Mizzou Baseball in the Minors 2011

If you have further information about any of these players, or corrections to my info, please e-mail me at simmonsfield@hotmail.com

CLASS AAA

■ Brock Bond (06-07): Fresno Grizzlies (Pacific Coast League) San Francisco Giants organization

• Bond has moved up steadily through the Giants' organization in his four years. He spent most of 2010 with Fresno and begins 2011 there again. This will be an important year for him to show that he can be a major league infielder.

■ Kyle Gibson (07-09: Rochester Red Wings (Independent League) Minnesota Twins organization

• Gibson rocketed up through the Twins minor league system in his first full year in the pros. Pretty much everyone expects Gibson to be moved up to the Minnesota Twins at some point during the 2011 season

■ Andrew Johnston (05): Colorado Springs SkySox (Pacific Coast League) Colorado Rockies organization

• Johnston has been in the minors for six years. In 2010 he distinguished himself as the closer for the AAA Sky Sox. If he continues to perform well, and if openings appear in the parent bullpen, Johnston could get his first taste of the Big Leagues in 2011. This is a pivotal year for him to prove he is a true prospect.

■ Doug Mathis (05): Fresno Grizzlies (Pacific Coast League) San Francisco Giants organization.

After moving back and forth between the Texas Rangers and their AAA team over the past couple of years, Mathis was traded from the Rangers organization to the Indians organization. He was among the last players in the major league training camp to be sent to the minor league camp, whereupon he requested and was granted his release. He has sent been picked up by the Giants organization and is on the roster for their AAA club, along with fellow MU alum Brock Bond.

CLASS AA

■ Evan Frey (05-07): Mobile BayBears (Southern League) Arizona Diamondbacks organization

■ Rick Zagone (06-08): Bowie Bay Sox (Eastern League) Baltimore Orioles organization

CLASS A ADVANCED

■ Trevor Coleman (07-09): High Desert Mavericks (California League) Seattle Mariners organization

■ Greg Folgia (07-09): Kinston Indians (Carolina League) Cleveland Indians organization

■ Ryan Lollis (06-09): San Jose Giants (California League) San Francisco Giants organization


CLASS A

The following players have not yet been officially announced as assigned to a particular team. Low-A rosters will be firmed up in the next week or so. At this point they are in extended spring training. As we learn their assignments, we will update their info here on SimmonsField.com.

■ Tyler Clark (08-10): Detroit Tigers organization

■ Mike Liberto (09-10): Kansas City Royals organization

■ Brett Nicholas (10): Seattle Mariners organization

■ Aaron Senne (07-10): Florida Marlins organization

■ Nick Tepesch (08-10): Texas Rangers organization


INDEPENDENT LEAGUES

The independent leagues will not finalize rosters and begin play until May.

RETIRED

■ Nathan Culp (04-06) and Kyle Mach (06-09) retired from professional baseball during the off-season.

COACHING

■ Torre Tyson: Minor League Defensive Coordinator, NY Yankees

Yanks promote former R-Dogs skipper (postandcourier.com)

The New York Yankees announced that former Charleston RiverDogs manager Torre Tyson was promoted and will be the organization's new minor league defensive coordinator. He intends to make Charleston his permanent residence.

Tyson replaces Jody Reed, who recently accepted a position in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.

"I'm thrilled to be returning to Charleston, and this time it's on a permanent basis," Tyson said. "My wife (Jennifer) and I fell in love with the city of Charleston and over the years coaching and managing the RiverDogs, we knew someday it would be our home."

Tyson served as the RiverDogs hitting coach in 2005-06 before a three-year stint as the team's manager from 2007-09.

In 2010, the 35-year-old Tyson managed the Tampa Yankees of the High-A Florida State League to its second straight league championship and his first title as manager. Earning those accolades was the culmination of a career in Charleston that saw him leave as the winningest manager in RiverDogs team history with a record of 232-186.

