Minor League Baseball: Thankfully, not the big leagues

Watching the Sacramento River Cats isn’t like going to a Giants or A’s game – and that’s a good thing.

There’s nothing like the minor leagues, especially at the AAA level played by the hometown River Cats. Players in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) are as close to the Big Leagues and that big time money and fame as you can get. Fans in Sacramento waited more than 20 years for professional baseball to return before the Cats arrived in 2000, and were rewarded with being the top farm club for a franchise that’s a mere 100 miles away. That means you can watch a River Cats player at cozy Raley Field, then follow him to the highest level once he hits Oakland. Another local bonus is that Stockton is home of Oakland’s Single A team.

So sit back, or wander around the grandstand of beautiful Raley Field on a perfect summer night with a beer and bag of peanuts in hand, keeping a few things in mind:

Did the River Cats win? Who cares!
While it’s a lot of fun to see the River Cats play well and pound the opposition, especially if you’re an Oakland A’s fan, that’s not really the point of the minor leagues. There’s just too much player movement during the course of a minor league season to realize any sort of “team” concept. Feel blessed that in Sacramento the A’s organization of “Money Ball” fame yearly provides us with quality players. Fans have responded by making Sacramento one of the minor’s top draws. But does it really matter if they win or lose? Not really. What matters most are the almost 200 former River Cats players dotting MLB rosters. That group includes an American League Cy Young Award that went to Barry Zito, two AL Rookie of the Year winners – Eric Hinske and Bobby Crosby – as well as numerous others who have put together impressive careers, including Andre Ethier, Mark Ellis, Gio Gonzalez, Mark Belhorn, Eric Byrnes, Nick Swisher, and Hudson Street, to name just a few. You go to games at Raley Field so you can proudly say “I saw him when . . . “, not to watch a victory. Frankly, the players aren’t focused on if they win or lose – except maybe pitchers who carry that won/loss record everywhere they go. Players at Raley Field to generally fall into one of these categories:

A’s Prospects
Players for any minor league team are put there by the organization they represent, and the organization’s purpose is to prepare a player for the next step. Hungry prospects are the reason the minors are so exciting, and have a completely different vibe than the MLB. Last season was fantastic for both A’s and River Cats fans. Several of the players that helped lead the A’s to their magical AL West title run made a pit stop or two here at some point. The minors are essentially a numbers game, with too many good players for an MLB roster that is capped at 25 during the regular season.

One example: This year Sacramento has been able to again see pitcher Dan Straily, Oakland’s No. 2-rated prospect, who led all of professional baseball in strikeouts last year. Straily, however, is the A’s No. 6 starter in a five-man rotation, and as a result gets regularly yanked between the two teams. In 2012, Straily was with the A’s from mid-August on, and helped win some big games. He started this season with Oakland, beat the Houston Astros on April 6 – striking out 11 in less than seven innings – then was shipped back to Sacramento the next day when starter Bartolo Colon came off the disabled list. On April 29, he was back up to start against the Angels in what turned out to be an epic 10-8, 19-inning A’s win that was decided when former River Cat Brandon Moss hit a walk-off homer. Such is life in the minor leagues. Sacramento fans certainly benefit from that bumpy road to stardom.

River Cats fans will see a stadium full of talent all season. There are five first-round draft picks on the River Cats roster – veteran infielder Jemile Weeks, who already has 850 at bats in the majors, (brother of Milwaukee’s Rickie Weeks), outfielder Michael Choice, utility player Grant Green, and pitchers Sonny Gray and James Simmons.

Don’t Just Focus on the River Cats
Every team in the PCL playing in Sacramento has a major league organization feeding them players. Fresno (San Francisco Giants), Albuquerque (Los Angeles Dodgers), and Reno (Arizona Diamondbacks) are just a few of the more popular examples. Those teams will all come through Sacramento during 2013. For fans of the parent club, it’s a rare chance to see stars before they become stars. It’s no wonder Raley Field is packed with Giants fans every time the Fresno Grizzlies arrive. Many still remember Buster Posey playing here with Fresno (and in Stockton in 2009) the spring he went on to lead the Giants to a 2010 World Series title, earning Rookie of the Year in the process. Angels’ phenom Mike Trout played a series in Reno last year before he was called up, where he had an MVP-caliber season. And, as a Dodgers fan, I still not-so-fondly remember the time Brandon Belt made a 2011 weekend appearance for Fresno here where he couldn’t buy a base hit. Then a couple of days later, after being called up, he thumped the Dodgers with a home run and a couple of RBIs. Earlier this season, I caught a noon game at Raley Field and saw Arizona’s top-rated prospect, Tyler Skaggs, pitch against the River Cats. Those moments make watching the minor leagues a unique experience.

Thank the River Cats for making it easy to keep track of all the top PCL prospects, through the free program handed out at Raley Field each game. The program includes a list of every PCL team and top 10 prospects. Oakland’s top-rated prospect, by the way, is Addison Russell, who’s playing up the road in Stockton. Look for him in Sacramento soon.

Veteran Players
Every level of the minors will benefit during the season from a veteran player or two appearing in a few games, usually because of an injury rehab assignment. Second-year sensation Yoenis Cespedes, coming off a hand injury, played three games for the River Cats in late April and hit a 3-run homer. The Sunday after his rehab assignment ended, Cespedes hit a huge home run keying an Oakland victory. Keep on top of who’s rehabbing and you can often see an elite player, both pitchers and position players, in Sacramento.

Then there are the guys looking for that last shot with an organization before calling it a career. F.P. Santangelo, who grew up in Sacramento, was with several teams during his career – including the Giants and Dodgers. He finished with the River Cats and is now an announcer for the Washington Nationals. And who can forget the colorful Manny Ramirez, a sure Hall of Famer if not for a pesky PED problem, playing a number of games for the River Cats last season while trying to make a comeback. Oakland later released Manny before he played for the A’s, and he was last seen playing this spring in a Taiwanese league.

You Can’t Beat the View
With a capacity of about 14,000, Raley Field is one of the larger AAA parks (Reno’s capacity, in comparison, is 9,100). However, that’s still 30,000 seats less than an average MLB ballpark, yet virtually every seat at Raley would cost you at least a hundred bucks at AT&T in San Francisco. Plus, the view’s much better. Whether you’re in a seat, lounging on the grass, or walking around, you’re extremely close to the players. Getting one to toss you a ball or securing an autograph, especially if you’re a kid, is easy. At a recent sparsely attended day game, one young girl sitting along the dugout with her father went home with four baseballs.

The seat attendants at a Rivers Cats game are very accommodating about allowing folks to move into empty seats, especially past the halfway point of a ballgame. Attendants were much stricter at a game I attended in Reno earlier this year. Then again, the Reno Aces charge $10 for a general admission seat, as opposed to Sacramento’s $8, but Reno has tables along the stadium concourse facing the action where you can comfortably place a beer or food while watching the game. That means you’re not anchored to your seat and you feel freer to move around the ballpark. That’s a great idea I wish Raley Field would adopt.

The Sacramento River Cats and Raley Field are now a vital part of our region’s landscape. It’s impossible to think of a Sacramento summer without taking in a minor league ballgame. We’ve got the weather, a great ballpark, and an organization that believes in stocking a strong minor league system. Take advantage, and you’ll enjoy watching the MLB up the road even more.