basebllrcks

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Jun 12, 2011 -> 12:04 PM) When I lived in Utah every summer I'd go see Great Falls play in Orem, which incidentally has a nice ballpark with a great view of the mountains. My buddy and me always talked about taking a road trip to Great Falls. Now that I'm in Washington that's still not out of the question. I'd love to go and see some more Pioneer League baseball. I miss it! I've seen Great Falls play on the road so many times, I'd love to see 'em play at home. I've never been to a game in Orem, but from the pics I've seen and the people I've talked to, they've got one of the best views and atmosphere anywhere in baseball. I love it when the southern teams come through. After seeing the north teams every day, it's great seeing some different teams and players. Ok, maybe, just maybe, I got a bit defensive. Players start arriving to Great Falls today and i should know what players will be staying with me for the summer by Friday. Still snow in the mountains and finally baseball is going to get started.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jun 10, 2011 -> 11:23 AM) Nothing like starting the dream of becoming a professional baseball player, only to immediately get sent to Great Falls, Montana. Hey, what's with the dog on Great Falls. Great Falls is a great place to play and be assigned. Warm temps during the day, cool temps at night. None of those games played in 98% humidity and 105 temp. No sales tax for these guys to pay when they are here, that's a popular one I've heard lots of times. A great updated stadium to play in that is near capacity every night. Stays light out til 10:00 in the summer and we've got the best Fourth of July fireworks display which is always a home game cause we sell out every year! Small community where they are treated like pros and everybody knows their name, even if they are just rookies in the minors. There are a bunch of guys in this organization that started in Great Falls and I'd bet a case of Montana's finest beer, Great Falls Select, that every one has fond memories of their time in the Big Sky State!

Blanke is coming on after a slow start in Kannapolis. He started the season 2 for 18 the first four games of the season. Since then he's got a four game hit streak going 7 for 17 during that streak with a game winning home run worked in. No surprise on the game winning home run, Blanke as always been a clutch hitter in clutch situations.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 31, 2011 -> 08:15 AM) Great Falls is the one exception. it is also a half season rookie ball team. True, but still a White Sox minor league team.

The guy I keep following since he was at Great Falls is Terry Doyle. The guy flat out pounds the strike zone. He's a team leader in strikeouts and innings pitched every where he's been. He does give up some hits, but thats in large part due to the fact he's throwing strikes. The only place he hasn't average over a strikeout an inning was at Winston Salem last year, but he still finished with an average of 5 strikeouts per start. I know I'll be watching how he does this year.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 30, 2011 -> 06:20 PM) All of our minor league teams are within driving distance of each other, quite on purpose. You can drive from Kannapolis to Great Falls if you want, I'm flying. 2177 miles if you take I-94 which just so happens, takes you right through Chicago.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Sep 12, 2010 -> 02:07 AM) For the organization, yeah. I'm talking about you guys. It seems some of you really care if Great Falls or Winston-Salem wins their league title. Like will you order a 2010 Winston-Salem High A championship shirt? Oh my god. I busted out laughing typing that. To each their own. The minor leagues to me are nothing more then for player development. YES, if Great Falls wins the Pioneer league championship, I WILL go buy a GREAT FALLS VOYAGERS PIONEER LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SHIRT and probably a hat too! So put that in your pipe and smoke it!

The regular season is over in Great Falls, now off to the playoffs. GO VOYAGERS!!! Blanke finished the regular season second on the team in average at .329 second to Ryan Lee (.331) who moved to Kannapolis a couple weeks ago. Blanke finished first on the team in hits (79), 2B (20), HR (7), RBI (43), TB (122), & SLG% (.509). For the season Blanke batted .392 against left handed pitchers and .312 with runners on base. His stats did take a bit of a dip the last couple weeks, but we seem to see that quite often in Great Falls for first year players. Between college and short season, they put in equal to a full season for the first time. Overall a great rookie season for Blanke capped off with his MVP award and hopefully a Pioneer League Championship in a few days.

QUOTE (rowand's rowdies @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 11:22 AM) i think the twins problem is a 2 headed monster. 1) managing - gardenhire keeps that team believing in itself, makes the right moves, and doesn't overdo matchups. he also values hustle players, and hustle helps you make the other team make mistakes, leading to lucky wins. 2) farm system - our examples have been sale and beckham, look how much they helped our teams when they joined. young players energize the team and when they play well, they can really help. the twins consistently bring up quality prospects and fill them in spots they need. they just out manage and out depth our sox, but sometimes talent trumps and we win the division and/or world series. they haven't even gotten to a world series, so ill take our team. oops...Twins - World Series Champions in 87' and 91'. It's been a while, but they've been there. The reason they win close games and stat oddities, is cause they don't make mistakes. They make you beat them, they aren't going to help with stupid mistakes.

Solid defense is a huge reason for their success. You do not get very many extra outs against them. They rarely beat themselves, if a team gets a win against the Twins, it's because they won, not because the Twins gave up a game.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Sep 3, 2010 -> 05:01 PM) Just realized that Drew Lee was a postseason all-star in the Appy League from Bristol and that was it for the White Sox organization. Knights, Barons, Intimidators shut out. Great Falls probably will have some when the Pioneer League announces, but that's pretty bad. From Great Falls, C Michael Blanke and 3B Andy Wilkins selected to the Pioneer Leauge all-star team along with head coach Cris Cron.

