The past few seasons have been rough for fans of the Louisville Lions. Under manager Joshua Thompson, the team was mired in mediocrity, with a combined 170-190 record over the past 6 seasons, never finishing over 2 games above .500. Despite glaring weaknesses in their pitching rotation and infield, the team was fairly quiet, never landing a major player in free agency. The team, the organization, and the fans of the game have had enough. Thompson was fired today, and is to be replaced by Alex Crede.
Before signing with the Lions, Crede was the head coach of the University of Illinois baseball team. He was able to take the Illini to back-to-back playoff runs, and the hope is that he can translate the collegiate success to the professional level. Crede has already expressed his discontent at the management of the aging team, and has vowed to bring youth to Louisville. While the next few seasons may be rough, there is hope that with a batch of young prospects, the team can blossom in a few years with multiple superstars.
Crede wasted no time in cleaning house and signing young talent. Nearly every player over the age of 30 was promptly cut, including longtime Lions Montay Soria and Gracia Velasquez. Below is a list of all players recently signed.
Catchers: Jonathan McDermott, Reagan Janssen, Tito Quezada
First Basemen: Esteban Ratcliff, Rafael Williford, Shaun Roush
Second Basemen: Billy Williamson, Christopher Pfeiffer, Emmett Palacios
Shortstops: Sal Barreto, Emilio Bates, Toby Havens, Nicholas Maldanado
Third Basement: Maxwell Howell, Santiago Sosa, Elliott Jacobsen
Left Fielders: Gino Kingsbury, Tyshawn Bannister, Raymon Barajas
Center Fielders: Navarro Agosto, Savion Merchant, Jean Bechtel
Right Fielders: Jaquan Slaton, Benedicto Perez
Pitchers: Arjun Brackett, Matro de Anda, Edgardo Cline, Bo Haskins, Harrison Conti, Elliot Gilbert, Emmanuel Newman, Onofre Castro, Conrado Mata, Liam McCutcheon
With 34 individual signings, today marks by far most active the team has been in free agency to date. While very few of these players have any proven experience in the league, most of them are 23 years of age or younger, so the potential is incredible. We will need to wait and see what comes o of this new look team, but optimism abounds upon the inaugural actions of new manager Crede.