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All-Stars, Stretch Run, etc.

Zach Rutherford earned All-Star Game West MVP honors.
Zach Rutherford earned All-Star Game West MVP honors.

 
The last big trip for the Summer Nine book project kept me from posting the last few days. With the Cape League All-Star Game in the books and the stretch run looming, time to play some catch-up.

  • A year after a 1-0 score in the All-Star Game, pitching dominated again – but only for one side as the West won 8-0 in Chatham. While the East didn’t have an extra-base hit, three West players hit home runs and two of the same also doubled. Falmouth’s Tyler Lawrence went 3-for-4 with two RBI and Zach Rutherford of Hyannis went 3-for-3 with two RBI.

  • The West did its damage against two pitchers you wouldn’t have pegged for tough innings. Joe Ryan, who gave up three in the third, has a 0.92 ERA for Orleans and came in having allowed three runs all summer. Harwich’s Zach Schellenger, who was also tagged for three runs, has one of the league’s biggest arms.

  • The most impressive inning of the day belonged to Garrett Cave of Hyannis. The hard-throwing closer struck out the side in the eighth on 17 pitches. D1Baseball.com says Cave was the top pitcher on display.

  • Rutherford earned West MVP honors with his 3-for-3 day. The Old Dominion infielder has been terrific all summer, and there’s a chance the All-Star Game MVP award won’t be his only such trophy. Hitting .299 with a .460 slugging percentage and a league-best 11 doubles, Rutherford is a league MVP candidate in a year without a clear-cut choice.

  • In the return to regular-season play Sunday, Hyannis followed its big showing in the All-Star Game with a trip back to Veterans Field and a 3-0 victory over Chatham. Andrew Gonzalez (Michigan State) went 6.1 scoreless innings and Cave notched his 10th save with another strike-out-the-side inning.

  • Y-D also notched a shutout in a battle for first place with Harwich and now has a one-game lead on the Mariners in the East. The Red Sox are playing .742 baseball — a 23-8 record — since starting the year 0-5.

  • Bourne beat Orleans for its second straight win and is tied with Hyannis for third place in the West. More importantly, both the Braves and Harbor Hawks now have a nine-point edge on Cotuit for the final playoff spot in the West.

  • After an off-day around the league today, teams will play their final eight games in nine days to close out the regular season. The playoffs begin Aug. 5.

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    Thirty on Day One

    It was another banner day for the Cape League in the Major League Baseball Draft, with 14 alumni going in the first round and 16 more in lottery rounds and the second round. That meant 30 of the 77 players drafted on day one played in the Cape League.

    The list:
    First Round
    2 – Nick Senzel, Brewster ’15
    5 – Corey Ray, Wareham ’14
    10 – Zack Collins, Cotuit ’15
    11 – Kyle Lewis, Orleans ’15
    16 – Matt Thaiss, Hyannis ’15
    19 – Justin Dunn, Cotuit ’15
    21 – TJ Zeuch, Chatham ’15
    22 – Will Craig, Chatham ’15
    25 – Eric Lauer, Orleans ’15
    26 – Zach Burdi, Chatham ’14 & ’15
    27 – Cody Sedlock, Bourne ’15
    31 – Anthony Kay, Wareham ’14 & ’15
    32 – Will Smith, Brewster ’15
    34 – Dakota Hudson, Hyannis ’15

    Lottery Round A
    36 – Jordan Sheffield, Brewster ’15
    37 – Daulton Jefferies, Wareham ’15
    38 – Robert Tyler, Bourne ’15

    Second Round
    45 – Ben Bowden, Y-D ’15
    52 – C.J. Chatham, Bourne ’15
    53 – Ryan Boldt, Bourne ’15
    54 – Keegan Akin, Bourne ’15
    57 – J.B. Woodman, Falmouth ’15
    58 – Sheldon Neuse, Harwich ’15
    59 – Bryan Reynolds, Orleans ’15
    61 – Ronnie Dawson, Orleans ’15
    62 – Nick Solak, Bourne ’15
    64 – Pete Alonso, Bourne ’15
    67 – AJ Puckett, Chatham ’15

    Lottery Round B

    72 – Logan Ice, Falmouth ’15
    77 – Jake Fraley, Chatham ’14 & ’15
     
     

    NOTES

  • Second overall pick Nick Senzel of Tennessee and Brewster is the fourth consecutive Cape League MVP to be drafted in the first round the year after winning the award, and the sixth straight drafted on the first day. He joins Kevin Newman (19th pick), Max Pentecost (11), Phil Ervin (27), Travis Jankowski (44) and Kolten Wong (22). Senzel is the highest pick for an MVP winner since Darin Erstad went first overall in 1995 after an MVP summer in 1994. Senzel is also the highest pick for the league since 2013, when Mark Appel when No. 1 and Kris Bryant went No. 2.

