Loon Winter League Roundup

For three former Great Lakes Loons, it's time to fight for a championship Down Under.

Brandon Dixon, Kyle Hooper and Craig Stem are members of the Australian Baseball League's Adelaide Bite, which host Perth in the league's best-of-three championship series beginning Friday.

The series will be televised by the MLB Network.

For Adelaide, it will mark its first appearance in the ABL Championship Series. The Bite won 32 regular season games - out of 48 - to become only the second team in league history to win 30 games or more. And all three former Loons have played a part in the team's success.

Dixon, who made his professional debut with the Loons in 2013, has been one of Adelaide's top offensive producers. He leads the team in hits (59), runs (38), doubles (17), stolen bases (21) and total bases (107) while batting .289 with 30 RBI.

A second baseman and former third round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2013, Dixon appeared in 59 games with the Loons in 2013 and batted .185 with one home run and 17 RBI.

The right-handed Stem appeared in 39 games, all in relief, with the Loons over the 2012 and '13 seasons, and has only one minor league start to his credit. But he's started all 11 games he's appeared in for Adelaide this winter, going 3-1 with a 3.86 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 56 innings of work.

Stem was a 15th round pick of the Dodgers in the 2011 draft, but in November was traded to the Miami Marlins organization.

Hooper was a valuable member of last summer's Loons bullpen that was dominant. He appeared in 27 games with the Loons, going 1-0 with a 3.07 ERA while striking out 54 batters in 41 innings. Working out of Adelaide's bullpen, Hooper is 2-0 with a 4.74 ERA in 22 games while striking out 25 batters in 24 2/3 innings.

Despite its remarkable regular season record, nothing promises to come easy for the Bite during the Championship Series. Perth is the defending ABL champion and has won three of four titles since the league re-formed under its current format in 2009.

Major League Baseball owns a majority share of the ABL, and all players are paid by the league with a set pay scale.

Several other Loons alums participated in winter leagues, include pitcher Jose De Leon - whose stock within the Los Angeles Dodgers organization has risen after an eye-opening 2014 season which included four superb starts for the Loons.

De Leon also made four starts for Criollos de Caguas of the Puerto Rican Winter League and went 2-1 with a 1.13 ERA and 15 strikeouts while holding opposing batters to a .183 average.

It was a continuation of a dominant 2014 regular season for De Leon, a former 24th round draft pick who had a 6.96 ERA with two teams in 2013. But De Leon went 5-0 with 77 strikeouts in 54.1 innings as an Ogden Raptor to start the '14 season - earning Pioneer League Pitcher of the Year honors in the process - then went 2-0 with the Loons in August while setting the franchise record for strikeouts in a game (14).

The latter mark had been held by three-time National League Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw and two others.

De Leon's 2014 rise has also seen him move into the top 10 of Dodgers minor league prospects according to MLB.com (he wasn't in the top 20 before), and earn an invite to the Dodgers Winter Development Camp in Los Angeles.

Joc Pederson's star has been on the rise since 2011, when he tore it up at Rookie League Ogden after struggling in 16 games with the Loons. He was the Pacific Coast's player of the year in 2014 as he hit 33 home runs while stealing 33 bases, and is considered a strong candidate to break into the Dodgers starting lineup in '15.

But that didn't stop Pederson from doing some winter fine-tuning. The 22-year-old outfielder batted .265 with one home run and seven RBI in 83 at bats for Leones el Escogido of the Dominican League. As mentioned, Pederson's next stop could be Dodger Stadium.

Rafael Ynoa (Loons '10) made his major league debut last year at age 27 with the Colorado Rockies, and acquitted himself nicely with a .343 batting average and 13 RBI in 19 games. He's also stayed busy in the off-season, playing in 40 games with Aguilas of the Dominican League, where he hit .294 with two home runs and six RBI.

A host of other Loons participated in winter leagues, including Delvis Morales, Webster Rivas and Josmar Cordero from last season's Great Lakes team.

Among others, Ethan Martin (Loons '09) pitched in the Venezuelan League; Martin spent time with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2014, while Jon Garcia, who smacked 19 home runs for the Loons in 2011, batted .264 with three home runs and 17 RBI in 36 games for the San Juan Senators of the Puerto Rican League.