Wheeler to Compete in Minors Moniker Madness
HUNTSVILLE, AL - Huntsville Stars third baseman
Zelous Wheeler has been selected as one
of 64 Minor League Baseball players with a true asset, a unique
moniker.
Wheeler,
along with the 63
other minor leaguers, will go name-to-name in Minors Moniker Madness
(MMM), a
March Madness-style bracket to determine who has the best name in all
of Minor
League Baseball. It's the infielder's fourth year in the highly
competitive
bracket challenge, but seniority obviously didn't play a part. He's
been given
the "distinction" of an 11 seed, his second lowest seeding since
entering the
competition in 2008.
"At
least I'm not facing Al
Alburquerque this year," Wheeler said, after being informed he's been
given the
honor of competing. "That was a tough one."
"Z-Wee,"
as fans call him, lost
to Alburquerque in the second round in his MMM debut back in 2008. He
advanced to
the third round the following two years, losing to Dusty Napoleon
(2009) and Gookie
Dawkins (2010). He was seeded 8th and 13th
those years,
respectively. Wheeler has yet to advance past the "Sweet 16" stage.
When
asked about his strategy
to make it to the "Elite 8" and beyond, teammate Steffan Wilson jumped
in. "We
have to change it up from last year. Whatever we did obviously didn't
work," he
said.
Wheeler
and company have to
start coming up with a solid game plan to get past Skyler Stromsmol as
the
clock is tick-ticking on round one. Fans can vote for Wheeler and other
favorite names (besides Stromsmol) here.
Voting for round one ends on August 7. Round two will go from August 8
- 11,
with round three carrying on from August 12 - 15. The "Elite 8" voting
begins
on August 16. The four semi-finalists will be announced on August 19
with the
finals running from August 23-25. Fans can get in on the action through
Facebook and Twitter as well. Wheeler fans are encouraged to use the
social
media hashtag #VoteZelous throughout the competition!
The
Stars continue a ten-game
home stand tonight against the Carolina Mudcats at 6:43 p.m. It's a
KRAFT
Singles Tuesday Night Tickets! Buy 1 ticket, get 1 free from KRAFT
Singles with
purchase. Bring your package wrapper to the game for a steal of a deal!
Visit huntsvillestars.com
for more information! Don't forget to keep up with the Stars on Facebook,
Twitter
and their official
newsletter!