Photo from Chris Creamer's SportsLogos.Net
Unfortunately, with the glut of minor league clubs in the Southeastern United States and the contraction of Minor League Baseball, some clubs in the region having to move down a level would be inevitable. The Fayetteville Woodpeckers, who entered MiLB as a Class A Advanced club, were one of the clubs to draw the short stick and dropped to Class A as a result. Fayetteville will begin its season on the road against the Carolina Mudcats Tuesday night.
The Woodpeckers will now compete in Low-A East, which consists of seven teams from the Carolina League and five from the South Atlantic League. It's a 12-team league split into three divisions of four. Fayetteville is in the Central division, which consists of the four North Carolina teams. Their division rivals are the Carolina Mudcats (Brewers), Down East Wood Ducks (Rangers), and the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (White Sox). The Cannon Ballers were known as the Intimidators until 2020.
The South division consists of the four teams located in South Carolina: the Charleston RiverDogs (Rays, formerly a Yankees affiliate), Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Cubs), Columbia Fireflies (Royals, formerly a Mets affiliate), and the Augusta GreenJackets (Atlanta, formerly a Giants affiliate). Augusta, best known as the site of the Masters, is located in Georgia, but the GreenJackets' ballpark is located across the Savannah River in North Augusta, South Carolina.
The North has all the teams not located in the Carolinas: three Virginia teams and one club in Maryland. The Delmarva Shorebirds (Orioles), Salem Red Sox (guess their parent club), Lynchburg Hillcats (Cleveland), and the Fredericksburg (formerly Potomac) Nationals (again, guess who their parent club is).
Opened in 2019, Segra Stadium serves as Fayetteville's home park. Segra also owns the naming rights to Columbia's ballpark, but their stadium is called Segra Park.
Fayetteville is home to a major U.S. Army installation, Fort Bragg, and the Woodpeckers have drawn inspiration from the city's military history, as evidenced by their special "Black Ops" alternate uniforms. The city is located on the Cape Fear River, in North Carolina's coastal plain.
In 1789, Fayetteville was the site of a state convention to ratify the United States Constitution; by a 194-77 decision, the Constitution was ratified and North Carolina became the 12th state in the Union.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Official website: fayettevillewoodpeckers.com
Twitter: @WoodpeckersNC
Instagram: fayettevillewoodpeckers
COACHING STAFF
Manager: Ray Hernandez
Pitching Coach: Todd Naskedov
Hitting Coach: Sean Godfrey
Development Coach: Bryan Muniz
Athletic Trainer: Takeaki Ando
Strength Coach: Michael Hoffman
Former Astros farmhand Bryan Muniz will get his first coaching opportunity in the minors. Muniz, a 22nd-round pick out of Southeastern, an NAIA school in Lakeland, Florida, played in the Astros system from 2014-17, topping out at Corpus Christi.
ROSTER
Matt Barefoot, a 6th-round pick back in 2019, gets to play close to home. He's from Dunn, which is literally the next town after Fayetteville on Interstate 95 and played at Campbell University, which temporarily hosted the Buies Creek Astros before they moved to Fayetteville.
Zach Daniels, a 4th-round pick in last year's draft, has explosive athleticism and the Astros are banking on his tools to translate to the professional level.
You may know J.C. Correa's older brother. I hear he's not bad at baseball.
Jayson Schroeder had a rough 2019, which saw him get sent down to the complex-level Gulf Coast League. Now that he's gotten a chance to reset, he'll give Class A another try. The 2018 second-rounder from a high school in the Seattle area, Schroeder has plenty of talent, but this could be a pivotal year in his development.
Ernesto Jaquez caught my attention in 2018 when he completely dominated the Dominican Summer League. Unfortunately, his encore would be delayed as he missed all of the 2019 season. Can he recapture that dominant form?
Joe Perez has shown some of the best power in the system, but has also had some injury issues since entering the Astros system. Fortunately, he made it through 2019 without any major health scares. It's now time for him to become a more complete hitter. He should form one half of a pretty potent left side of the infield with Shay Whitcomb, the final pick of the 2020 draft. Whitcomb was drafted for his bat and that should get him plenty of playing time all over the infield.
