Tagged: Paul Goldschmidt

Perez activated, Goldy delivers, Valverde reports, and we take a trip around the farm…Missoula Geese?

Monday April 15 is not only TAX DAY, but 66 days from Opening Day for the Missoula Osprey.

Jose Valverde finally made it to Detroit Tigers minor league camp. He seemed to do just fine in his first outing at extended spring training.

Some geese invaded the Osprey nest adjacent to Ogren Park Allegiance Field. Look for the Osprey to have some promotions around geese this year at the stadium, but a franchise name change just isn’t in the cards at the moment.

Paul Goldschmidt delivered the lone RBI and run of the game in the D-Backs 1-0 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday.

Houston Summers has found a new niche, post baseball on the University of North Carolina Track & Field team and he’s excelling.

Lyle Overbay has stuck with the Yankees at first base and has raised his average to .278 with a pair of homers on the early season.

Let’s head around the Diamondbacks minor league system with updates on Osprey alumni.

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49 on Full-Season Clubs – BayBears, Rawhide and Goldy Oh My…

The Missoula Osprey have 49 alums on full-season clubs within the Diamondbacks minor league system including Ender Inciarte, who was returned to the Diamondbacks system after spending opening day on the Phillies 25-man major league roster. Inciarte was assigned to Double-A Mobile and is one of ten alums on their roster.

Alums Bradin Hagens and Rossmel Perez were the battery in this gem thrown by Hagens for the BayBears. Hagens was helped at the plate by Jon Griffin and Inciarte. Eric Smith closed the game, earning his first save of the season, in an all-out-Osprey driven victory 2-1.

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16 Osprey in the bigs, Valverde resigns with Tigers, Eaton rehabbing & GOLDSCHMIDT HAPPENS!

Osprey alum Ender Inciarte (2009) become the 40th Osprey to reach the major leagues this week spending Opening Day on the Philadelphia Phillies 25-man roster before being Designated for Assignment. Due to his Rule V status, it is likely he will return to the Arizona Diamondbacks organization once the speedy outfielder clears waivers.

Inciarte was one of 16 former Osprey to start the season on a 25-man major league roster including two from the inaugural club in 1999, Lyle Overbay with the New York Yankees and Jorge De La Rosa with the Colorado Rockies.

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The latest from Spring Training

by Ben Catley
94 days before the Season Opener and Home Opener

Well, the Major League Baseball season starts in two weeks. Yup, two weeks. I will let that set in for a moment …

Can you only imagine how this will all play out? No matter where your allegiances lie, there is plenty of intrigue about to play out all over the place.

Except in Center Field and at the top of the order for the Arizona Diamondbacks, where it is looking more and more like Adam Eaton (2010 Osprey) has taken full advantage of his opportunity and locked down that job. Eaton was featured in a MiLB Prospect Q&A recently, sharing a number of things, especially the reason why he doesn’t mind being a magnet for baseballs while he is at-bat. By the way, Eaton is hitting .358 this spring, with a pair of home runs and nine RBIs. Continue reading

The latest – March 6

There are about 106 days before Opening Night at Ogren Park Allegiance Field. Get ready Osprey fans!!

Ollie Osprey will be at Southgate Mall on Saturday from 11:30 until 1:30, dropping by for his annual visit at the Kids Fair. The Osprey will have a booth for the duration of the event, which will run from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Kids will be able to join the Ollie Osprey Kid’s Club at the event, as well as sign up for the Osprey Baseball Camp, taking place on August 14-16 at Ogren Park Allegiance Field.

– The lineup for the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday night, with the D-backs playing Team Mexico, included former Osprey Adam Eaton (2010) and Paul Goldschmidt (2009) hitting 1-3 in the order. Not too bad. Especially since Goldy is putting together one whale of a spring – minus last night’s 0-for-2 exhibition game against Mexico, Goldy is hitting .467 in eight Cactus League games, with a double, RBI and five walks. Eaton, meanwhile, ended up getting a half-inning interview on the telecast – which lasted six pitches. Continue reading

Your nuggets of information … Mar. 5

by Ben Catley

First … MissoulaOsprey.com has a new look to it. Check it out when you get the chance.

– There were a few things that went on over the weekend. And we will fill in on all that we can.

The biggest piece of information was the slew of contracts that were signed for this season. All are one-year deals.

Of the 20 players who signed deals, seven of them are former Osprey:
Pitchers: Chase Anderson, Charles Brewer, Eric Smith and Eury De La Rosa
Outfielders; Keon Broxton and Adam Eaton
Infielder: Paul Goldschmidt

All but Eaton are members of the Osprey Class of 2009, with Eaton playing in Missoula in 2010. Continue reading

Weekend update (of sorts)

The World Baseball Classic starts tonight … how many of you are watching Australia-Chinese Taipei? We know at least one person who will be watching … anyway, a quick bit of information to get you through the weekend …

Weekend pitching:
– The Arizona Diamondbacks have posted pitchers scheduled for the weekend games, and as you can imagine, former Osprey are on the list, including a second look for Ray Hernandez (2011), who is scheduled to pitch again today against the Chicago Cubs, and former Osprey Scott Hairston (2001).

