Minor League Blogs

Andrew Hess saved some of his best stuff for last as he shut down the the Jays over eight innings in Lakeland’s 4-1 win.  Hess gave up just one run on five hits and a walk with five strikeouts in eight innings.  Chad Linder pitched a shutout ninth and he picked up his second save [...]

A really nice start by Andrew Hess went to waste and he fell to 6-11 in the Flying Tigers 1-0 loss to Dunedin.  He gave up one unearned run on two hits and one walk with one strikeout in six solid frames.
Joshua Workman went two for four and that was half of Lakeland’s offense.  Jeramy [...]

In the twists and turns, ups and downs, and whatever else describes and roller coaster of a baseball season, things are bound to happen that test your physical and mental abilities to the maximum. Luckily for me, I have had the privilege of experiencing both these tests this year, so it will come as no [...]

A few Lakeland pitchers had a tough time at the plate as Lakeland lost to Tampa 11-6.   Andrew Hess took the loss and he fell to 6-9.  He gave up five runs (just two earned) on eight hits and a walk in 2 2/3 innings.  Chad Linder and Trevor Feeney each gave up three runs [...]

So recently a report was released, as I am sure everyone is aware of thanks to ESPN’s 24 hour coverage on the matter, that two more top MLB superstars are on a piece of paper with other guys names who’ve reportedly done “bad things.” I won’t mention names, at this point in my career I’m [...]

I was posed the question after one of my posts regarding the topic of pitch counts. Now, there are not any specific rules that apply to this as far as Major League Baseball is concerned. This isn’t little league where the coach (aka the only dad who knows baseball) can potentially forfeit games if one [...]

The Lakeland Flying Tigers have had an interesting season of weather related happenings before and during games. Some could say that our season could be chronicled by a Steven King novel, and my journey especially. For a while I held the title of the rainman, and not because I have savant type intelligence, a la [...]

Lakeland had a tough time getting anything going at the plate and they couldn’t manage a single run in an 8-0 blowout loss to Dunedin.  Christopher White went two for three and Chris Carlson went two for four.
Andrew Hess had a tough start and he fell to 4-7.  He gave up five runs on seven [...]

Hello again and I apologize for my absence over the last few days. It’s getting to that point in the season where a player’s brain begins to go on auto-pilot and you find yourself in some kind of baseball purgatory where days have no names and time seems to repeat itself. For a while there [...]

Andrew Hess had one of his best starts of the season in Lakeland’s 9-0 blowout win over Sarasota.  He gave up just six hits and two walks with four strikeouts in seven shutout innings and the win pushed his record to 3-5.  Jared Gayhart made his Lakeland debut and he threw two shutout frames to [...]

For everyone else in the Florida State League, this past weekend was three days of rest and relaxation. But for the lucky few forty or so players selected to the All Star game, myself included (I’m not gloating here. If I said I dumped fine Champagne on myself after the game, well, that would be [...]

The Flying Tiger had a tough time at the plate as they were held to just a run on five hits in a 5-1 loss to Charlotte.  Jeramy Laster had two of those of hits and one of them was a solo shot for the lone Lakeland run. 
Andrew Hess fell to 2-5 on the season.  [...]

The first year player draft just concluded two days ago and some interesting events transpired during that time. For a few weeks now my family and I have been anticipating the draft of my brother Kevan into professional baseball as a pitcher out of Western Michigan. It was unexpected as to what was going to [...]

(A little Toby Keith reference for all you country fans out there)
Call it a miracle, call it a fluke, call it hard work paid off, but however you wish to call it, I know that I am going to the Florida State League All Star Game. All joking aside, this is the first All Star [...]

I’ve had some good questions regarding the differences in playing in the north and the south and how our home base of Lakeland (particularly Joker Marchant Stadium) stacks up against other places I’ve played. Well to start I have thoroughly enjoyed the first part of our season thus far in Florida, mainly because of the [...]

I guess you can say that a little publicity can go a long ways. After doing a simple run of the mill, Q & A for the Detroit Free Press, and having them mention this little tidbit of my life (which I have to thank them ever so much for), I have received some great [...]

