Off-Season Link Report - Latest, Inner-city RBI program

[colbyjack]

Given the fall instructional leagues & spring training, that's probably 2-3 months combined that he could be closer to home if he were with a Florida-based club as opposed to one with Arizona ties. Plus, you have the organizational meetings that usually take place either at the team's ST location or at their big-league home. I would guess that there will be significantly less travel for Romero just by the difference in spring training locations.

 

I don't mean to minimize his role, but how much of a change can a different roving infield instructor make?

[lend d money]

My thought exactly, Colby.

[MassBrew]

Scott Brosius for a 2005 Huntsville bobblehead? Ugh, c'mon....

 

Help Stars fans vote on the team's 2005 Bobblehead choice:

 

What former Star would you like to see as a bobblehead for the 2005 season?

 

Ben Hendrickson

Dave Krynzel

Scott Brosius

Bill Hall

 

I personally voted for Hall, for all that's worth, although come to think of it, Billy really "earned" his bobble while in High Desert...

 

Vote here:

 

www.huntsvillestars.com/Default.asp

[madbad2000]

I voted Dave and the results as of now...Krynzel 47%, Brosius in 2nd with 42%...Jim has it right with c'mon.

[MassBrew]

From the Journal Sentinel:

 

Former Brewers star Cecil Cooper, who is scheduled to return for a third season in the organization as Class AAA manager, is being interviewed for the bench coach position with the Houston Astros under manager Phil Garner. The Astros sought and received permission from the Brewers to conduct the interview.

[ja002h]

Good for Coop, if he gets it.

[Al the Thinking Man]

I hope Coop gets the job, as it's close to his home as well, if memory serves.

[lend d money]

I'm not a big Cooper fan from the standpoint of a minor league manager. I would love to see this happen and then elevate Kremblas to AAA. This would provide good continuity for Weeks, Fielder and Nelson, among others.

[Duff Man21]

CNNSI:

 

Houston Astros - Named Cecil Cooper bench coach and Doug Mansolino third base coach.

[molitor fan]

Congrats to Cooooooooooop, who treated to me to a 90 minute conversation, along with Jim Powell, 3 years ago at a winter tour stop in ******on at a Gander Mountain where no fans showed up.......classy guy who deserves good things. We will miss you.

[brewmann04]

congrats to coop

 

now we have a hole to fill probally at 2a when krembleas get the nashville job

[colbyjack]

Big congrats to Coop. Al was right, he's from that area so I'm sure he'll enjoy returning closer to home. I remember a few years ago he did most to all of his work for the Brewers closer to home before taking a more active role with the organization. I'm sad to see him go, but it's a nice move up for him. I'm not happy that he's within the division, but I guess that means we get to see him more often.

 

As lend alluded to, I think it's an easy bet that Kremblas gets the well-deserved bump up.

[hsvstarsfan]

Scott Brosius for a 2005 Huntsville bobblehead? Ugh, c'mon....

 

Brosius was very popular with the fans here, Mass Brew.

They still remember him. In fact, he came back to Huntsville a couple of years ago at the invitation of one of the Boosters he maintained a friendship with and threw out the first ball in a game sometime that summer. And in two seasons, he was a real contributor with the team, hitting .271 as a regular in 1989 and .296 with 23 HRs, 88 RBIs, and 81 walks in 1990.

[MassBrew]

Looks like the Brewers will at least conduct some courtesy interviews, this from the Nashville press coverage:

 

''It's a great opportunity for Coop since he lives in Houston,'' said Reid Nichols, director of player development for Brewers. ''We'll interview some folks ? our Double-A Manager Frank Kremblas and a couple of others within our organization. I think we owe it to Don Money. He's done a great job for us at Beloit (Wis., Class A) and is set to move to Charleston (W.Va.) next year.''

 

Kremblas has been at Huntsville, Ala., the last three seasons and was named best managerial prospect by Southern League managers in Baseball America.

 

Money is a former major league third baseman with the Brewers.

 

And lest we forget, there's a manager yet-to-be-named for the high-A kids in Brevard County this summer...

[lend d money]

As much as I like Don(as my sign-in name indicates), I really hope Kremblas gets the job. I think he is better suited to be a potential major league in-house candidate if we ever chose to go in that direction. As a younger person, I think he relates better with our high-end prospects, as well.

