Myers, Moustakas named Top 50 prospects

Posted on January 29, 2010 by michaellycklama

Major League Baseball announced its latest “Top 50 Prospects” Wednesday night and two former Chukars made the list.

Third baseman Mike Moustakas, who played 11 games with the Chukars in 2007, is No. 32 on the list and catcher Wil Myers, who played 18 games with the Chukars in 2009, is No. 33.

Moustakas hit .250/.297/.421 (batting average/ on-base percentage/ slugging percentage) with the High-A Wilmington Blue Rocks in 2009 and was named the club’s player of the year. The No. 2 overall pick in 2007 is excepted to start 2010 in AA.

Myers, a third-round draft pick out of high school in 2009 that fell due to signing concerns, lit up the Pioneer League in 18 games with the Chukars, hitting .426/.488/.735. Add in four games with Burlington, N.C. before being promoted to Idaho Falls and Myers hit .369/.427/.679 in his first stint of professional baseball.

He is expected to start the 2010 season with the Low-A Burlington Bees.

Dick Kaegel of MLB.com has more on the Top 50 list, more scouting information and videos of the two players here.

ESPN’s Keith Law also came out with his top 100 prospects this week with Moustakas at No. 69 and Myers unranked. Law rated the Royals’ farm system as the ninth best in baseball.

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Angels re-up with Orem

Posted on December 15, 2009 by michaellycklama

Sick of the Orem Owlz? Well, they aren’t going away anytime soon.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (that made me sick typing that) have extended their contract with the Orem Owlz through the 2014 season. The Pioneer League’s Web site has the full story.

Under longtime manager Tom Kotchman, Orem has won three league titles since its founding in 2005, including the 2009 title.

“We are pleased to reach this extension and that the Orem Owlz baseball club will be an Angels affiliate through the 2014 season,” said Abe Flores, the Angels’ director of player development, in a statement. “The Angels believe the Orem franchise is the ‘crown jewel’ of the Pioneer League, and we value our strong relationship with the Owlz’s ownership, front office and their supportive fans. The Angels look forward to more success in Orem, both on and off the field, in the years to come.”

The Angles have been affiliated with the Orem Owlz since 2005, when it moved out of Provo and just a few miles north to Orem, the latest city to join the Pioneer League. The club has had a Pioneer League affiliate since it partnered with the Butte Copper Kings from 1997 to 2000 before moving joining with the Provo Angels from 2001 to 2004.

Idaho Falls hosted an Angels affiliate from 1982 to 1984.

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Three former Chukars earn organizational awards

Posted on December 15, 2009 by michaellycklama

Salvador Perez

The Kansas City Royals announced their organizational awards Tuesday and three former Chukars made the list.

Billy Butler, a 2004 Chukar, earned the Les Milgram Player of Year award recognizing the Royals’ top hitter. He’s the youngest, at 23 years old, to win the award since George Brett won it at 23 in 1976. Butler finished the season hitting .301 with 21 home runs, 51 doubles and 93 RBIs.

Salvador Perez, the Chukars’ everyday catcher in 2009, received the Frank White Defensive Player of the Year award recognizing the organization’s top minor league defensive player. In 42 games as a catcher with the Chukars, Perez posted a .993 fielding percentage and threw out a third, 17 of 51, of attempted basestealers.

Clint Robinson, a 2007 Chukar, earned the Mike Sweeney Award recognizing the player who best represents the organization on and off the field. Robinson spent more than 36 hours in local schools and camps in addition to the local children’s hospital in Wilmington, Delaware. According to the Wilmington club’s community relations staff, Robinson made himself available for each and every community appearance.

Robinson hit .298 with 13 home runs in his first full season with the Royals’ High-A affiliate.

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2010 schedule released

Posted on November 30, 2009 by michaellycklama

The Chukars released their 2010 schedule today. The Chukars will open the season at home, June 21st against the Orem Owlz for the start of a three-game series. It will conclude a five-game homestand with two games against the Casper Ghosts.

For the 16th straight season, the Chukars will host a Fourth of July game, taking on the Ogden Raptors. Game times for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th of July will be announced at a later time.

The 2010 regular season at Melaleuca Field will conclude with the Chukars squaring off with the Orem Owlz in a three-game weekend series, starting Friday, September 3rd. The Chukars will then travel to Casper for the remaining four regular season games.

Onto the jump for the full schedule.

Read more »

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Buchanan named Chukars ‘10 manager

Posted on November 18, 2009 by michaellycklama

Brian Buchanan

For the third year in a row, the Idaho Falls Chukars will have a new manager. But this year’s edition won’t just be new to Idaho. He’ll be new to managing.

This will be the first managing job for Brian Buchanan, who spent the 2009 season playing for the Omaha Royals, Kansas City’s Triple-A affiliate.

Carlos Martinez, the Chukars’ pitching coach in 2008, will return while manager Darryl Kennedy will take over the Royals’ Arizona League affiliate.

The New York Yankees drafted Buchanan in the first round, 24th overall, of the 1994 draft as an outfielder. Four years later, he was traded to the Minnesota Twins for Chuck Knoblauch. And the two years after that, the Twin traded him to San Diego for Jason Bartlett.

Buchanan played five seasons in the Major League, hitting .258 with 32 home runs in 767 at-bats.

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Video scoreboard update

Posted on November 16, 2009 by michaellycklama

Two video screens will adorn the left field scoreboard at Melaleuca Field next summer, but they’re already beginning to take shape.

Each board will measure 12 feet by 22 feet and will have full video capability, featuring video clips, scores from around the league, player photos, sponsor and game information and game schedules.

