Missoula Times Archives

Monday October 25th 2010

With tears welling up in his eyes, Jonathan Jones announced that he would no longer be taking to the field as a ball player. Jones had bounced around the independent leagues most of his career before getting a shot at the big leagues with Missoula for the 2010 season. Missoula manager Buck Selbach had this to say “Some have questioned me why I signed Jonathan as he never had much of a bat and wasn’t a guy built with speed, so I tell them it wasn’t a matter of what he didn’t have but what he did have. He had and still does have one of the sweetest gloves I’ve ever seen, yeah he didn’t have great speed but you don’t need speed when you know where the ball is going even before the hitter does. He was also a great guy to have on the bench, they may not realise it yet but in years to come the young guys on this team will be saying “I learned that from an old ball player named Jones”.

Jones said the major reason he was calling it a day was that he didn’t feel like he could play every day, “I knew I was never signed to play every day but always felt that if called upon I could play every game, it’s got to the stage though that I don’t have that feeling anymore and one thing I don’t want to do is let the manager, team or fans down.”

Asked what he would do now his career is over, he had this to say. “I’m going to take a rest, maybe go on a trip with the wife. One of my daughters is about a month away from making me a Grandpa for the first time so I think I’ll be a fulltime Grandpa for a while then who knows maybe you’ll see me back at a ballpark as a coach, who knows.”

Thursday October 28th 2010

If you want to compete you need to spend the money, $17.6m to be exact that's how much it cost the Xplorers to keep three of their big players in Mark Butler, Anucakra Aron and Michael Blankenship. The two main contracts signed not only yesterday but probably of the whole off season will be Mark Butler and Anucakra Aron, Butler the leader in the outfield and Aron the insperation in the infield will no doubt play a vital roll not only next season but hopefully in future seasons with the Missoula ball club.

Wednesday November 17th 2010

Less than 3 weeks after inking a $4.6m contract extension Missoula's starting pitcher Michael Blankenship will be collecting the money from another team, the Boston Rebels to be precise. The trade that was finalised yesterday will see Blakenship going to the east coast Rebels and making the opposite journey will be Conner Gibbs and Tony Parker, Gibbs a catcher by trade will fight for a place on the 2011 roster with Laurent Muller and Warren South. The strong view at the moment is that Gibbs will back up Muller with South dropping down to AAA ball or even being traded.

First baseman Parker will more than likely start life of as an Xplorer in the minors, it's thought that Buck Selbach the Missoula manager is thinking of moving Anucakra Aron to first base and giving the second base duties to Flint O'Day who impressed in the 43 games he played during this season gone.

With Blankenship not being in the 2011 starting rotation, we could see a frontline five of Reed Wilson, George stalker, Dan Hudson, Chase Henry with a committee of Jefferey Miles, Miguel Ordonez and Tom Spottswood taking up the fith spot.

Neil_MissoulaGM wrote:Wednesday November 17th 2010

Less than 3 weeks after inking a $4.6m contract extension Missoula's starting pitcher Michael Blankenship will be collecting the money from another team, the Boston Rebels to be precise. The trade that was finalised yesterday will see Blakenship going to the east coast Rebels and making the opposite journey will be Conner Gibbs and Tony Parker, Gibbs a catcher by trade will fight for a place on the 2011 roster with Laurent Muller and Warren South. The strong view at the moment is that Gibbs will back up Muller with South dropping down to AAA ball or even being traded.

First baseman Parker will more than likely start life of as an Xplorer in the minors, it's thought that Buck Selbach the Missoula manager is thinking of moving Anucakra Aron to first base and giving the second base duties to Flint O'Day who impressed in the 43 games he played during this season gone.

With Blankenship not being in the 2011 starting rotation, we could see a frontline five of Reed Wilson, George stalker, Dan Hudson, Chase Henry with a committee of Jefferey Miles, Miguel Ordonez and Tom Spottswood taking up the fith spot.

Friday 21st October 2011

In the early hours of Friday morning a fire broke out in the archive department of the Missoula Times, thankfully in no small part to the Missoula Fire Department a great deal of the archives were saved although some archives of the Missoula Xplorers were lost.

Monday October 24th 2011

Director of scouting Vincent Rogers left his position with the Xplorers yesterday, Rogers had been in the position with the Missoula ball clubfor just a year but it was well known that conflicts between himself and Missoula manager Lew Knolls arose during the season. Ray McAfee spokesman for the Xplorers stated in a press conference.

"We would like to thank Vincent Rogers for the work he has done for the ball club, however we feel that the team needs to go in a different direction and needs a fresh outlook".

Ray McAfee added that the Xplorers wanted to find someone quickly but it's more important to find the right person.

Monday October 31st 2011

Late on Saturday night come early Sunday morning the Missoula Xplorers and the Boston Rebels finalised a deal that saw 23 year old left fielder Jon West go to the Boston Rebels and 25 year old relief pitcher George Griffin arriving in Missoula.

Thursday November 16th 2011

After three weeks without a director of scouting the Xplorers finally filled the vacancy, the position was filled by Frank Witt who signed a four year deal worth to be around $150,000 per year.

Tuesday November 12th 2012

All change in Missoula, it seem's that the Xplorers are in rebuilding phase for the 2013 season with five players leaving for free agency. The five players being Anucakra Aron, Kane Farmer, Reed Wilson, Jean-Pierre Turpin and Tom Spottswood. The big shock was that popular first baseman Aron wasn't offered a new contract, it's thought the Xplorers want to get younger and cheaper.

Tuesday November 27th 2012

Confusion reigns in Missoula, just a couple of weeks ago the Xplorers looked to be going younger and cheaper but that tact seems's to have gone out of the window with the signing of outfielder Jacob Perry. Perry in his late 30's signed a massive $25,500,000 2 year contract.

Thursday December 5th 2012

It seems Missoula may have pulled off a masterstroke in the trading department, late yesterday evening they reached a deal with the Rebels to send little known minor leaguer Lorenzo Vazquez to Boston in return for starting pitcher Matt Brown.

Thursday May 30th 2013

"Dissapointing" that's how you can describe relief pitcher Craig Lau's stay in Missoula, Lau a free agent signing last season came with a reputation of a shutdown pitcher out of the bull pen but never found his previous form in a Missoula jersey. It was then a quick decision when the Mississauga Spartans came calling with a trade offer, Lau and $3 million found themselves going to the Spartans in return for minor leaguers Shigekazu Sato and Dalton Minthorn.

Friday May 31st 2013

Missoula struck a deal Wednesday afternoon which saw them stock up the minors with prospects, the deal saw closer David Webb going to the Montreal Hitmen in return for three minor leaguers in Cristian Padilla, Paul King and Thierry Fauvel.