[MassBrew]

The following additional info from Mark McCarter in Huntsville discusses why we haven't seen Prince in Mexico yet, either. Quite a few things went into goofing up the plans to have the Brew Crew represented there, huh?

 

Frank Kremblas was managing in Navojoa in the Mexican Winter League, but was fired after a 6-13 start, the last episode in a debacle that included the last-minute decision of Brewers prospect Prince Fielder not to play there and visa problems for coach Sandy Guerrero.

[deeswan]

How Greg Kloosterman is reaching out in the community.

 

www.etruth.com/news/story/336537/

 

 

 

 

Edit: Inserted correct link

[MassBrew]

Deeswan, that's the Brad Nelson link.

 

Mistake, or am I missing something?

[deeswan]

Massbrew, you are correct, I put in the wrong link. It has now been corrected.

[MassBrew]

Quite the story of how he got his first job in baseball...

 

Stars will search for new GM

Dingo steps down to spend more time with family

By MARK McCARTER

Times Sports Staff

markcolumn@aol.com

 

To an extent, the past weekend brought a nice symmetrical ending for Bryan Dingo of the Huntsville Stars.

 

Dingo, the club's general manager the past five seasons, has resigned his position. Though he'll be tying up the proverbial loose ends in the coming week, a vast number of his final duties were completed at the annual baseball meetings in Anaheim, Calif., that ended Monday.

 

Dingo, 33, will be a divisional support manager for Buffalo Rock, the soft drink distribution company. He told The Times the primary reason he is leaving baseball is to spend more time with his family.

 

"After 10 years, I still enjoy the business and the people I've met and the relationships I have in baseball,'' Dingo said. "But I'm at a stage in my life and my family's life, it's time for a change. I can be more of a husband to my wife and more a father to my kids, and enjoy seeing them grow up more.''

 

Dingo and his wife, Lynn, have two children, Brendan, 5, and Cameron, 2.

 

A replacement for Dingo is expected to be named by team owner Miles Prentice in the near future, possibly even before the end of the week. The new general manager could come from the staff of the Midland, Texas, team Prentice also owns.

 

"Whoever it is, I look forward to working with them and doing all I can to make this a smooth transition,'' Dingo said.

 

That Dingo's last extensive weekend on the job was spent at the winter meetings is somehow appropriate, since he was "discovered,'' almost in some screwy act of fate, at the winter meetings in 1994, in Dallas.

 

Don Mincher, then the club president and part-owner, bumped into Dingo, who was attending the meeting's job fair.

 

"I had left the area where the job fair was going on and was walking back to my room,'' Mincher recalled. "I saw this guy standing by himself. There was just something about him that struck me. I walked over to him and asked him, 'Young man, are you here looking for a job?'

 

"The first two words were, 'Yes, sir.' That hooked me,'' Mincher said. "I realized very quickly, through his body language and his answers that he was a guy who would make decisions and he was very intelligent.''

 

After interviewing with then-assistant GM Patrick Nichol, Mincher said, "I offered him a job. And, bless his heart, he took it.''

 

Dingo was elevated to assistant general manager in 1998. Then, when Mincher became president of the Southern League and had to divest himself of interest in the club, Dingo moved into the GM role in 2000.

 

Dingo, a native of Cincinnati, attended Ohio Northern University. Since moving to Huntsville, he has been active in various civic functions, including President of the CAJA Friends Board of Directors.

 

Mincher, now the president of the Southern League, said, "I'm both sad and glad to see Bryan make this decision. I'm sad, because he's a good person to have at the top with the Huntsville Stars. But I'm glad for him and his family.''

 

Dingo will miss baseball, but it'll miss him more

Mark McCarter

Huntsville Times

 

All those years as the Huntsville Stars' general manager, and Bryan Dingo never learned a couple of things.

 

He never learned about "pulling rank.''

 

He never learned about "delegation of authority.''

 

He did learn that baseball's worst cuss words are "pull the tarp.''

 

To unroll, or roll up, that heavy, fickle mass of canvas that covers the field, often in the teeth of wind and rain, is a nightmare.

 

But every shower, there he was. The team general manager, the big boss, pitching in, pulling the tarp. No nonsense about leaving the grunge work up to the minions.

