Magnante at season’s end, he wanted to come back, and he will after all.  As for Lefferts, this is tremendous news.  After sitting out last season he is back in Vancouver for the 4th time, and of course having him as a coach is motivation enough for the players - considering his baseball past.

Jimmy Escalante is heading to where he was originally going last season, the Arizona A’s where he’ll be their pitching coach.  Fan favourite Benny Winslow - former player and hitting coach - will remain in Kane County after a good start in the Midwest League in 2007.

Just a few days over six months until the Canadians open the season, buy your tickets now!

So the biggest news in baseball, potentially since the Sosa/McGwire homerun record chase (possibly even since the Pete Rose betting scandal) has hit the headlines, and the damage to the game is likely to be massive.

The Mitchell Report, a 20-month investigation on the topic of drugs in baseball, has been released, and the list of names and evidence that it contains is damning.

Read through the report and you’ll find mentions of Roger Clemens, Chuck Knoblauch, Andy Pettitte, Sammy Sosa, David Justice, Paul LoDuca, David Segui, Rondell White, Jason Giambi, Jeremy Giambi, Jose Guillen, Glenallen Hill, Wally Joyner, Lenny Dysktra, Eric Gagne… and that’s maybe 5% of the names. There are copies of checks cashed by suppliers, there are admissions from former players, and a few current ones, there are trainers fessing up to being dealers… it’s disgusting, top to bottom.

Of the Oakland Athletics organization, the following players are named (former Vancouver Canadians listed with year played):

 

• Randy Velarde (’97)
  
• Jason Giambi
• Miguel Tejada
• Jose Canseco
• FP Santangelo
• Adam Piatt (’99)
  
• Jose Guillen
• Jack Cust
• David Justice
• Cody McKay

Yes, Jack Cust (seen above) - current Oakland DH. His story, according to the report, goes as follows:

Jack Cust is an outfielder who began his major league career with the Arizona
Diamondbacks in 2001.  Since then, he has played for five teams in Major League Baseball, the Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Baltimore Orioles, San Diego Padres, and Oakland Athletics.

In 2007, he played with Oakland.At the beginning of the 2003 season, Cust and Larry Bigbie were both playing for Baltimore?s class AAA affiliate in Ottawa.  Bigbie?s locker was next to Cust?s.  Cust eventually asked Bigbie if he had ever tried steroids.  Bigbie acknowledged he had, and Cust said that he,too, had tried steroids.  Cust told Bigbie that he had a source who could procure anything he
wanted, but Bigbie informed him he already had a friend who could supply him.

How did Cust respond to the allegations?

In order to provide Cust with information about these allegations and to give him
an opportunity to respond, I asked him to meet with me; he declined.

Damning.

Even more damning, and far more detailed, is the story of 1999 AAA Vancouver Canadians outfielder, Adam Piatt (seen right). His career stalled in a major way, right at the zero hour as he was due to break through, and this may explain why:

Adam Piatt played as an outfielder with two teams in Major League Baseball forportions of four seasons between 2000 and 2003, the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay DevilRays. In 1999, he was the Oakland Athletics? Minor League Player of the Year.

After [Mets trainer and roid supplier Kurt] Radomski?s guilty plea was publicly announced, Piatt?s lawyer contacted us. We later interviewed Piatt, who voluntarily admitted his use of performance enhancingsubstances. He accepted full responsibility for his actions and said that he had learned animportant life lesson as a result. Piatt should be commended for his candor, for his willingnessto admit that he made a mistake, and for accepting responsibility for his actions.

Piatt was called up to Oakland from the minor leagues in 2000. He said that he
knew nothing at that time about steroids or amphetamines. In 2001, Piatt contracted a viralinfection and lost 24 pounds in ten days. This illness affected his strength and caused extreme200stress. He tried to come back to play baseball in August, but he was unsuccessful. Piatt said thathe worked hard during the off-season to be physically prepared for 2002.

During 2002, hestarted considering using human growth hormone. He researched the subject extensively thatyear.Piatt recalled that he learned of Kirk Radomski through F.P. Santangelo.Santangelo and Piatt were teammates on the Oakland Athletics and on Oakland?s minor leagueaffiliate in Sacramento.

Santangelo described Radomski to him as a personal trainer who was
knowledgeable about dietary issues and as a steroids supplier.Before obtaining any substances, Piatt had several conversations with Radomski.They discussed Piatt?s diet and what Piatt should do and take to get in optimal shape for theupcoming year. Radomski recommended that Piatt modify his diet and work on getting in shapebefore he started using human growth hormone. The conversations were all by telephone. Piattnever met Radomski in person.

Piatt believed he initially obtained human growth hormone and either testosteroneor Deca-Durabolin from Radomski. The substances sat unused for a long time, however, before he tried them. He was more concerned with the possible long-term health risks than with theethical issues.

He also thought about the problems he was having in baseball. A friend on theteam told Piatt that he lacked the bat speed he had enjoyed before his illness. Ultimately, Piattbegan using performance enhancing substances during the 2002-03 off-season. Piatt?s typicalregimen was to take one shot of testosterone per week for three to five weeks. He also injectedhimself with human growth hormone every day until he contracted carpal tunnel syndrome. Hetalked to Radomski about this side effect and then decreased the frequency of his use.

