Yesterday it was announced that Arizona extended Visalia's player development contract through 2012. It was one of six Cal League PDC's set to expire after this season.
Visalia has been the Cal League affiliate of the Diamondbacks since 2007. From 2007-2009, Visalia is 208-211 in the regular season with one playoff appearance. In recent seasons, Visalia has had trouble sticking with one parent club. Tampa Bay was affiliated with the then Visalia Oaks for 2005-2006 and before that the team was Colorado's affiliate.
The team plays at Recreation Park, which is the smallest stadium in professional baseball. Andrew Bettencourt talks about it more here in his article about this, but Visalia has put a lot of money to renovations for their facilities which makes them more appealing for a major league club.
"We're thrilled with our affiliation with the Visalia Rawhide and the City of Visalia," D-backs Director of Player Development Mike Berger said. "We have been witness to continual improvements to the facility and the operations in each of our four years here. We are excited to extend our relationship at this early date with both the ballclub and the wonderful community of Visalia."
Since the Arizona/Visalia partnership started in 2007, quite a few current major leaguers have made stops with the Oaks or Rawhide. Those players include Justin Upton, Gerardo Parra, Brett Anderson and Max Scherzer plus a couple others. Several major leaguers have also made rehab appearances with the team, including Tom Gordon, Conor Jackson, Eric Byrnes, Chris Snyder and Randy Johnson.
This means now six Cal League teams remain without a PDC past 2010. Stockton, Lake Elsinore, Lancaster and now Visalia can breathe easy.
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