Emil "Buzzie" Bavasi was the general manager of the Dodgers from 1951-1968, San Diego from 1969-1972, and the Angels from 1977-1984.
Outfielder Alonzo Sidney Powell did not play for Minnesota, but was in their farm system for a year. He was born in San Francisco, went to high school in San Francisco, and was signed by San Francisco as a free agent in 1983. He was in the Giants' system for two years, but didn't hit. The Giants kept him under contract for 1985, but loaned him to independent San Jose. He did a little better, but was traded to Montreal after the season ended. The trade seemed to help him--he hit .301 in AA in 1986 and started 1987 in the majors. That lasted only a month, but he hit .299 in AAA at age 22 and looked poised to make a move. Instead, he went backward, hitting .262 in AAA in 1988 and .232 in 1989. He was traded to Minnesota after the 1989 season as the player to be named later when the Twins traded Jim Dwyer to the Expos. Again, the trade seemed to help him, as he hit .322 in Portland in 1990. It made no impression on the Twins, though; they let him become a free agent after the season. Signing with Seattle, Powell was hitting .375 at AAA Calgary when he was promoted to the majors in late May. He was given sporadic playing time, however, and did not do much with it. He started 1992 in Calgary again, but then signed with Chunichi Dragons in Japan. Powell stayed in Japan until 1998, when he decided to give it one last shot in the United States. He was in AAA with the organizations of Toronto, the Yankees, and Colorado through 2000, but never got back to the big leagues. He played in 2001 for independent Newark, and then retired. Powell then went into coaching. On May 9, 2009, he became the hitting coach for the Seattle Mariners, a job he held until 2011. From 2012-2015, Alonzo Powell was the assistant batting coach of the San Diego Padres. He was the assistant batting coach of the Houston Astros from 2016-17. He was the batting coach for San Francisco from 2018-2019. In 2020 he went back to Japan, and was a roving batting instructor for the Chunichi Dragons. He returned to the United States in 2024, and was the batting coach of the Salt Lake Bees.
Second baseman Orlando Thill Hudson played for the Twins in 2010. Born and raised in Darlington, South Carolina, he was drafted in the 43rd round by Toronto in 1997. He posted decent but unspectacular batting averages early in his minor league career, hitting a fair number of doubles and drawing a good number of walks. He came on in 2001, hitting .306 in a season split between AA and AAA and following it up with a .307 average in AAA in 2002. He made his big league debut in the latter season, coming up in late July and immediately taking over as the Blue Jays’ starting second baseman. He remained their starting second baseman through the 2005 season, hitting around .270 with an OPS of around .750 and winning a Gold Glove in his last season there. He was traded to Arizona after the 2005 campaign and was the second baseman for the Diamondbacks from 2006-2008. He hit a little better there, hitting over .300 in 2008, winning two more Gold Gloves, and making the all-star team in 2007. He was a free agent after the 2008 season and signed with the Dodgers for 2009, making another all-star team and winning another Gold Glove. A free agent again after the 2009 season, he signed with Minnesota for 2010. He neither made the all-star team nor won the gold glove, hitting .268 with an OPS of .710. A free agent after the season, he signed with San Diego and had the worst year of his career, hitting .246 with an OPS of .681. He was worse in 2012, batting .211 when he was released in mid-May. He signed with the White Sox and stayed the rest of the season as a reserve, but batted just .197. He stated in 2013 that he was not ready to retire, but major league baseball was apparently ready to retire him, and his playing career came to an end. Orlando Hudson founded the C.A.T.C.H. foundation, an organization that seeks to provide resources and a support system for youth coping with autism. At last report, he was a player development assistant for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Right-hander Ervin Ramon Santana played for the Twins from 2015-2018. Born in La Romana, Dominican Republic, he signed with the Angels as a free agent in 2000. He pitched very well throughout the minors and made his major league debut for the Angels in 2005, becoming a rotation starter in mid-May at the ripe old age of twenty-two. He wasn't great, but he showed he belonged in the majors and has been there ever since, other than a few rehab assignments. He was up and down early in his career, but has pitched pretty well since 2010. He's had some problems with the gopher ball, giving up a league-leading thirty-nine homers in 2012. That was his last year with the Angels, as he became a free agent after the season and signed with Kansas City. He pitched well as a Royal but did not get any run support. A free agent again after the season, he signed with Atlanta and had another solid season. He signed with Minnesota for 2015 and was suspended for the first half of the season due to a failed drug test, but he came back to pitch well in the second half of the season. He had an excellent season in 2016, although his won-lost record did not show it. He had another excellent season in 2017, and this time his won-lost record did show it. He also made his second all-star team in 2017. He was injured nearly all of 2018, however, and was ineffective when he did pitch. He signed with the White Sox for 2019 but was released in late April after three poor games. He signed with the Mets in late May and did not pitch very well in AAA. He did not play in 2020, but he played winter ball and signed with Kansas City for 2021 and was somewhat okay pitching out of the bullpen. He became a free agent after the season. He played winter ball that off-season, but that brought his playing career to an end. At last report, it appeared that Ervin Santana was working with Peculiar Fitness in the Atlanta area.
Right-hander Alec Sawyer Gipson-Long did not play for the Twins, but was in their minor league system from 2019-2022. He was born in Lithia Springs, Georgia and attended Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He really did not pitch all that well in college--his numbers are 13-5, 5.59, 1.47 WHIP--but he struck out 165 batters in 140 innings and was drafted by Minnesota in the sixth round in 2019. He struggled in 2019 in rookie ball, did not play in the COVID season of 2020, and did not do all that well in Class A in 2021, although he did continue to strike out a lot of batters. In 2022, however, he appeared to turn a corner, going 5-2, 1.99, 0.93 WHIP in ten high-A starts before being traded to Detroit for Michael Fulmer. They promoted him to AAA for seven starts that season. He did well in AA in 2023, but not as well in eight appearances in AAA. Despite that, he was given a September call-up and pitched very well in four major league starts, going 1-0, 2.70, 1.10 WHIP with 26 strikeouts in 20 innings. He was injured most of 2024, making just one rehab appearance for Class A Lakeland. He turns twenty-seven today, and is hoping to return in 2025.
Outfielder Matthew John Wallner came up to the Twins in September of 2022. Born and raised in Forest Lake, Minnesota, he attended the University of Southern Mississippi and was drafted by the Twins in the first round in 2019. He batted very well in college, posting an OPS of over a thousand every year. He has batted well at every stop in the minors, too. He spent most of 2019 at Elizabethton, posting an OPS of .813. He did not play in the COVID year of 2020, but in 2021 he had an OPS of .858 in Cedar Rapids. He started 2022 in Wichita, soon proved that he was too good for AA, went to St. Paul and kept hitting, and reached the majors in mid-September. He split 2023 between AAA and the majors, spending most of the last half of the season in Minnesota. He had some hot streaks and some slumps, but he ended up at .249/.370/.507, which is pretty good. He split 2024 the same way, and had similar results. He turns twenty-seven today. On the one hand, he hasn't really established himself in the majors, but on the other hand, he's posted an OPS of .866 in essentially a full season of at-bats. He's been much better against right-handers than against left-handers, but he's had fewer than one hundred at-bats against left-handers. It's time to give him a full-time job and see what he can do.
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