  • No. 5 pick Corey Ray has been a star since the 2015 college season and last summer with Team USA. His time on the Cape was perhaps his last moments as a somewhat anonymous player on a baseball field. Ray hit .250 with only one home run in 29 games. His last two years with Louisville? He’s at .322 with 26 home runs and 78 stolen bases.

  • Kyle Lewis of Mercer and Orleans was mentioned as late as yesterday afternoon as a potential first overall selection, but ended up going 11th to the Mariners.

  • Senzel and Lewis were clearly the star power on the Cape last summer. In draft hindsight, the rest of the league was dominated by really good depth. Beginning with 16th pick Matt Thaiss, the Cape had 10 of the final 19 picks in the first round. That group included breakout stars like Justin Dunn and Will Smith, Cape League standouts Eric Lauer and Dakota Hudson and Chatham flamethrower Zach Burdi, who could find himself in the White Sox big league bullpen by the end of this summer.

  • Louisville’s rise to prominence in college baseball the last few years coincided with the program becoming a fixture on the Cape, annually sending more players than any team in the country. All four of the players drafted on day one played on the Cape.

  • In addition to two Cape League alums, Lottery Round B included one player who’s on a 2016 Cape League roster. California’s Brett Cumberland, the Pac 12 Player of the Year, is a draft-eligible sophomore and is on the Brewster roster. We’ll see if he plays on the Cape at all this summer.

  • Hundreds more Cape Leaguers will get the call today and tomorrow as the draft continues. One you should be rooting for: SE Louisiana’s Jameson Fisher. The 2014 Cotuit Kettleer injured his shoulder and missed all of last season with an injury. Back to health this spring, he led the nation in hitting and added 11 home runs and 66 RBI, plus 15 stolen bases. Fisher was named the Hero Sports Fan Choice Player of the Year earlier this week. He’s also a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award.

  • So….the 2016 Cape League season starts tonight. If you want to catch a star before he’s gone, it looks like Team USA invite and North Carolina star JB Bukauskas is slated to get the start for Chatham in its home opener against Falmouth.

  • The last 2 previews will go up later today, plus a little announcement. Stay tuned. You could look at the eight previews that are already up here.
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    The Next Wave

    Former Harwich Mariner D.J. Lemahieu is one of eight Cape League alumni set for their first MLB All-Star Game.
    Former Harwich Mariner D.J. Lemahieu is one of eight Cape League alumni set for their first MLB All-Star Game.

     
    The Cape Cod Baseball League has 15 alumni in the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, six more than it had last year. As top prospects continue to take the bigs by storm, that all-star number is a sign that there’s a new wave of Cape Cod talent in the majors, too.

    Eight of the Cape’s All-Stars are first-time participants, bolstering the league’s ranks in MLB stardom. Chris Sale and Buster Posey had taken the torch in recent years from the Evan Longorias and Chase Utleys of the world. Now, players like Dallas Keuchel, Kris Bryant, D.J. LeMahieu and Brandon Crawford are joining them. It’s also the first All-Star Game for Yasmani Grandal, Brad Boxberger, Joe Panik and former Cape League MVP A.J. Pollock.

    Keuchel, who had a 3.20 ERA for Wareham in 2007 and a 2.63 ERA in 2008, will start on the mound for the American League. The Houston Astro is 11-4 with a 2.23 ERA and 114 strikeouts on the year.

    Todd Frazier is making his second All-Star appearance, but you could put the former Chatham A in the same up-and-coming category. Frazier won the Home Run Derby in style Monday and will represent the hometown Reds in the starting lineup.

    Jason Kipnis and Josh Donaldson are also making their second appearances.
     

  • While the MLB season is at its halfway point, the Cape League season is about two-third of the way over. As has been the case for a while now, the most lasting team impression continues to belong to the Orleans Firebirds. At 20-8, they have the best record in the league by four games and are playing .714 baseball. If they continue at that pace, they’ll go 31-13, which would be the best mark in the league since a dominant Y-D team went 31-12-1 and won its second consecutive Cape League title.

