Don’t let the spring (summer?) snow storms fool you, fans of Alaska Baseball. Those sun-soaked, relatively-warm Alaskan summer days are coming our way and with it will come Alaska Baseball League baseball. A while back we previewed the 2013 Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks recruiting roster. Today let’s keep the rally going with a look at the [...]
We’ve got about a month to go until big-time baseball finally arrives in Alaska. The teams should be getting close to having their rosters set up, and several of them have published their stable of players on the web for all to see. So I’m going to go ahead and kick off the 2013 previews [...]
Robert Barr, a filmmaker who “grew up at Mulcahy Stadium”, has decided to chase his dream of telling the story of the Anchorage Glacier Pilots on screens big and small. And he’d like you to be a part of his project. In 2001, Barr followed the Pilots on what would become their most recent National [...]
Tanner Mendonca caught my eye late in the season. I filmed this video in late July last year and I was very impressed with what I saw. As you can see, Mendonca has a good repertoire of pitches. His four-seamer reaches a respectable 90-92 mph and he has a gnarly curveball in his arsenal…
The Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks made a Facebook announcement yesterday that three 2012 players have agreed to return for the 2013 season. Pitchers Drew Mitrisin and Jake Ham will join outfielder and designated hitter Casey Munoz in a return trip to Alaska. Mitrisin, the 6’1″, 175-pound left-hander out of William Jewell College had a promising [...]
Tanner Rust is a two-year Alaska Baseball League player, coming up with the Oilers in 2011 before making the move to the Bucs with GM Shawn Maltby for 2012. Rust has served primarily as a catcher in his ABL tenure but has played around the field as well. In 2011 he went to the NBC World Series with the Oilers, where he had a homer and 5 RBIs in 7 games. Check out his scouting video below:
The Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks have dug down deep to the DIII level in their recruiting for 2013, and have produced a potential gem in a Hendrix College junior outfielder known as Collin Radack. The 6’4″, 205-pounder has risen to prominence over the past few years and, consequently, has punched his ticket to Alaska. In the hierarchy of [...]
There’s a lot of voodoo involved in player-watching but timing runners with a stopwatch is one of the few pursuits I’ve found which gives you hard data. That’s why I’ve had a stopwatch with me every time I’ve gone to a game from day one at this blog. 2012 was no exception and I got [...]
The 2013 Peninsula Oilers’ roster is coming together, and the team has slowly been releasing names to the local media. James Clark, the team’s GM, has been using his Oilers Corner column in the Peninsula Clarion to feed his fans players’ names and summary background, one or two guys at a time. For the quickest [...]
Swick, the infielder out of Southern California, is a guy I really like. He’s a junior headed into the 2013 MLB Draft and I am very confident he’ll get drafted. He had four tools that I thought were above the curve. He made solid contact for average, showed some pop in his bat, and he could run and throw well. Perfect Game ranked him #17 on their 2012 Alaska top prospects list and for good reason.
[UPDATE 9:15pm AKT] Got it all rolled out and I think it looks good. I’m pretty sure I have everything more or less how I like it. Please let me know if you encounter any problems or just have a strong opinion for or against the changes. – jjack Dear readers, At approximately 7pm Alaska [...]
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The Big Unit. Best pitcher in the ABL. Ever. #2 Randy JohnsonP – 1984 Anchorage Glacier PilotsBats: Right – Throws: LeftHeight: 6’10″ – Weight: 225lbDrafted: 1985, Montreal Expos, 2nd RoundMLB Career: 1988-2009MLB Teams: Montreal, Seattle, Houston, Arizona, New York (AL), San Francisco. The Big Unit wasn’t a can’t miss prospect. In fact, he could miss, [...]
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Brian Bello was one of the Bucs’top batters in 2009.Photo credit: AnchorageBucs.com Several of the Alaska League’s 2010 recruits posted big games for DII, DIII, junior college and NAIA programs last week, and a pair of familiar names — Brian Bello and Mykal Stokes — led the way. After a little bit of a slow [...]
