History: "Around the Bases"

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DrewV
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History: "Around the Bases"

#1 Post by DrewV »

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Mandy Scott, Staff Writer


Around the bases: First Base
A Duluth Times Report


In this special Warrior Beat Report, we begin our exploration of Duluth's history through an examination of the lineups through the ages. Duluth has enjoyed a wide variety of personality and talent behind first base, each with their own story and piece of the Warrior legacy. We begin with the initiation of the league and continue to 2028. Today, we explore and remember the First Basemen of Duluth.


Missing only five games in Duluth’s inaugural season, Duluth’s “first” First Baseman produced a pedestrian .246/.304/.362 was just enough to get the NYC native traded to Yuma, where he improved from -0.9 WAR to .1 WAR and promptly retired.


No relation to current Duluth DH David Morrison, Dave spent three seasons at First Base for the Warriors, with an OPS above .730. Morrison owns the #5 Career Batting Average Record for Duluth, #3 in Career doubles, and a top-ten appearance on Singles (career and season), doubles (career and season), career RBIs, total bases, hits, and runs. He’s tied with 3B Stan Gill and 1B Jose Gonzalez for most games in a season at 161.

Morrison was a workhorse with a clean swing, and an above-average First Baseman all three years he started with Duluth. He moved to 1B from the DH position in 2008. In 2010, he split 1B duties with recently-promoted AAA prospect Jose Gonzalez—by 2011, he was only starting 1/3 of games at 1B. He was relegated to utility and DH until his trade and demotion to AAA to the New Jersey Chilltowners (now Clifton Dons), where he gave two above-average performances at First Base before moving to the Fayetteville Braggarts for his final season and retirement in 2017.

Dave Morrison, held down three successful seasons with Duluth, earning the All-Leather award at First Base in 2008. He is a 2-time PEBA Player of the Week and earned a Minor League All-Star spot in 2015.


In 2011, Columbian discovery Jose Gonzalez beat Morrison out for the starting slot at First Base—though Morrison would remain with the franchise for several years. Gonzalez was a home-grown Duluth farm product, whose 57 doubles in 2008 is still a NAFTA record. In 2009, his .269/.325/.465 AAA debut was enough to convince Duluth’s management to give him a DH role on the Warriors lineup. He struggled in 2010, with an OPS+ below 80, compared to Dave Morrison’s 93. The two shared 1B/DH duties the entire season—but by 2011 was playing two games to Morrison’s 1 at 1B. In his last year with Duluth, he penciled 97 starts at 1B, with a career-low wRC+ of 55. He left Duluth for Kyoto after the 2012 season, and would never start in the Major Leagues again.

Gonzalez is a 2-time AAA and 1-time A All-star.


A long-time minor leaguer, Carlos Colon filled the gap left by Dave Morrison and Jose Gonzalez in 2012. This was due largely to his #1 Batting Average and Extra Base Hits in all of NAFTA the previous year. He continued his slugging power in his rookie year with Duluth, batting .232/.304/.398. At an OPS+ of 84, he retired after one year in the Major Leagues.


One of the inaugural PEBA All-Stars, Cruz came to Duluth from San Antonio as a Free Agent for his final three years in the Major Leagues. Cruz, a 3-time All-Star and the first-ever IL Royal Raker awardee, posted a .278 BA in his three years with Duluth. He led the league in SFs for 2015. He would see Duluth through their first Division Title in 2016 before retiring.


The longest-serving First baseman in Duluth history, Cortez stands out as a phenomenal power-hitter with a .296/.378/.483 slash line in his six seasons with the Warriors. A 2-time PEBA MVP and 3-time All-Star, Cortez was a cornerstone of Duluth’s rise to Division power in 2016. A trade from West Virginia, Cortez is indisputably the most successful Duluth first Baseman in team history. Leading Duluth to the Division title, Cortez recorded a career-high 200 hits in 2016 with 40 home runs. He led the league in WAR at 7.4, and again in 2019 at 5.0.

After his unequaled 2016 season, Cortez signed a $25 Million extension with Duluth for four years, seeing another successful season in 2017 (Wildcard).

Cortez would never break his white-hot 2016 records, but his successful 2019 season saw him on top of WAR again at 5.8. In 2020, he was infamously traded to Arlington in exchange for 1B Dax O’ Mannis (who eventually found his way back to Arlington and plays there today), prospect Rytaru(now a Reno Zephyr), and Bruce “Smokey” McGuire, who would see six seasons at Duluth in Center Field before moving to London last season.

Arlington would trade Cortez to West Virginia in 2023, where he would be released-and-signed by the franchise before a final release and retirement in 2027. An unfortunate end to a successful career.

Cortez enjoys many Duluth records, including career OBP at .378, Single-season slugging PCT at .576, Single-season OPS at .984, and single-season hits at 200. He is a top-70 PEBA player in the same categories.


An eight-year minor leaguer for the Arlington franchise, Dax O’Mannis was a 7-time Minor League All-Star before his first at-bat in PEBA. Known for an above-average slugging percentage, the Texas native came in hot from his trade for his predecessor, Angel Cortez. His two years with Duluth produced .237/.338/.440 slash line with 42 Home Runs and 141 RBI. In 2021, Dax was not offered arbitration and became a Free Agent. Dax would see himself through seasons with Okinawa, Havana, Manchester, and back to Arlington in 2026, before his release and eventual retirement this year.


A legendary walk machine and .730 Career OPS player, Mike Harris has enjoyed the PEBA Top-10 for walks four times. Traded to Duluth for a second round pick (who ended up being Ryutaro Nakano, still playing for Amsterdam), “Big Mike” Harris was known for his commitment to the team and early arrivals for batting practice. After 2022, Harris would be replaced by the versatile Jeff Prat. In 2023, he was swapped to Hartford for a trio of prospects.