■ Jayce Tingler: After coaching at various levels in Texas Rangers organization, Jayce is has been promoted to be the Rangers' Director of Instruction for the Dominican and Arizona Leagues.

Mizzou Baseball Game Day: Kansas Jayhawks @ Kaufmann

UberVice - I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore (ft. Jared Foldy) by UberVice

■ Baseball team shows signs of maturity after defeating Baylor (kansan.com, April 3)

The Kansas baseball team brought its four-game losing streak to a screeching halt as the Jayhawks won two of three games over No. 19 Baylor at Hoglund Ballpark this weekend.

The Jayhawks showed signs that their young roster is maturing and improving during their three-game hitting spree.

“I think were growing up,” coach Ritch Price said. “Now that’s we’ve played over 20 games, our younger guys are starting to mature.”

■ Kansas baseball makes progress (kansan.com, April 3)

As it were the brooms wouldn’t be needed. The Baylor hitters broke through and defeated Kansas 12-3. A five-run lead in the top of the third inning seemed to take the air out of a still young Kansas ball club and end the hopes of a three-victory weekend.

“It would have been outstanding. It would have said a lot for our team,” junior catcher James Stanfield said. “I honestly can’t explain how we have two really great games and then just one where it just seems everything is going wrong.”

An admittedly-disappointed coach Price offered his explanation, saying bluntly “it’s a lack of maturity.” He again pointed to a lack of experience and toughness.

■ Baseball can't get offense going against Missouri State (kansan.com, March 30)

The Jayhawks traveled to Springfield, Ill [trrip note: Kansas journalists don't know Missouri State is in Springfield, Missouri, apparently]., with hopes of turning around their three-game losing streak, and correcting their woes at the plate. Instead, they were shut out in a 6-0 loss to Missouri State.

The Jayhawks came into Wednesday’s game with a focus on being able to knock in runners once they get on base. They finished the game having left eight runners on base.

“We did get nine hits and two or three balls were hit hard,” coach Ritch Price said.
. . .
With the senior leaders beginning to pick up the pace, coach Price hopes the rest will follow.

“Hopefully those three seniors will keep swinging the bat, and take pressure off of the younger guys,” Price said. “It’s almost contagious; we just need somebody to get a clutch hit. Once we do that I think the second one and third one will follow.”

■ Jayhawks look to seniors for strength (kansan.com)

Lytle admits, as a senior and a leader, that the other details, apart from swinging the bat, matter just the same.

“When things aren’t going your way, you want to make sure you show every day that you still got that confidence and that little bit of swagger in you,” he said.“When you come to park every day, those younger kids can learn that, OK, he might have had a bad day yesterday, but he’s coming in here every day playing hard on defense, running the bases hard and doing everything else he needs to do.”

Mizzou Baseball: Slings & Arrows

■ Injury has limited Senne so far (Rochester Post Bulletin)

Aaron Senne of Rochester hopes he has dodged a serious arm injury.

The farmhand of the Florida Marlins has yet to participate in hitting and throwing drills in spring training because he suffered a muscle strain in his left elbow (his throwing arm). If he would have torn the URL ligament, he would have needed Tommy John surgery and would have been sidelined about a year.

"It might be a partial tear," Senne said. "A partial tear is not close to a full tear."

■ CBD Mid-Season All Big 12 Team (collegebaseballdaily.com)

Nope

■ Tiger baseball hooked by Longhorns (themaneater.com)

The Tigers were overwhelmed in every aspect of the game Sunday marking an unflattering end to an underwhelming 1-3 road trip.

Mizzou Recruits

■ Oak Ridge baseball team pounds Charleston in 5 innings (semissourian.com)

"I can't say enough about the Brett Thomas kid -- what a tremendous young athlete," Charleston coach Michael Minner said. "You know, the sky's the limit for him and he's a wonderful kid -- a competitor. When we come up here, we wanted to see Brett, and we wanted to see how we stacked up early in the year."

