It was a sign-a-palooza day for the Victoria HarbourCats. They inked 21 players Thursday to bring the final roster to 32 ahead of their West Coast League baseball opener June 5 at Royal Athletic Park.
The WCL features U.S. collegiate NCAA players in wood bat summer ball.
There are seven MLB draft picks on the Victoria roster with catcher Alex Real of the University of New Mexico, a 48th-round pick of the Atlanta Braves, and infielders David Olmeda-Bererra of Cal State-Fullerton and Jack Graham of Youngstown State, the latest draftees to join the fold Thursday. Olmeda-Bererra was taken in the 40th round by the Oakland A鈥檚 in 2012 and Graham in the 50th round by the Chicago White Sox.
The previously signed HarbourCats MLB draftees are Connor Baits of UC-Santa Barbara, Casey Schroeder of Kentucky, Brandon Smith of Grand Canyon and David Schuknecht of Riverside.
The HarbourCats have signed a dozen players from schools ranked in the NCAA 2013 pre-season top-25 poll. That group includes Real and Victoria-product Nick Pivetta of New Mexico, Olmeda-Bererra, Casey Schroeder and Zach Storm of the Kentucky Wildcats, Timmy Richards of Cal State-Fullerton, Brett Urabe of the UCLA Bruins, Ryan Keller of San Diego State and Bryan Conant, Joe Navilhon, Anthony Hermelyn and Justin Burba of the Oklahoma Sooners.
Victoria field boss Dennis Rogers talks about 鈥渃reating a culture.鈥�
鈥淭he whole thing with Victoria is to do it the right way and make the city proud of the kids. . . . so that [the fans] will get their money鈥檚 worth,鈥� said the former Vancouver Canadians manager, who managed in both the Oakland A鈥檚 and Pittsburgh Pirates minor-league organizations and who currently coaches Riverside Junior College.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be an exciting time for the city, to see the type of product we want to put out there. I think they [fans] will enjoy the type of play we put together throughout the year,鈥� added Rogers, via video.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 something that will build and build and build over a period of time. . . . to not only the 2013 season but 2014 and the many years after that. Right now, the roster is good on paper and we鈥檙e excited about the kids who are going to be part of the program. The players are going to be allowed to be successful on the diamond on a regular basis. The whole roster will be exciting.鈥�
The HarbourCats will play a 54-game inaugural 2013 regular season in the WCL, with 27 home dates from June 5 to Aug. 11.
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