 

Thirty years around pro baseball, I've known general managers who were less accessible to the fans and the public than Howard Hughes. I've known GMs more worried about getting their hands dirty than a trophy wife with a fresh $100 manicure.

 

Not Dingo.

 

He wasn't afraid to work. He wasn't afraid to get dirty. He wasn't afraid to listen and learn.

 

I don't know what Bryan's salary has been. But I do know, if he got paid by the hour, it'd have been below minimum wage.

 

To be the general manager of the Huntsville Stars is like the Twelve Labors of Hercules from mythology. Especially the one about cleaning the Augean Stables.

 

Dingo tried valiantly to make a Taj Mahal out of a double-wide. He's been doing business in an outdated mausoleum of a stadium.

 

He's had good help, but it's been often inexperienced, and insufficient in number.

 

He's had an absurd amount of 8 a.m. mornings that stretched into 1 a.m. departures the next morning, all piled into eight-day home stands. That stress will eventually wear steel down.

 

No longer.

 

Dingo has tendered his resignation.

 

He's not afraid of work.

 

It's not that.

 

You hear it all the time in sports retirements. "I want to spend more time with my family.''

 

It's a dead-solid fact here.

 

There's Lynn, his wife. Bryan outkicked his coverage there. They have a son, Brendan, the only kid in his class who can brag about being caught up in a champagne-soaked pennant celebration. There is the irrepressible Cameron, who's almost 3. They need husband and dad around a little more than a minor league GM's schedule permits.

 

I'm more than a little sad about this. He's become a good and trusted friend. I'm going to truly miss seeing him around the ballyard, even if we've all but done a blood-oath to make sure we meet often socially.

 

I know he's going to miss baseball ... well, except for the tarp.

 

But it's the baseball fans of Huntsville who should really be mourning now.

 

I have grown a bit skeptical in recent years about how much people truly care about minor league baseball in this community and keeping it here - whether it be the decision-makers, the fans or even the ownership.

 

Never once have I questioned how much Bryan cared for it.

 

But even a god can only shovel so long.

 

Contact Mark McCarter at markcolumn@aol.com

[MassBrew]

Old friend David Weiser of www.starsboxscore.com comments on another recent Mark McCarter Southern league tidbit:

 

Next season will be the last for the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx. According to McCarter, the Southern League Board of Directors have approved their somewhat surprising move to South Carolina. The D'Jaxx are moving to the Greenville suburb of Mauldin for the 2006 season, so it will be a short absence for Southern League baseball in Greenville........ The Diamond Jaxx move must be approved by Minor League Baseball, and that decision should come in January........ County officials in Greenville have presented plans for a new stadium to West Tenn owner Bob Lozinak........ The Diamond Jaxx have one of the smallest markets in Double-A, in Jackson, Tennessee. The closest major city is Memphis, an hour away, and with a very successful Triple-A team that attracts fans from near and far. The D'Jaxx were 28th among the 30 Double-A teams in attendance last year. (Huntsville was 25th, by the way, and with the two teams in the Southern League that finished below Huntsville in attendance now gone or going away, it should give fans and the city of Huntsville something to think about.)........ According to The Jackson Sun, the city will examine other avenues to keep pro baseball at Pringles Park in 2006.

[lend d money]

Congrats to Brian Dingo. He is every bit of the "great guy" portrayed in the article. I envy his job, but not his hours. Eventually, between that, family and pay, even the best come to the same decision(like Barko). It becomes time to move on with life.

[MassBrew]

Several players appear at events such as the ones noted below -- at those where compensated, it's a chance to earn some needed cash while still being involved in the game during the depth of winter, plus the youngsters seem to love it. Kade Johnson injury update included below -- Kade will be free to move on after this, the 2005 season...

 

Sterling hosts youth baseball camp

By Albert Villegas

Baytown Sun

 

One of the most gratifying things about hosting a baseball camp for Milwaukee Brewers player Kade Johnson, 26, is seeing the gleam in children?s eyes when they take in what he teaches them.

 

The winter baseball camp, which began Monday evening at Sterling High School under cold conditions, attracted about 20 youths.

