TRENTON — Every once in a while somebody likes to remind Jeff Manto about his short stint as a Thunder player now that he is the team’s manager.
“It was like for a week,” said Manto, who played six Double-A games for the Thunder during the 1996 season when he was with the Red Sox organization. “I think it rained every day, too.”
Manto is back in the dugout for his third season as the MLB Draft League gets underway on Thursday night at Trenton Thunder Ballpark against the Frederick Keys.
The former big leaguer, who spent the spring as head coach at Conwell-Egan Catholic, said this is the best group of players he’s had in the Draft League.
“I believe a lot of players are talking letting their peers know how good this league truly is,” Manto said. “I look at them physically and this is probably the biggest and strongest team. They are all passing the eye test. In the past, we had some good athletic players, but this year it looks like we have the big bangers. It’s going to be a lot of fun for us.”
Manto compared the level of the Draft League to the now-defunct New York Penn League, which was short season A-ball before Major League Baseball reorganized the minor league system.
“We have a lot of (college) juniors who are more than capable of performing in A-ball,” Manto said.
The 58-year-old from Bristol, Pa., spent parts of nine seasons and setting a professional environment for potential pros is a big part of the job as Draft League skipper.
“They don’t want to be behind the eight-ball with the baseball etiquettes,” Manto said. “They don’t want to be behind in the fact that they don’t know what time to get to the ballpark, how to dress at the ballpark, how to approach the batting cage, how to approach batting practice. There are some things that professional coaches don’t want to deal with, so we set the tone and let them know everything they need to know.”
How does the Draft League work?
The Draft League is consists of six teams — Trenton, Fredericksburg, Mahoning Valley, State College, West Virginia and Williamsport — and the season is split into halves.
From June 1-July 4 rosters are comprised of amateur/draft eligible players from Divisions I-III, NAIA, junior college and graduating high school seniors (30 games). From July 7-Sept. 2 rosters consist of professional players who have exhausted their amateur eligibility. Players receive housing, meal money, travel and weekly compensation (50 games).
The rosters will remain largely in-tact through the first part of the season — gone are the temporary players who filled in briefly and then were released — although there will still be player movement to account for injuries or other ways a team may be left shorthanded. Teams are also missing players participating in the NCAA Tournament, which gets underway on Friday.
There is a championship game on Monday, Sept. 4 between the winners of each half.
What’s New?
There’s a prospect game.
That contest will take place on Wednesday, July 5 here in Trenton and will be broadcast on MLB.com, the MLB App and MLB.TV. There will be 25 players per roster, who will be selected and identified by the scouting community and MLB Draft League staff. The six managers from the league will comprise the Prospect Game’s coaching staff.
MLB rules regarding pitch clock, mound disengagements and bigger bases are all in effect.
Banana Ball?
Yep, the world famous Savannah Bananas are bringing their show to Trenton Thunder Ballpark on Aug. 9.
This will be played with Banana Ball rules — a set of nine new rules developed by the Bananas to make the game more fast-paced and entertaining — and is part of the Challenger Series, which means instead of taking on arch nemesis the Party Animals the Bananas are playing the Thunder.
Tickets should be purchased through the Savannah Bananas and not by calling the Thunder box office.
What About an Affiliation?
Thunder President Jeff Hurley said the ultimate goal remains getting back to affiliated ball, but as long as the team is in the Draft League, it’s all in with two feet.
“We’re keeping an open line of communication with Major League Baseball,” Hurley said. “We’ve certainly made it known that we want to be an affiliated team and we have the facility and demographic to do so.”
