Midwest League 1996

Clinton LumberKings

Joel's Lugnut Summer

This page profiles the 1996 Clinton LumberKings, a Single-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres and a member of the Midwest League.

Properly, this team's name is the LumberKings. I decided not to correct the name on this essentially historical page.

This essay previewed the last 1996 series between the Lumber Kings and the Lansing Lugnuts. It was intended to highlight the team's strengths, and was written from the perspective of a Lugnuts fan.

Four games at Clinton's Riverview Stadium.

The Lumber Kings are affiliated with the San Diego Padres and are locally owned by over 600 small shareholders.

The National Association's Lumber Kings website is the only site I'm aware of for this team. KCLN-KLNT has [had] the Lumber Kings schedule and results in a table, but no other data. There's [was] a review of Riverview Stadium on Dustin Schubert's [late and lamented] Single-A Ballparks page. Gary Jarvis has a picture of their ballpark at his site.

The Lumber King's manager is Mike Ramsey. Scipio Spinks is this team's pitching coach.

The Ballpark

Note written 14 December 1996: Evidently I didn't do a write-up on the Clinton ballpark. Can't see any reason I skipped it, though; must have been in a hurry. Sorry.

The Team

All stats quoted are thru Tuesday, July 9.

The Lumber Kings are tied for second (and last) place in the Western Division with a 10-10 (.500) won/lost record. Last summer's team at Clinton may have been Class A's worst, and this year's version looks about the same. Baseball America tells me the Padres farm system is improving, but it doesn't show yet in Clinton.

The Padres' 1995 Rookie teams at Idaho Falls (Pioneer League) and Peoria (Arizona League) finished in the middle of their respective standings. Most of the Lumber King pitching staff toiled at Idaho Falls last season. This year's position players nearly all started last season on one of the Rookie teams and got promoted to Clinton before Labor Day. They're back for a second chance, and some of them will improve.

This year, no hitter's stats are outstanding. Outfielder Mark Wulfert and first baseman Dusty Allen are showing some power. Outfielder James Johnson is a threat to steal. The rest are either too new to trust the stats or pretty weak hitters. This is the worst-hitting team in the league.

Pitcher Brandon Kolb is having a decent season. Reliever Tim Campbell has a terrific ERA but no other stats worth mentioning. There's not much else here.

Reminder: This is baseball. A lousy team can sweep a good one. And our team isn't especially good....

This could have been our team. Two years ago, the Sultans were a Padres affiliate, as were the Diamonds before them. I'm sure there's a lesson in here, but I'm not sure which to draw.