 

Johnson is a 1997 graduate of Sterling and played under then-assistant coach Paul Tadlock, who has been the Rangers head coach for seven years.

 

Of the 20 boys who have braved the cold temperatures, one is Conner Pickin, 10, a cousin of Johnson?s.

 

?I went out and watched him play a few times and what I saw was he and other players who didn?t know about rounding bases, and how to hit cut offs,? Johnson said of the reason he wanted to kick start a winter camp in Baytown. ?I want the kids to learn how to play the game the right way and not get to the high school level and have the game taught.?

 

Tadlock, who has been coaching for 21 years, said Baytown is behind compared to players from Kingwood, Spring and Humble ? schools in the same district.

 

?We get kids who have poor fundamentals when they get to high school and you can see they haven?t been in camps and have been playing mostly only in summer ball,? Tadlock said. ?They may be good athletes but their fundamentals need to be worked on.?

 

Fundamentals or not, for Price Jacobs, 11, of Baytown, being a camper has been rewarding.

 

?It?s fun. There were some things that I didn?t know I could do like holding the bat a certain way,? the Gentry Middle School student, who regularly pitches and plays shortstop for his teams, said.

 

Johnson said it?s for this reason, he receives gratification.

 

?It?s fun to watch kids when you?re talking and they?re all there listening to you,? Johnson said. ?Growing up, I was always playing ball. I never had time to go to camps and learn fundamentals like they are learning.?

 

Johnson hosts up to two camps a year and this is the first time he has co-hosted a winter camp with Tadlock.

 

Tadlock, who is accustomed to conducting summer baseball camps, said the next winter camp may be in January 2006.

 

Johnson?s baseball ties began at Sterling and then attended the University of Texas for a year-and-a-half.

 

He then transferred to Seminole Junior College in Oklahoma before being drafted by the Brewers in the second round of the 1999 draft.

 

He has spent most of his time in the minor league system, the last few years with the Brewers? Double AA Hunstville Stars. Johnson, a catcher with the team, lost to the Carolina Mudcats, of the Florida Marlins, in the championship.

 

?I have no major league experience yet. I?m still working my way up,? said Johnson, who was sporting a cast due to a collision he received Aug. 2 in a game.

 

Johnson, who tore a ligament in his catching wrist, said the cast is scheduled to be taken off Thursday, the camp?s last day. He said he plans to go to his second consecutive Brewers spring training in mid-February.

 

Because baseball is their sport

By Alan Hunt - Lompoc Record Sports Editor

 

"Baseball is my sport. So it made sense to me."

 

Cabrillo High catcher Derek McLeod was talking about the Village Hills Baseball Skills Camp, which he directed last weekend at McIntyre Field.

 

McLeod put on the show as his Cabrillo Senior Project.

 

The camp ran from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, with plenty of help from the CHS baseball coaching staff, local pro baseball players Tommy Hawk and Scott Morgan and a few of McLeod's teammates.

 

On Saturday the emphasis was on defense and pitching. Sunday the 58 campers aged 8 through 13 went through nine hitting stations.

 

A casual visitor Saturday saw a beehive of baseball activity.

 

On the far west behind the dugout were longtime local coach Tom Harmon and Cabrillo pitcher Jason Hansen tutoring pairs of youngsters off the warmup mounds.

 

On the far east Tommy Hawk and his Dad Tom Hawk were doing the same.

 

"We're just working on fastballs now," Tom reminded one of the campers.

 

In the outfield, Cabrilllo head coach Jon Osborne and his buddies took a large herd through drills.

 

"This is the 'safe' play," Osborne said. "A normal ground ball, a single to the outfield with nobody on base. You're going to get in front of it, get down, catch it and throw it in.

 

"But it won't be easy," he added. "You've got to be ready to adjust because the outfield isn't as smooth as the infield. You get a lot of funny bounces."

 

Behind home plate, up against the backstop, McLeod and fellow CHS catcher Brian Gregory were putting a dozen young catchers through their paces. As in the outfield, only even more so, the emphasis was on being flexible with the knees.

 

"You want to push into it while you're getting down to block the ball," said Gregory, advising a move that would be impossible for most middle-agers but looked to be a snap for all the youngsters.