The support posts for the video board were installed Monday morning and the entire support structure is set to be completed by December. The two video boards will follow in the spring.

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Broadcaster Jim Garchow died Sunday

Posted on September 20, 2009 by michaellycklama
9-20 Jim Garshow file

Jim Garchow in his home before the 2008 Emotion Bowl.

Longtime broadcaster Jim Garchow passed away at approximately 4:45 a.m. Sunday in his home. He was 72.

Garchow, who has called minor league baseball with the same club longer than any other broadcaster in America, succumbed to acute leukemia, the Garchow family said in a news release Sunday afternoon.

“We appreciate the thoughts and prayers as Dad bravely faced the challenges of illness this year,” the Garchow family said in the release. “He was so happy to have completed his 39th season broadcasting the Chukars games on Labor Day. We will miss him everyday.”

KUPI broadcast partner John Balginy said Garchow listened to his grandson, Michael Berger, lead Skyline to an upset of Hillcrest on Friday night.

“He was alert the whole night,” Balginy said. “Then after I signed off, he went downhill.”

Garchow battled numerous health issues over the past year that forced him to leave his role as the voice of Skyline football and basketball. The last high school football game he broadcasted was Sept. 5, 2008.

Poor circulation in his legs forced him from the booth and into the hospital, where he spent three of six months during the winter and spring. Eventually, doctors amputated his right leg eight inches below his right knee.

A bout with pneumonia kept him in the hospital until June 15. But come June 23, he was back in the broadcast booth barring his name at Melaleuca Field, ready for his 39th season of professional baseball.

He started broadcasting baseball in Idaho Falls in 1970 with the Idaho Falls Angels.

Garchow was restricted a wheel chair and oxygen tanks as the season began and then improved enough to switch to a walker. But his health deteriorated as the season went on.

In addition to his broadcast duties at KUPI, Garchow served as the station’s general manager for 37 years.

Garchow was kind enough to share his vast knowledge of Skyline and the Emotion Bowl with the Post Register over the years. To hear his voice again one last time, check out our audio slideshow for last year’s Emotion Bowl as Garchow provides the narration. Or you can read some of the classic Emotion Bowl stories he told me that day (live tigers, gastrointestinal pranks and crowd-control failure) that makes the Emotion Bowl what it is.

Note: Garchow’s name has appeared for years as Garshow because he wanted to helped people pronounce his last name (Gar-SHOW).

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Chukars lose in season finale

Posted on September 12, 2009 by michaellycklama

The Idaho Falls Chukars wrapped up the 2009 Pioneer League baseball season with a 4-3 road loss to the Casper Ghosts on Friday.

Chukars starter Sugar Ray Marimon led with a 3-1 lead after six innings. The big righthander struck out six in six innings.

The lead didn’t last long.

I.F. reliever Ryan Dennick allowed three earned runs in two innings to give Casper the win.

All three of the Chukars’ runs came in the third inning, when Idaho Falls took a 3-1 lead.

The Chukars used four hits and a Ghosts’ error to take the lead. After tying the game in the seventh inning, the Ghosts got a bases-loaded RBI single from David Kandilas in the eighth inning.

Alex Llanos and Wil Myers both went 2 for 4 in the loss. Both of Myers’ hits were doubles.

The Chukars finish the 2009 season with a 43-31 overall record, which is the second best record in the Pioneer League. However, Idaho Falls missed the playoffs.

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Chukars top Casper 5-4 in second to last game

Posted on September 10, 2009 by michaellycklama
Deivy Batista

Deivy Batista

A night after a single error cost the Chukars in the bottom of the ninth, Idaho Falls took advantage of a Casper error for the game-winning run in a 5-4 win.

Tied 4-4 in the fifth, Idaho Falls’ Alex Llanos reached on a fielding error from Casper shortstop David Hernandez. A pair of wild pitches allowed Llanos to advance to third and he scored the deciding run on a Deivy Batista sacrifice fly.

The sacrifice fly completed the comeback from an early 4-0 deficit. Casper struck in the bottom of the first with a three-run Jared Clark home run before adding another run in the third off starter Santiago Garrido.

Idaho Falls answered right back in the top of the fourth, dragging four runs across the plate thanks to RBI singles from Wil Myers and Tito Espinosa, and a two-run Malcom Culver single.

Garrido retired Casper in order in the bottom of the fifth after Idaho Falls took the lead and reliever Richard Folmer faced two over the minimum through the final three innings to record his eighth save of the season. The eighth save ties him for second in the league in that category.

The win moves Idaho Falls to 23-14 (.622) in the second half of the season, but still leaves it eight games behind the Orem Owlz, who won again Thursday. At 43-30 (.589), Idaho Falls has the second best overall record in the Pioneer League heading into the season’s final day.

The Chukars wrap up the 2009 season starting at 7:05 p.m. today in Casper.

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15 Chukars headed to Fall Instructional

Posted on September 10, 2009 by michaellycklama

With the season two days from its end, the Royals have announced the players that will participate in its Falls Instructional League. Of the 56 players invited, 15 played with the Chukars this summer.

That list includes:

Patrick Keating, RHP
Scott Kelley, RHP
Brendan Lafferty, LHP
Chris Dwyer, LHP
Cole White, RHP
Sugar Ray Marimon, RHP
Santiago Garrido, RHP
Eric Basurto, RHP
Salvador Perez, C
Ben Theriot, C
Wil Myers, C
Joey Lewis, 1B
Deivy Batista, SS
Hilton Richardson, OF
Carlo Testa, OF

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