Beloit Snappers

Beloit Snappers
Founded in 1982
Beloit, Wisconsin
Team logoCap insignia
Class-level
Current Class A
Minor league affiliations
League Midwest League
Division Western Division
Major league affiliations
Current Oakland Athletics (2013–present)
Previous

Minnesota Twins (2005–2012)

Milwaukee Brewers (1982–2004)
Minor league titles
League titles (1) 1995
Division titles (1) 2007
Team data
Nickname Beloit Snappers (1995–present)
Previous names
 Beloit Brewers (1982–1994)
Colors green, navy blue, & yellow
              
Mascot Snappy D. Turtle
Ballpark Harry C. Pohlman Field
Owner(s)/
Operator(s)
 Beloit Professional Baseball Association
Manager Fran Riordan
General Manager Dennis Conerton

The Beloit Snappers are a Class A minor league baseball team affiliated with the Oakland Athletics,[1] that plays in the Midwest League and is based in Beloit, Wisconsin.[2] The Snappers play their home games at Harry C. Pohlman Field at Telfer Park; built in 1982, the franchise attendance record of 10,127 was set in 1986.

Beloit joined the Midwest League as an expansion franchise in 1982. The club was a Milwaukee Brewers farm team from its inception through 2004. Beloit switched to the Minnesota Twins' farm system for the 2005 season. The organization adopted the Snappers nickname in 1995 after using its parent team's nickname for its first 13 seasons. The name derives from the snapping turtle, because Beloit was formerly known as Turtle Village and there is still a Turtle Creek and a town of Turtle. All of these are named for a turtle-shaped Indian mound on the campus of Beloit College.

The 2003 team included two sons of former major league players. Prince Fielder, the son of former American League home run champion Cecil Fielder and Tony Gwynn, Jr., son of Tony Gwynn. Future major leaguer Danny Valencia played for the 2007 team. Another noted Major Leaguer, Jim Morris of The Rookie fame played for the Beloit Brewers when he came out of college in the 1980s. Other former Snappers players who moved on to Major League ball include Greg Vaughn, Geoff Jenkins, Jeff D'Amico, Ron Belliard, and Ben Sheets. Minnesota Twins players that have come through include Matt Garza and Kevin Slowey.

After the Milwaukee Brewers withdrew their affiliation with Beloit due to the lack of a new stadium, efforts were started to build one similar to facilities used by the Rockford RiverHawks or the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. One possible scenario involved construction on a site near Janesville, which could have included renaming the team to reflect a broader Rock County audience.[3] However, no new stadium was built and improvements, including redoing the entire field and repairing the concrete concourse, have been made to the existing site in recent years. After the 2012 season, the city of Beloit appropriated $100,000 in order to completely redo the outfield. The outfield was raised and leveled with the infield and a new sprinkler system was installed.[4][5]

Roster

Beloit Snappers roster
Players Coaches/Other

Pitchers

  • 31 Michael Fagan
  • 26 Heath Fillmyer
  • 32 Koby Gauna
  • 29 Ryan Gorton
  • 23 Daniel Gossett
  • 25 Brett Graves
  • 16 Rob Huber
  • 22 Kevin Johnson
  • 12 Lee Sosa
  • 28 Cody Stull
  •  7 Joey Wagman

Catchers

  • 13 Iolana Akau
  • -- Andy Paz
  • 37 Argenis Raga

Infielders

  •  8 Jose Brizuela
  • -- A.J. Kubala
  • 10 Max Kuhn
  • 35 Sandber Pimentel
  •  5 Tim Proudfoot
  •  3 Mikey White

Outfielders

  •  6 Joe Bennie
  • 19 Shawn Duinkerk
  • 18 Justin Higley

Manager

  • 33 Fran Riordan

Coaches


7-day disabled list
* On Oakland Athletics 40-man roster
# Rehab assignment
∞ Reserve list
‡ Restricted list
§ Suspended list
† Temporary inactive list
Roster updated November 23, 2015
Transactions
→ More MiLB rosters
→ Oakland Athletics minor league players

Notable alumni

Craig Breslow
Chris Parmelee with the Snappers in 2008
Milwaukee Brewers Players
Minnesota Twins Players
Danny Valencia (2012)

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beloit Snappers.
  1. ↑ Meisel, Zach. "A's make Beloit Snappers their Class A affiliate". Major League Baseball. Retrieved September 26, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Midwest League Teams". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Beloit Snappers". Archived from the original on August 1, 2008. Retrieved July 24, 2008.
  4. ↑ Zinck, Shaun (December 8, 2012). "Pohlman Field's Makeover Done". Beloit Daily News. Retrieved June 1, 2014.
  5. ↑ Zinck, Shaun (October 3, 2013). "Pohlman Field Work Nears Completion". Beloit Daily News. Retrieved June 1, 2014.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, January 25, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.