Survey drug testing was conducted in Major League Baseball in 2003. Piatt did
not change his regimen because of that testing. He was tested sometime during the summer.

Piatt retired from baseball in 2004 at the age of 28 because he had lost his love for
the game. He believes that he could have played longer. According to Piatt, the time he usedillegal substances was the only time he did not enjoy baseball. He thought he had "compromisedsomething."

Piatt made some payments to Radomski in 2004, but he said that those were tosatisfy old debts for 2003 shipments. He said he had no need for, and did not use, human growthhormone after he retired. Piatt noted that Radomski never encouraged Piatt to use moresubstances after Piatt said he wanted to stop. Radomski provided eight checks from Piatt, withdates ranging from 2002 to 2004, and totaling $11,550.

Used to be a time when talent was enough. Here’s the Randy Velarde story.

Randy Velarde admitted to us, through his lawyer, that he had used performanceenhancing substances he obtained from Greg Anderson. According to his lawyer, if interviewed,Velarde would have told us he received the "cream" and the "clear" from Anderson in atransaction that occurred in a parking lot during spring training in 2003. Velarde was playing forthe Oakland Athletics at the time, was near the end of his career and was attempting to play foranother year to support his family.

 

There are a whole load of players named in the report, and I’m sure more will be named in the days or weeks ahead, so I’m not sure whether any of the old Anaheim Angels-system Vancouver Canadians are mentioned, but either way, it’s a tough time to be a ball fan.

 

Got a few emails of late asking when we’ll start regular updates of the blog again, so I figured I’d drop by and discuss. 

It’s tough to really do much updating about a low-A short season team around this time of the year. The team isn’t pushing out press releases, the players are only playing in Venezuela and Hawaii, if at all, and aside from a little movement in the Rule V draft, there’s not much to tell on the personnel change front.

And there’s one other thing that’s keeping me from the keyboard of late - the news that the Oakland A’s might be considering taking on the narcissistic criminal fraud that is Barry Lamar Bonds for season 2008.

To put this in terms impossible to confuse, if Barry Bonds wears Oakland green in 2008, this blog will not cover A’s games ever again. I’ll buy myself a Mariners jersey, and start learning the names of Everett Aquasox players.

Not that we’ll stop covering the Vancouver Canadians (or whatever incarnation they may end up as in 2008 - go Capilanos!) - we’ll totally go wall-to-wall on the C’s as we always have, but once the players leave the friendly confines of Little Mountain, we’ll be following them and only them - not the system they play for.

I don’t make this threat easily - I love the A’s with a passion - but part of the reason I love the team is because of the way they RUN the team. I see Billy Beane as being a smart guy willing to use technology and outside the box thinking and business sense to get ahead, but also as someone who has a sense of moral and ethical fortitude, which leads him to bring in people who a reasonable person can not just support as a player, but like as a person.

Nick Swisher, for mine, is what’s great about the A’s. Milton Bradley, for mine, was not.

And Barry Bonds, for mine, is Milton Bradley with anything remotely likable stripped away and replaced with poison, bile, ego and complete vacuum where his character should be.

History will not be kind to the 80’s/90’s A’s, who absolutely rode to glory on the back of steroids, ego and more steroids, but I’ve always justified my passion for the team by saying "that was a different time - a time when I didn’t know the A’s from a hole in the ground - and that isn’t today’s A’s."

If they repeat that loathsome time, for the sake of a few extra tickets sold to casual Giants fans who, collectively, have willingly held Barry’s pecker as he peed all over the record books for the last several years, I’ll have nothing to do with it.

Life is too short to spend it watching someone you hate.

UPDATE: In season 2006, Kane County Cougars catcher Raul Padron hit 2 home runs in the Oakland system. In 2007, for the Stockton Ports, he hit 13.

Today, he was handed a 50-game suspension for steroid use.

Previously, 2003 Vancouver Canadians catcher, David Castillo, has been suspended THREE TIMES for steroid use, while 2004 NWL MVP, Javier Herrera, got nabbed once.

Does Oakland still have a steroid problem? Perhaps, but you can’t really fault them for a couple of minor leaguers doing dumb things to get to the top. If they bring in Barry Bonds, however, "Does Oakland have a steroid problem" becomes a statement, rather than a question.

The Vancouver Canadians have had two very poorly kept secrets in the last couple of years.  The first being the ownership change that took place last off-season, and the more recent is the team’s logo change for 2008.

Whether it was from the Team Store attendee who was telling fans on the last day of the year, to rapid rumours spreading in Vancouver, the logo switch is all but official, or at least it was.  Jake Kerr was on the radio talking about three things to come to the ball team: New logo, new uniforms and a new mascot. 

You say what now?  A mascot?  The last mascot that was a stay with the Canadians was that of the Fox 99.3 back in the early stages of the single-A franchise. 

New logo?  Has to beat the one they have now.

Jerseys?  Let’s just hope the team can somehow keep the current road ones, because those are the nicest uniforms in minor league baseball.

When will they be released is right now the biggest question, with the Nashville minor league baseball meetings just finishing, but you have to guess the team will wait until after the holidays, and probably a month or two into 2008 before giving out any details.