More News (Matt Ray/Kevin Melillo)

Matt Ray who played for the Cougars in 2008 and 2009 was released by Oakland. He was mainly a second baseman, but spent a lot of time the last two years on the disabled list.

He was able to play in 105 games in 2008, hitting .251 with 93 hits. Last year he played in 54 games, hitting .222. In 2008 he spent awhile on the disabled list with a strained left shoulder. Last year he had a hairline fracture in his hand after being hit by a pitch.

Ray was a 18th round pick by Oakland in the 2007 draft out of Middle Tennessee State.

Kevin Melillo had one plate appearance with Oakland in 2007 in which he drew a walk. Last year he spent the year in AA Huntsville for the Milwaukee Brewers. He hit .249 in 113 games with nine homers. Before that he played most of the 2008 season with Syracuse, and the rest in Sacramento.

Melillo spent 2007 and 2008 with Sacramento. In 2005 and 2006 he spent in Midland. 2005 he was in three diffrent spots in the Oakland system. He started the year with the Cougars and played 78 games, hitting .286.

He was picked by Oakland in the 5th round of the 2004 draft out of the University of South Carolina.

Ex Cougars in the Caribbean World Series

There are four ex Cougars in the Caribbean World Series this year.

Alex Valdez is playing for the Dominican Republic. He played for the Cougars in 2007, hitting .264 with 10 homers and 60 runs batted in.

Stephen Morales is playing for Puerto Rico. He played for the Cougars in 1999 and 2000 when they were with the Marlins. He was the back up catcher both years. He hit .271 in 99 and .219 in 00.

Raul Padron and Gregorio Petit are playing for Venezuela. Raul Padron played for the Cougars in 2005 and 2006. He hit .260 and .242 in those years. Gregorio Petit, has played in the majors with the A's for parts of the last few years.

Kevin Millar (94) signs with Cubs

Kevin Millar signed a one year minor league contract with a spring training invite with the Chicago Cubs. He will fight to be on the bench for the Cubs this year.

Last year he played for the Toronto Blue Jays hitting .223, which was the lowest he has ever hit in a 12 year major league career. He also had his lowest amount of games played as a major leaguer with 78. He hit 7 homers and had 29 runs batted in.

The previous three years he played in Baltimore where he was a designated hitter and first baseman.His average has fallen every year in the major since he hit .297 in 2004 to help lead the Boston Red Sox to their first title in 86 years.

He played in Boston from 2003 thru 2005, before that he was in Florida, where he hit a career high .314 in 2001.

Kevin is one of the few to have come out of the independent leagues and stay in baseball for a long major league career. He started out playing in 1993 for the St. Paul Saints of the Northern League. Cougar fans will remember him for his 1994 season in Geneva in which he played in 135 games and hit .302 with 19 homer and 93 runs batted in.

After that he played in 95 in Brevard County, then spent two years in both Portland, Maine and then two years in AAA for the Marlins. One in Charlotte and one in Calgary.

He is going to be 38 this year. He was orginally purchased by the Marlins from the Saints in September of 93. In 2003 he was purchased from Florida from Boston. In 2006 he signed a free agent contract with Baltimore and in 2009 with Toronto.

Randy Winn (96) signs with New York (AL)

Former Cougar Randy Winn signed a one year deal to play for the New York Yankees next year. This is after he played the last four and a half years in San Francisco. Last years he hit .262 in 149 games. He had his lowest hits total in a season since 2001 with Tampa Bay. He is going to be 36 years old and in his 13th major league season.

Winn started his major league career in Tampa in 1998 and played there for five seasons. In 2005 he played for both Seattle and San Francisco. Winn was an all star with the Rays in 2002.

Cougar fans will remember him for his 1996 and season with the team. In 96 he played in 130 games, hitting .270 with 139 hits. He would steal 30 bases. He would play one more seaosn in the Marlins system before going over to Tampa and playing parts of three seasons in Durham.


