Oakland Ballers Sign Catcher From Stockton

The Oakland Ballers (a.k.a B's) announced that they have signed catcher Tyler Lozano for the upcoming 2024 campaign. Lozano will be entering his age 24 season and is set to get his first taste of professional baseball.

The catcher hails from Stockton, attending St. Mary's High School in the city, before going to college at USC from 2019-2022 before transferring to Creighton University. In his final year of college in 2023 at Creighton, Lozano had arguably his best season yet, batting .268 with a .348 OBP and a .768 OPS in 47 games. 

The 24-year-old hit 12 homers in 2022 with USC in 49 games, but had more extra base hits in 2023, hitting nine doubles, two triples, and five homers. 

This has been a busy news week for the Ballers. Earlier this week it came out that the Oakland A's were preventing them from playing a single game at the Oakland Coliseum on June 29^th due to a clause in their contract with the JPA. This comes as the A's are trying to find a temporary home to play their games when their lease expires after the upcoming season. 

At the same time, the A's were given two bad options to choose from. They could either take the PR hit for not allowing the B's to play a game at the Coliseum in January, or they could risk the Pioneer League team outdrawing them in June. 

The A's may have also inadvertently proven that Oakland is a viable market for baseball with the decision they made. 

As for the Ballers, they will be holding open tryouts in Florida, Arizona, and one locally. The tryout in Davenport, Florida will be held from February 9-11, while the one in Scottsdale, Arizona will be from April 16-18. The local tryout will have more details at a later date.

The B's also have gear available at Oaklandish, with t-shirts and hoodies in black and green. Green snapback hats are available for pre-order at this time, but there is a new crop of black snapbacks that are currently in stock. Oaklandish expects to have fitted hats at some point soon, too.