  • While the return of Bobby Dalbec and Bryson Brigman from Team USA makes Orleans even stronger, it’s pitching that may really carry the day for the Firebirds. They lead the league in team ERA at 2.08 and starting pitchers Mitchell Jordan, Eric Lauer, Kyle Serrano and Corbin Burnes sure look like the league’s best starting rotation.

  • Orleans’ Dalbec and Kyle Lewis are tied for the league lead in home runs with five each. Interestingly, that’s not all that rare of a feat at the end of a season. In 2014, Chatham’s Chris Shaw ranked first and teammate A.J. Murray was tied for second. In 2013, Falmouth’s Casey Gillaspie led the way and Rhys Hoskins was tied for second.

  • Cape leaderboards are often populated by guys who get off to quick starts, even when they slow down a little. It’s always easy to miss those who have heated up more recently, like Y-D’s Tommy Edman and Falmouth’s Heath Quinn. Edman, a star in the NECBL last year, was hitting .208 a week into the Cape season but has seen his average rise steadily upward. He’s now batting .325, good for fifth in the league. And the bat is just a bonus – he has made only one error while playing mostly second base for the Red Sox. Quinn, who was at .23 after a week, is now hitting .317 with seven extra-base hits.

  • Wareham’s Andrew Calica is approaching the minimum number of plate appearances per team game to qualify for the league batting average leaderboard. If he stays anywhere near his current pace, he’ll take that list by storm. Since making his debut June 23 — two weeks into the season — Calica is hitting .469 in 15 games and has delivered nine multi-hit games.

  • Stat-line that I haven’t had a chance to focus on anywhere else: Harwich’s Cavan Biggio has reached base in 20 of the 22 games he’s played. He has a .420 on-base percentage.

  • Also very good at getting on base? Chatham’s Will Craig, who has a .390 on-base percentage despite a .208 average. He has drawn a league-best 20 walks.

  • Virginia Tech must have had one heck of a bullpen this spring. Hokies Luke Scherzer and Aaron McGarity rank first and third in the league in saves, while teammate Kit Scheetz leads the league in appearances and has a 2.46 ERA for Orleans.

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    Fast starts after big finish

    Trenton Brooks is hitting an even .500 in the early going.
    Trenton Brooks is hitting an even .500 in the early going.

     
    Four sophomores were among the national top 50 in batting average this spring. One of them – Arkansas’ Andrew Benintendi – was draft-eligible and went as Boston’s first-round pick earlier this month. The other three have headed to New England for a different reason. Will Craig, Kyle Lewis and Trenton Brooks are all in the Cape Cod Baseball League this summer. And in one of 2015’s early storylines, those three are picking up exactly where they left off.

    Through six games, Brooks leads the league with a .500 batting average. The Chatham outfielder has had a hit in every game but one (in which he was hit by a pitch in his first time up and departed). The lefty-swinging rising junior has done nothing but hit in two seasons at Nevada, with a .330 average as a freshman and a .365 mark this season.

    Craig is right alongside Brooks in the Chatham lineup. after hitting .382 – tops among sophomore – and earning ACC Player of the Year honors, Craig is off to a fast start with the Anglers. He has seven hits in six games, good for a .350 average, eighth in the league. The 6’3, 220-pound third baseman should be one of the league’s best all summer.

    Lewis was not on the initial roster that Orleans released, but the Mercer star was a no-brainer of an addition. The 6’4, 205-pound outfielder hit .281 as a freshman but morphed into the Southern Conference Player of the Year with a huge sophomore season. He batted .367 with a .423 OBP, and blasted 17 home runs, plus 19 doubles. Lewis homered in his second Cape League game and is now tied for the league lead with three in just six games. He’s also hitting .409, good for fourth in the league.

    Plenty more big-time hitters will emerge as the summer goes on. But few will have been big-time in the spring and the summer quite like Brooks, Craig and Lewis.
     

  • With Lewis and Bobby Dalbec, Orleans has a fearsome middle of the order. They each have three home runs. Unfortunately for the Firebirds, Dalbec, a standout at Arizona, has accepted an invitation to play for Team USA.

  • Team USA’s roster is taking shape, and Dalbec won’t be the only loss for the Cape League. Two of the top sophomore pitchers in the nation – Maryland’s Mike Shawaryn and Virginia’s Connor Jones – are on there. Shawaryn was slated for Y-D and Jones for Orleans. News came out Sunday that four Florida players will head to Team USA after the Gators finish in Omaha, and all were originally ticketed for the Cape. Pitchers A.J. Puk and Logan Shore were on the Orleans roster, power-hitting freshman J.J Schwarz was on the Y-D roster, and outfielder Buddy Reed was on the Harwich roster.