Randy was orignally a 3rd round pick of the Marlins in the 1995 draft. He would move to the Rays in the expansion draft. He was traded by the Rays to the Mariners in 2002 for Antonio Perez. Then in 2005 he was traded by the Mariners to the Giants for Jesse Foppers and Yorvit Torrealba.

Tommy Everidge and Jason Stokes

Tommy Everidge was designated for assignment by the Oakland A's this week to make some room on the roster. Everidge made his major league debut this July, after spending five years in the Oakland system. He was originally selected by Oakland in the 10th round of the 2004 draft out of Sonoma State Univeristy.

He was always able to hit in the minors, in his first year in pro ball he played in Vancouver and hit .275. In 2008 he played for Midland and hit .279 with 22 homers and 115 runs batted in.

His year in Kane County was 2005 when he hit .279 with 14 homers and 66 runs batted in.
He would hit for the cycle on June 25th at Clinton. In that game he had 3 runs batted in and 2 runs. Tommy also would make two errors in the game.

In 2009 he would play in 24 games for the A's and hit .224 in 85 at bats. Tommy hits six doubles and two homers. In the minors last year he played for both Midland and Sacramento. He hit a combined .335 in 107 games with 144 hits and 33 doubles. He also hit 20 homers and drove in 94 runs. He walked 51 times and struck out 68.

That is compared to his 2008 season in which he walked 55 times and struck out a career high 133 times for Midland.

Jason Stokes has been injured for the majority of his career. He signed with the Detroit Tigers. He was a second round pick of the Florida Marlins in 2000. Jason broke the record in Texas for home runs in a season with 23 for a high schooler/

In 2002 he played for the Cougars, setting a then all time home run record. Most of the year he battled a sore left wrist, eventually being placed on the disabled list for the rest of the season on August 21st. In that year he hit .341 in 97 games with 27 homers and 75 runs batted in.

The next year he played for Jupiter of the Florida State League and in 121 games he hit .258 with 17 homers. 2004 He was in Carolina of the Southern League and hit .272 in 106 games with 23 homers.

After that injuries really took their took on him, as his back and legs took a beating. He would leave the Marlins system after the 06 season in Albuquerque and go to Oakland. There he played in 18 games with Sacramento before being shut down.

Jason did not play in 2008 or 2009. In his career he has 459 games and a .275 average with 92 homers.

Scott Podsednik (97) signs with Kansas City

Scott Podsednik a Cougar from 1997 signed a one year deal with the Kansas City Royals. In the deal the Royals would have a club option for 2011. The deal in worth 1.75 millin with incentives that could increase the deal to about 2 millon. The option for 2011 is for 2 millon, with incentives that could earn him an additional 300,000.

Podsednik can void the option if he reaches 525 plate appearances in 2010.

Scott played for the Cougars in 1997, he hit .277 in 135 games with 147 hits and 23 doubles. He had 28 stolen bases that year. He was originally drafted by Texas in the 3rd round of the 1994 draft. Scott played for the Gulf Coast League Rangers and the Hudson Valley Renegades in the Texas system before being traded to Florida. He was traded on October 8th, 1995 completing the deal in which the Marlins sent Bobby Witt to Texas for two players to be named later. One of those players was Wilson Heredia and the other Podsednik.
He started out with the Marlins system in Brevard County in 1996 and Kane County in 1997.

In December of 1997 he was picked up by the Rangers in the rule five draft. With the Rangers he played in Charlotte, Tulsa and the Gulf Coast league thru the 2000 season.
After the 2000 season he became a minor league free agent and signed with the Seattle Mariners

2001, Scott would see the majors for the first time as he played five games up with the big club. He spent 14 games with them the next year. 2001 in Tacoma he hit .290 in 66 games. In 2002 he was with Tacoma again and hit .279.

Somehow the Mariners lost him on waivers to the Milwaukee Brewers on October 11th, 2002. In Milwaukee he would shine. In 2003, he hit .313 in 154 games with the Brewers with 43 stolesn bases. In 2004 he only hit .244 in 154 games but stole 70 bases. He did strike out 105 times.

