Visalia Oaks

Club established: 1977, with the Minnesota Twins as the team’s major league affiliate. Visalia was a Diamondbacks affiliate from 1993 to 1996, but since has ties with the Oakland Athletics.

Affiliation: Athletics’ Class-A team.

Ownership: The California League took over ownership of the team from Japanese Sports Systems (JASS) at the end of June. New owner Jim Wadley, who also owns the Duluth-Superior Dukes of the independent Northern League, will take control Saturday.

Manager: Tony DeFrancesco is in his second year with the Oaks, his fifth year at the helm of a minor league team. Last season, he guided Visalia to a 71-69 record and its first appearance in the playoffs in six seasons. DeFrancesco, a catcher, was Boston’s ninth-round selection in the 1984 amateur draft. He played eight years in the minors. He was a teammate of Atlanta shortstop Walt Weiss at Suffern (N.Y.) High.

Top current prospects: Right-handed pitcher Jared Jensen from Brigham Young and catcher Javier Flores from Oklahoma. Eric DuBose, one of Oakland’s first-round picks in 1997, was assigned to Visalia at the beginning of the season. He was the starting pitcher for the Freeway Division in this year’s California League All-Star game and has since been promoted to double-A Huntsville.

Most famous alumni: A number of current and former major leaguers have played in Visalia, including possible Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett, Vada Pinson, Kent Hrbek, New York Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, Atlanta pitcher Denny Neagle, Arizona shortstop Jay Bell and Minnesota outfielder Marty Cordova, who played at Orange Coast College and was the American League’s rookie of the year in 1995.

Home stadium: Recreation Park was built in 1946, remodeled in 1967, and has a seating capacity of 1,700.

Visalia baseball history: Was one of six teams that formed the California League when it started again in 1946 after suspending operations for 3 1/2 seasons during World War II. The Visalia Cubs were a Chicago affiliate from 1946 to 1952. They retained their name from 1953 to 1956 but lost their affiliation. They were affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Athletics, Chicago White Sox and New York Mets from 1957 to 1975. But Visalia’s longest affiliation has been with the Minnesota Twins, from 1977 to 1992. Visalia’s first California League All-Star was first baseman Frank Hecklinger in 1946, and it won its first league title in 1971.

Visalia is famous for: being a center for ranchers and others, led by brothers John and George Sontag, who opposed the Southern Pacific railroad. They held up or dynamited trains, seizing funds in transit, from 1889 to 1892. Now the largest city in Tulare County, Visalia is a center for farm, orchard and dairy products.

League web site: https://www.californialeague.com