I was thinking…I write a lot about what my life is like in the game of baseball. What I never really thought about until now was that I am writing based on what I think would be interesting and not what you, the reader, may necessarily not be completely interested in. So for the first [...]

There are so many reasons why a person can love the game of baseball; the deep relationship and feelings towards a favorite team. The drama and story line that can play out in each game. The little intricacies which only true, hardcore fans can really appreciate, or the excitement of someone new to the game [...]

One of the things Florida summers are known for besides the sweltering heat are the rainy days that seem to come out of nowhere. I’m not kidding here, it will be blue skies and no sign of weather and then, like Zeus was sitting in the sky, lightning will just start coming down. Being a [...]

If I remember correctly, I wrote last year about what the everyday routine of a (mainly myself) minor league player contains. Well this is a new year and a new team so things have changed a little bit. Also now that I am a starting pitcher, there are some variables thrown in that I am [...]

Andrew Hess had one of his best starts of the season as he gave up just six hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in six shutout innings.  Unfortunately, he didn’t pick up the win because Lakeland’s hitters were late on arrival.  The win actually went to Scott Green, who gave up the tying run [...]

Rarely is it that I am ever inspired while keeping the pitching chart in the dugout during the game. And even more rare was that the inspiration came from a rather inebriated fan. No, this was no inspiration to want to better myself or do more good in the world but instead lay down a [...]

Hello again, I am back to give everyone a look at this past week’s activities. For starters, well actually this starter, I took my first loss of the season yesterday at the hands of the Tampa Yankees (more like the Damn Yankees at the time). So much for that unbeaten streak again, guess I will [...]

Andrew Hess took his first loss of the season in Lakeland’s 6-0 loss to Tampa.  He gave up four runs but just one was earned on five hits with two strikeouts in five innings.   The four errors didn’t help things and in total, they led to five unearned runs.
Jordan Newton was the hitting star.  He [...]

As I have talked about before, baseball and life can go hand in hand. And just as in life, baseball has more than its fair share of bad days. However, every now and then the game rewards you with a good day (you try to make as many good days happen as possible, but I [...]

Greetings all and hope the young baseball season has brought fun and excitement to everyone. Down here in Lakeland, we have had our share of excitement thus far, thanks to my spring roommate, Chris Carlson, who launched a two run walk off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Tampa [...]

The pitching just wasn’t there for the Flying Tigers today.  Joel Zumaya made another rehab start and he was roughed up by Clearwater in the 9-1 loss.  Zumaya gave up three runs (two earned) on two hits and three walks with three strikeouts in just 1 1/3 innings.  Andrew Hess also had a rough outing [...]

Wishing a Happy Easter to everyone from down here in Lakeland, I am relaxing and enjoying nice sunday off. I guess it is fitting that our first off day falls on Easter sunday, so that we all get time to sit back and reflect on how fortunate we [players] are to be given the gift [...]

Today marks the first day that the select few teammates of mine (Pat Stanley, Shawn Roof, Lauren Gagnier, Trevor Feeney, and Charlie Furbush) as well as myself are officially moved into our new house. I am just relieved to have a roof over my head and a place to park my car, but we actually [...]

Well the final rosters for the 2009 season have been set, and I can’t say how relieved I am to finally know where I am and what I am doing. I am excited to say that I still have a job and it will be with the class A advanced Lakeland Flying Tigers as a [...]

As spring training winds down, the end means that there is a new season on the horizon. For me and for most, this has felt like a longer than normal spring due to the later start date (because of the world baseball classic) and also because we have a larger than normal amount of players [...]

This week marks the beginning of official (well, not that official) competition against other organizations. Minor league spring training is slightly different from the Major League version because we only play three other organizations. For us, we play; the Braves, out of Orlando; the Nationals, out of Viera; and the Astros, out of Kissimmee. This [...]

There are two things on the minds of the American sporting fan at this time of year. First I would have to say is the NCAA basketball tournament, and rightfully so. And second and what I wish could be as much at the forefront as the tourney is spring training. This is the time of [...]

