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It’s the Off-Season

Former Wareham star George Springer is on the verge of becoming the first 40/40 player in modern minor league history.

 
I will never get used to the end of a Cape Cod Baseball League season. It’s such an intensive season – rarely does a day go by without it – and then . . . poof. It’s gone.

Fun while it lasted though. Some notes as we head into the very, very long off-season . . .

  • I was a little surprised that Bradley Zimmer won the Playoff MVP award. He’s a fantastic player and he had a good finals series, but Austin Byler had a tremendous post-season. He had a hit in all eight of Cotuit’s playoff games and finished with 12 for a .429 average. He led the team in postseason average, home runs, extra-base hits and RBI.

  • Byler’s 12 hit total is the same as the leader in each of the last four postseasons, since the league expanded and created more playoff games. Some kind of magic number.

  • Christian Cecilio was the winning pitcher in the clinching game of Cotuit’s series victory over Falmouth and in the clincher of the championship win over Orleans. Pretty impressive feat and somewhat surprising on the surface. Cecilio had an ERA over three in the regular season and didn’t often pitch deep into games. But take away one bad start in which he gave up seven earned runs in 1.1 innings, and Cecilio had a fantastic summer. He didn’t allow more than two runs in any other start.

  • Perfect Game named Bourne’s Max Pentecost its Summer Player of the Year. It’s a well-deserved honor for Pentecost, who was also the Cape League’s MVP award winner. PG’s Frankie Piliere, who did great work scouting the Cape all summer, said Pentecost was “one of the most impressive all-around catchers to play on the Cape since Buster Posey.” High praise right there.

  • The Cape League released its all-league team last week. You can check it out here. Scott Heineman, who hit .304 and led the league in stolen bases, looks like the biggest snub to me.

  • The last award winner also trickled in as Jeff Hoffman has been named the Cape’s top pro prospect. He’s the second straight Hyannis pitcher to win the honor, joining his former teammate Sean Manaea.

  • I’m planning on doing the minor league all-stars feature that I did last year. It’s still a little ways off, but for now, how about the season former Wareham Gateman George Springer is having? The Astros prospect started the season in Double A and has since moved to Triple A. Between the two levels, he has hit 37 home runs and has stolen 42 bases. If he hits three more home runs he’ll become the first 40/40 player in the modern history of minor league baseball.

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    Title Series Thoughts

    Will Fulmer waits for Bradley Zimmer at second in the final meeting of the regular season between Orleans and Cotuit.

     
    Tuesday’s rain gave Cotuit and Orleans an extra day of rest before they square off in the Cape Cod Baseball League championship – and it gives us an extra day to talk about it.

    It’ll be a fun series. Cotuit and Orleans are two of the most well-supported franchises in the league, with great fan-bases, great fields and great tradition. It’s the first title round meeting between the two since 1986, when Jeff Conine was in an Orleans Cardinal uniform and Scott Servais was suiting up for Cotuit.

  • The Orleans pitching rotation quietly emerged late in the season as perhaps the best in the league. I say quietly because no Orleans starter cracked the top 20 in strikeouts, and the team’s strikeout leaders were relievers Kyle Twomey and Matt Troupe. But while they weren’t the prototypical, workhorse aces, the group led by Bobby Poyner, Trent Szkutnik, Jared Miller and Corey Miller was fantastic, especially late in the year. Over its final 17 games – when the team went13-3-1 on the heels of a five-game losing streak – Orleans starters gave up two earned runs or fewer in 13 games.

  • The scary thing for Cotuit is that the pitching is lined up – Poyner, Jared Miller and Szkutnik are the probable starters. Poyner and Szkutnik both finished the regular season with 1.72 ERA’s while Miller’s late-season success makes him look like the real ace of the staff. He had two straight scoreless outings late in the year with a combined 14 strikeouts. In a playoff start against Harwich, Miller struck out eight in seven shutout innings.

