All Things Bubba

The minor league season started yesterday. Andy Phillips was ready. He started at 2B for the Indianapolis Indians, and went 3 for 5 with a home run. The Indians fell to the Toledo Mud Hens, 16-5, but it certainly wasn't Andy's fault.

I've been trying to find out what happened to Bronson Sardinha. He was signed by the Detroit Tigers, and played in a few spring training games. He was not expected to make the roster, and didn't. He was assigned to the Double-A Eerie SeaWolves a week ago, but he's not on their roster. When I checked Minor League Baseball, he didn't have a team listed. His brother Dane is listed as being with the Tigers' AAA team, the Mud Hens, but Bronson is teamless.

This SeaWolves blog explains what happened. Sardinha was released, just a couple of days after he was assigned to Eerie. That strikes me as rather odd. He was signed in January, not that long ago. If it was a bad spring training performance that got him booted, wouldn't they have done it before setting the minor league rosters, rather than after? Did he have another "off the field mistake"? Or is this just a reflection of the new economic reality in baseball, where players who would surely have gotten jobs a few years ago are left waiting in vain for the phone to ring?

Dan Giese is one player who is still in demand. The Yankees were hoping to slip him through waivers and stash him Scranton, but it was not to be. He was claimed off waivers by Oakland, and will be playing for the Sacramento River Cats.

I've never seen a River Cats game, but I visited their field once. I was in West Sacramento for some reason. I can't remember if it was off-season, or if the River Cats were just on a road trip, but there were no games, or I'd have gone to one. I did check out the gift shop, which was open, and take a photo of the outside of the stadium.

Labels: Andy Phillips