Nerio Rodriguez took a big step forward with his bat in 2019. Can he continue to make progress on offense?
Janos "Johnny" Meszaros is a minor league free agent signing with a very interesting back story. A native of Alaska, he was originally drafted in the 39th round by the Rays out of high school but did not sign. He went to junior college but his career ended up getting derailed by injuries. Meszaros, who still tried to keep his dream alive, got the attention that had long eluded him with one video of him throwing upper-90s heat and a wicked slider. He caught Brent Strom's eye and was signed basically on Strom's recommendation. Now, seven years later, at the age of 26, Meszaros is finally getting his chance to play professional baseball.
Italics - player bats/throws left-handed
Bold - player is a switch-hitter
Pitchers
Brayan De Paula - Acquired via trade along with Adonis Giron from Marlins for future considerations, 2018; De Paula mainly played for the GCL Astros in 2019 and appeared in two games with Tri-City.
Whit Drennan - 29th round, 2019 draft (Rollins College); GCL Astros
Freylin Garcia - International free agent (Dominican Republic), 2016; last played in 2018 with the GCL Astros
Cesar Gomez - Undrafted free agent (UT-Arlington), 2020; making pro debut
Kevin Holcomb - 13th round, 2019 draft (Glendale CC), GCL Astros
Ernesto Jaquez - International free agent (Dominican Republic), 2017; last played in 2018 with DSL Astros, GCL Astros, and Tri-City
Alfredi Jimenez - International free agent (Dominican Republic), 2017; GCL Astros
Angel Macuare - International free agent (Venezuela), 2016; Tri-City
Christian Mejias - International free agent (Venezuela), 2016; Tri-City/GCL Astros
Johnny Meszaros - Minor league free agent signing, 2021; making pro debut
Cristofer Mezquita - International free agent (Dominican Republic); DSL Astros
Mark Moclair - 12th round, 2019 draft (Tampa); Quad Cities
Manny Ramirez - International free agent (Dominican Republic), 2017; Quad Cities/Tri-City
Jayson Schroeder - 2nd round, 2018 draft (Juanita HS, Kirkland, Washington); Quad Cities/Tri-City/GCL
Jonathan Sprinkle - Undrafted free agent (Central Missouri), 2020; making pro debut
Misael Tamarez - International free agent (Dominican Republic), 2019; GCL Astros/DSL Astros
Catchers
Luke Berryhill - Acquired via trade from Reds for Cionel Perez, 2021; Greeneville (Reds)
Juan Paulino - 27th round, 2018 draft (Western Oklahoma State); Tri-City
Nerio Rodriguez - International free agent (Dominican Republic), 2016; GCL Astros
Infielders
J.C. Correa - Undrafted free agent (Lamar), 2020; making pro debut
Joe Perez - 2nd round, 2017 draft (Archbishop McCarthy HS, Southwest Ranches, Florida); Tri-City
Yeuris Ramirez - International free agent (Dominican Republic), 2015; Tri-City/GCL
Ronaldo Urdaneta - International free agent (Venezuela), 2015; Tri-City/GCL
Shay Whitcomb - 5th round, 2020 draft (UC San Diego); making pro debut
Outfielders
Matthew Barefoot - 6th round, 2019 draft (Campbell); Tri-City
Kenedy Corona - Acquired via trade along with Blake Taylor from Mets for Jake Marisnick, 2019; Brooklyn/GCL Mets/DSL Mets 2
Zach Daniels - 4th round, 2020 draft (Tennessee); making pro debut
Justin Dirden - Undrafted free agent (Southeast Missouri State); making pro debut
Dustin: By my count, after including the kids assigned to the Gulf and Dominican Academies, there are 59 fewer minor leaguers in the Astros organization this year - including draftees from 2018, 2019 and 2020. Is this close to what your records reflect and do you know where these young men are going?
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