hawaii winter baseball

by wackomann on Sep 23, 2007 9:19 PM PDT

Another year of Hawaii Winter Baseball is upon us. At least it is for those who are in the vicinity. I happen to live on Oahu, where a bulk of these games are being played.

Last year, five Mariner farmhands played in the league: David Asher, Joe Woerman, Reed Eastley, Sebastien Boucher, and Jeff Clement. All five played for the Waikiki BeachBoys team. The player access is incredible, and even I was able to get Clement's autograph, which was "good fun, brah," as a local might say. I even got to see Boucher before he was traded away so we could be a part of The John Parrish Experience.

Anyway, the rosters for the four teams are here...
-- Waikiki BeachBoys
-- West Oahu CaneFires
-- North Shore Honu
-- Honolulu Sharks

Four Mariner farmhands are coming, all playing for Waikiki. They are Aaron Jensen, Harold Williams, Michael Wilson, and Josh Womack. As luck would have it, exactly zero of these guys are on the Future Forty.

Since I'm not the badassest guy when it comes to minor-league knowledge, please feel free to peruse those rosters and tell me who I should look out for, since I have the feeling if I'm just going to see those four Mariner farmhands, I won't be seeing much.

Thanks to all.

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FAMILY WARRIOR GOES TO HAWAII!

Good for Harold Williams. I hope, if he can't get some good work in, that he at least gets some good loco moco.

Jensen and Harold Williams are relievers, though Williams may start. Wilson is a hacktastic outfielder with power, and Womack is like his namesake Tony, except without the talent. He's a speedy OF.

by Gomez on Sep 23, 2007 9:32 PM PDT reply actions

food

The only real local food I've become attached to is the chili nachos from Zippy's. They're my designated Sunday post-football meal.

Sports and Bremertonians. Because we can.

by wackomann on Sep 23, 2007 11:04 PM PDT up reply actions

Not a great lineup

Dan Bard, Jeff Bianchi, Austin Jackson, and Brett Sinkbeil were notable prospects who have fallen off a bit due to injuries or down years.

by G_ on Sep 23, 2007 9:57 PM PDT reply actions

Yeah, not a lot of names

Though the Dodgers sent quite a few guys from their Inland Empire roster and I recognize some guys from Modesto and the San Jose Giants from when I covered them in the wrap-ups, but it's mostly east coast minor league guys. Every team also has a handful of NPB prospects.

by Gomez on Sep 23, 2007 10:05 PM PDT up reply actions

marinerd

This is where I hope Deanna is reading the posts; I'm hoping she chimes in about the NPB guys.

Sports and Bremertonians. Because we can.

by wackomann on Sep 23, 2007 11:05 PM PDT up reply actions

You could email me, you know

Uh, to be perfectly honest I actually don't know that much about most of the NPB kids who are going -- they're almost all minorleaguer types, most of whom were drafted in 2005 or 2006. The two Fighters guys were, at least -- Icebreaker can tell you a LOT about Ken Miyamoto, given that he went to Waseda (I think Ice even got his autograph at a game there).

Much like Kanehisa Arime was the Rakuten guy to watch last year at the HWL, I would say Shingo Matsuzaki is one to keep an eye on this year. He used to have a whole lot of potential but from what I understand he's struggled this year being shifted around a lot. I haven't seen him this year, though, so I dunno.

I've heard that Takumi Kobe is badass, but I forget where I heard that.

I watched the Dragons beat the Giants tonight! WOOOOOOOOhooo.

by Deanna on Sep 24, 2007 8:18 AM PDT up reply actions

yay!

Thank you, Deanna. Oddly, I had a weird feeling that any email I sent would have ended up in a Spam bin or something. Then I thought of dropping in on the last comment box, but it would have been totally off-topic and out of place. Now where is the Iceman? He's already given us the Towel, so anything more is just icing on the cake.

Sports and Bremertonians. Because we can.

by wackomann on Sep 24, 2007 9:39 PM PDT up reply actions

It's not THAT bad

I know Bard had a bad year, but he's still got a hell of a lot of talent. Same sort of a deal for Mark Melancon.
And Matt Wieters and Angel Salome will be fun to watch, too.

Someone's gonna come from nowhere to really make an impression. Last year it was Rick Vanden Hurk, who's now starting for the Fish. Arime kicked ass too. The talent level will never match the AFL, but that's because these guys are from the low minors. But watching some of the recent draft picks should be fun.

by marc w on Sep 24, 2007 9:43 AM PDT up reply actions