■ Thomas perfect in first outing of year for Oak Ridge baseball team (SEMissourian.com)

Senior starter Brett Thomas pitched a perfect five innings in his team's 11-0 road victory.

Thomas, who will play baseball at the University of Missouri next season, struck out 13 of the 15 batters he faced. He fielded a weak grounder back to the mound for the second out of the second inning and required the help of a defender -- freshman shortstop Kelby Brown -- to get the final out of the game.

"I just tried to throw strikes," Thomas said. "It's as simple as that. The first outing you don't want to try anything fancy -- just go out there and pump it in the zone and make them swing it. They haven't seen anything live really all year, so I figured fastballs would be good and then maybe rely on the curveball later."

■ No. 1 Francis Howell hopes to answer the hype (StLToday.com)

Brett Graves was 4-1 with a 1.76 earned-run average last season.
. . .
Perkins said he's clocked Graves at 90 mph on his radar gun, which he said tends to be conservative in its readings.

"My gun has only seen two or three high school guys hit 90 -- Tim Melville and Max Scherzer being two of them -- and those are two quality guys," Perkins said. "A month ago I was up at Mizzou for a showcase ... and walked into a coach who told me to tell (Graves) to stop throwing so hard because he's afraid he'll get drafted too high."

Equally potent with a bat in his hands, Graves batted .477 with 26 RBIs, 19 stolen bases and 40 runs scored last year as the Vikings leadoff hitter. He set a school record with 52 base hits.
. . .
Jake Ivory's eight RBIs Saturday in a 16-1 win over Duchesne broke a school record. Ivory anchors the outfield in center . . .

"Our team has a lot of great leaders," Ivory said. "Overall, everyone does a great job keeping each other accountable for our mistakes and accountable for not keeping our head up when (bad) things happen."

■ Southlake Carroll 3-hits Coppell in district battle (espn.com)

Southlake Carroll ace John Curtiss pitched a three-hit gem against district rival Coppell on Tuesday in the Dragons' 8-0 victory.

Curtiss was able to find success changing the pace with his pitches, striking out four. He worked the outside with off-speed pitches and put batters away with a hard fastball inside.

“We were working fastball in and out and some off-speed,” Curtiss said. “My catcher Patrick Quintanilla calls all my pitches and I trust him. He did a great job calling the game.”

MU-KU @ Kaufmann: Crow, then Jayhawk

■ The details of the Royals-White Sox/MU-KU doubleheader (KCRoyals.com):

• Fans who purchase a Royals-White Sox game ticket for the 1:10 p.m. game are invited to stay for the Big 12 Conference baseball showdown immediately to follow between the University of Kansas Jayhawks & the University of Missouri Tigers at Kauffman Stadium.
  
  
• INK Student Night: Calling all high school and college students! INK Student Nights are back every Wednesday for the 2011 season and they are better than ever! With a valid high school or college ID students may purchase Rivals Outfield Box or Hy-Vee Infield tickets for just $7 at the Kauffman Stadium Box Office. The Happy Hour special includes a hot dog and 12 ounce beer or 24 ounce soft drink for just $7 at the Crown Classic Concession Area in the Outfield Experience. Bring your friends and enjoy live local entertainment prior to every Wednesday home game on the Outfield Experience stage. April 6th features Sons of Great Dane, starting at 11:30 AM.
  
  
• Tickets will also be available at the Kaufmann box office for the KU-MU game only.

■ Gone with the wind: Baylor's 12-4 baseball blowout ends KU's hope for sweep (kusports.com)

Kansas University took the baseball field in position to sweep a Top-25 conference foe and left it wondering why that wasn’t enough to fire the Jayhawks up.

Sunday at Hoglund Ballpark, KU fell to No. 19 Baylor, 12-4, in a series finale in which the Jayhawks never threatened.

“I was disappointed in our level of competitiveness today,” KU coach Ritch Price said. “We could’ve done something really special today and made a statement.”
. . .

