It’s been an eventful couple of weeks in baseball’s official off-season, where Oakland has made numerous changes, in
their minor leagues, with their coaching staff in the show, and have made updates to their 40-man roster.

First, let’s get to the minor league changes.

A handful of ex-Canadians have been let go by Oakland, and now those players, if they want to continue as professionals, must join Independent Leagues.

Oakland handed pink slips to 10 players recently, and 7 of which had played for Vancouver.

Those players are RHP Brent Lysander (2007), RHP Edgar Tejeda, LHP Fabian Gomez, and C Julio Rivera (2007 and 2008), as well as LHP Branden Dewing (2006) and Francisco Tirado and Mike Lissman who both played in Vancouver this season.

The most surprising, in my opinion, is Rivera, who improved dramatically from 2007 to 2008.  The stats may not show it, but Rivera turned into a very good player in Vancouver, and was a fan favourite as well.  All the best to him.

Lysander pitched briefly in 2008 with Vancouver, but spent all of ‘07 with the C’s, 28 years after his dad played for the original Triple-A C’s.  The tall RHP pitched well with Kane County this season.

Tejeda had a reputation of giving up the long ball, and was used in mop up roles almost exclusively this year, after a lone start in 2007 before being sent down to Arizona. 

Gomez was one of my favourite players personally over the last two years, always signing autographs for fans after the games, and had a fun personality with the C’s within the clubhouse.  Here’s hoping he plays Indy ball.

Tirado was picked up by Oakland after playing for the Cubs System a few years back, and the Puerto Rican was caught in a numbers game, where Ryne Jernigan, Jason Christian, Dusty Coleman, Marcos Luis and Leo Gil all had to find playing time in the middle infield.

Lissman was a back-to-back NCAA Champion with Oregon State, and was known for the long ball in Vancouver.  The southpaw didn’t have the best average, but still managed to pound the crap out of the ball this summer.

Dewing played for Vancouver back in 2006, and dominated the Midwest League in the two years after that, but struggled in the hitter-friendly California League.  Dewing had an ERA below 0.50 with the Cougars in ‘07 and ‘08 combined.

All the best to these gentleman.

               Coaching Staff Announced for 2009 Season

Manager Rick Magnante is returning for his 4th season with Vancouver, and Magnante, being my all-time favourite Short-Season C’s manager, couldn’t be a better fit.  His knowledge of the game has given him awards for his Scouting, and he is Manager of the South Africa Baseball Team that will compete at the WBC in March.  All the best to him next Spring.

Pitching Coach Craig Lefferts has suffered health issues over the last two years, but he will return for his 4th season in Vancouver as well, and Lefty is one of the most respected minor league coaches in Baseball.  It’ll be a treat to see him back at the Nat.

The new Hitting Coach is a familiar face, ex-Canadian Casey Myers, who originally played in Vancouver in 2001, and then in 2006 during a rehab assignment. 

               Ex-Canadian managing Mariners

From the Canadians website:

(Seattle, Washington – Courtesy, Seattle Times) - By any definition, by
any complicated Sabermetric formula, by any standard ever set in the
sport, the Mariners were a disaster last season.
This was the most disappointing team in baseball. A bust. A mess. And everybody in the game knew it.
Don Wakamatsu knew it. He knew about the troubles in the clubhouse. He
heard about the ruckus in the room when one of the Mariners players
wanted to go after Ichiro.

He heard about the bad vibes and the bad chemistry, because gossip swirls around baseball like a 5-4-3 double play.

So, even though the new Mariners manager Wakamatsu was diplomatic at
Wednesday afternoon’s introductory news conference, he knows the
problems existed. And he knows they have to be fixed.

Too much nonsense happened with the 2008 Mariners. For the new Mariners manager, changing the clubhouse culture is Job One.

"He [Wakamatsu] wasn’t here, nor was I," new general manager Jack
Zduriencik said after the news conference. "But what I’m hoping the
players hear right now is, ‘Be ready for spring training. Be ready to
go. If you have any issues, make sure you’ve taken care of those
issues. More than anything else, this is a new chapter and we’re
starting fresh.’ "

Check out the site later in the week, for complete 2009 schedules for the C’s and UBC Thunderbirds.