Saturday, February 7, 2015

Thunder Announce First Round of Promotions for 2015 Season

Press Release Header



Press Release:

2015 promises to be a fun-filled summer at ARM & HAMMER Park and your Thunder are proud to announce many of the great giveaways and promotions that fans will enjoy this season.

26 fireworks shows, 26 entrance giveaways, and much more highlight the first round of promotions announced by the Thunder today.

Spring Baseball starts on Opening Night when the first 2,500 fans, ages 18 and older, will receive Opening Night Welcome Mats presented by ARM & HAMMER. The opening homestand, April 16-22, will also feature two magnetic schedule giveaways (Friday, April 17 and Monday, April 20) presented by MCIA, Kids Replica Brett Gardner Jerseys presented by TD Bank (Sunday, April 19), fireworks on Saturday, April 18 and our first Education Day at 10:30 am on Wednesday, April 22.

The Thunder help kick off the summer with Family Fun Weekend from Friday, May 1 through Sunday, May 3. Fans can purchase four tickets, four hot dogs, four popcorns and four sodas for just $48 for any of the three games during Family Fun Weekend when individual game tickets go on sale on March 14. The Kids Zone will also be completely free for all kids ages 12 and under. Sunday, May 3rd the first 1,000 fans, ages 5-15, will receive Boomer Mini Bats to help celebrate Boomer's birthday. When the Thunder host Erie on Tuesday, May 5th, the first 1,000 fans ages 18 and older will receive Thunder sombreros in celebration of Cinco De Mayo.

Baseball card fans will get their chance to receive Thunder Team Card Sets on Friday, May 15, courtesy of Verizon Wireless. The first 1,500 fans ages 6 and over through the gate will get the 2015 commemorative card set.

Sundays at ARM & HAMMER Park will provide additional opportunities for kids to take home Thunder giveaways. Kids T-shirts (May 17), Drawstring Bags (May 31) and Batting Helmets, presented by St. Lawrence Rehabilitation Center (June 7) will be given away to the first 1,000 fans through the gate; ages 5-15.  Also returning for the 2015 season is Kids Run the Bases presented by TD Bank following every Sunday 1pm and 5pm game.

Bobbleheads remain popular with Thunder fans as collectables that honor outstanding players that dressed in a Thunder uniform. The first bobblehead giveaway will take place on Friday, July 24 when fans will receive a CC Sabathia bobblehead, presented by TD Bank. On Wednesday, August 5, Thunder fans will have their second opportunity of the season to receive a special bobblehead doll when fans will receive Dellin Betances bobbleheads, presented by Hyundai. The Thunder will also distribute a bobblehead (player TBD) on Friday, September 4, presented by Verizon Wireless. All bobblehead giveaways are for the first 2,000 fans, ages 14 and older.

Your Thunder are a proud affiliate of the New York Yankees and fans will have a great chance to catch up on former Thunder players when the first 1,000 fans ages 6 and over through the gate on Tuesday, June 30 will take home the latest edition of Yankees Magazine.

July 10-12 is Beach Weekend at ARM & HAMMER Park and the Thunder will help you enjoy the great weather by giving the first 2,000 fans, ages 6 and older, Thunder sunglasses on Friday, July 10. On Saturday, July 11 the first 1,000 fans, ages 18 and older will receive Cooler Bags and on Sunday, July 12 the first 1,000 fans ages 18 and older will receive Beach Towels, presented by ARM & HAMMER. Sunday, July 12 will also be a special day for kids, as the Thunder will give all fans ages 12 and under free ice cream!

The Thunder announced many of their 2015 theme nights including Star Wars Night (May the Fourth [Be With You]), Medical Professionals Night (May 14), Armed Forces Night (May 16), Girl Scout Night (May 19), Breast Cancer Awareness, featuring special pink jerseys that will be auctioned for charity and a pink hat giveaway to the first 1,500 women ages 18 and older, presented by RAI, (June 5), Irish Heritage Night (July 23), Scout Sleepovers (July 10 and July 24), Faith & Family Nights (June 6 and July 25), CrossFit Night (July 28), Visit Princeton Night presented by the Princeton Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau (August 15), Jewish Heritage Night (August 25) and Football Kickoff Night (September 2).

