The Original Lugnuts
Here’s enough information to begin to assess the team assigned to Lansing. I imagine I’ll revise this page again, but this is the core information I expect it to carry. Important: Most of these players were members of short-season leagues last summer, and the pitchers were on strict pitch limits. Keep this in mind when you try to interpret the numbers.
Making predictions from the sketchy information I’m providing here is pretty silly, but it looks like a fairly decent team; some good hitters, some excellent pitchers. Better to actually watch the players, though, than to try to guess what the numbers mean. If the Royals could reliably make predictions about these guys from these numbers, the minors would be very different. What happens next is what matters now, and that’s why these players are wearing ditzy bolts on their caps.
Are any of them “prospects”? I dunno. All of them are physically capable of astonishing things. By that definition, all are prospects. Probably the best of them is at least three years from the majors, and three years is a long time when you’re twenty. Watch them play, and judge for yourself. I’ll have opinions by June, and I’m likely to tell them, but you’re not required to agree.
For now we just need some decent weather.
joel
Pitchers
## Name Age B/T 1995 IP ERA Won Lost Saves SO
34 Justin Adam 21 R/R Spokane 49 5.29 3 4 1 35
24 Manuel Bernal 19 R/R GCL 33 1.36 3 0 0 25
37 Brent Kaysner 21 L/R Spokane 35 1.56 0 2 4 37
4 Scott Key 19 R/R GCL 28 2.57 1 2 2 34
9 Louis Matos 17 R/R ????? [he's real young, and Puerto Rican]
18 Blaine Mull 19 R/R Springfield 125 4.88 4 10 0 71
26 Jason Ritter 21 R/R GCL 4 0.00 0 0 1 2
Spokane 34 3.21 3 1 0 29
Springfield 12 12.34 1 0 0 12
29 Michael Robbins 22 L/L Spokane 27 2.33 1 3 0 16
Springfield 40 4.50 2 3 0 26
38 Craig Sanders 23 S/R Spokane 46 1.94 3 1 3 32
14 Jose Santiago 21 R/R Spokane 49 3.14 2 4 1 32
35 Todd Thorn 19 L/L GCL 47 3.23 4 2 0 58
28 Modesto Villarreal 20 R/R Spokane 81 2.90 8 2 0 57
33 Jeffrey Wallace 19 L/L GCL 44 1.23 5 3 1 51
Catchers
## Name Age B/T 1995 Avg HR RBI SB
17 Pat Hallmark 22 R/R Spokane .304 4 25 5
32 Juan Robles 24 R/R GCL .162 0 7 0
Spokane .000 0 0 0
25 Matt Treanor 20 R/R Springfield .185 3 19 1
Infielders
## Name Age B/T 1995 Avg HR RBI SB 27 Doug Blosser 19 L/R GCL .255 7 33 0 30 Jose Cepeda 21 R/R GCL .348 0 21 2 21 Gary Coffee 21 R/R GCL .328 11 45 2 22 Emiliano Escandon 21 S/R Spokane .318 1 12 1 13 Carlos Febles 19 R/R GCL .282 3 20 16 7 Mark Melito 24 R/R Spokane .250 3 20 2
Outfielders
## Name Age B/T 1995 Avg HR RBI SB 6 Carlos Beltran 18 S/R GCL .278 0 23 5 11 Adam Finnieston 23 R/R Spokane .237 0 4 0 12 Mark Quinn 20 R/R Spokane .284 6 37 0 8 Juan Rocha 22 R/R Springfield .233 10 41 5 23 Brett Schafer 22 R/R Spokane .195 1 19 11
Field Staff
Manager: Brian Poldberg (#38)
Coaches: Mike Mason (#31) (pitching)
Curtis Wilkerson (#19)
Trainer: Jeff Stevenson
Disabled List
Ritter and Schafer
The Lugnuts had actually played their first game the night before, a 9-5 loss to the Rockford Cubbies in extra innings. And in miserable weather–what I remember about the game is the weather, not the score.
I came back from the game with the roster, and posted it. I kept revising this page in 1996, as promised above, but shan’t do that here in the repost–particularly since I didn’t keep the serial revisions. I will post a final roster in September. And I did note roster changes in the blog posts.
I was wrong about “three years from the majors,” though. Wally was pitching for Pittsburgh the next year.
In the event you’ve just stumbled onto this entry, here’s an explanation of what I’m up to.