  • Not to harp on the Orleans pitching staff, but the bullpen has been fantastic as well. Troupe is at the back end as the most dominant closer in the league, and that’s just one piece of the puzzle. In five playoff games, Orleans pitchers have allowed five earned runs in 17.1 innings. That’s an ERA of 2.63.

  • As you might guess from the above, I give the edge in the series to Orleans based on pitching. Cotuit pitchers have held their own in the playoffs, but there’s still a feeling that things are being patched together, with even a few newcomers making starts. On the bright side, Cotuit’s own dominant closer, Brian Miller, has been great in the playoffs. He hasn’t given up an earned run in 6.1 postseason innings.

  • Cotuit and Orleans played each other in the season opener on June 12. The Cotuit starting lineup on that day featured exactly ONE player who is currently with the team, and that’s Bradley Zimmer, who was gone for most of the summer with Team USA. It’s been a story all year, and it’s even more remarkable when you look at it like that – Cotuit has consistently found ways to win despite constant roster turnover. Cotuit has had 51 players wear its uniform this summer. It’s literally two teams’ worth, and yet here the Kettleers are.

  • Some of Cotuit’s most recent reinforcements have had a big hand in the playoff success. Nevada’s Austin Byler leads the team in postseason batting average at .474, home runs with two and RBI with seven. Catcher Garrett Stubbs, who played two regular-season games, is hitting .455 in the playoffs and delivered a walk-off single in a game-two win over Falmouth to keep Cotuit’s season alive. Caleb Bryson has hit a playoff home run, giving him five in eight games with the Kettleers.

  • The other thing about the newcomers is the psychological lift they provide. This was something I hadn’t thought about until team photographer Joe Cavanaugh mentioned it to me. The Cape League season is long and it’s a grind. But guys like Stubbs and Bryson who are thrilled to be getting a shot aren’t feeling that grind. They’re making the most of every second, and that can be infectious.

  • This will be the second consecutive championship appearance for Cotuit’s Danny Diekroeger. The infielder played for Y-D last summer and started all three games of the title series against Wareham.

  • Orleans had Riley Moore as its starting catcher in the first game of the post-season but got hurt blocking the plate in that game and has been out ever since. Collin Slaybaugh replaced Moore after the injury in the Harwich game and has played every inning since – all 40 of them. If Orleans wins this thing, Slaybaugh is an unsung hero.

  • Cotuit isn’t the only team that’s suffered key personnel losses. Orleans is without Jordan Luplow, who was one of the biggest reasons for their late-season surge. A knee injury sent him home. Zach Fish, one of the team’s best hitters, left late in the regular season.

  • Austin Davidson has been terrific for the Firebirds in the playoffs, with seven RBI in five games. Jordan Betts has also been productive, with seven runs driven in. And how about Geoff DeGroot? The UMass-Lowell junior is a shortstop by trade and was hitting .146 before he went five for his last 11 in the regular season. In the playoffs, he’s hitting .364 with three runs scored, all while playing center field.

  • The last time Eldredge Park hosted a championship series game was in 2005, and attendance was listed at 6,815. At Lowell Park in Cotuit, the last championship game, in 2010, had a listed attendance of 5,391. So, wherever you’re going, get there early.

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    The Next Big Thing

    Kris Bryant and the Cubs have agreed to a deal

     
    Maybe it’s the wishful thinking of a Cubs fan, but I’ve thinking/hoping ever since the draft that Kris Bryant could be the next Cape League alum to hit it big in Major League Baseball.

    There are plenty of solid Big Leaguers, of course – the alumni list hit 1,000 just this week – but I’m talking perennial all-star types, the Buster Poseys and Evan Longorias of the world. If it happens, Bryant could be the first Cape League star of the 2010’s.

    And there’s reason to think it will happen. Bryant hit 31 home runs for San Diego this past spring, 10 more than anyone in college baseball and more than a lot of teams. He had a remarkable year and shot to the top of draft boards. The Cubs took him with the second overall pick and the sides have reportedly have agreed to terms this week on a record signing bonus.

    Bryant’s tim on the Cape was typical of what you expect from a freshmen – some struggles, but flashes too. He hit only .223 but bombed three home runs and had more than a third of his hits go for extra bases.