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Sep 2, 2010 -> 09:23 PM) Ok. Second time you've said this now. Are you basing this opinion entirely on the numbers he is putting up as a 21 year old in rookie ball, or is there some glowing scouting report that I've missed? At this point all we've got is what he's done in Great Falls. I can tell you this, he's put up the best stats of any catcher that's been through Great Falls in quite some time. He is the only catcher in the farm system that is the leader on his teams batting stats. He should move up to Kannapolis next year and then we'll see. But right now, he's definately a younger prospect to keep an eye on.

Blanke won the Most Valuable Player for the 2010 Great Falls Voyagers and is the Pioneer League Allstar selection at catcher. They do not play an allstar game, so it's just an honorary selection. Two regular season games left, before the Voyagers start the playoffs. I'll post his final regular season stats Friday. Last nights game was a great curtain call for the newly selected MVP. Top of the 9th he held onto the ball for the third out on a throw from home and collision at home. Then knocked in the game winning run in the bottom of the ninth. Blanke has been very clutch this year producing time after time in clutch situations.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 4, 2010 -> 04:07 PM) So what happened? He hit 2 homers on July 26, and that was his last game. What's the injury? He broke his arm in an off the field altercation.

Voyagers finished up the first half of their season tonight. They clinched the Pioneer League Northern Div 1st half championship a couple nights ago. With that, they punched their ticket to the post season at the end of the season. As for Michael Blanke, he finished up the first half of the season 3rd on the team in average batting .321 and leads the team in home runs (6). He's also tied for second on the team in doubles (9) and RBI's (19). He's got 14 K's to 10 BB and holds a .563 slugging percentage, tops on the team. Blanke is still getting the majority of the starts at catcher and is often in the lineup as DH when not catching. Michael is putting up some of the best numbers we've seen out of a catcher in Great Falls in a few years.

Blanke caught in tonights game. Nothing exciting on the defensive side of things. Nobody stole on him and there were no plays at the plate. Blanke was potentialy robbed of a monster home run down the left field line in his first at bat. It was a tough call for the umpire because it cleared Centene Stadium way above the foul pole. My unofficial guess would put it at about a 420' shot. Regardless it went in the book as a foul ball. Blanke made up for it in his second at bat going for about 400' over the left field wall. Both shots were monsters right off the bat. With 5 games left til the halfway point of the season, Blanke's batting .319 and leading the Voyagers with 5 home runs and third on the team with 17 RBI. Blanke is getting most of the starts at catcher for the Voyagers with basically a 2-1-2-1 rotation with Rob Vaughn and Jose Ramos.

Full Name: Michael G. Blanke Born: 10/17/1988 Birthplace: Granby, QC College: Univ. of Tampa Height: 6' 4" Weight: 220 Bats: R Throws: R Drafted by the White Sox 14th Round (428 overall) in 2010 Draft. Current Team: Winston Salem Dash College Stats: Blanke played for Seton Hall University his freshman year. In 2008 he played in 13 games getting 4 RBI. Blanke's sophmore year was spent at St. Petersburg College. During his sophmore compaign he hit .329 with 10 home runs and 70 RBI. Yet another transfer for Blanke's Junior year, transfering to University of Tampa. Blanke hit .377 with 9 home runs and 65 RBI. Was selected as the tournament MVP for the NCAA Division II South Region.

I'd love to see Chase back in Great Falls as the starting catcher. He is a solid defensive catcher and I think his offense would come around if he got steady at bats. Last year and so far this year he hasn't seen any steady swings. He's my fav White Sox catcher, my kids threw out the opening pitch for a Voyagers game and Chase was the catcher. So he's the only pro catcher to catch my kids.

Here's another interesting prospect list for those watching players move up. This is the top five prospects coming out of Great Falls based on perfomance from last year. This is based on performance and my opinion, nothing more. I suspect these five will be moving up and I'll miss watching them. #1 Terry Doyle, RHP - 2.98 era, 75:15 K:BB ratio, 1.3 K p/inning. Finished season strong 1.17 era over his last five starts. #2 Brandon Kloess, RHP - 2.45 era, 72:17 K:BB ration, 1.2 K p/inning. Used mostly in relief, but had a 0.90 era in his two starts. #3 Nick Ciolli, OF - .317 BA, .483 slg %, 36:46 BB:K ratio. Lead Voyagers in HR and SB. Batted .394 in his last 10 games. Strong arm. #4 Matt Wickswatt LHP - .384 era, 91:14 K:BB ratio, 1.25 K p/inning. ERA a little high, but pounded the strike zone non stop. #5 Jordan Cheatham, OF - .330 BA, clutch hitter always seemed to get the big hit .339 with runners on base. Does a little of everything. Like I said, this is nothing more than my opinion from watching about 30 games last year. These guys were the ones that stood out.

I heard Thompson was going back to Great Falls next year to be the starting center fielder. Guess we'll know in about six months.

QUOTE (flavum @ Dec 3, 2009 -> 09:50 AM) http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/news/artic...sp&c_id=cws Not sure about the headline saying Thompson is on the fast track to the majors, but whatever. I'm not too sure about Thompson getting fast tracked to the majors. I watched him the last couple weeks in Great Falls this year and he didn't look very settled in the outfield and pretty timid at the plate. Granted, he was fresh out of high school and probably still wide eyed after only a month in the minors. Rumors I heard around Great Falls at the end of the season was that he was probably coming back to Great Falls to be the starting center fielder next year. That would be a good move for him, get him settled into one location for a couple months and see how he does, heck he's only 19, he'll be fun to watch next year.