Roster cutdown approaches for Range Riders
The 2023 Glacier Range Riders, on the way to Cutdown Day, gather at Glacier Bank Park at 10 o’clock every morning. For five or so hours, they… do what, exactly?
“We get after it,” Range Riders manager Stu Pederson says. “We’re working.”
The morning is stretching and batting practice. Afternoons are reserved for live game situations. Pederson has 40 prospects in camp and he counts 17 that were Range Riders last season, the inaugural one for this Pioneer League baseball newcomer.
“We brought in a lot of really good players,” Pederson said Tuesday. “Some of the players that were on the team last year, they’re not going to make it this year, just because our talent level is up.”
He later added a caveat: “There are going to be guys who on Saturday are going to get told that they won’t make the team, but who will get picked up by other teams in this league.”
The Range Riders had a tough season, especially in the first half. Three of the 10 PL teams won fewer games than Glacier, but all of them were in the South Division. The Range Riders finished 30 games back from North Division winner Missoula, and the obvious goal is to close that gap.
To that end 23 prospects have joined the holdovers. One new guy that has shown out is outfielder Kingston Liniak, who was selected at age 19 in the fourth round of the 2018 MLB Draft by Detroit. He didn’t play much besides his 2021 season, when he had 10 homers in 107 games. He didn’t hit for average in four years of minor league ball. That was then.
“He’s a real nice surprise,” Pederson said. “He’s the type of guy that an MLB team will say, ‘Oh, OK, we like him. He’s figured some things out.’
“Some guys it takes a while to figure it out, some guys don’t figure it out at all. He definitely has the skill set and the tools to be able to move up.”
If you’re asking if there wasn’t something to like about last year’s team, there’s plenty: Dean Miller (15 homers and 75 runs batted in), Livingston Morris (13 homers), Ben McConnell (82 runs scored) and Ryan Cash (.326 average) are all in camp.
That’s a solid base. The Range Riders also drafted three players out of the Pioneer League’s tryout camp held in Scottsdale, Arizona April 17-20: Two right-handed pitchers and a catcher.
One of the righties, Joe Kinsky, graduated high school in 2016 and pitched sparingly, a total of 25 innings, for Division II Western Oregon. He went 2-0 there.
Nate Brezner-Mendoza spent two seasons at the University of Portland, and last spring played in the Pecos League, striking out 17 in 17.2 innings.
Catcher Keenan O’Brien is intriguing in that he could be the first product of Glendive’s Dawson Community College in the Pioneer League. He also played two years at NAIA Corban University in Salem, Oregon. He hit .312 and threw out 13 of 23 base-stealers during the 2023 season, which ended April 30..
This is all dependent, of course, on making the cut Saturday. Sunday will be moving day, when the rostered players settle with host families. Pederson envisions some workouts under the lights starting Monday; next Tuesday will mark one week from the start of the Pioneer League season.
The Range Riders will travel to Great Falls for six games starting May 23. Fans can get their first look at the team at the home stadium when Billings comes in on May 30 (some construction means workouts are closed to the public).
What they’ll see, Pederson feels, is a more talented team that adheres to the club’s main goal: “We’re looking for guys that have a chance with a Major League team.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to show the stadium's new name: Glacier Bank Park.
Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 758-4463 or fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com.