On Monday, July 27, the first 2,000 fans ages 6 and over will take home special Thunder Posters courtesy of White Eagle Printing when the Thunder host the Portland Sea Dogs.

Football Kickoff Night will give the first 1,000 fans, ages six and up, deflated footballs and encourage all fans to wear their favorite football jerseys to the game.

Friday, August 21 will give the first 1,500 kids ages 5-15 special Clocks in a Can, presented by NJEA, when the Thunder host the Richmond Flying Squirrels. "It's a clock that is in a can," Thunder GM Will Smith explained. "I've never seen anything like it."

2015 will also mark a landmark season with six nights of free food. All fans will get free hot dogs on April 18, April 19 and September 7. All fans will get free ice cream on June 10 and August 31. Kids, 12 and under, will get free ice cream on July 12 as part of our Beach Weekend.

The Thunder invite all dog lovers to bring their canines with them to the game twice in 2015. The first will be held on Wednesday, July 1 as part of our Batdog Celebration. Fans will have a second opportunity to bring their four-legged friends to the ballpark on Sunday, August 16 for Bark in the Park, presented by Dogs & Cats Rule, for a special 5:00 pm start.

The 2015 season will give fans great giveaway options when the Reading Fightin Phils come to town. When Reading visits ARM & HAMMER Park on Tuesday, June 16 the first 1,000 fans ages 14 and over will receive team socks. The first 1,000 fans ages 18 and over through the gate on Wednesday, June 17 will receive reversible bucket hats. The Fightin Phils return to ARM & HAMMER Park in early August and on Tuesday, August 4, the first 1,000 fans ages 6 and older will get special Handclappers.

Super Value Tuesdays are back for another season with every Tuesday night game featuring Kids Eat Free & $1 Dogs thanks to Black Bear Franks. Thirsty Thursdays will return on Thursday nights and fans can enjoy a great $2 beer special until the middle of the 5th inning.

All giveaways, promotions and event dates are subject to change.

Your Thunder, the Double-A Affiliate of the New York Yankees, will begin the 2015 season on April 9 in Erie against the Seawolves.  The first home game at ARM & HAMMER Park is on Thursday, April 16.  Season tickets, group outings, Pic-A-Plans, and Mini Plans are on sale now.  Single game tickets will go on sale on Saturday, March 14.  For more information about tickets, fans should call 609-394-3300 or visit trentonthunder.com.

Major League Baseball Considering Ending the Draft?


Yoan Moncada and his expected signing bonus is going to really shake up MLB’s International Free Agent spending limits and caps and may force the hand of MLB into an International Draft, eventually. This got Dave Cameron of Fangraphs.com thinking and he thinks he has come up with an idea to completely eliminate the MLB First Year Player’s Draft while enforcing firm and strict spending limits for each team. The amount the team has to spend would directly correlate with how much the team spends on payroll the year before so the more money you spend on payroll the less you can spend on the IFA market.

That works inside a bubble I guess until you have teams like the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies spending big and losing a lot in 2014 not getting the chance to achieve the “competitive balance” the draft is supposed to ensure. Obviously there are two sides to that story and the other side being, as we saw this offseason, that Boston is likely right back into the thick of things after shelling out major cash to free agents and in trades and not because of their farm system or international signings.

Anyway here is an excerpt from Cameron’s idea over at Fox Sports. Tell me what you think in the comments section of the site. Personally I think this is a little too progressive and far too far-fetched but what do I know, I just own a blog.

In his conversation with Ken Rosenthal last week, Commissioner Rob Manfred publicly supported such an idea, stating that his “long haul goal” would be “to get to an international draft.” With the big-money clubs blowing up the league’s system for signing young international free agents, an overhaul of the process is inevitable. But while the draft has become the de facto method for sports leagues to distribute incoming young talent — under the guise of competitive balance, but with the primary goal of holding down acquisition costs — I’d like to suggest that Major League Baseball go the other direction instead.
The logistics of incorporating international players into a draft are problematic, which is why baseball settled on its current recommended bonus system instead. And there is merit to the structure that the league created; if you have various spending allocations in place, you don’t actually need to go through the process of draft positions. The best players want the most money, so by simply creating a system where some teams have more money to spend than others, you can funnel incoming talent to certain types of teams even without handing out specific draft positions….

