Where are they now?

In the early part of the season one of the discussions in our section of Raley Field is where are the players from last year. I previously discussed Dan Johnson, who was released from the A's. But there are also some less prominent players. For example, for the last couple of years, Jeremy Brown was one of the Cat's catchers. Jeremy had a OK bat but his base speed was pretty slow. The joke was he could turn a home run into a double. Jeremy does not seem to have been picked up this year.

Lou Merlino was the inspiration of the Cats last year. He had had a good run, mostly in the minors but with some limited experience in the bigs. Last season looked like his last not because he was not inspirational but because he was past 35. I argued that when Tony D'Francesco retired that Lou should have been given the shot to manage. But the A's organization chose someone else. He retired.

Then there is Lloyd Turner. We sat with Lloyd at the team breakfast last year and profiled him. He was a soft spoken modest kid. He was stunning in the outfield. The night before we had breakfast with him, he had made one of the most spectacular catches I have ever seen. But he could not hit AAA pitchers. On the Cats he had a short run and then settled into a .170 range. Soon after the breakfast he was demoted to the Stockton Ports. There he also hit about .170. He seems to not be playing this year either.

We have followed a couple of careers, I have mentioned Ron Flores, who is now a reliever in the Cardinals organization. I hope he makes it back to the bigs this year. We actually saw the debut and finale of one player, John Jaha, who was a star for the Ports and then had a robust career in the majors. He announced his retirement at the end of June in 2001 and drew an ovation from the fans.

Over the time that the team has been in Sacramento we have seen a number of interesting players who simply drop off the radar. The simple answer here is that there are a lot of players who want to play professional baseball and only a limited number of spots. You get attached to some of these players. Some have appealing personalities on the field. Others have quirks in their playing style. In the end each is trying to make it in a very competitive business.