For those of you who have read my posts in the past, you will know that I have a knack for throwing in various types of media references (movies, music, etc). I like to attribute this to the overwhelming amount of time I spend on listening to music and watching movies in my down time. [...]

Hello friends and welcome back to wonderful world of professional baseball. Following my return home from Hawaii I was able to put the baseball down for a while and enjoy the off time. There was still some excitement however as I got engaged to my long time girlfriend, Amanda, at the end of January. We [...]

Well friends as the Grateful Dead put it, what a long strange trip it’s been. We wrapped up the winter season with a tough 5-1 loss in the championship game yesterday. However, not all was lost with the result. The league gave both teams duffle bags as a gift for making it that far, and [...]

With yesterday’s win, the West Oahu Canefires have clinched a spot in Sunday’s championship game. That’s right, we came in first in the West division out of two teams. So this means that I have now clinched my second playoff spot for the season, and I must say I don’t think many ballplayers can say [...]

Today marks the christening of my 24th year on earth and it is the first time I have not been home to celebrate it. It feels a little strange I will admit because for the first time I can remember, I really doesn’t feel like a birthday, more like just another day in the life [...]

We recently made a roster move, which I am no stranger to from this season, to acquire another first baseman named Adam Loewen. The only problem is that he is, or should I say was, a pitcher. He spent the last few seasons as the top of the rotation pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles until [...]

Today, I wasn’t able to watch the last pitch of this year’s World Series. No, I actually was sitting in the bullpen around the fifth inning of our game and it was broadcast on ESPN radio over the PA system. I had a brief thought and mentioned something to Chris Hatcher, one of our catchers, [...]

As of late, the weather here has not exactly been cooperating. The field we play our games at does not have a field tarp so if it rains, then the field goes underwater and we can’t play. Well the last two days it has been raining, and we got today, Monday, off so really we [...]

After getting my taste of the local food, I next had to experience the real Hawaii from a sightseeing standpoint. With that said, I recently made a trip to the famous Sunset Beach on the north shore of O’ahu. This is where the world famous surf proving ground know as Pipeline is located and I [...]

When I first came to Hawaii there was one main goal that I had outside of baseball, which was to eat as much local food as possible. I figured if I am going to be this far away from home I might as well try to eat like it. Last week one of the local [...]

The Hawaiian winter baseball season has continued to be a successful venture for me. Just the other day, my girlfriend pointed out an interesting stat to me; I am getting left handed hitters out at a much higher rate than I am right handers (Right are hitting .391 with a 3.60 ERA, and left are [...]

Usually I like to keep things very light hearted and cheeky, while giving you, the fans, a look at what my life is like but now I have something on a more serious note to discuss. Today I got a comment on a previous post that got me thinking a lot. The question posed wondered [...]

Not much has changed in the last few days in terms of my life in baseball. I still am waking up to phone calls from home at 8 am (it’s 2 pm there, but this is not a bad thing) followed by my walk down to the local diner for my $3.75 breakfast special. The [...]

Well my second season has officially begun and so far has been pretty well for me and my fellow Canefires. We are 3-0 and have put up some very impressive numbers offensively winning two games by an eight run margin. As for myself I have gotten myself off to a hot start as well throwing [...]

Well it’s official; I have landed and settled into my room here in Hawaii. For now we haven’t really done anything baseball related, unless you can call sitting on the beach and trying to adjust to the time difference, baseball related. Well don’t feel too sorry for me just yet, we do have a practice [...]

I have arrived in Lakeland, FL for my pre-Hawaii workouts and am having deja vu all over again from spring training. It feels like I was just here but it has been several months now so I guess one can say that there is something mystical about Tigertown. Never mind, my personal issues with this [...]

Hold the phone, stop the presses. Just as you may have thought you weren’t going to hear from me until next spring, well life just keeps throwing me curveballs (no pun intended). Just as life throws them at me, I get to go throw some of my own, as I have been selected to play [...]