So what if there was no draft? Instead, what if we just lumped all new players — foreign or domestic — into a single acquisition system where each player was free to sigh with the team of his choice, only with firm spending caps in place to ensure that young talent flows more freely to clubs that can’t compete on major-league payroll alone? In other words, a team’s talent acquisition budget would be inversely tied to its major-league payroll; the more you spend on big leaguers, the less you get to spend on prospects, and vice versa.

Greedy Pinstripes Top 28 Prospects List: #22


Prospects Month is in full swing and we're already up to our 22nd best prospect in the farm system, Nick Rumbelow.

Here is the write up from Kyle McDaniel on Rumbelow:

Nick Rumbelow, RHP Video: Rumbelow has slowly improved since his days as a primarily fastball guy in relief at LSU. He sits 93-95 and hit 98 mph now, with an above average, short, hard-breaking curveball in the mid-80′s that’s very hard for hitters to pick up. It will look like a splitter or slider at times and gives hitters fits. He’s improved his command and pitchability and, at age 23 next year, should be in line for a big league audition, with a chance to reach his setup potential if his stuff plays against big league hitters as expected.

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22. Nick Rumbelow
23. Jose Ramirez
24. Ramon Flores
25. Gosuke Katoh
26. Chasen Shreve
27. Taylor Dugas
28. Johnny Barbato

Meet a Prospect: Nathan Eovaldi


Nathan Edward Eovaldi was born on February 13, 1990 and has spent time in his major league career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Miami Marlins and is now a New York Yankees player. Eovaldi was traded along with first baseman Garrett Jones for the Yankees Martin Prado and David Phelps on Friday so we will do what we always do by introducing you to the newest member of the Yankees family.

Eovaldi was drafted by the Dodgers in the 11th round of the 2008 MLB First year Player’s Draft out of Alvin High School. Eovaldi was expected to go much higher than the 11th round before a Tommy John Surgery in his junior season dramatically hurt his draft stock. Eovaldi was not long for the Dodgers system as he made his major league debut on August 6, 2011 as the starting pitcher against the Arizona Diamondbacks pitching five innings and allowing two runs while striking out seven batters. This was all without mentioning getting a single in his first major league at bat and coming around to score a run for the icing on a spectacular debut in the show. Eovaldi was back in the minors to begin the 2012 season before coming up mid-season to make 10 starts posting a 1-6 record with a 4.15 ERA.

On July 25, 2012 Eovaldi was traded along with pitcher Scott McGough to the Miami Marlins for Hanley Ramirez and Randy Choate. Eovaldi had another spectacular debut for his new team beating the San Diego Padres on July 28. Eovaldi started 12 games for Miami posting a 3-7 record with a 4.43 ERA for a combined 4-13 record in 22 starts with a 4.30 ERA, 1.51 WHIP, 47 walks and 78 K’s in 119.1 IP. Eovaldi would post

Welcome to New York Nathan. You have some shoes to fill in the fans eyes in the absence of Mr. Phelps. Good luck and welcome to the family.



Looking at the 2015 Draft: 22nd Best Prospect



Continuing our look at the 2015 MLB First Year Players Draft we take a look at the #22 ranked prospect expected to enter the draft. As always we will include the mini scouting report from MLB.com as we introduce the #22 prospect, Chris Betts. Betts is a catching prospects from Wilson High School in California. 

Here is the write up from MLB.com:

Scouting grades: Hit: 55 | Power: 60 | Run: 20 | Arm: 55 | Field: 45 | Overall: 50

Wilson High in Long Beach, Calif., has a richer history than most prep programs, boasting a Hall of Famer (Bob Lemon), another player deserving of Cooperstown consideration (Bobby Grich), a No. 1 overall pick and MVP (Jeff Burroughs), 14 big leaguers and four first-round picks (most recently, Aaron Hicks). As a potential catcher with power and arm strength, Betts could become Wilson's fifth first-rounder.

