Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay has so far only announced the signing of 5 native Canadians. Lefties Morgan Carlile and Chris Lemay will be making the trip along with OF Temple Macdonald from Campbellsville University. Neither Lemay or Carlile have given up a run yet this spring. Lemay is 2-0, 1 save and has 17 strikeouts in 14 innings. Carlile won his only start. Temple is hitting .375 with one homerun and one steal. Temple's brother Andrew Macdonald will be joining the Border Cat infield this year. Through four games for Niagara University he has a .214 average. RHP Cory Hall has yet to se action as a freshman at Gonzaga.

Eau Claire

Long Beach State OF Teddy Pattock will be back in the Express outfield this summer. He was selected as a mid-season and post-season All-Star last year, and also chosen as King of the Express.

Bryan Frew and Tim Huber will also be returning to Eau Claire after their junior seasons at Nebraska-Omaha. Huber was selected to the NWL mid-season and post-season teams last year. Tim has one start with no decision and 2 strikeouts this year and has also spent time at 1B and DH. Bryan was third on the Express last year with a .294 average and spent time all over the field. This spring he is hitting .280 and has one steal.

Ian Hollick will be back at third base for his third season with the Express. His season was cut short last summer when he broke a bone in his hand. He has been named to numerous preseason All-American teams this year including those by Rivals.com and Ping!Baseball.

Hollick

Nick Fellman has struck out 6 in 3 innings of work this spring out of the Minnesota State-Mankato bullpen. He will look to add to his Eau Claire team record 19 saves this summer.

Mike Laluna saw action in the infield and made a few relief appearances last summer for Eau Claire. His season at New York Tech starts on March 2 against Texas A&M Corpus Christi. It is possible that he may pitch more this summer for the Express.

OFJeff Rapoport and OF/LHPJustin Uribe, freshman teammates at UCLA, will be coming to Eau Claire. Rapoport has yet to see action this year for the Bruins, while Uribe is batting .348 with one homerun and has made one appearance as a pitcher.

Yavapai Junior College teammates LHP/OFKohl Calhoun and SS Daniel Duffy have signed to play for the Express this summer. Calhoun is hitting .333 with 3 steals and is 1-1 as a pitcher. Duffy has 4 steals and is hitting .327. Duffy originally commited to Arizona State but was drafted by the Yankees and went to Yavapai instead as a draft and follow candidate.

INF/RHPDavid Cales and C Brett Schaefer, both sophomores at Illinois-Chicago, have signed to play for Eau Claire. Brett is hitting .308 with one homerun. David is hitting .214 with one steal and also has one save and three strikeouts in two appearances out of the bullpen.

SS Jonathan Merritt has 2 steals and is batting .250 for Alabama-Birmingham. OF Jonathan Ratledge has so far not received any playing time for South Carolina. They both have signed to play for Eau Claire.

Those of you that will be attending games in Eau Claire this year will now have 400 more seats with backs on them. The grandstands behind home plate will now all have benches with backs on them except for the top row. So if you like to bring your own fold-up chair to sit on you might have to get their early and claim a spot on the top row.

Green Bay

A look at the players Green Bay has signed so far for its inaugural season

Dick Knutz is a backup catcher with Lewis-Clark State College after spending his first two seasons at Centralia Community College. He's related to Hall of Fame WR Steve Largent.

Rob Raux of Ithaca College will begin play on March 11 against Cal Lutheran. He is a two-time all region selection at catcher.

Kyle Stalker a first baseman and DH for Willamette leads his team with 5 HR in 9 games.

Cord Phelps is batting .300 in 11 games for Stanford and has spent time at 3B, 2B, and SS.

Kyle Conley plays in the OF for Washington and is batting .350 with 2 steals in 6 games.

Dillon Bell redshirted last year at UC Irvine and is yet to get a start in the Anteaters outfield this year.

Tyler Cheney a LHP for Washington has one save and a 1.69 ERA in two appearances this spring.

Kevin Hernandez is 1-1, 4.91 in two appearances for Loyola Marymount this year. The RHP spent the previous two seasons at Moorpark Junior College.

Mark Grbavac has struck out 6 and allowed one run in 6 innings this season for Oregon State.

Nick Sottung had 3 complete game shutouts last year and led Ithaca with 53 strikeouts.

2006 Top 10 Prospects

Lets take a look at how the 2006 top 10 Northwoods League prospects as selected by Baseball America are faring this year.

1. Jordan Zimmermann RHP Eau Claire - UW-Stevens Point starts their season on March 5th against the University of St. Thomas.

2. Charlie Shirek RHP Duluth - Charlie is 1-1, 5.00 in two starts for Nebraska this spring.

3. Brett Hunter RHP Alexandria - Brett has started in three games and appeared in two others. He is 2-1, 2.45, 1 save and leads Pepperdine with 23 strikeouts.

4. Steven Hensley RHP Duluth - In three starts for Elon, Hensley has gone 1-1, 7.71, with 18 strikeouts in 14 innings.

5. Chad Dawson RHP St. Cloud - Chad is 0-0, 3.18 in one start for the Sycamores of Indiana State.

6. Tim Smith OF Mankato - Smith is batting .421 with 1 HR and 1 SB in his first season with Arizona State after starring at Midland College for the past two seasons.

7. Tim Murphy OF/LHP Duluth - Tim is batting .261 with 4 steals in 13 games in the UCLA outfield. He also has three strikeouts in 1.2 innings out of the bullpen.

8. Jeff Richard RHP Waterloo - Jeff is 0-1 4.15 with 6 strikeouts in 4.1 innings of work this year for Central Michigan.

9. Chris Jones OF Rochester - Jones has started all 13 games for Cal State Fullerton and is hitting .234 with 3 steals this spring.

10. Byron Wiley OF Duluth - Hitting .370 and leading Kansas State with 2HR and 2SB in 8 games, Byron has also shown good plate discipline while drawing 9 walks.

Battle Creek

Future Battle Creek RHP Eric Lawrence has appeared in three games this spring for Central Michigan and has recorded one save. He was drafted by Arizona in 05 but returned to school. Joining him in Battle Creek will be LHP Dan Puls who has recorded one save and four strikeouts in 3.1 innings of work this spring for Eastern Michigan. The Bombers have also signed SS John Shaffer who has started every game for San Jose State this spring and leads the team with four steals. After redshirting last year OF John Lee has not started in Nebraska's first seven games this year.