  • In better news, Wareham has activated Oregon’s Matt Krook. The lefty was on his way to becoming one of the best pitchers in the 2016 draft class but got hurt during his freshman year and needed Tommy John surgery. He missed this college season but will apparently begin his comeback in Wareham. Krook was mentioned on Jonathan Mayo’s very early look at the 2016 draft.

  • One of the few pitchers in the league to make two starts already is Orleans’ Mitchell Jordan, and he has been up to the task. The Stetson rising junior, a solid performer in the weekend rotation this year, has turned in two carbon-copy starts: five scoreless innings, one hit, five strikeouts. He’s the early league leader in strikeouts with 10.

  • Andrew Frankenreider saved nine games for Northern Illinois this spring and already has two for Falmouth this summer. He has allowed just one hit in 6.2 innings. Frankenreider is just the third player in Northern Illinois history to play on the Cape.

  • The teams with the best records so far have been the total package. Orleans, at 5-2, leads the league in team batting average and ERA. Hyannis, now 6-1, is second in both categories.

  • Hyannis had the makings of a pretty good offense even before late additions Bobby Melley, Justin Arrington and Jacob Noll arrived on the scene. Melley, a Cape League vet at this point, is hitting .429 with six RBI in just four games. Arrington has a hit in all but one game and is batting .438. Noll, who hit .348 for Florida Gulf Coast this year, is 4-for-8 in three games.

  • In addition to its Team USA guys, the initial Orleans roster also had a pair of six-round picks in Ohio State’s Travis Lakins and Loyola Marymount’s David Fletcher. Neither is on the active roster right now. We’ll see if they make an appearance at some point this summer.

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    It Was Winter, Buddy

    lowell park snowAnyone else in New England feel like that guy from the Kingsford commercial right now?

    I don’t know if it was the brutal winter or the fact that I spent much of it covering college basketball for the first time, but I stumbled into baseball season – especially college baseball season – like that guy stumbles into the backyard.

    Thankfully, there’s still some time to get our bearings. Shall we?

  • The Cape League announced earlier this month that its Hall of Fame will be moving out of the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum after the 2015 baseball season. The Hall, which counts 137 members, has been in the museum since 2008, but is out-growing the space and will look for a new home.

  • The 2015 schedule is out and games are set to begin Tuesday, June 9. The season’s first pitch will come at Stony Brook Field at 5 p.m., as Brewster hosts Wareham. Falmouth, Harwich, Chatham and Orleans will also have home games on opening night. The All-Star Game will be played Saturday, July 25 in Wareham.

  • The Cape League was selected as the nation’s sixth-best baseball attraction in the book “101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out.” Author Josh Pahigian writes, ” “When it comes to combining quality of play with intimacy of setting,” Pahigian writes, “no league in the country – amateur or professional – comes close to matching the experience fans enjoy in the Cape League.”

  • About a month ago, you were probably watching Notre Dame nearly knock off Kentucky in the best game of the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Playing a big role for the Irish was former Harwich Mariner Pat Connaughton, the rare baseball-basketball two-sport star. Connaughton was a fourth-round pick of the Orioles but has said that he would like to explore pro basketball options.

  • Former Chatham Angler Kris Bryant is a Major Leaguer, after the requisite 12 days of waiting so that the Cubs gain an extra year of control. The game’s top prospect hit .360 in his first seven games.

  • Kevin Newman won the Cape League batting title last year and the year before but it’s his Arizona teammate Scott Kingery – who played for Brewster last summer – who’s among the nation’s best this spring. At the season’s midway point, Kingery was hitting near .500. His average has dropped a bit since — to .433, still good for third in the nation. Another 2014 Cape Leaguer, Donnie Dewees of North Florida and Hyannis, ranks fourth at .423.

  • The MLB Draft is set for June 8-10. Three former Cape Leaguers rank in MLB.com’s current top 10 prospects: Walker Buehler (2), Kyle Funkhouser (4) and Michael Matuella (5). Buehler shined for Y-D last summer, helping lead the Red Sox to the league championship. Funkhouser played for Chatham in 2013. Matuella pitched briefly for Y-D in 2013. The top-ranked Cape League hitter is Ian Happ at 15.

