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By Karen Boehler
Pecos League writer
HOUSTON, Texas — The Pecos Spring League kicked off its second season Wednesday in Houston, Texas, with 65 players from across the United State and several foreign countries competing to earn 30 invites to Pecos League spring training.
And, according to both the manager and league commissioner Andrew Dunn, the quality is way up from last year.
“The competition level, as everyone who was here last year has seen, was way better. Good players all the way around,” Dunn said.
“There were guys out there today that I saw who would have made my team last summer,” said Bill Moore, Garden of Gears and Santa Fe manager. “They unequivocally would have been on my roster last summer. So I hope when it’s my turn to pick a player, maybe I’ll get some of them.”
“I’ve seen a lot of talent here, not just on my team,” said Sea Lions and Trinidad manager J.D. Droddy. “We were watching infield (practice) today, and there’s some middle infielders who look pretty good.”
The pitchers looked strong as well, especially in Wednesday’s opener, and while the fielding may have left a little bit to be desired, that’s to be expected from players and managesr who may have only met Wednesday morning.
“They just got here yesterday,” Droddy said. “I was still trying to figure out who was on my team today just about an hour before the game.”
Moore, Droddy and Dill, who’s managing the spring Vaqueros and Pecos League expansion Las Vegas Train Robbers, are in Houston both to check out the players and get more managerial experience. Dunn is managing his own team, the Houston Apollos, and Ray Hancock — who was supposed to be coaching Carlsbad and is still looking for a spot in the League — is helping with the Vaqueros.
Players looking to get their chance in the league come from as far away as the Netherlands, Australia, Japan, Korea and the Bahamas, as well as from the four corners of the U.S., and their enthusiasm shows as they take the field.
Both games drew a smattering of fans in the bleachers, both at Coastal Baseball Complex — a turf-infield park owned by Dunn which hosts the day games — and Cristy Park — a city-owned, four-field complex that was recently rebuilt with great lights for the league’s night games.
“We’ll have 30 guys going to spring training from here, and I think if you talk to ... some of these guys who were here last year, it’s just a totally different thing,” Dunn said. “Totally higher level. Just a great situation all the way across the board. Just great baseball. Everybody’s excited.”
The spring league will run through most of March, with 26 games over 13 days. At the end of the league, Pecos League managers will get to draft players they’d like to invite to spring training, and with the quality already showing after Day 1, that’s going to be tough, said Dill.
“It’s going to be hard, not wanting to take more than I can, to be honest with you,” he said. “And it’s going to be hard choosing the guys I’m going to take, because there’s a lot of good baseball players out here,and the teams that get some of these guys are going to be very happy with the level of the talent they get.”
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