For former LSU baseball players Blake Martin and Michael Hollander, life in the minor leagues has taken different turns.
Martin plays for the Beloit Snappers, a single-A team in Beloit, Wis., affiliated with the Minnesota Twins. He started off with a rookie-level team in Tennessee after signing his professional contract June 24 and has been in Wisconsin for about three weeks.
Martin said the minor league experience has been “about what [he] expected.”
“We play just about every day and have long bus rides,” Martin said. “But playing summer ball, you get used to that.”
Hollander’s experience in the minor leagues, however, has been different than his former teammate – he hurt his thumb in his second minor league game.
“I was running to first, and I kind of stumbled over the bag,” Hollander said. “I kind of reached a hand out to brace myself, and I guess it bent back on me. I’m not real sure.”
He said the injury did not require surgery.
“It was a clean break,” Hollander said.
Hollander and Martin are two of five former Tiger baseball players who have signed with minor league teams. Other players include pitchers Ryan Verdugo and Jared Bradford and first baseman Matt Clark.
Verdugo plays for a minor league team in the San Francisco Giants organization, while Bradford plays for the Quad Cities River Bandits in Davenport, Iowa, in the St. Louis Cardinals organization.
Clark signed Friday with the San Diego Padres’ organization, the Eugene Emeralds in Oregon.
Pitchers Jordan Brown and Louis Coleman were drafted but have yet to announce if they will return to LSU. Both have one more year of collegiate eligibility remaining.
Hollander is with the single-A Spokane Indians in Spokane, Wash., affiliated with the Texas Rangers. He signed with the team about four days after LSU’s final game at the College World Series on June 20.
“I played a game and a half up there,” Hollander said. “I kind of met the team on the road, and there was a long bus ride back to Spokane from Eugene, Ore. That was kind of my first [minor league] experience, the bus ride. That was a little different from what college road trips are like.”
Martin said there is “nothing boring” about playing games every day.
“You get paid to play baseball,” Martin said. “I’m just having fun. You dream about this since you’re a kid about playing professional baseball, and finally getting to do it, it’s all worth it.”
Hollander is in Arizona rehabilitating his thumb and said the recovery process will take another 2 1/2 weeks.
“It’s completely different down here,” Hollander said. “It’s just some guys rehabbing, some big league guys, some minor league guys, just rehabbing at the spring training facility in Surprise, Ariz.”
Hollander said he rehabs every morning from 6 a.m. to about 10:30 a.m. or 11 a.m.
“It’s a lot of free time,” Hollander said. “No school to worry about.”
Hollander said he will return to Baton Rouge in September to take some classes to finish his undergraduate degree. He said he will practice while in Baton Rouge but won’t play any games.
“I think I’ve got about 20 hours left,” Hollander said. “I’ll be in Baton Rouge finishing up school, working out and staying in shape.”
Both Martin and Hollander said minor league crowds are not as large or loud as crowds at Alex Box Stadium.
“We played in one stadium where we had about 8,000 [fans],” Martin said. “But that was about as close at it came. Everybody else, it’s probably about 1,500 to 3,000 average.”
Martin said he expects to stay with the Snappers for the rest of the year. But in the long run, he said his focus is only on making it to the major leagues.
“That’s the main goal – just getting there as soon as possible,” Martin said.
—-Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]