  • Turning attention to 2015 Cape Leaguers, rosters are online and future stars are emerging as the college baseball season heats up. Among them: Wake Forest’s Will Craig (Chatham) has slugged 12 home runs, Texas A&M’s Nick Banks (Bourne) is hitting .403, tops in the nation among sophomores, Arkansas’ Andrew Benintendi (Falmouth) leads the nation with 14 homers, and Corey Ray (Wareham) has led Louisville to a No. 3 national ranking with a .324 average, nine home runs and 23 stolen bases.
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    Still the Next Star

    Kris Bryant was named USA Today's Minor League Player of the Year.
    Kris Bryant was named USA Today’s Minor League Player of the Year.

     

    This time last year, with only a little bit of professional baseball under his belt, it was already looking like former Chatham Angler Kris Bryant would be the next Major League star with Cape League roots.

    With a full year in the books, Bryant did nothing to change that belief – in fact, he only enhanced it.

    The Cubs prospect was named USA Today’s Minor League Player of the Year after he dominated at Double A Tennessee and Triple A Iowa this season. Bryant slashed .325/.438/.661 and hit a minors-best 43 home runs.

    Cape League fans will recall that Bryant didn’t set the world on fire in Chatham, hitting .223 with three homers in the summer after his freshman year at San Diego. From there, though, he pretty much did set the world fire at every stop, whether at San Diego or in the Cubs system that he rocketed through.

    Bryant is expected to make his Chicago debut next year.

    • Cranston, R.I., native John Razzino had a cup of coffee with the Cape League champion Y-D Red Sox at the beginning of the summer, and though he wasn’t around for the championship, he got one of his own. Playing in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, the Franklin Pierce standout helped lead the Amsterdam Mohawks to the league title. Razzino hit .370 with five home runs and stole 23 bases. He was named a second-team Summer All-American by Perfect Game.

     

    • Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline checks in with a look at the Cape’s top pitching prospects from this summer. As he did on Baseball America’s list, Walker Buehler leads the way.

     

    • Prospect Insider offers up its rankings, as well, with Wareham’s Kyle Cody at the top.

     

    • Kudos to the Cape League’s video squad for a fun year and, especially, for a very fun moment after the Cape League championship. Y-D’s Josh Lester once won the Little League World Series and was the subject of a tearful post-game interview. Gabby Lucivero and Lester recreated it after Y-D won the Cape League title.

     

     

     

    • Stadium Journey, which grades and reviews stadiums across the country, put together a ranking of Cape League fields. Hyannis’ McKeon Park holds the top spot, followed by Chatham’s Veterans Field.

     

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    How Good was Kevin Newman?

    Kevin Newman hit .375 and .380 in two summers on Cape Cod.
    Kevin Newman hit .375 and .380 in two summers on Cape Cod.

     

    Obviously, the answer to the headline’s question is “really good.” He made history after all, becoming the first player to ever win two Cape Cod Baseball League batting titles.

    But I wondered – how much better was he?

    To delve into that question, I decided to look at batting average for two-year Cape Leaguers. There are probably about 20 players every year that are on their second tour of the Cape, and many have gone on to great things (Buster Posey being Exhibit A). I figured there’d be a fair amount of guys who batted over. 300 for two years.

    There were not.

    Since 2000, Newman is one of just three players who have hit above .300 (with enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title) in two consecutive years.

    The other two are Alex Blandino of Yarmouth-Dennis and Warner Jones of Wareham. Blandino hit .308 in 2013 and .312 in 2012. Jones – who played a remarkable 87 regular-season games – hit .303 for the Gatemen in 2004 and .344 in 2003.

    Posey? Try .281 and .289.

    Richard Martin Jr, the guy who was second to Newman this year? He was at .364 – and .193.

    Colin Moran? Nope – .314 and .289.

    Grant Green, the one I was expecting off the top of my head? A great .348 year but it was after he hit .291.

    Matt Murton, a Cape League great? He did hit those numbers, but his .400 batting average in 2002 came in just 16 games.

    The list goes on, but I think you get the point. Newman did something remarkable. And if you want to compare him to Blandino and Jones – the only guys in this class with him – then they probably shouldn’t be in the same class. Newman is the only player since 2000 to hit higher than .312 in two consecutive years. And he was way higher.

     

    Notes

  • A leftover thought from the championship series: the buzz in the crowd when Phil Bickford came into the game was reminiscent of a Saean Manaea or Andrew Miller appearance. Everybody I was sitting near in the stands – even the most casual fans – knew who Bickford was. They’d turn to the person next to them and say, ‘Watch this guy.’