The Chicago White Sox got Podsednik in a trade on December 13th, 2004, in the trade he came to the south side for Luis Vizaino and Travis Hinton. The Sox gave up Carlos Lee. The 2005 season would be a magical one on the south side. He hit .290 in 129 games with 59 stolesn bases. He batted leadoff most of the year and if it wasn't for injuries to his legs would've been better for the Sox. In the playoffs and world series he hit .286 in 12 games with six stolen bases, in route to helping the Sox win the world series.

Over the next couple of years he kept on hurting himself. He was out with pulled groins, pulled rib cage muscles, and other injuries. The White Sox designated him for assignment and waived him in November of 2007.

The 2008 season Scott would spend in Colorado Springs, where he rehabbed from injuries for four games, and the played 93 games for the Rockies, hitting .253.

2009, would be another awakening for Podsednik as he would return to his old form. He started out the year in Colorado Springs, before being released. He would be picked up by the White Sox and assigned to Charlotte. In 10 games he would hit .262, and show enough to be brought up to the big club once again. He would get into 132 games for the Sox and hit .304 with 163 hits and 30 stolen bases as a leadoff hitter.

A numbers and age game played against Scott in the offseason of 2009-2010. He would sign with the Kansas City Royals.

Francis Gomez (03) killed in the Dominican Republic

Francis Gomez who played for the Cougars back in 2003, the first year as a Oakland affiliate, was shot to death in the Dominican Republic over the weekend. He played second base when he was in Kane County.

In that season he hit .265 in 128 games with 128 hits, 18 doubles three triples and five homers. He drove in 53 runs. Francis also had 21 stolen bases. Before coming to Kane County he started out in baseball as a 18 years old playing for the Athletics Dominican League team. In 2000 he came to America and played for the Arizona Athletcis. In that year he hit .355 in 17 games.

After that he played in Visalia, California. He hit 234 in 120 games. The next year he went down to short season Vancouver and also played in the Arizona League. After playing in Kane County he spent the 2004 season in both Midland and Sacramento in the A's system.

In 2003 he was the Cougars second baseman in the playoff series against the Clinton Lumberkings. In the three games he hit .364 with four hits in eleven at bats.

Francis was born on September 2nd, 1981 in La Romana, Dominican Republic. He was killed in his hometown of La Romana. originally a non drafted free agent signed by Oakland on December 5th, 1998.

Jeff Bailey signs with Arizona

Former Cougar Jeff Bailey signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks as a free agent yesterday. He played in 26 games last year for the Boston Red Sox. Hitting .208 in 77 at bats with three home runs. In three years in Boston and his only years in the majors, he has hit .228 in 136 at bats with 6 homers and 16 runs batted in.

Bailey played in the Boston system for six years. The last four years at Pawtuckett. Last year he hit .262 with 10 homers in 63 games. His best year was 2008 in which he hit .301 in 109 games with 25 homers and 75 runs batted in. He matched his career high in hits with 126.

Jeff began his career in the Flordia system. Spending two years in the gulf coast league before becoming a Cougar in 1999. He hit .278 in 76 games with Kane County. In the playoffs he has a it in five of the seven games, along with a homer and a triple. Plus seven runs batted in.

After that he played a couple of more seasons in the Florida system before signing with Montreal as a free agent in2002. In 2004 he signed with Boston. Jeff made his major league debut on July 6th, 2007 with Boston.

Bailey was originally a second round pick by the Florida Marlins in 1997 out of Kelso High School in Washington. He turns 31 during the 2010 season.

Lots of Signings and News

Lots of signings and news of former Cougars tonight

Former Cougar manager Juan Bustabad (98) has been assigned to manage the Great Lakes Loons in the Midwest League for the third straight year.

Nic Ungs (02) has been re-signed by Florida
Larry Cobb has been released by Oakland
John Suomi was signed by Philadelphia
Brian Stavisky was re-signed by Philadelphia
Javier Herrera was signed by the Yankees

Ungs played for the Cougars in 2002 for the Jacksonville Suns last year going 10-3 in 18 starts with a 2.37 era.

