The Appalachian Rookie League season has not even started, but there are several changes coming to its baseball teams.
Boyd Sports, LLC, has announced that Kat Deal will be the general manager of the Greeneville Reds.
Deal spent the previous two seasons with the Johnson City Cardinals, another Boyd Sports, LLC, team, as the assistant general manager. Before the Florida native’s entrance into the Boyd Sports family, she worked with the Bluefield Orioles and with Roger Dean Stadium as their Director of Corporate Sales and Marketing.
The Minnesota Twins announced today that their minor league managerial and coaching positions have been filled for the 2020 season. Of note, all seven affiliates will have two pitching coaches, one of whom is bilingual (English and Spanish), while the top three levels will employ five-person coaching staffs.
Ray Smith embarks on his 27th season overall as manager with rookie-level Elizabethton, his 34th campaign on the E-town staff and his 42nd with the Twins organization. Smith owns a career 1,048-701 (.599) managerial record with 14 first-place finishes. Jeff Reed is back for his 19th season as Elizabethton’s hitting coach, while Richard Salazar returns for his second season as pitching coach. Jimmy Alvarez joins E-town as a coach, after serving in the same role for the DSL Twins in 2019. Matt Smith is the new Elizabethton trainer, joining the Twins after spending 2019 with Triple-A Pawtucket in the Red Sox organization. Cesar Castillo, the strength and conditioning coach for the GCL Twins last year, joins E-town in the same role.
The Kingsport Mets have announced their coaching staff for the 2020 Appalachian League season. The staff will feature all new coaches for Kingsport with a few beginning their first season in the New York Mets organization. Chris Newell takes over as manager of the Kingsport Mets. Newell previously managed in the United Shore Professional Baseball League and was a scout for the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees organizations.mPitching coach Glenn Abbott begins his first season in Kingsport and his 10th season in the Mets organization. Abbott previously was the pitching coach for the AAA affiliate for the last two seasons. Hitting coach Trey Hanna begins his first season in Kingsport and his first within the organization.mBench coach Gilbert Gomez also begins his first season in Kingsport and his third season as a coach in the Mets organization. He was previously the bench coach for the Columbia Fire Flies last season. Gomez was an outfielder in the Mets organization from 2009-15, reaching as high as AA-Binghamton.
The Atlanta Braves released their selections for their 2020 minor league field staffs late Friday evening with Danville boasting a former MLB All Star as their new manager. Michael Saunders, who recently retired after a nine-year playing career with the Mariners, Blue Jays and Phillies, has been named the D-Braves manager for 2020. The product of Victoria, British Columbia, was named a 2016 All Star and owned a career .232 batting average in over 2,400 plate appearances as a player. Joining Saunders’ coaching staff are hitting coach Connor Narron, who served on the 2019 D-Braves staff as a coach, and Angel Flores as a coach on the bench. Sam Feldman will return to Danville for his second season as the strength coach, and Austin Smith will take over as the athletic trainer.
The Braves also announced that Brandon Bennett will take over as the Danville Braves General Manager. Bennett is the team’s third general manager in its 26 years in Danville. In eight years with the club, Bennett has helped the D-Braves become more efficient in concessions and ticket sales and created new avenues for growth on social media and in digital marketing.
The Jacksonville, N.C., native was promoted to the position after serving as the assistant general manager with Danville from the 2016 through 2019. Bennett began his career in sports with the D-Braves working as a sales and operations trainee in 2010 and later served as the sales and marketing manager from 2010-2013.
The Danville Braves announced that the team will be adopting a new team brand.
The rookie affiliate of the Danville Braves has donned the same cap logo for the entirety of the team’s existence since 1993. The team’s primary logo hasn’t been updated since 2000.
The D-Braves updated their primary cap logo to a “D” without the tomahawk, which the team will wear at home games with the home white Braves jerseys. The Braves also added a new alternate logo to a refined “D” with the classic Atlanta tomahawk attached, which the team plans to wear on the road with their gray Braves jerseys. The team also adopted a new primary logo, which includes the Atlanta Braves logo on it that will be used for team advertising and merchandising efforts.
Minor League Baseball™ (MiLB™) has announced its participation in the national celebration commemorating the 100th anniversary of Negro Leagues baseball. In a joint effort between MiLB, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) and the Josh Gibson Foundation, MiLB will celebrate the impact of the Negro Leagues on the game of baseball and its contributions to society. The NLBM is spearheading the nationwide celebration, and MiLB will support the celebration with activities extending into its ballparks and communities through fan engagement efforts.
The goal of the partnership is to celebrate the contributions of African Americans to the sport’s history while engaging today’s diverse fan base. The affiliation will extend beyond the 2020 season, as MiLB, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the Josh Gibson Foundation look to extend their reach to fans nationwide.
The Negro National League was founded on Feb. 13, 1920, in Kansas City, Mo., by Baseball Hall of Famer Andrew “Rube” Foster and his fellow team owners. The Negro National League and others like it operated for 40-plus years and gave black athletes and fans an outlet to safely play and watch baseball in a time of segregation while creating countless opportunities for black-owned businesses.
As part of its celebration of Black History Month and the 100th Anniversary of the Negro Leagues, Minor League Baseball has unveiled an alternate version of its logo to honor both events. MiLB’s prospect logo will consist of a design and color scheme intended to represent Black History Month and pay homage to African history and ancestry. The batterman icon within the logo is depicted in cream, a color often used in historic Negro Leagues team logos. In addition to celebrating the Negro Leagues Centennial, MiLB is partnering with the NLBM and the Josh Gibson Foundation to facilitate educational tours, fundraisers, traveling exhibits and player appearances throughout MiLB ballparks this season.
–Minor League baseball