    Had Bryant not gone to Team USA and returned to Chatham, it’s a safe bet he would have been a star. Can you imagine him hitting the juiced balls? I’m not sure any record would have been safe.

    As it is, Bryant is still a full-fledged Cape League veteran, not a cameo guy like Mark Appel or Mike Zunino.

    And he may be the league’s next star. This Cubs fan hopes so.

     

  • I mentioned this on Twitter, but I’ll make note of it here too. Max Pentecost’s amazing performance Wednesday night is made all the more amazing by the fact that he was the starting catcher that night and remained behind the plate for all 12 innings. It’s been a while since the Cape had an elite catching prospect. Pentecost may fit the bill.

  • Derek Fisher hit eight home runs on his way to top prospect honors in the Northwoods League last summer. The Virginia slugger has yet to hit a home run on the Cape but he’s still been one of the league’s best. Fisher leads the league with a .397 batting average. He has five multi-hit games in his last eight. He has also struck out just six times in 58 at-bats and has a .500 on-base percentage.

  • Chatham is doing perfectly fine for itself this season, but that lineup almost had one of the best hitters in the country. Taylor Sparks of UC Irvine was a late invitee to Team USA, and he’s tearing it up for the National Team. He leads the squad with a .421 average.

  • Speaking of the Anglers, for a while it looked like Chatham was going to be a team of solid players, without any stars. Dante Flores has stepped into the void. After hitting just .154 for Chatham last summer, he’s one of the best hitters in the league this year. His triple-slash line is .354/.419/.576, one of the best in the league.

  • There is quite a battle going on for the league lead in stolen bases. Brewster’s Scott Heineman currently has it with 14 steals, but Harwich’s Aaron Barbosa is hot on his heels with 13. Orleans’ Greg Allen and Falmouth’s Kevin Newman each have 11. All of those guys are on pace to run right past the league-leading totals of the last few years. Tony Kemp led with 18 last year, Kyle Wren had 18 in 2011 and Andy Burns had 25 in 2010. The last huge total came in 2009, when Chris Bisson stole 36.

  • Former Chatham A Grant Green was called up to the Oakland A’s this week. He was hitting .318 with 11 homers at Triple A. If Green makes a name for himself at all in the Big Leagues, he’s got Cape League Hall of Famer written all over him. Green won a championship with Y-D then was an MVP candidate for Chatham the next year.

  • My most underrated players in the league so far? Connor Joe of Chatham and Conner Hale of Falmouth. Joe is hitting .282 with a homer and 10 RBI. Hale is at .278 with a home run and 11 RBI. Also, why are there so many Connors/Conners/Conors in the Cape League this year? I can’t keep the spellings straight.

  • Chatham has two players, Mitchell Gonsolus and Sheehan Planas-Arteaga, with on-base percentages north of .420 – and both of them have batting averages under .270. The Anglers can really work a walk.

  • Wareham reliever Ryan Riga has been a busy man this summer. He leads the league in appearances with 14. The Gatemen have played 24 games.

  • There’s always a middle reliever who doesn’t get as much but deserves as much attention as starters and closers. Cotuit’s Joel Seddon is at the top of the list so far. He’s made six appearances and hasn’t allowed an earned run in 15 innings.

  • Some of my favorite players on the Cape are small-school guys who make an impression and come back the next year when their teams need some help. Cotuit’s Galli Cribbs, Jr. and Wareham’s Fred Shepard are doing it this year. Cribbs, of Clarendon College, is hitting .229 and playing a solid shortstop when asked for a Cotuit team that’s been hit hard by personnel losses. Wareham has been in a similar boat and Shepard has stepped up. The left from Amherst has an ERA that’s on the high side but he’s tied for fourth in the league in strikeouts.

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    New Faces

    Harwich's Ian Happ, a late roster addition, is off to a great start.

    It’s easy to miss the boat on potential stars when they aren’t part of preseason outlooks and previews, but late additions to Cape League rosters often come to town with pretty good credentials.