Larry Cobb played for the Cougars in 2007 and 2008. He was suspended for most of last year due to testing positive for an amphetimine.

John Soumi played for the Cougars in 2003. He has bounced around since then between Philadelphia, Washington and Kansas City. Suomi has been picked in the rule 5 draft twice in his career. Last year he spent time in both Nortwest Arkansas and Omaha both in the Royals system

Brian Stavisky played for the Cougars in 2003. He left the A's system in 2007. Brian spent time in 2008 in independent ball in Lancaster. He hit .282 and earned a shot with Arkansas in the Angels system. Last year he spent in Reading in the Phillies system where he hit .279 in 118 games.

Javier Herrera played for the Cougars in 2005. He was suspended for the begining of the 2005 season due to steriods. Javier has spent the majority of his career on the disabled list, but was once a five tool prospect. Last year he played in one game for Midland in the A's system

Wes Long (05-06) signs with Winnepeg

Wes Long signed with the Winnepeg Goldeyes of the Northern League Last year the 27 year old played for the Goldeyes also. He started out the year by getting play of the month honors in May. He hit .313. He was named to the Northern League all star team. His season ended early though, on June 30th in Schaumburg he would fracture his left ankle and be done for the season. He hit .343 with three homer and 15 stolen bases.

His previous two season he played for the Windy City Thunderbolts in the Chicago suburbs. He hit .331 in 2008 with 11 homers and 71 runs batted in. In 2007 he hit .334 with 7 homers and 67 runs batted in. He also hit 36 doubles in 2007.

In 2006 he would be a Cougar for 84 games, he hit .198. His other time with the Cougars was in 2005 when he hit .193. Wes started out his career hitting .345 for the Arizona Athletics in 2004 before ending that year in Vancouver hitting .286.

He attended the University of Alabama at Huntsville and was a 29th round selection of the A's in 2004.

Matt Treanor (99, 01) signs with Milwaukee

Matt Treanor signs with Milwaukee to be their backup catcher. Treanor who is going to be 34 this season and has been in the majors for six years is on his third team. He played five years with Florida begining in 2004-2008 as the backup catcher. He only played in 274 games hitting .237. Matt played last year for the Detroit Tigers, he only got into 4 games and did not have a hit.

Treanor has played 12 years in the minors, ten before his first taste of the big leagues. In 2008 he spent most of the year on the disabled list. His last time before that in the minors was 2004 in Albuquerque. Matt began his career in 1994 in the Kansas City Royals system. He would spend three years there before being traded to the Marlins. He was originally a 4th round pitch of the Royals in the 94 draft out of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California. He was traded straight up to the Marlins for Matt Whisenant just before the trade deadline in 1997.

Cougar fans would remember him for the 1999 season in which he hit .286 in 86 games with 10 homers and 53 runs batted in. He also made a stop to Geneva in 2001 on a rehab outing in which he gota hit and two walks in his three plate appearances. His big moment for the Cougars came in game three of the Midwest League semi finals in which he hit a homer in the 8th inning off of Burling pitcher Brandon Whatley. The Cougars would eventually lose that game.

Claudio Vargas (99) signs with Milwaukee

Claudio Vargas re-signed with Milwaukee. He spent most of the year in 2009 with the Brewers, going 1-0 with a 1.78 era in 28 relief appearances. He only pitched 30.1 innings, giving up 18 hits. He did walk 11 while striking out 20. He started out the year in Los Angeles with the Dodgers, there he had no record but a 1.64 era in eight relief appearances. He was traded to Milwaukee on July 31st for Vinny Rottino.

The reason he didn't pitch that much in the begining is he was placed on the 60 day disabled list on April 6ththe with elbow tendenitis by the Dodgers.

In 2008 he pitched for the New York Mets. He went 3 and 2 with a 4.62 era in 11 games. The Mets had him start four of those games. He only had 37 innings for the year. He spent a good portion of the year in AAA-New Orleans. Where he went 5-2 with a 4.36 era in eight starts.