Jeff Prat
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2023-24

The second starting First Baseman to be traded from the New Jersey Hitmen to Duluth, Jeff Prat is a talented product of the Duluth farm system who just moved on to Shin Seiki this year. Prat keeps is OPS high with solid hitting talent and plenty of exit velocity. The #19 pick of 2019, Prat was a leader of the Duluth clubhouse from 2022 until his trade to the Evas last July—a move that surprised Warrior Nation, and triggered largely by his open decision to pursue Free Agency this Fall.

Prat, traditionally an outfielder, started First base after his callup in the absence of Mike Harris for 2023 and 2024. Afterward, he shared First Base duties with Cole Middleton until his move to Left Field in 2026, and then Right Field to make room for the big Jasper Mercer signing in 2027. He started in right for Duluth in 2028 before his trade to Shin Seiki for RF John Howe and a 5th Round Draft pick.


A 9th-Round Draft Pick in 2017, Howe enjoyed an unexpectedly successful minor league career with (you guessed it)tThe New Jersey Hitmen franchise. He was traded to Shin Seiki in 2024 for 1B Ernesto Villabolos and a fourth-round pick, and saw about a third of the games the next season as the Warrior First Baseman. Middleton has always had a clean eye, with an OPS above .700 all but one season. Though an often source of complaints from teammates who describe him, at best, as “unenthusiastic,” Middleton’s lackluster defensive skills prevented him from securing a permanent role at First—and often swapped in a DH function. In 2027, he lost the starting role to the current starter, Paul Dillworth. He now serves as a DH for the Warriors.

Paul Dillworth
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2027-Present

Paul Dillworth, Class of 2019, was the 333rd pick of the 2019 Draft, beginning his career with the Badger organization. A former Ole Miss Confederate (along with teammate Sean Kirkland), Dillworth holds the #2 single-season record for Triples at his alma mater. Though his batting average drifts dangerously close to the Mendoza line (.236 this season), he makes up for it with an OPS of .733 by hitting an abnormally high number of doubles and triples. Although Dillworth strikes out too much, he almost always makes the pitcher work for them and has some of the best gap and eye ability on the team.
Dillworth’s slugging percentage may be enough to save him—up for arbitration this year. Duluth has quite a few first baseman in their farm system, including the much-discussed Francisco Munoz—whose lackluster rise to AAA may warrant an additional year in Racine—and keep Dillworth on the lineup.

Through the years, Duluth has seen a wide variety of dynamic and memorable First Basemen. Each contributes to the Warrior Legacy--from 2007 to now.

Next time, we'll move to second base, examining Duluth heroes like Harley Schneider.
Last edited by DrewV on Thu Apr 18, 2019 6:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: History: "Around the Bases"

#2 Post by Vic »

Excellent, Drew! Some fascinating stuff in here - including the mysterious Carlos Colon retirement after just one year in the majors (his debut season was kind of meh, but certainly not disastrous). What gave there, I wonder?

Also, the Angel Cortéz/Dax O’Mannis trade ... just wow! Shades of the Cubs trading Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio. A key piece of Warriors lore.

Looking forward to the second basemen!
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Re: History: "Around the Bases"

#3 Post by Borealis »

Excellent piece Drew!! I love all the diving into team's pasts that's happening - and quite appropriate for a feature I'm hoping to bring back for the offseason!!
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Re: History: "Around the Bases"

#4 Post by DrewV »

Thanks guys! Really enjoyed this piece as I do all things Warriors. Really enjoyed peeling back the layers and seeing the "narrative to now."
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Re: History: "Around the Bases"

#5 Post by Ghosts »

This is a cool look over a slice of PEBA history. As a newbie to PEBA, I enjoyed seeing a name I recognized (Jeff Prat). I hope to have the opportunity to compete against him in the playoffs. Hopefully he stops slugging if I do!
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Re: History: "Around the Bases"

#6 Post by Leones »

Really enjoyed reading this. Nice work. I was shocked that 4 years is the PEBA record for duty at first base. That's amazing.
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Re: History: "Around the Bases"

#7 Post by Borealis »

4-years? OMG, Aurora's been a merry-go-round at first. If we had ever found the 3B we had been searching for, Britt would have served longer than 4...
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Re: History: "Around the Bases"

#8 Post by DrewV »

Leones wrote:Really enjoyed reading this. Nice work. I was shocked that 4 years is the PEBA record for duty at first base. That's amazing.
I have to be honest, that's a typo. He's the longest-serving Duluth First Baseman.

The longest-serving 1-team First Base Starter honor belongs to Fargo's Ramon Flores, London's Nathan Ramsey and Florida's Tsumemasa Morimoto, who are all tied with 9. Hartford's Narahiko Imada would have won it with 12, but missed 2013.

Someone call the Duluth Times!
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Re: History: "Around the Bases"

#9 Post by Lions »

Just now catching up on this article, Carlos Colon holds a special place in PEBA history that most people have either never heard of or have simply forgotten. At one point in time, he was the PEBA player with the highest BMI.

As for Cortez... I recall coveting him back in the day something awful.
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Re: History: "Around the Bases"

#10 Post by Vic »

Badgers wrote:Just now catching up on this article, Carlos Colon holds a special place in PEBA history that most people have either never heard of or have simply forgotten. At one point in time, he was the PEBA player with the highest BMI.
Oh my god - that BMI story is too good, Frank! And, of course, they're all just big-boned ... Outstanding, sir.
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Re: History: "Around the Bases"

#11 Post by DrewV »

That is too funny! Great read.
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