Shuckers ready for fourth season in Biloxi

The Shuckers are less than 24 hours away from embarking on their fourth season in Biloxi with yet another talented roster at the Double AA level.  According to MLBpipeline.com, ten of the top 30 prospects in the Milwaukee Brewers farm system are on the Shuckers opening day roster. Needless to say, expectations were sky high at today’s media day.

RHP Cody Ponce said, “We all just got here today and we’re all just happy to be here, you know? But we’re all looking forward to winning, and that’s what everyone’s job is here today and going on and forward is doing the best that we can to help our team win. Championship is our No. 1 priority.”

Building towards that Southern League title starts with consistency as Mike Guerrero returns as manager of the Shuckers for a third consecutive season. Manager Mike Guerrero said, “What we’re going to see this year is actually what it shows how deep our talent pool is. And I will say impressive for our organization and really important for our organization to have these guys and be successful at this level, so they can move up a little quicker.”

This year’s bunch features a healthy mix of new and old with 13 of the 25 players on the roster having seen time in Biloxi last season. Twenty-eight year-old Nick Ramirez is one of the veteran voices in the dugout with a lot of influence over the young guns. “We’ve got young, talented players. Obviously, being a veteran here and couple of other guys that are older, kind of just point them in the right direction on how to go about things and how to handle themselves. Obviously, most of them coming up from High-A, it’s a little bit of a different game here. You’re a little bit more on your own, so just kind of just being a good role model for them.”

The position group with perhaps the most talent, but also the least amount of depth, is the outfield. Two of the three players are former first round selections and they’re brand new to MGM Park. OF Corey Ray said, “I’m just excited. I’m excited to get going, I’m healthy, I wasn’t healthy last year and I’m excited to see what we can do.”

OF Trent Grisham said, “Raised some eyebrows and actually put some number on and kind of took away from potential and it was skill, and that’s what we plan to do this year is build on that.”

On the mound, Guerrero says the pitching rotation starts with Luiz Ortiz, who is going on his third season in the Double AA ranks, eager to take the Shuckers to the next level. “Initial impressions is get the ball rolling right away. Get it going and set a tone with these pitchers here and these guys and with the team. We want to win, and that’s the main thing right now. We spoke with that in the meeting, just compete and compete and win. That’s it.”

The Biloxi Shuckers will lead things off with an exhibition game against William Carey at 6:35 p.m. tomorrow.