 

McLeod remembered the camp in its planning stages. "I didn't really think about it as a 'reality'," he said. "But I'd been to lots of camps, Cal Poly, USC and Pepperdine. So I did have a clue about what I wanted to do."

 

After a full fall of planning and organizing, McLeod came down with typical pre-event jitters as he looked at a signup sheet that had only about 20 on it.

 

But a last-minute burst got the camp up near his goal of 60 campers.

 

"It went great," he said. "Nice and smooth.

 

"I figure they all picked up at least one thing," he added. "Even if they didn't, I hope they had a good time."

 

You could put Zach Pecyna, a 13-year-old shortstop and pitcher, in both categories. He learned and enjoyed because, like McLeod, baseball is his sport.

 

"I learned not to dip my shoulder when I swing the bat," Pecyna said. "Just to drop the bat down on the ball. I learned that from Scott Morgan.

 

"I learned from Tommy Hawk about life in professional baseball," he recalled. "My dream is to be where he is."

[MassBrew]

David Weiser's latest recap at www.starsboxscore.com includes the following:

 

A new deal between the major leagues and minor leagues during the winter meetings ends the statistical nightmare that resulted from an agreement with the inexperienced, but well-intentioned Sports Network to handle minor league stats......... That one-year experiment with The Sports Network is now over........ Although they tried hard to present a lot of information on their web site, www.sportsnetwork.com and make leader boards easy to inspect, so many times the statistical information was WRONG!......... Instances I can point out with the Stars was the inaccurate average of Ozzie Chavez because they credited a few games to Endy Chavez, instead and a grand-slam HR reduced to a 3-run HR for Brandon Gemoll. Errors in Prince Fielder's and Paul Stewart's stats went uncorrected........ I remember Roxy Bernstein, voice of the High Desert Mavericks, pining last year about a stolen base that was not credited to Jeremy Frost. But even more egregious came as the result of using different sources for major and minor league stats.......... While TSN had Trae McGill listed as the Carolina League ERA champion, SportsTicker, the old service (still being used by the major leagues) claimed Sean Tracey was the ERA champ. A similar situation resulted in two different batting champs for the Florida State League........ SportsTicker reps had access to major league press boxes, but were not allowed in minor league boxes to collect stats, which made it hard for them to complete their jobs many times........ So this coming season, the duties as official statisticians for the minors are been handed to MLB, although it hasn't been spelled out in the agreement who, whether it be SportsTicker or someone else, will administer, collect, and collate the stats....... Whatever the case, it will be good for fans to see order, and hopefully a return to accuracy, brought back to Stars fans who pore over the stats like I do, and each of the other minor league ball clubs.

 

I will agree with David on the notion that without accuracy, a stats bureau loses a lot of their cache with the fans.

 

Having said that, the Sports Network did attempt (and succeed) in several areas:

 

For timeliness, they were just outstanding, and they provided (usually) accurate updates by inning for their games. Certainly within 15-30 minutes of completion of most games last season, we were able to provide daily Link Report readers with complete box scores.

 

The game log feature was a very nice addition.

 

Sports Network also included sortable league-wide stats (but not for individual teams). Also, team stats only included current active players with that squad -- ugh.

 

So enough of the positives, Sports Network totally botched what had been handled pretty well in the past -- a way to present and archive minor league transactions, one of the "lifebloods" of our Brewerfan updates to you.

 

We'll have our reservations about just how Major League Baseball will keep us informed in 2005. Will everything be available via MLB.com? Or the now-dormant MILB.com? Will they find the right mix of accuracy, speed, and convenience? Here's to hoping...

[slamotto]

Not sure if this is the right place for this, but I stumbled upon this article, the subject of which is James Beresford, younger brother of Brewer farmhand, Simon Beresford.

 

www.heraldsun.news.com.au...63,00.html

 

Mini major

Adrian Dunn

06jan05

 

NAPIER Park, in suburban Glen Waverley, is very much the heartland of Victorian, if not Australian, baseball.

 

There's not so much a hint of a cornfield or the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson, but it has been a field of dreams for thousands of budding Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds in the past 45 years.

Phil Dale, regarded by many as one of Australia's finest pitchers in the past 30 years, emerged from the fields of Napier Park, the home of the Waverley Wildcats.

