Fayetteville Woodpeckers | |||||
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Minor league affiliations | |||||
Class | Single-A (2022–present) | ||||
Previous classes |
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League | Carolina League (2022–present) | ||||
Division | South Division | ||||
Previous leagues |
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Major league affiliations | |||||
Team | Houston Astros (2017–present) | ||||
Minor league titles | |||||
League titles (1) | 2018 | ||||
Division titles (2) |
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Team data | |||||
Name | Fayetteville Woodpeckers (2019–present) | ||||
Previous names | Buies Creek Astros (2017–2018) | ||||
Colors | Black, red, gray, white | ||||
Ballpark | Segra Stadium (2019–present) | ||||
Previous parks | Jim Perry Stadium (2017–2018) | ||||
Owner(s)/ Operator(s) | Houston Astros | ||||
Manager | Ricky Rivera |
The Fayetteville Woodpeckers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Carolina League and the Single-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. They are located in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and play their home games at Segra Stadium. From 2017 to 2018, the team was known as the Buies Creek Astros and played at Jim Perry Stadium on the campus of Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina.
The Houston Astros began to scout locations for a baseball stadium to locate a team in Fayetteville in April 2016. [1] In August 2016, a two-team expansion to the Carolina League was approved, with the first franchise assigned to Kinston, North Carolina. [2]
The Fayetteville City Council approved plans to build a new stadium by 2019. This required the team to find a temporary location to play the 2017 and 2018 seasons. [3] [4] On November 17, it was announced the team would play at Jim Perry Stadium on the campus of Campbell University in Buies Creek and be known as the Buies Creek Astros for their first two seasons. [5] [6] The Astros signed a 30-year lease agreement with the city of Fayetteville in December 2016. [7]
The Buies Creek Astros replaced the Bakersfield Blaze at the Class A-Advanced level, but are not the continuation of the Blaze. The Blaze folded along with the High Desert Mavericks after the 2016 season, contracting the California League and expanding the Carolina League. The Mavericks were replaced by the Kinston-based Down East Wood Ducks. [8]
The Astros won the 2018 Carolina League championship. [9]
A name-the-team contest was launched to select a name for the team upon its move to Fayetteville. The finalists, selected from over 1,400 suggestions, were "Fatbacks," "Fly Traps," "Jumpers," "Wood Dogs," and "Woodpeckers." [10] The chosen name, "Woodpeckers," was selected in honor of the red-cockaded woodpecker which was once plentiful in Fayetteville but is now an endangered species. [11] The team's colors are black, gray, and red. [12]
The Woodpeckers won in their first game, defeating the Potomac Nationals on the road by a score of 15-0 on April 4, 2019. [13] The Woodpeckers played their first home game at Segra Stadium on April 18, 2019, versus the Carolina Mudcats. [14] Fayetteville was defeated by Carolina, 7–5, before a sellout crowd of 6,202 people. [15]
In conjunction with Major League Baseball's restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2021, the Woodpeckers were organized into the Low-A East. [16] In 2022, the Low-A East became known as the Carolina League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization. [17]
Players | Coaches/Other | |||
Pitchers
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Infielders
Outfielders
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Coaches
60-day injured list
7-day injured list |
Morgan Paul Ensberg is an American former infielder in Major League Baseball. Ensberg bats and throws right-handed. He was previously a member of the Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, and New York Yankees. From 2011-12 he was the co-host of MLB Roundtrip on SiriusXM's MLB Network Radio. As of 2019, Ensberg is the manager of the Montgomery Biscuits in the Southern League.
Jim Perry Stadium is a baseball stadium in Buies Creek, North Carolina. It is home to the Campbell Fighting Camels baseball team. Previously known as Taylor Field, the venue dates back to the 1940s and Campbell's junior college baseball days. Taylor Field was named for Herbert B. Taylor, a supporter of Campbell University's athletics programs. Following the 2012 season, the field was renamed for Jim Perry, who played baseball and basketball for Campbell from 1956 to 1959. Perry later pitched for 17 seasons in Major League Baseball, earning the 1970 American League Cy Young Award with the Minnesota Twins.
This a partial list of Minor League Baseball players in the Houston Astros system and the rosters of their minor league affiliates:
Seth Michael Beer is an American professional baseball outfielder and first baseman in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. He previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He played college baseball for the Clemson Tigers.
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The Down East Wood Ducks are a Minor League Baseball team of the Carolina League and the owned-and-operated Single-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. They are located in Kinston, North Carolina, and are named for the wood duck, a colorful local waterfowl. Established in 2017, the team plays its home games at Grainger Stadium, which opened in 1949 and holds 4,100 people.
Segra Stadium is a baseball park in downtown Fayetteville, North Carolina. It is the home of the Fayetteville Woodpeckers, a Minor League Baseball team playing in the Carolina League. It opened in 2019 and seats up to 4,600 people. The site is immediately surrounded by the Airborne & Special Operations Museum, Fayetteville station, and the Prince Charles Hotel. Segra Stadium is also the home of some of Fayetteville's most popular annual events, such as Pecktoberfest, Fayetteville Holiday Lights, and Eastern NC Walk to End Alzheimer's.
Mitch Colvin is an American businessman, mortician and politician who currently serves as the Mayor of Fayetteville, North Carolina, starting December 2017.
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Minor league baseball teams based in Fayetteville, North Carolina played between 1910 and 1956. Fayetteville teams played as members of the 1910 Eastern Carolina Association, the Eastern Carolina League in 1909, 1911, 1928 to 1929 and Carolina League from 1953 to 1956. The early minor league teams preceded today's Fayetteville Woodpeckers, who resumed minor league play in 2019, as members of the Carolina League.