    In an effort to keep up, we begin the notebook with a quick look at some of the stand-outs who may not have been on the preseason radar:

    Erich Weiss, Chatham – Texas stand-out had a down junior year, but was still selected in 13th round this year
    Joe Goodman, Chatham – Undersized righty had an ERA under 1.00 for High Point
    Cole Lankford, Brewster – Starred for Texas A&M this year, hitting .352 with three homers
    Jake Stinnett, Brewster – Maryland pitcher was a 29th round pick of the Pirates this June
    Ian Happ, Harwich – Cincy freshman hit .322 with six homers in debut
    Ryan Lindemuth, Harwich – William & Mary junior hit .351 in the spring, was drafted by Pirates in 20th round this year
    Ian Tompkins, Harwich – Western Kentucky reliever struck out 59 in just 35 innings this spring
    Geoff DeGroot, Orleans – Hit .345, stole 25 bases for UMass Lowell
    Jeremy Rhoades, Orleans – Saves six games with an ERA under two for Illinois State
    Jeremy Null, Y-D – Had a tremendous year on the mound for Western Carolina, striking out 109 in 91 IP
    Chad Carroll, Bourne – Terrific season at James Madison – .389, 3 HR, 55 RBI on way to All-CAA honors
    Connor Castellano, Cotuit – TCU commit started his career at Vanderbilt before going the JUCO route
    Steven Duggar, Cotuit – Hit .300 for Clemson as a freshman; ranked 15th best frosh in the country coming into the year
    Alex Haines, Cotuit – Top prospect in the NECBL last year and a 33rd round pick this year
    Trevor Seidenberger, Cotuit – Struck out 63 for TCU and was drafted in 12th round by Brewers
    Conner Hale, Falmouth – JUCO star has committed to LSU for next year
    Trey Teakell, Falmouth – TCU reliever had an ERA under 1.00
    Jake Hernandez, Hyannis – Solid player for Orleans last summer has resurfaced in Hyannis and is off to a fast start
    Fred Shepard, Wareham – Amherst standout was steady contributor for Wareham last year

     

  • Team USA has sort of unofficially gone back to its old trials format, where players headed to camp without roster spots. In recent years, the team was picked without any sort of trials. This year, it’s kind of a hybrid, with some players guaranteed to be on the roster and others fighting for spots. Quite a few players who have already been on the Cape this year are part of the second group, including Harwich’s C.J. Hinojosa and A.J. Reed, Falmouth’s Preston Morrison, Orleans’ Colin Welmon and Cotuit’s Bradley Zimmer.

  • Wareham’s lineup can use all the help it can get, and the Gatemen signed an old friend today who should help the cause in Louisville’s Cole Sturgeon. The sophomore hit .297 with five home runs in Wareham’s championship season last year. He also pitches and had a 1.97 ERA in seven games.

  • Three pitchers have made two starts without allowing an earned run – Harwich’s Aaron Bummer and Chandler Shepherd and Cotuit’s Alex Haines. Haines leads that group in strikeouts with 14 in nine innings. Interestingly, Bummer has only struck out five in 13 innings.

  • Orleans closer Matt Troupe hasn’t picked up a save since getting two early on, but he continues to strike a lot of people out. Troupe has 10 strikeouts in 4.2 innings pitched, good for a 19.3 K/9.

  • The Y-D pitching staff struggled mightily for three games before getting on track Monday. The Red Sox were hurting so much that they put returning all-star infielder Robert Pehl on the mound for an inning. He promptly struck out two in a perfect inning.

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    Hoosier Hysteria

    Joey DeNato delivers a pitch for Y-D in last year's Cape League championship series.
    Predicting college baseball success based on Cape Cod Baseball League success is generally not a worthwhile enterprise. I once did a Top 25 based on Cape results and picked USC No. 1. I don’t think the Trojans even sniffed the real Top 25 that spring.

    But what you can do is pinpoint up-and-coming teams. Not the North Carolinas and Vanderbilts of the world, but the Stony Brooks. Anyone who watched the 2011 Cape Cod Baseball League season knew Stony Brook had to have a good year in 2012. The Seawolves then made a Cinderella run to Omaha.

