The La Crosse Loggers baseball club announced their first player signing of the off-season today and it came in the form of a very familiar face to baseball fans of the La Crosse area. University of Minnesota sophomore, and La Crosse Central High alum, Bobby Juan will be returning for his second season in 2012 team officials announced today.
La Crosse Logger officials announced that Andy McKay will return to manage the club in 2012, which will be his fifth and final season in the Copeland Park dugout.
Former Waterloo Bucks infielder Clint Barmes signed a free agent deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday. Barmes (pronounced BAR-mus), who played with Waterloo in 1999 and 2000, signed a two-year deal worth $10.5 million, making the 32-year-old middle infielder currently Pittsburgh's highest-paid player going into next year.
The Mankato MoonDogs announced that Field Manager Mike Orchard (Central Arizona) will return to the MoonDogs for his fourth season in the summer of 2012. Orchard has been a mainstay at the helm of the MoonDogs for the last three seasons after stops in the Arizona Collegiate League, the Cape Cod League and two stops in the Northwoods League as an assistant coach.
The Rochester Honkers Baseball Club announced that left-handed pitcher Matt Strahm, from Neosho County Community College (KS) will return to the Rochester Honkers next summer.
The Northwoods League on Tuesday added a seventh team in the state of Wisconsin with the unveiling of the Lakeshore Chinooks. The 2012 expansion team will make its home at Concordia University in Mequon, a northern suburb of Milwaukee. The team's ownership group consists of several individuals, including Milwaukee baseball celebrities Robin Yount and Bob Uecker.
The Rochester Honkers Baseball Club announced today that pitcher Kevin Johnson (pictured top) and infielder/pitcher Reid Roper (bottom) will return to the Rochester Honkers next summer. Both are from the University of Illinois Fighting Illini and are the first two signed for the 2012 season.
For the second consecutive night Allen Craig delivered a pinch-hit, go-ahead RBI single in the late innings for the St. Louis Cardinals against the Texas Rangers in the 2011 World Series. The 27-year-old Craig, who spent two summers in the Northwoods League with the Alexandria Beetles, is in his second season with the Cardinals.
The Rochester Honkers Baseball Club announced the hiring of Zach Etheredge, Volunteer Assistant from the University of California at Santa Barbara as their new field manager for the 2012 season. Etheredge, a former farmhand with the Chicago White Sox, becomes the Honkers 11th Field Manager since their inaugural season of 1994. He brings with him JR Voyles, who spent time with the NY Mets organization.
Seventeen Northwoods League alumni are spending the next several weeks in the Arizona Fall League, often one of the stepping stones to a career in Major League Baseball. The list of 17 includes one current Major Leaguer, one former first-round draft choice and two umpires.
