15 Years is a Long Time to Wait

I realize this is a Silver Hawks blog, and the Silver Hawks are affiliated with the Arizona Diamondbacks, but I have to take a minute to show some pride in my beloved Cincinnati Reds. The Reds clinched a playoff spot last night for the first time since 1995 when I was 13 years old. This is only the third time in my lifetime that the Reds have made the postseason (1990 and 1995 are the others).

Some pictures from last night (courtesy of whatever websites I stole them from)...


There are a whole bunch of former Midwest League stars in this picture (see list below).


Jay Bruce hit a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth to win the game and clinch the playoff spot for Cincinnati.

And if you really are going to force me to make this relate to the overall theme of this blog somehow, how about the list of former Midwest Leaguers that are currently on the Reds 40-man roster:

Homer Bailey - Dayton (2005)
Jay Bruce - Dayton (2006)
Jared Burton - Kane County (2003)
Francisco Cordero - West Michigan (1997)
Johnny Cueto - Dayton (2006)
Jim Edmonds - Quad Cities (1989)
Carlos Fisher - Dayton (2006)
Juan Francisco - Dayton (2007)
Ryan Hanigan - Dayton (2002-2003)
Chris Heisey - Dayton (2007)
Ramon Hernandez - West Michigan (1996)
Paul Janish - Dayton (2005-2006)
Nick Masset - Clinton (2003)
Corky Miller - Rockford (1999)
Logan Ondrusek - Dayton (2006)
Jordan Smith - Dayton (2007)
Drew Stubbs - Dayton (2007)
Chris Valaika - Dayton (2007)
Edinson Volquez - Clinton (2004)
Joey Votto - Dayton (2003-2004)
Travis Wood - Dayton (2006)

Monday Morning Links (January 11th)

As I try to recover from the heartbreak of the Bengals loss this weekend, here's a batch of links for you to keep you up to date on the top stories in baseball:

-In a stunning bit of news, the Cincinnati Reds swept in and apparently won the bidding war for the services of Cuban pitcher Aroldis Chapman. I'm a Reds fan, and I didn't see this happening in a million years, so trust me when I tell you it is a great surprise to the people of Cincinnati.

-Vlad Guerrero has signed with the Texas Rangers. The last paragraph of the article linked here presents a very interesting stat.

-Derek Jeter is getting married. Clearly he learned nothing from Tiger Woods.

-Finally, Baseball America has the top 10 prospects for the Indians (who are now in the MWL with the addition of the Lake County Captains) and the Tigers (West Michigan Whitecaps)

Reds Top 10 Prospects

I'm a couple days late on this, but Baseball America has ranked the Reds Top 10 Prospects. The Cincinnati Reds are the parent club to the Dayton Dragons, so there are some names you should recognize on this list.

Having worked for Dayton, I've seen a lot of the guys listed, but since this is a Silver Hawks blog, I won't bore you with my thoughts.

Opening Night

It's Opening Night for Major League Baseball, although I'm still not a big fan of ESPN's game on Sunday night before the rest of the league opens Monday. I'm from the greater Cincinnati area, and the tradition was always that the Reds played the first game of the year since they were the first professional baseball team. Now granted the Reds have the first game tomorrow, but it's just not the same for lifelong Reds fan like me.

Enough about the Majors, let's talk Minor League Baseball, and more specifically, the South Bend Silver Hawks.

You'll see in the post below, I've listed the projected Opening Day roster. This can all change up until Thursday's opener, but those are the players who have apparently made the trip northeast from Tucson.

Being new to the Silver Hawks, and by extension, the Diamondbacks organization, I am like each of you in that I have a lot to learn about these guys. There are some players selected in the first ten rounds of the draft, and there are some guys who were late round draft picks -- or not even drafted at all. It's always interesting to see how 25 come together as one throughout the course of the season.

I'll meet all of the players tomorrow, so I'll try to post some interesting stuff tomorrow night when I get a chance. The next few days will be incredibly busy for players and staff alike, but I'll post some tidbits about the team from time to time.

A reminder: Your first stop for team information (tickets, promotions) and game results should always be http://www.silverhawks.com/. This blog will be for more behind-the-scenes info, and supplemental coverage. And of course, for the first time in a long time, you can listen to the games on 1490 ESPN Radio or online at http://www.silverhawks.com/.

Enjoy Major League Opening Day tomorrow, and pray for weather forecasts to start improving soon.