He has bounced around the majors since his debut in 2003 with the Montreal Expos. He pitched two year with Montreal going a combined 11-13 in 68 games, 34 starts. In 2005 he started out the year with Washington going 0-3 with a 9.24 era. In June he would be claimed on waivers by Arizona. He ended up going 9-6 with a 4.81 era in 21 games, 19 starts with the Diamondbacks.

The next year he went 12-10 with a 4.83 era in 31 games, 30 of them starts. He gave up 185 hits in 167.2 innings and 27 home runs. In November he was traded by the Diamondbacks to Milwaukee.

Claudio came up with the Marlins, he made his pro debut in 1996 as a 17 year old in the Dominican. In 1999 he would come to Kane County. He went 5-5 with a 3.88 era in 19 starts with one complete game. He walked 41 and struck out 88 as a 20 year old.

His complete games came on June 4th in Cedar Rapids. He would get the win, giving up two hits and one run. He walked two and struck out five.

After Kane County he went to Brevard County, Portland and Calgary in the Marlins system. He was sent to Montreal in July 11th, 2002 in a traded forCarl Pavano, and four others for Cliff Floyd and Wilton Guerrrero. With Montreal he played in Harrisburg and Edmonton. He would be named Eastern League (AA) pitcher of the week in 2003. He has also pitched for New Orleans twice 2005, 2008 and a rehab start in St. Lucie in 2008.

Vargas is 31 years old comming into the 2010 season and has a major league record of 47-40 with a 4.76 era in 200 appearances with 114 starts and on save.

Marcus McBeth signs with Oakland (03, 05)

Marcus McBeth signed with the Oakland Athletics, a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. This will be his second time with Oakland, as he came up with them.

Marcus spent last year in AAA Pawtucket in the Boston system. He went 2-3 with a 2.69 era in 44 games with 3 saves. He pitched 67 innings, and gave up only 43 hits, and 30 walks while striking out 66. Before that in 2008 he pitched in both Louisville and in Pawtucket. He combined to go 2-1 in 28 games. In Louisville he went 1-1 with a 6.20 era in 24.2 innings.

McBeth made his major league debut with the Cincinnati Reds on June 6th, 2007. He would get into 23 games with the Reds that season, going 3-2 with a 5.95 era. He also pitched in Louisville that season for the Reds AAA affiliate, going 1-1 with a 2.56 era in 30 games with 12 saves.

He was traded On April 27th of 2007 from Oakland to Cincinnati for Chris Denorfia. Before the trade McBeth was in Sacramento, AAA for the A's. He was 1-0 with a 1.80 era in 8 games with 5 saves.

In 2006 Marcus pitched in three diffrent stops for the A's. He went from A-Stockton to AA-Midland to AAA-Sacramento. His start of the year was great he gave up no runs in eight games in Stockton with seven saves. After that he would spend the majority of the year in Midland. In 44 games he went 3-2 with a 2.53 era with 24 saves. He really struggled in a six game stretch in Sacramento with a 11.05 era.

The amazing thing about McBeth is that he started out as a right fielder with a cannon of an arm. He was drafted by the A's in the 4th round of the 2001 draft out of the University of South Carolina. He would play his first games in 2002 and would combine to hit .227 in the Arizona rookie league and A-Visalia. The next year he came to Kane County as our right fielder. He would hit .256 in 68 games with 4 homers, 9 doubles and 3 triples. His season would end prematurly on July 26th as he tore some ligaments in his hand going after a ball in the outfield.

After that he would move up to A-Modesto in 2004 and hit .234 in 99 games. His arm was always really strong, so the A's made a pitcher out of him.On May 30th, 2005 he came back to the Cougars this time to work out of the bullpen and learn how to pitch.

He would go 1-2 with a 5.03 era in 16 games for the Cougars. His season was over a early that year as on July 29th he was placed on the disabled list with a right pinky contusion.