  • It also struck me that Bickford has the profile of a guy who is becoming an endangered species on Cape Cod: the highly-drafted power arm with little left to prove. From Gerrit Cole to Tyler Beede, the trend has been for those types of players to go with Team USA or take summers off. You can’t blame them. But it’s sure nice to see a blazing fastball from a former first-round pick on a Cape League mound.

  • Iowa catches up with Blake Hickman after his summer on the Cape, where the two-way player focused exclusively on pitching.

  • Arizona Desert Swarm gives some love to Kevin Newman.

  • The YES Network aired a terrific little piece on the Cape League. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth a watch.

  • Baseball America wraps up All-Star games across the minor leagues, with plenty of familiar names. Among the best performances, former Hyannis Harbor Hawk Adam Brett Walker was the MVP of the Florida State League All-Star Game. Walker has 24 home runs this season.

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    Wrapping Up the Championship

    YD14_team trophy

     

    The Cape League’s Pointstreak scoreboard still has the third game of the championship series on the list and scheduled for Saturday night. It’s like a cruel tease while the withdrawal sets in . . .

  • The Yarmouth-Dennis pitching staff finished the playoffs with a 1.78 ERA and a batting average against of .188 – and those numbers include a game in which they gave up nine runs to Harwich. Take that game away, and the ERA stands at 1.00. Interestingly, while it may go down as one of the more dominant playoff pitching runs the league has ever seen, the 1.78 ERA isn’t even the best in the last four years. Harwich had a 1.71 ERA when it won the title in 2011. And going back to 2009, Bourne had a 1.38 playoff ERA when it won. Unsurprising moral of the story: if you have a playoff ERA under two, you’re probably going to win it all.

  • Kudos to the league on including Walker Buehler in the Playoff MVP award. While he only pitched in two of eight playoff games, his 0.00 ERA in 15.1 innings is remarkable and something that hasn’t been done in at least 15 years.

  • Splitting the award with Buehler was Y-D catcher Marcus Mastrobuoni, one of the most improbable CCBL Playoff MVPs in league history. Mastrobuoni plays for Division II Cal State Stanislaus, and he could very well be the first player from that school to play in the Cape League. He didn’t make his Cape League debut until July 24 and played in only five regular-season games. He wasn’t a full-time starter in the playoffs until Jesse Jenner broke a finger in the opening round. From that back story, Mastrobuoni hit .444 in the playoffs and drove in five of Y-D’s 10 runs in the championship series. He is the first player from a non-Division I school to win the Playoff MVP award since Kevin Hodge, a junior college player, won it in 1997 for Wareham.

  • The last three times Y-D won the title, its playoff MVP was a pitcher, and twice it was a closer. Joshua Faiola saved two playoff games on his way to the 2004 honor and David Robertson saved four playoff games (all the games Y-D won) to win top honors in 2006. I thought Phil Bickford might continue that trend with his three playoff saves, but it would have been hard to pick him over Mastrobuoni or Buehler.

  • Hunter Cole has played on two Cape Cod Baseball League championship clubs, but he’s never held the trophy. Cole played in 38 games for Cotuit last year and three in the playoffs before departing. Cotuit went on to the title. This year, after the former Georgia Bulldog was drafted in the 26th round, he came to Yarmouth and was one of the Red Sox’ best hitters before signing with the San Francisco Giants (he remained Y-D’s RBI leader through the end of the season). Cole was in Eugene, Ore., Friday night, playing for the Salem-Kaizer Volcanoes in the Northwest League, but he was watching.

  • Sidenote: anybody know a bookie who would take a bet on Salem-Kaizer winning the Northwest League title?

  • How about the summer Jordan Tarsovich had? He was a major key to success for the Red Sox, hitting .322 with three homers in the regular season. He hit .258 in the playoffs and broke open Friday’s game with a bases-loaded double.

  • Joey Armstrong was kind of on the other end of the spectrum during the regular season, finishing with a .157 batting average, but manager Scott Pickler stuck with him in the playoffs and Armstrong had two hits and an RBI in game one of the title series. Watching him in the championship, you wouldn’t have guessed he had struggled so much. He looked like a key cog.

  • Not a bad few months for Michael Donadio. Big East Freshman of the Year, Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League Batting Champion and MVP, and Cape Cod Baseball League champion.

  • Reinforcements like Donadio are always a key for successful Cape League teams, but it helps to have a core of mainstays too, and Y-D had that. Tarsovich, Andrew Stevenson, Rob Fonseca, A.J. Simcox, Josh Lester and Brennon Lund were in Friday’s starting lineup and were all with the team from the first week of the season on.

