Young Frazier an early student of the game

Had a fun conversation with George Frazier, a 10-year major league veteran and father of Dust Devils starter Parker Frazier.

By the way, Parker is not the only son of a former big leaguer. Reliver Rod Scurry is the offspring of the late Pirates pitcher Rod Scurry, who died of a heart attack in 1992. There’s a lot more to that story — it’s both a tragic and sensitive topic — and I’ll tell that story a little later.

Anyway, back to George.

George loves to tell stories about how Parker was once a batboy for the Los Angeles Dodgers under manager Jim Tracy.

Here’s one from 2003, as told by George:

“Odalis Perez was starting for the Dodgers, and Parker (then 14 years old) was sitting right next to Tracy. Perez was getting his butt kicked that day, so Parker leans over to Tracy at one point and says, ‘He might want to mix in a slider every now and again.’

“Tracy leaned over to him and said, ‘Yeah, you’re probably right.’”

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Last I checked, there weren’t too many more uniforms hanging in Paula Ward’s back room to handle additional players.

As far as I know, there are two more jerseys to give out — No. 4 and No. 34.

Georgia third baseman Ryan Peisel (12th round) will grab one of those jerseys for his debut this week, and Fresno State second baseman Erik Wetzel (13th round) — as of last week — was said to be earmarked for Tri-City.

That’s two jerseys.

That means there’s no more room for player movement. Which brings us to the next logical step.

At some point every season, players will be given their unconditional release from the organization. That’s always a sad day, but it’s a part of the game.

I expect we’ll see at least a few players cut loose over the next two weeks.

More to come.