The franchise known as the Columbus Clippers was recently sold and relocated to Little Rock, Ark. Team owners moved swiftly to rebrand the franchise as the the Little Rock Scorpions. The change in ownership meant lots of changes on the field. First there is a brand new stadium named the Scorpion Den. The new stadium's facade is modeled after a what was a local treasure for more than 70 years, Ray Winder Field. There is a statue of the great Bill Valentine just outside of the home plate entrance. Local legend is that team owner Mike Renick buried a Jose Cruz game used jock strap under home plate. It is, a modern shrine to baseball's past and present and to the eternally hopeful future.
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In addition to a snazzy new logo and stadium the new ownership has vowed to do a better job of keeping the franchise stocked with talent and youth. Evidence of the change in philosophy was clearly demonstrated by the initial flurry of roster moves. Notably, a concerted effort to acquire youth and players who project to earn full-time jobs in the near future. Players on the inherited roster included names like Zoilo Almonte, Brian Bogusevic, Tim Fedorowicz, Jeff Francouer, Freddy Garcia, Jack Hannahan, Jeff Keppinger, Barry Zito and Nate Freiman.Truly, it was an amazing(ly depressing) collection of backup to the backups, geriatrics, and bad role players. This meant making some hard (and some really easy) decisions about current pieces of the roster. Immediately after acquiring the club, ownership began the roster overhaul. The Scorpions traded Matt Holliday, Hiroki Kuroda, Evan Gattis and Nelson Cruz. (So, yes, offense will be lacking in 2015). The return for these veterans included a collection of picks in the first two rounds of the draft as well as some assets to help carry the team through the rebuild. Heading into draft day, the Scorpions owned two top 10 picks and the first three picks in round two.
