Brooks Hatch: Mitch Canham’s at practice Comments
Former Oregon State catcher Mitch Canham, one of the anchors of the 2005-07 College World Series teams and one of the most popular players in program history, is working out with the team at the Truax Indoor Center.
A farmhand in the San Diego Padres’ organization, he leaves for spring training on Feb. 15. Canham owns a home in Corvallis and has been a frequent fixture at winter drills since he turned professional following the 2007 season, when he helped lead the Beavers to their second NCAA title in a row.
Canham spent last season with the double-A San Antonio Missions in the Texas League. He hopes to be promoted to the triple-A Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League for 2010.
“I’d like to be, that would be sweet,” he said Wednesday. “I could come down here and go fishing,” or try his luck on the Columbia River, on his rare off-days.
Catching in temperate Portland would be easier on his body than San Antonio was. Canham said he started the 2009 season at 220 pounds but was down to 200 by September.
“I think it was about 105 degrees and 85 percent humidity for 50 days straight” in Texas, he said.
Portland would also get him much closer to his fiance, Marlis Whitman, who lives in the Seattle area. They plan to be married next November.
Canham is still on the Missions’ roster on the Padres minor-league MLB.com home page, but the only catcher presently on the Portland Beavers’ roster is 22-year-old Jason Haggerty. He hit .225 for Eugene in the Northwest League, and then .133 in a brief callup with the Beavers.
Canham’s also been working out a third base and in the outfield to increase his versatility. He originally came to OSU as a corner infielder before being shifted to catcher in 2005 as a redshirt freshman, and is getting a refresher course from OSU assistant Marty Lees, one of the top infield coaches in college baseball.
San Diego’s major-league catchers are Corvallis native Nick Hundley, who left our fair city at age 6 when his father, former OSU defensive coordinator Tim Hundley, took a job at UCLA, and Dusty Ryan, an off-season acquisition who played part-time in Detroit the past two seasons.
Fellow Padre property Dan Robertson and Texas minor-leaguer Andy Jenkins, acquired from the Florida Marlins in the Rule 5 draft, have also been spotted at the Truax Center.
Robertson is still on the long-A Fort Wayne roster; he hit .296 there in 2009. Jenkins is at triple-A Oklahoma City, Texas’ PCL affiliate.
Many more former Beavers should be in town for the annual Diamond Dinner on Jan. 29.
Speaking of the 2010 season, here’s the Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s preview of the University of Hawaii, who the Beavers play on Feb. 19 in the opener of a four-game series that starts the season.
And junior first baseman/outfielder Jared Norris will be the Beavers’ designated blogger this season, according to OSUbeavers.com.
——————————–
Former OSU wrestler Heinrich Barnes won a silver medal in Greco-Roman for his native South Africa at a recent Commonwealth competition in India. Here are the details, sketchy as they may be.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://brookshatch.mvourtown.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
Related posts:
