GRAND RAPIDS, Mich-- The West Michigan Whitecaps begin their season Thursday in South Bend with the home opener scheduled for Saturday at 4 p.m.. Jason Hutton sat down with the voice of the Whitecaps, Dan Hasty for season preview.
The return of baseball in West Michigan is always highly anticipated, but coming off yet another Midwest League Championship, that anticipation is heightened for the Whitecaps.
“This is a team now that has won six championships in 22 years there is not a lot of professional organizations that can say that they have ever won six championships in that time span" Hasty said.
A major coup for the Caps is the return of manager Andrew Graham for a third year. It’s not always easy to keep a skipper who’s been as successful as him.
“He’s done a lot of good work and he is somebody that the players can relate to, he’s a former catcher, he’s a former Whitecaps, he’s the first Whitecaps that has ever won a championship as a player and as a manager so he’s got a lot of pedigree" Hasty said. "I think the Tigers are lucky that he was willing to come back and I know we are excited to have him.”
The Whitecaps roster features a great outfield led by 2014 first round pick Derek Hill who returns to West Michigan and last season’s 5th round pick and Kirk Gibson’s son Cam. The pitching staff will be led by the Tigers top pick last summer, 19-year old Beau Burrows.
“He’s going to be a lot of fun to watch develop, I think the Tigers were as little hesitant to challenge him at this level this early because this was a guy that was in high school a year ago" Hasty said. "They saw enough in spring training that he basically forced their hand and said we got to send him to West Michigan so that’s a good sign.”