  • Stevenson deserves special mention in that department. He played in every single game for the Red Sox this summer, 44 in the regular season and eight in the playoffs. He also played in the All-Star Game, for good measure. He was zero for his first nine this season but ended up hitting .327.

  • That’s probably enough Y-D stuff and time to salute Falmouth, as well. The Commodores had a great summer, winning 26 games in the regular season for the second year in a row. It kind of felt like this year’s team was an extension of last year’s, with a lot of the same guys and the same feeling around the club, so this might mark the end of an era. The fact that it ended without a championship won’t change a lot of good memories for a lot of really good players.

  • Kevin Newman should have better memories than anyone. I imagine grounding into a series-ending double play on Friday won’t sit well, but it takes absolutely nothing away from his career. He’s a shoo-in for the Cape League Hall of Fame someday.

  • Thanks to everyone for reading this summer – and for bearing with me during wedding season. I’ll hopefully be doing some off-season stuff and come next June, we’ll be off and running again.

  • Finally, if you’ve ever wondered if players truly enjoy their time in the Cape League, you need only ask. Or, since it’s 2014, check Twitter. They had themselves a summer:

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    Rainout Reading

    Jeff Trundy will try to lead Falmouth to its first title since 1980.
    Jeff Trundy will try to lead Falmouth to its first title since 1980.

     

    The only good thing about Wednesday’s rainout is that it gives me a little time to get some preview thoughts down. Primary thought: It’s going to be a heck of a series.

  • First, some points of reference for the series:

    • Y-D and Falmouth have met twice in the Cape League championship series, in 2004 and 2007. Y-D won both match-ups, the bookends on its dynasty run of three titles in four years. Y-D has been to the finals twice since then, losing to Cotuit in 2010 and Wareham in 2012. Falmouth made the finals in 2011 and lost to Harwich.

    • Falmouth owns the longest championship drought in the league. Its last title was 1980, when it beat Chatham. The next-longest drought belongs to Hyannis, whose last crown was in 1981. Chatham is the only other team without a championship this century. Its last was in 1998.

    • This is the fourth straight year without a No. 1 seed in the championship series. Before that, at least one No. 1 seed had made the finals for 14 consecutive years (although it was easier for the No. 1’s to make it before the playoffs expanded).

  • It’s hard to understate how good the playoff pitching has been for these teams. The Red Sox have had the dominant, clutch performances, but Falmouth has an even better team ERA. The Commodores have given up four runs in 36 innings for a 1.00 ERA. For Y-D, three of four wins have been shutouts.

  • The rainout should only help the pitching. I’d expect both teams to have things lined up almost perfectly, with the exception of Y-D having had to use Justin Jacome to get out of the East finals. Walker Buehler and Kevin Duchene should be good to go for Y-D, while Falmouth should have the trio of Matt Hall, Kevin McCanna and Alex Young ready.

  • If that’s the way things shake out, Falmouth might have the edge with the three big arms to Y-D’s two. In its one playoff game not started by Jacome, Buehler or Duchene, Y-D lost 9-2. Jacome could come back for a game three on Saturday, but that would be on only three days’ rest.

  • If the starting pitching match-ups don’t do it for you, just wait until the late innings. Falmouth’s bullpen hasn’t given up a run in the playoffs, and the back end is anchored by flamethrower Garrett Cleavinger. Y-D has been touched up a little more, but any bullpen that includes Phil Bickford is a good bullpen. Bickford, the Cape League’s Top Pro Prospect award winner, had the equivalent of his Heisman moment for that award when he struck out the side in the ninth Tuesday night to punch Y-D’s ticket to the finals.

  • The lowest team ERA in the Cape League playoffs last year was 2.57. Falmouth, Y-D and Harwich are all under that bar this year.

  • Helping the cause in the pitching department is some pretty stellar defense. Falmouth has made three errors in the postseason. Y-D – in six games – has made one.

  • When comparing the offenses of the two teams, extra-base hits is an interesting place to start. Y-D has seven in six games. Falmouth has nine in only four games. That jibes with a general impression that Falmouth has a little more pop.

  • Falmouth also gets on base at a better clip – .374 to .297.