Regardless of what position he plays, Betts has one of the more interesting high school bats in the 2015 class. He makes hard contact from the left side of the plate and has above-average power potential. The Tennessee recruit repeatedly delivered extra-base hits and some of the hardest-hit balls at the top events on the showcase circuit during the summer.

Betts' pure arm strength also grades as a plus, though a long release and a lack of quickness mean he doesn't always get the most out of it. He'll always be a below-average runner, but he impressed scouts by showing up in better shape for the World Wood Bat Association World Championship in October. That should help in his efforts to improve his receiving and mobility behind the plate.

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22. Chris Betts
23. James Kaprielian
24. Jake Lemoine
25. Beau Burrows
26. Richie Martin
27. Kyle Tucker
28. D.J. Stewart

ICYMI: Aaron Judge 15th Best Prospect In Florida State League


Baseball America continued their look at every league in the minor leagues and ranked the Florida State League this week. The New York Yankees had one player make the list and that was outfielder Aaron Judge who was ranked 15th. In case you were wondering the High-A Tampa Yankees play in the Florida State League. Also Luis Severino did not throw enough innings to qualify for the list or would have been a slam dunk at or near the top of the list.

Eric Jagielo, Greg Bird, and Jake Cave were notable Yankee omissions from the list. The Pirates RHP Tyler Glasnow took home the top spot honors while Phillies shortstop JP Crawford was second and the Blue Jays LHP Daniel Norris was third on the list.

Cashman confident in Yankees' rotation's abilities; Says team is not going to pursue Shields

The Yankees' starting rotation is no doubt littered with question marks right now, but team GM Brian Cashman apparently still believes in its talents.

Speaking during an appearance on WFAN Friday, Cashman expressed confidence that veteran arms Masahiro Tanaka and CC Sabathia will be able to help out the Yankees notably this season -- an opinion that doesn't seem to be shared by most after the two's respective injuries in 2014. 

Sabathia -- whose knee issue kept him out from May 11 on last year -- could experience recurring problems due to said issue throughout the remainder of his playing days, as is the case with Tanaka and his bad arm.

But Cashman nonetheless thinks the duo will be back to their old ways come April, and expects much of Sabathia in particular. 

"I don't know if we're going to see the No. 1 or 2 [stuff], but we do expect to get the 200 innings and high-end pitchability," Cashman said of the lefty. "If we can get him healthy and keep him healthy, I think he's going to be a positive for us."

Sabathia underwent arthroscopic surgery July 23, ending his season in a strangely favorable way.

Had Sabathia been forced to have microfracture surgery instead, his career might have been in danger -- something that would have cost the Yankees greatly on their investment in him. Sabathia, 34, is still owed $50 million over the last two years of his contract -- though 2017 does include the option of a $5 million buyout.

As for Tanaka, his partial tearing of his right UCL last summer also gave the Yankees reason to worry, but again, Cashman's staying optimistic.

"He finished the season as a healthy player," Cashman said. "He wasn't prescribed any different regimen because of what happened last year. He went back to his normal program, throwing routine, rest routine, because he was considered a healthy player. There was no more rehab necessary."

It was the hope of some Yankees fans Sabathia and Tanaka would soon be joined up by former Royals ace James Shields when reports came out of the club's rumored interest in the right-hander earlier this week, but after the last couple of days, that no longer looks to be the case. Shields is said to have a high asking price, and the Yankees have been hesitant to spend at all this winter. 

Cashman himself confirmed the new development. 

"The dialogue always continues, but the heavy lifting for right now is over," Cashman said.

This Day in New York Yankees History 2/7: Joe D Gets Paid


On this day in 2014 Alex Rodriguez dropped two separate lawsuits against Major League Baseball over his season long suspension over steroids and his link to Biogenesis. Rodriguez was one of 14 players suspended due to the investigation but was the only player to contest his penalty which led to the record setting suspension.

Also on this day in 1949 New York Yankees outfielder Joe DiMaggio becomes the first American League player to make at least $100,000 for a season. Hank Greenberg was the first player to reach the six figure mark after the Pittsburgh Pirates gave him the deal in 1947 after the Detroit Tigers waived him. The Yankees haven't stopped spending big since.