Suns vs Marlins, Offseason Survival Guide

BARELY LEGAL

Brad Harper over at the newspaper put together an article of "Movers and Shakers" who are "changing what it means to live and work in Central Alabama". He says it like thats a good thing. I would have titled the list "most likely to be indicted" and includes an array of those skirting the law as barely legally as they can. However buried at the bottom of the page was a clue for Biscuits fans in the description of one of the list subjects.


 Sherry Myers, Biscuits owner.

Most blog readers know I get a little touchy concerning the owner, but I really do think we could do way worse. She smiles and plenty owners don't get that far, shes polite and accessible way beyond what some teams have with their corporate ownership. This isn't really about how I feel at all.

Skitz owner

But what it is about is that we see no Tom Dickson listed. This article is worded as though Sherry is the sole and independent owner. In fact it refers to her as "the team owner", not "one of the teams owners" as we have seen her so often listed in the past. So maybe the team is ready to just admit that we have but one owner.

And thats team news, hidden well but intact. There ya go, thats November Biscuits news!

 BILOXI NAMES TEAM
In winter months news is a rare thing for minor league baseball, and teams try to make sure they make their own announcements. Thats why I took pride in being the first to tweet the news of the Biloxi team announcing its team name on the 24th. I had noticed the info on the blog of a Biloxi area highschool football reporter and tweeted it, knowing the name the team contest that they said they would never hold but did indeed hold would be of interest.

photo courtesy @bubba36109's twitter feed

However the Biloxi baseball folks probably were annoyed to see that I put it out there, the next day they began a barrage of "RSVP to our big announcement" tweets! Haha welcome to the Southern league, Biloxi! 

OTHER NEWS

wait, what? You want OTHER news?
Okay. Yes sir, you betcha. How about this...

SUNS TO PLAY MARLINS
Yes, the Jacksonville Suns were jealous when the Rays visited the Biscuits, so they will be announcing their own exhibition game against their parent club. The last time the Marlins faced the Suns in Jville Stanton was known as Mike and hit a homer for the Suns. Now he will be on the other side!


Whaa? MORE? You want MORE?
Okay!

VICTOR THE BRAVE

Mateo twirls NoHitter

Popular starting pitcher Victor Mateo was signed by the Braves, as I tweeted last week and was discussed in the blog comments.

The author of the first No Hitter at Riverwalk was allowed to walk away from the Rays organization, drawing into question again the intentions of the Front office and scouting by the parent club.

OFFSEASON SURVIVAL GUIDE 

TWITTER TIME

If you havent noticed, twitter has been one of the main sources for news in the offseason. @DrMiraculous is my entry into the realm of 140characters or less - though you wont find me going anywhere near facebook. I am guilty of tweeting baseball related news that should go into the blog without posting it here. My bad!


WHERE THE ACTION IS
This time of year most self respecting ballplayers have gone home to hit the gym, work on their swings or refine pitch delivery. Some guys however, just can't get enough. They pack their gear and head south to follow the sun and get into a few more games. Here we have a quick list I put together of Biscuit alum who are still waking up every morning and wondering where they are listed on todays lineup card.

In PuertoRico

The rosters hadn't been announced when this list was compiled so I might miss someone, but we know that Cameron Seitzer is there for winter games and his wife is there for the food. Chelsea tweets some delicious photos of the native cuisine, including one of my favorite dishes, Mofongo.

Sergio Espinosa

Also in P.R.'s Clemente League is Jimmy Patterson, hurling for the Giants.

Pitchers Shane Dyer and Sergio Espinosa are with the Senators. I thought I recognized Sergio's name, so to be sure I checked out his player page and the photo I saw confirmed his past Biscuit-ness.



 In Venezuela

Taylor Motter's OF Award

Guys like Southern league OF of the Year Taylor Motter and pitchers Matt Nevarez and James Houser appear with Bravos de Margarita

Former Biscuit Daniel Mayora is playing for Caracas Leones
Pitcher Jake Thompson is on the Tiburones de la Guaira


In the Dominican League...

Pitcher Matt Ramsey is with Agilas Cibaenas

The Estrellas de Oriente have Chris Rearick and powerhitting first baseman Matt Fields

With the Leones del Ascogido are three former Skitz, Frankie de la Cruz, Merrill Kelly and Enny Romero

Tigres del Licey Jesus Colome and Braulio Lara - Mayo Acosta is playing for the Toros del Este

Bortnick in Australia

AUSTRALIAN BASEBALL
Down in the Australian league there are two names on Biscuits radar, one future & one former - Brisbane Bandits catcher Maxx Tissenbaum is bound for Biscuitville in 2016 and the Sydney Blue Sox leadoff hitter is infielder Tyler Bortnick.



HOW TO SEE EM ONLINE

Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi oi oi!

The Australian Baseball league has put up nice american dollars to upgrade the video and can be seen on their new youtube channel streaming live games on weekends. They usually start between 10pm-1am so its some nice late night baseball. The ABL also streams on Freezone.Iinet.com where it has had games for a couple-three seasons.

ABL Action, ump runs thru crowd to check with pressbox on balls-strikes count

I can't say enough good things about the ABL game broadcasts, no matter what team. The production quality is great, the announcers baseball-savvy Aussies and the league talent level is wonderful. There are Bull Durham moments with Aussie flavor that make it even more endearing and its a fabulous down under game experience to watch!


VZBL & MEXICO
The Venezuelan league could use more bandwidth, there are times it looks like watching a game thru a shower door. However the games can be seen and its easy to follow the games progress simply by listening to the announcers.

The VBL games are for serious fans only, its not easy to sit back and just watch due to the tech issues. The announcers are spanish speaking but make up for any lack of understandability with enthusiasm. If the video was better quality I could recommend this higher, but until then its tough to tune in and follow any single team.

Video feed can be found at vaughnlive.tv and searching the feeds for the games that usually start about seven pm.

Also available on vaughnlive.tv are Mexican league games, of a much higher quality video feed but with fewer mlb prospects that affect either the Biscuits or the Rays. Its a good level of ball though and worth a viewing for those of us desperate for baseball keeping an eye on the winter leagues.


I do not currently have info on watching Dominican or PR Clemente league games, if anyone knows where, feel free to post in the comments!

tober-now-november

october news now november news!
I wrote this last week but got busy, so here it is, barely illustrated and starting to be stale info, but its what I got right now! haha

Argo and Robby Price were indeed given their walking papers, along with a few other minor league guys. Argo even sent me a message after the last blog post to confirm the news. There will likely be many more player changes as the new regime settles into place on the St.Pete carpets.

Indeed, Jeff Malm also follows Argo and Price on the unemployment line, where many have been before them. Perhaps they will put out an ad like Virgil Trucks did...

Or Earl Williams...

MAD AT MADDON?
People seemed surprised and even angry to hear Joe Maddon would leave the Rays, even more so when they learned that the team informed Joe of his opt-out clause. Yet I can't think of anything unusual about a new General manager wanting to choose his own field staff.

@AUarchitectWDE and I have already had twitter convos about what many others have speculated - Charlie Montoyo or Dave Martinez could be in line for a promotion. Martinez has interviewed for MLB manager jobs before, making the short lists for a few but not getting the gig. And what more does Charlie Montoyo have to prove? I would surprised if the Rays would inform Joe without having someone else in mind.

CAMS DAD A BRAVE
Cameron Seitzer's dad Kevin is now the Atlanta Braves hitting coach. He has held that position with several other teams, most recently the Blue Jays. The Braves asked Chipper Jones, who declined the position. The Braves have been declined in other ways this year, perhaps decline being the operative word in their situation overall!