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Tickets for the 2010 Midnight SunGame go on sale MondayCheck out Goldpanners.com for info. Box Score: – The Glacier Pilots have posted a biography of their second-year infield recruit Trevor Hairgrove out of UC Riverside. Hairgrove — who had 19 errors last season — said he’s looking forward to getting another crack at the ABL [...]
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Alaskais known for its pipelines: the one hooking North America’s largestoilfields up to the world market, and the baseball pipeline hooking theprofessional ranks up with some of the top amateur talent. In recentyears, our “road warrior” team — the AIA Fire — has become a part ofthis tradition, and the team has turned out a [...]
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#3 Jeff Kent2B – 1987 Anchorage BucsBats: Right – Throws: RightHeight: 6’1″ – Weight: 185lbDrafted: 1989, Toronto Blue Jays, 20th RoundMLB Career: 1992-2008MLB Teams: Toronto, New York (NL), Cleveland, San Francisco, Houston, Los Angeles Last week we picked John Olerud as #4 on the all-time top ABL players countdown. Olerud, of course, was taken in [...]
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The Athletes in Action crew has released the roster of their 2010 AIA-Alaska Fire recruits, which is available on their website here. I haven’t had a chance to give it a thorough look-over; I felt that my first duty as unofficial fan blogger of the ABL was to come right over here and post the [...]
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Box Score: – 2010 Bucs recruit Dominic Piazza has been added to the watch list for this year’s Johnny Bench award. The JB trophy is given every year to college baseball’s top catcher. As it stands now, the watch list is at 53 players and will be narrowed down before being voted on by a [...]
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2009 Goldpanners alum Jesse Meaux gave UCSB Guachos fans something to cheer about on Wednesday, putting up a stellar seven-inning performance against Loyola Marymount. Meaux (pictured left) threw only 80 pitches on the day, which was all it took to hold the LM crew to four hits, one walk, and no runs. In the ABL [...]
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#4 John Olerud 1B – 1988 Palouse Empire Cougars & Peninsula OilersBats: Left – Throws: LeftHeight: 6’5″ – Weight: 205lbDrafted: 1989, Toronto Blue Jays, 3rd RoundMLB Career: 1989-2005MLB Teams: Toronto, Seattle, New York (NL), Boston, New York (AL) John Olerud came to Alaska as part of the short-lived Palouse Empire Cougars program. The Cougars were [...]
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The Anchorage Glacier Pilots today unveiled the first batch of names to be stitched on the back of their jerseys for the 2010 campaign. Not that these guys will need them; all six of them — five players and the team’s new field boss — should already have Pilots jerseys hanging in their closets. Making [...]
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Hello again, folks. A week has passed since our previous little rundown…actually, that’s not true, because last week’s was pushed back to Sunday to make room for our D1 Opening Week chat. But whatever, let’s not focus on the wrong part of the story. Some cool stuff has happened in the past 6 days. Baseball [...]
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I just wanted to write a short, snappy little article to get everyone up to speed on 2004 Bucs pitcher Brett Bordes. I wanted to have it done yesterday. Well, all that went out the window, because Brett Bordes can’t be summed up in four or five paragraphs. No, he’s a tougher nut to crack. [...]
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If you take a peek at College Baseball Splits’ D1 daily recap for yesterday (Feb. 24th) you might see some familiar names. A few ABL-connected pitchers put up top performances on Wednesday: Louisiana State’s Chris Matulis (Bucs, 2009) led the way, picking up the win on five innings of shutout ball against McNeese State. The [...]
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#5 Mark Grace1B – 1985 North Pole Nicks Bats: Left – Throws: LeftHeight: 6’2″ – Weight: 200lb Drafted: 1984, Minnesota, 15th Rd. (DNS)…1985, Chicago, 24th Rd.MLB Career: 1988-2003MLB Teams: Chicago (NL), Arizona Mark Grace was the exact opposite type of player that manypeople perceive guys like JD Drew to be. He had talent, there’s no [...]
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