Windy City continues to make moves

The Windy City Thunderbolts have made a couple of moves recently to help reload from their 2007 Championship Team, which is already facing the replacement of manager Andy Haines, pitchers Shawn and Billy Phillips, and outfielders Rob Marconi and John McCarthy.  Pitching coach Brenden Sagara has also left the team to head south with the Evansville Otters in 2008.

The most significant pickup was a trade for 3B Kevin Noles from the Anderson Joes of the South Coast League for a player to be named.  Noles had a great offensive season for the Joes in 2007, his first professional season, hitting .325 with 16 doubles, 2 triples, 0 home runs, 37 RBI, and 36 walks against 53 strikeouts.  Noles finished 5th in the league in average, 2nd in hits (108), and 4th in games played (87).  Defensively, Noles struggled.  He made 26 errors and finished with a .890 fielding percentage.

This trade is a curious move unless Windy City is looking to break up their infield from last year.  Currently, they are returning Frontier League All-Stars at 3rd base (Josh Horn), shortstop (Wes Long) and first base (Phillip Hawke).  Their second basemen, Gilberto Meija, is one of the few players in the league with double-A experience.  The Thunderbolts also have Amos Ramon on their bench, who can play both 2nd and 3rd.  There are no classification issues to juggle, either, so it will be curious to see how Noles fits in with their plans.  I can only assume that a couple of these players have asked to be moved to older leagues after the sense of accomplishment that came with the Frontier League Championship in 2007.  Otherwise, it wouldn't be worth even giving up a "player to be named" to just invite a player like Noles into camp.  I expect there will be some interesting moves this spring concerning that championship roster, which  has already lost two-thirds of their outfield and two-fifths of their starting rotation (and two members of their coaching staff to boot).

Windy City also made two other signings recently in outfielder Ryan Addison out of Elon University and first basemen Cleveland Brownlee from Clark-Atlanta University.  The 2008 season will be the first in professional baseball for both players.

Addison hit .283 with 10 home runs and 20 stolen bases for Elon as a senior in 2007, while Brownlee hit .268 with 6 home runs and 12 stolen bases during his final college campaign.  Addison will probably compete for a spot in the outfield vacated by the departure of Marconi and McCarthy, while Brownlee will have an uphill climb making the squad unless the Thunderbolts plan to move 1B Phillip Hawke.  

News about Windy City will affect the Beach Bums less in 2008 as it did in 2007 since the league decided to revert back to the old East/West format.  The new format will divide the old North division in two parts - Traverse City and Kalamazoo will split to join Washington, Chillicothe, Florence, and the Midwest Sliders, while Rockford and Windy City head west to join Gateway, River City, Evansville, and Southern Illinois.  The playoffs will include the two division winners and the next two best overall records (wild cards).  Teams will play teams in their division 12 times (six home, six away) and out of their division 6 times (three home, three away).  The exception will be the Midwest Sliders, who will play 96 games on the road before moving to Oakland County, Michigan, in 2008.  This leaves the Beach Bums with a record 54 home games in 2008.

See you at the ballpark!

Keep checking back over the next few weeks - the announcements on player moves should be fast and furious as contracts continue to trickle in and deals become finalized.

GO BEACH BUMS!