Marcus is 29 years old going into the 2010 season, his arm is pretty fresh as he has only thrown less than 300 innings. He will either be in the A's bullpen or more than likely will be in AAA-Sacramento as insurance.

Josh Wilson (00-01) signs with Seattle

Josh Wilson was re-signed by the Seattle Mariners as a utility man. He is going to be 29 going into the season and this will be his 4th major league year, and his sixth team. Last year he played for Arizona, San Diego and Seattle, he hit .219 in 72 games, 192 at bats. He did hit 3 homers and have 11 doubles. As a big leaguer he has hit .227 in 188 games.

He played for the Cougars in 2000 and 2001. In 2000 he came up on June 3rd. He would play with the Cougars for two weeks then get assigned elsewhere. Josh came back for the final two games of the regular season and the playoffs. In the playoffs he would go 2-12 with a homer.

Wilson spent the entire 2001 season with the Cougars. That would be the only championship the Cougars have ever gotten. In the playoffs he had a hit in each game, including three doubles and a homer in the final four. During the 2000 season he hit .269 for the Cougars in 13 games. In the 2001 season he hit .285 in 123 games.

After his time in Kane County he went up through the Florida Marlins system, and would make his major league debut in 2005. After that he went to Colorado, Washington, Tampa and Seattle .

Wilson was a third round pick by the Marlins in the 1999 draft out of Mount Lebanon High School in Pittsburgh.

Santiago Casilla (03-04) released by Oakland

Santiago Casilla was released by the Oakland A's. He was in their bullpen for six years, the last three as a mainstay. He appeared in 152 games in relief, with a 6-4, 5.11 era and 4 saves.

Santiago or as Cougar fans remember him by Jairo Garcia, pitched as a starter for the Cougars in 2003. In 14 games he started nine of them and had one complete game. The next year he came back and was the closer and was lights out. In 25 games he had 16 saves and a .30 era. He shot through the rest of the minors in the A's system and made his major league debut. Over the next two years he would be going back and forth between the A's and AAA Sacramento.

Casilla is a free agent, after the A's released him, eventhough some reports suggest they were going to non tender him anyways. He is going to be 30 this coming season, he was born in the Dominican Republic.

Ben Jukich (06) Taken in Rule 5 draft by St. Louis

Ben Jukich was taken in the rule 5 draft by the St. Louis Cardinals from the Cincinnati Reds. He was taken in the major league portion of the draft which means that he must be on the Cardinals major league roster all season in 2010 or be offered back to the Reds.

Jukich pitched for the Cougars in 2006, while he was still in the Oakland system. He went 3-2 with a 2.38 era in 13 games. Only four of those were starts as this was his first year in pro ball. He pitched 41.2 innings and gave up 41 hits, but got 40 strikeouts. He did walk 25 that year. He pitched two games in the playoffs and one won of them. He would have a 1.15 era in the playoffs that year for the Cougars. In the first game he pitched in the playoffs he went into the eighth inning while only giving up four hits and no runs. He ended up striking out eight and walking two. He threw 119 pitches. In the second game, this would be the championship round against West Michigan, he went eight innings in a no decison. He gave up three hits and two runs.

Ben came to the Cougars on July 6th and started that game at home against Dayton. He would win his next three games. He did move permanatly into the rotation untill his last couple of starts of the season.

From Kane County he went to Stockton for the 2007 season. He would get traded in June to the Cincinnati Reds to complete the deal in which the A's sent Marcus McBeth to the Reds for Chris Denorfia.. He got assigned to Sarasota and made 14 starts, going 8-2 with a 3.55 era.

In 2008 he pitched in both AA Chattanooga, 10-4, 3.82 and AAA Louisville 1-1, 4.37. In Chattanooga he would throw 139 innings, which would be the most in his career.

Last year he went 9-6 with a 4.10 era for Louisville. He was originally drafted by Oakland in the 13th round of the 2006 draft. He will be 27 years old this season, and was botn in Duluth, Minnesota.