 

David Clarkson, Matthew and Simon Sheldon-Collins, David Buckthorpe, Adam Burton and Glenn Reeves, all outstanding Australian Baseball League representatives, graduated through Waverley's outstanding junior program.

 

More recently David McWatters and Donovan Hendricks have followed the lead.

 

Each Friday night and Saturday morning/afternoon, hundreds of players live out their dreams at Napier Park and, for the past 10 years, James Beresford has been one of them.

 

Just like his brothers, Michael, who 20 years ago accepted a "bring a friend" night invitation, and Simon, James has played domestic and representative ball for Waverley and, for the past four years, state baseball for Victoria.

 

Now, just weeks shy of his 16th birthday, the youngest of the Beresford baseball clan shapes as the focal point of the upcoming national under-16 championships at Lismore, New South Wales.

 

Beresford will be a primary focus not only for Victoria's hopes of securing the title, but also for scouts from 15, maybe 20, Major League Baseball teams.

 

In some ways he's not unlike a young David Nilsson, whose presence, poise and professionalism were part of the package that took him all the way to an All Star while playing for the Milwaukee Brewers. Yes, Beresford, is also a left-hand hitter.

 

Many teams have Australian-based scouts, such as the Atlanta Braves' Phil Dale, Boston Red Sox's Jon Deeble and Minnesota Twins' Howie Norsetter.

 

Others send scouts from the US.

 

All have Beresford high on all their short-lists.

 

It doesn't faze the Year 11 Wesley College student. He knows as a second-year player in the championships, he's expected to be a leader.

 

And, yes, he knows all his pitches will be charted, scrutinised and analysed. So, too, every play he makes at shortstop and how he swings the bat.

 

You see, Beresford does it all. Although still 15, he has played seniors for Waverley for some of last season and all this season, mainly as a relief pitcher.

 

He's also showed he's a strong-hitting, solid defensive infielder.

 

It's a dilemma. Beresford is a two-position prospect: a pitcher -- he's hit 137km/h on the radar gun -- and shortstop/infielder. One scout believes the youngster's ticket to the majors is as a left-hand hitting catcher.

 

Beresford has never considered that option. In fact, he doesn't have a preference. "I like doing both," he said.

 

Many say he should be representing Victoria not at under-16 level, but in the Claxton Shield, the national showcase that replaced the Australian league.

 

Eyes, radar guns, stopwatches will be putting immense pressure on Beresford, but he said he'd dealt with that during the summer while playing for Waverley. "There's a little more pressure on me to stand up more for the team, but all the scouts being there doesn't bother me," he said.

 

Beresford, whose brother Simon has spent the past two years in the Milwaukee Brewer minor league system, knows what he wants: to play Major League Baseball.

 

He says it in a matter-of-fact way, but Beresford has learnt through Simon's experiences not to get too far ahead of himself.

 

"Simon was one of the big prospects going into the tournament, but he never got an offer. They (the scouts) were all over him, but he got sick and no one wanted to know him," Beresford said.

 

"People tell you that you are one of the top prospects, but you can't really control how they (scouts) view you. All you can do is do your best.

 

"If they make an offer, they make an offer. I think about it, but it doesn't consume me."

 

Apart from his natural ability, another of Beresford's fine qualities is how he carries himself. There's not a hint of show-boating.

 

Major league teams cannot sign him until the second week in July, but Beresford would like to finish his education before joining the 60 other Australians at various levels of the minor league system.

 

Beresford's signature won't come cheap. While the dizzy days of the $1 million-plus signing bonus received by Sydney teen Glenn Williams 15 years ago are gone, MLB teams are prepared to shell out six-figure sums for the right prospect.

 

Baseball prospects can vary markedly in price, depending on a scout's assessment. Beresford, according to several scouts, is somewhere in the $50,000-$100,000 mix.

 

He recently had dinner with a prominent baseball player manager, but monetary matters will be left to his father/manager and prospective suitors to hammer out.

 

It's an unwanted distraction for an uncomplicated young man whose focus is simply to go out and play ball. The only difference is James Beresford plays it better than most.

 

National under-age championships

 

Under-18: Geelong, start today

 

Under-16: Lismore, start tomorrow

 

Under-14: Perth, start Saturday

 

 

I see now that deeswan beat me to the punch on this.....feel free to delete this post