KU will play host to Missouri State at 6 p.m. Tuesday before traveling to Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals, to take on Missouri at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

■ Crow nestles in to KC's future (cjonline.com)

Crow came on in the seventh inning with the bases loaded and one out. First he fanned Torii Hunter, who homered in the fourth (his second of the series) and typically feasts on KC pitching. Then shortstop Alcides Escobar made a diving stab to get a force out at second.

A scoreless eighth inning capped Crow’s day. A play at the plate allowed him to overcome back-to-back doubles to begin the inning. The set-up enabled Joakim Soria to come on in the ninth and get the save.

“We’ve talked about these young rookies, and if we were going to baby them, and no,’’ Royals manager Ned Yost said. “That’s how you make big-time relievers is you put them in those situations and give them opportunities to excel. Aaron Crow did that again.’’

Mizzou Baseball: Long weekend

■ From the Cheap Seats:

• "Pretty weak today. . . makes me cringe, oh well back at 'em tomorrow"
  
  
• "At least we hired an awesome hoops coach."

■ The numbers (from BoydsWorld.com):

• MU's RPI rank before the Texas series: 94th
• MU's RPI rank after going 0-3 vs. UT: 98th
• MU's Strength of Schedule jump: from 109th to 64th

■ Texas baseball wraps solid series with 10-1 rout (statesman.com)

The Texas baseball team got a bit offensive in its series sweep of Missouri, culminating in a 10-1 victory over the Tigers on a gusty Sunday afternoon.

Given that the Longhorns had been anemic at the plate for much of the season and especially in Big 12 Conference play, seeing all those hits made coach Augie Garrido feel a shade better about the bats of his eighth-ranked team.

"I have confidence in this team's offense," Garrido said. "When it's matched up with the kind of pitching we have and the kind of defense we have, it'll be enough to win games."

Mizzou Baseball: Saturday, Saturday

■ Hitters pick up Jungmann as UT tops Missouri (Austin American-Statesman)

Before facing Missouri, Jungmann (now 6-0) had allowed only three runs in 512/3 innings this season, all of them against Stanford.

Missouri (13-13, 1-2) touched him for its four runs in six innings. The final two came in the fifth on a two-run home run by Jonah Schmidt, his third of the season and the first allowed by Jungmann. Jungmann also walked three Missouri batters and hit two with pitches.

Before Friday, he had walked five and hit two batters all season.

"I just struggled," Jungmann said. "My fastball was a tad late, the breaking ball was there a couple times and other times it wasn't. The changeup was there sometimes and (sometimes) it wasn't."

■ Bullpen is strong but not deep (Columbia Tribune)

But it gets terribly thin after that. Myles Smith appears to be moving up the depth chart after a couple of strong outings, and Kelly Fick might have earned yet another shot after his two scoreless innings of relief helped the Tigers win Wednesday night at Texas State.

■ Kinsler homers to open season (KOMU.com)

Former Mizzou baseball player Ian Kinsler led off the season for the Texas Rangers with a home run off Boston Red Sox ace Jon Lester. Kinsler is currently 1-4 on the day as the Rangers enter the seventh inning with a 5-4 lead on Boston.

Mizzou in the Majors: Aaron Crow "Dynamite"

■ Crow has memorable MLB debut (cjonline.com)

First appearance: Crow entered with two outs in the sixth inning, a runner on first base and the Royals trailing 4-0.

First batter: Crow struck out the first major league batter he faced — Angels second baseman Howie Kendrick.

First stats: Crow retired all four hitters he faced, striking out three. He threw 19 pitches, 12 for strikes.

■ Royals' bullpen, Crow come up big for KC (WIBW - VIDEO)

■ Rookie pitchers are 'dynamite' in relief (kansascity.com)

The moment passed in a blur. One moment, Aaron Crow was sitting in the bullpen. The next moment, he was jogging toward the mound for his first major-league appearance.
. . .
But then, he said, he looked up at the crowd.