  • The top three hitters in the postseason have all been eliminated, leaving a Y-D Red Sox atop the list. Andrew Stevenson, right? Jordan Tarsovich? A.J. Simcox? Try Michael Donadio. The St. John’s freshman was the Big East’s Newcomer of the Year this spring and he spent most of his summer in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League, where he won the batting title and MVP award. He didn’t begin his CCBL career until July 31 and had a total of two hits in four regular-season games, but he has a hit in every playoff game, including a home run. He’s batting .409 in the postseason.

  • Marcus Mastrobuoni has been another key addition for the Red Sox. He hit .373 this spring for California State Stanislaus, and hit .313 in five regular-season games for the Red Sox. He started at catcher in the last two games of the Harwich series and went 1-for-3 in the clincher.

  • On the Falmouth side, Conner Hale has paced the offense, and there probably isn’t a better offensive threat in the series. Hale is slashing .375/.444/.688 in the playoffs with a homer and seven RBI. He has driven in a third of his team’s postseason runs. If you’re making bets on playoff MVP, he’s the favorite.

  • Hale is part of a lineup that’s just very solid at this point. Jake Madsen quietly hit .346 for the Commodores in the regular season and he’s a consistent, veteran hitter, much like Cameron O’Brien. Hale, Madsen and O’Brien, in fact, are all rising seniors. Throw in talented guys like Boomer White, Matt Eureste and Steven Duggar, plus some guys who aren’t even starting every day, and it’s a very deep lineup. And they’ve got that Newman guy too, the one who wins all the batting titles.

  • Mrs. RFF and I are planning to be in Falmouth for game one. Can’t wait.

  • I suppose it’s prediction time. It’s never an easy task and this year is no different. You have to like the way both of these teams are playing – enthusiasm, good defense, fantastic pitching. I think I like Falmouth a little more, with its veteran offense tipping the scales. Feel free to share your own picks in the comments.

    • Posted on

    All Zeroes for Newcomb

    Sean Newcomb pitched briefly for Wareham in 2012 and 2013. He's been a star this spring.
    Sean Newcomb pitched briefly for Wareham in 2012 and 2013. He’s been a star this spring.
    Sean Newcomb started Wareham’s first game in the 2013 Cape Cod Baseball League season and tossed six scoreless innings, priming himself to become one of the stars of the Cape League summer. A case of mono kept him off the mount until July 7, though, and he only wound up pitching 22.1 innings.

    This spring, Newcomb started Hartford’s first game of the 2014 college baseball season, but this time, he’s been on the mound every week since – and with a lot to show for it. Stardom has arrived.

    Newcomb leads the nation with a 0.00 ERA. He’s 3-1 in six starts and has allowed just a single unearned run in 39.2 innings. He’s struck out 46 and while his walk total is a bit high at 19, he’s made up for it by allowing only 14 hits. Opponents are batting .111 against him.

    Even before his torrid start, Newcomb was drawing plenty of attention. He lit up radar guns at Hartford’s scout day in the fall.

    The 6’5 lefty is a native of Middleboro, Mass., which also produced Cape League star Tyler Horan, one of the leaders of Wareham’s 2013 title run.

  • Three years ago, Kyle Zimmer rode a strong season with Cotuit into a tremendous junior season at San Francisco and, ultimately, a spot in the Major League draft’s first round. His younger brother is on the same path so far. Bradley Zimmer won Playoff MVP honors as Cotuit won the Cape League championship last year, and now the junior outfielder is cementing himself as one of the nation’s best hitters. The San Francisco junior ranks in the top 20 nationally in batting average with a .430 mark. He’s also hit six home runs and driven in 20, both tops on his team. In some early projections by Baseball America, Zimmer was tabbed as a likely first-round pick and ranked as the second-best college hitter in the draft.

  • The other guy who left Cape Cod as an MVP is off to a solid start of his own. Max Pentecost, the league MVP with Bourne, is hitting .303 with three homers for Kennesaw State and should be one of the top available catchers in the June draft.

  • In case you missed the news from earlier this month, the 2014 Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star Game has been moved from Saturday, July 26 to Sunday, July 27. Bourne’s Doran Park will host the game, and the original Saturday date would have conflicted with Bourne’s celebration of the Cape Cod Canal’s 100th anniversary.

  • Every Cape League team has now posted its 2014 roster. As you watch the college baseball season unfold, your most Cape League-heavy team is powerhouse LSU. The Tigers have 12 players on Cape rosters, spread across six different teams. Sophomore Alex Bregman, a likely first-round pick in 2015, is the leader of the crew. He’s on the Harwich roster, as he was last summer before he ended up with Team USA. Bregman is hitting .291 this year, perhaps a mild sophomore slump after his huge freshman season.