DILLON THOMAS LEADS AMERICAN ASSOCIATION ALUMNI EARNING AFFILIATED PROMOTIONS

By Bob Wirz

American Association grads now in major league organizations have been getting any number of promotions in recent days with the best perhaps that of last summer’s Texas AirHogs outfielder Dillon Thomas.

(Photo Credit: Texas AirHogs)

The lefty, at the ideal stage as a mid-20s guy (he turns 26 on December 10), after earning all-American Association honors with a .333 batting average (fourth in the league) and topping everyone else with 37 doubles, had his contract purchased late in the season by Milwaukee and now has been promoted to the Brewers’ top farm club in San Antonio.

The career-best batting average and .420 on-base percentage along with 13 homers and 54 RBI in 80 games for the AirHogs seemed to have helped the native Texan who had spent virtually all of his seven seasons in the Colorado farm system leading into last season at Double-A or lower.  Thomas hit .293 with a .464 OBP in 13 games with Class A Carolina after joining the Brewers which also helped him jump two levels in their organization.

St. Louis promoted 2017 Sioux City first baseman John Nogowski to Triple-A after a robust summer one level lower.  Among those promoted to Class AA were pitchers Jason Creasy (St. Paul) and Sebastian Kessay (Fargo-Moorhead) by Arizona,, James Buckelew (Kansas City) by the Chicago Cubs, Carlos Diaz (Gary and Kansas City) by Cincinnati and Connor Overton (Sioux City) by San Francisco and infielder Dylan Tice (Kansas City) by the New York Mets.  All but Nogowski and Overton were in the American Association last season.

Previously the chief spokesman for Baseball Commissioners Bowie Kuhn and Peter Ueberroth, Bob Wirz has been writing extensively about Independent Baseball since 2003.  He is a frequent contributor to this site, has a blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com, and a book about his life, “The Passion of Baseball”, is available at Amazon.com, or at www.WirzandAssociates.com.