“That kind of got my nerves,” said Crow, the Royals’ first-round pick in 2009.

■ Royals squander chances on opening day, fall to Angels (royalsreview.com)

Aaron Crow, mysteriously moved to the bullpen for an indefinite amount of time, struck out three of the four batters he faced. (Why, by the way, is Crow now sporting the obligatory white MLB player facial hair? He's movie star handsome without it.)

Mizzou Baseball Game Day: Texas Longhorns

■ Current Rankings (BoydsWorld.com, 3/31)

RPI: MU 94th; UT 40th
ISR: MU 124th; UT 22nd
Strength of Schedule: MU 109th; UT 63rd

■ Oklahoma State University beats Texas 10-3 (Stillwater News Press, March 27)

Oklahoma State scored seven runs in the seventh inning to beat No. 4 Texas and win its first series against the Longhorns since 2008.
. . .
Texas (17-7, 4-2) led 3-0 in the top of the fifth before the Cowboys (18-6, 3-3) went on a 10-run scoring spree in the fifth, sixth and seventh.

■ Horns turn a day of almosts into a baseball win (statesman.com, March 19)

It's not pretty but it's working.

The Longhorns are finding unique ways to win baseball games and in this, the infancy of the Big 12 season, any win is a good win.

The team is following a familiar blueprint. It was the blueprint in Friday's conference opener. It was the blueprint in Saturday's 4-3 win over Kansas State. And until someone emerges offensively, it will be the same blueprint moving forward.

Even in games like Saturday's, which appeared to be a loss after six innings, the blueprint revealed itself. Texas coach Augie Garrido said as much Friday: We have to pitch well, play good defense and scrape across a few runs here and there. Not the sexiest formula, but an effective one.

You won't see 81 homers hit by the 2011 squad, but they could very well go as far as the lumberjacks from 2010 if they continue to make the right plays to win these fingernail-scraping-across-the-blackboard type of games.

■ In dead-bat era, Taylor Jungmann's that much more of an ace for for UT (statesman.com, March 18)

Give Taylor Jungmann one run and you're in trouble.

Give him two runs and you're on life support.

Give him three? Call the coroner.

In this dead-stick college baseball world we live in, the UT right-hander is even better than he was last year. Good college pitchers can have great nights with the new NCAA-mandated bats that have taken the gorilla out of gorilla ball, and great pitchers like Jungmann can be untouchable.
. . .
"He carved us early in the game,'' said Kansas State coach Brad Hill. "We couldn't get any good swings off him. We finally got to him late but he was so tough to hit. I told my kids we were one swing away from tying this game up but you have to hand it to him. He made it so hard for us."
. . .
Coach Augie Garrido says his ace is "functioning like a professional pitcher in a college environment."

■ Texas splits baseball double-header with Brown (statesman.com, March 12)

After the[first] game, UT coach Augie Garrido bemoaned how his team failed to take advantage of the excitement of Weiss' home run, which brought the crowd to its feet. "You get the grand slam and then you think, 'Oh, we can do it any time we want to,'" he said. "There are all kinds of demons in this game that test you and your ability to be consistent in your competitive spirit. That's what I hope they learned today: don't give away the momentum ."

The Longhorns handed the momentum back in the first inning of the second game . Brown started up the bullpen after pitcher Mark Gormley hit UT's Brandon Loy with a pitch, then walked Mark Payton. Gormley's wild pitch sent Loy to third base with no outs. But he lured Cohl Walla into a double play, then Weiss struck out to end the inning.

After Garrido was ejected from the game in the fourth for arguing a call, his pitching staff fell apart. Starter Sam Stafford left after six innings with the score tied at 3 . But Brown blew the game open in the seventh with three runs, the rally propelled by two singles, a walk and a double.

UT used three pitchers in the seventh. Keifer Nuncio, who allowed two runs in one-third of an inning, took the loss .