The rest of the schedule:
Today (Friday) – Andrew Chafin (2011) gets a call over from minor-league camp and is scheduled to pitch.
Saturday – Chase Anderson (2009) is on the short list.
Sunday – David Holmberg (2010), Eric Smith (2009) and Eury De La Rosa (2009) are on the scheduled lineup to throw. Continue reading

End of February Tidbits

by Ben Catley

The end of February is here, and as the World Baseball Classic gets underway beginning tomorrow, it leaves us with more time to focus on what should be an interesting couple of weeks at Arizona Diamondbacks camp. Three mainstays for the D-backs – Gerardo Parra (2006 Osprey), Miguel Montero (2002-03) and newly-acquired Martin Prado will play for Venezuela, as will former Osprey outfielder Carlos Gonzalez (2003).

Parra was held out of Wednesday’s game against Cincinnati with soreness in his left arm. Nothing serious, and he should be back in the lineup when the D-backs play today. Parra also has received some advice from manager Kirk Gibson as it pertains to his two early errors in Cactus League play … and some of it has to do with his new glove.

You can read about the D-backs’ trio here, and read Miggy go all sorts of Ricky Bobby in the piece. Continue reading

Eaton, Goldy and voting

by Ben Catley

Just a couple of things on this Sunday …

Adam Eaton (2010 Osprey) is out for the rest of the season after getting hit by a pitch in his right hand during the 7th inning of Saturday’s 8-2 Arizona Diamondbacks’ win over the Chicago Cubs. X-rays showed a broken bone in the hand, so Eaton’s season is done four days earlier than planned. Eaton hit .259 in 22 games after his promotion from Triple-A Reno, with a .382 on-base percentage, three doubles, two triples, two home runs and five RBIs, plus a pair of stolen bases.

On a personal note, I finally managed to see Eaton in a D-backs’ uniform for the first time on TV on Saturday night. He had hits in his first two at-bats, which I missed, then was retired in his next two at-bats, which I managed to watch. I missed the HBP in the 7th, so go figure.

We shall see what the D-backs do with Eaton in 2013. Once he was promoted, he became an everyday player at the top of the lineup – something the D-backs sorely needed. It will provide plenty of great off-season hot stove talk, I’m sure.

– Wanted to see four former Osprey in the D-backs’ lineup last night, but Paul Goldschmidt (2009) was out of the lineup with a stiff back. Nothing serious, though, which is good news. By the way, the other two who were in the lineup – catcher Miguel Montero (2002-03) and outfielder Gerardo Parra (2006). Montero has put together quite a 2012 season, a solid follow-up from his breakout 2011 campaign, and Parra is Parra, hitting enough, playing great defense and getting plenty of chances to play, despite being the fourth outfielder.

– Finally, want to remind you to vote (even if you have already, you are allowed to vote again) on your favorite game of the 2012 Osprey baseball season. Beginning on Tuesday, October 2 (I had to push it back a day due to life happening), we will announce the top three games, and post audio highlights of each game to our website at MissoulaOsprey.com. The results will come from three sources:
*Voting on the Bird Droppings blog
*Voting on MissoulaOsprey.com
*The results from our esteemed panel of Osprey baseball experts – which may surprise you. Or not …

The top three will be announced beginning on Tuesday. In the meantime, it’s back to the lab to figure out what poll to come up with next …

Update from OspreyLand …

Here’s some stuff to pass along from the past couple of days to get your Osprey fix in before the team is announced this week …

– A total of four former Osprey – at the moment – have been named to mid-season All-Star teams. While the California-Carolina All-Star Game teams, and the Triple-A All-Star teams (you can still vote if you haven’t used up your 25-vote limit here.) are yet to be decided, other games (which are earlier) have been … and three of the four are pitchers – Chase Anderson (2009) in the Southern League, and Archie Bradley (2011) and Kable Hogben (2009) in the Midwest League. The lone position player (so far) is Matt Helm (2009-10) in the Midwest League. Anderson pitches at Double-A Mobile, while the other three are playing in South Bend.

–  Paul Goldschmidt (2009) moved his hit streak to 17 games with a single in a three-run first inning as the Arizona Diamondbacks won their fifth in a row on Sunday, finishing off a three-game sweep of the Oakland A’s, 4-3. However, it was a series full of former Osprey appearances. Outside of Goldy, Miguel Montero (2002-03) hit a grand slam to highlight Saturday’s win, Bryan Shaw (2008) pitched out of the D-backs bullpen, Evan Scribner (2007) pitched well out of the A’s bullpen on Sunday, and Jarrod Parker (2007) made the start on Friday and threw well. In addition, let’s not forget about Gerardo Parra (2006) and Lyle Overbay (1999) of the D-backs and the DL’ed Jordan Norberto (2006) of the A’s. That’s eight of the 36 former Osprey who have played in the Major Leagues.

– Congratulations to former Osprey pitcher Conrad Flynn (2011), who proudly showed off his diploma from Tulane University on his Facebook page over the weekend. Flynn is currently with his third team, the Class A Advanced Visalia Rawhide, this season. Flynn has also pitched for Triple-A Reno (one spot-start) and Double-A Mobile (four appearances, two starts). He will start for the Rawhide tonight against Lake Elsinore.

In some other transactions involving former Osprey:
Taylor Siemens (2011) was promoted from Class A South Bend to Class A Advanced Visalia. Siemens had been primarily used as a reliever for the Silver Hawks.

Kyle Greene (2008) was taken off of the 7-day DL and returned to Double-A Mobile. Greene had been hitting well at the plate when the injury occurred.

David Holmberg (2010) was promoted from Class A Advanced Visalia to Double-A Mobile. The left-hander has been moving up the prospect radar steadily over the past year, and will now get a look in the ultra-talented Southern League.