    Last year, Right Field Fog commenter Orville from Orleans suggested Indiana as a breakout candidate for 2013.

    The man knows what he’s talking about.

    The Hoosiers are in the College World Series and haven’t yet lost an NCAA Tournament game. They shut out Louisville in their CWS opener on Saturday night.

    While the Hoosiers aren’t quite as Cape League heavy as that Stony Brook team from a year ago, some of their stars are Cape League bred. Kyle Schwarber was the CCBL playoff MVP and is now one of the top hitters in the country. Sam Travis starred for Y-D.

    And Joey DeNato, a true Cape League veteran, was the star of Saturday’s win.

    DeNato pitched for Y-D in 2011 and 2012, and was one of those steady performers that Cape League teams need. He started five games in 2011 and came out of the bullpen for seven more. He pitched exclusively out of the bullpen last summer. He didn’t make any top prospects lists and wasn’t drafted this year. But I’m sure if you ask Y-D manager Scott Pickler, he loved having DeNato on his staff. DeNato owns a career Cape League ERA of 2.28.

    Saturday was his day in the sun. The lefty struck out eight in a complete-game, four-hit shutout of a Louisville team that had beaten Vandy superstars Kevin Ziomek and Tyler Beede a week earlier.

    The Hoosiers are now 1-0 in their first-ever trip to Omaha, something a lot of people on the national stage didn’t see coming.

    Some of us did.

  • The University of San Diego had a banner day when slugger Kris Bryant was selected with the second overall pick in the Major League Baseball Draft. His teammates are doing what they can on the Cape. Y-D’s Andrew Daniel ranks sixth in the league in hitting at this early stage, and fellow Torero Connor Joe of Chatham is right behind him in seventh at .417. Both of them own three-game hitting streaks.

  • Chatham’s Mitchell Gonsolus (Gonzaga) has been on base more than anybody so far this season, with three hits and five walks in 10 plate appearances, good for an .800 OBP. Summer success should be no surprise – Gonsulus was the MVP of the West Coast Collegiate League last summer

  • Sometimes, late additions come to the Cape with some of the best credentials in the league. Chatham’s Erich Weiss and Cotuit’s Alex Haines fit the bill. Weiss starred as a sophomore for Texas in 2012, hitting .350 with five homers. Heading into his junior season, he was labeled as a potential early-round pick but he didn’t repeat as much of his success and fell down draft boards. He was still selected in the 11th round by the Pirates this year but is in Chatham, where he has two hits in two games. Haines, who plays at D-II Seton Hill, was the top prospect in the NECBL last summer but didn’t get drafted until the 33rd round this year.

  • Harwich’s Ian Happ was not on the team’s original roster, but he looks like a great pickup. The Cincinnati freshman hit .322 this spring with six homers, 13 doubles and a .451 OBP. He also stole 25 bases, and is slotting into the leadoff spot in Harwich’s order. The Mariners have some more talent to come, but Happ may not be moving from that spot.

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    Sunshine, Please

    Cape League teams will be eager to get back on the field today.
    You can blame me for this. Mother Nature and I are in a pretty serious feud this spring. It began with the Kentucky Derby – we made the trip down and were greeted by pretty much the worst weather I’ve ever seen for a derby – and she’s been sticking it to me ever since. I feel like it rains every time I want to do something outside. Now the Cape League is an innocent victim.

    What’s the opposite of a rain dance? Let’s get on that.

  • It’s a little early to be drawing conclusions about the impact of juice-less baseballs, but it’s worth noting that zero home runs were hit on opening night, compared to three last year. If the trend continues, the baseballs may not be the only factor. Last summer’s numbers were certainly inflated but the guys hitting the home runs were going to hit some home runs regardless of which baseballs were being thrown at them. Tyler Horan, Phil Ervin, Eric Jagielo, Daniel Palka, Daniel Aldrich – there were some serious power bats on the Cape last year. I’m not sure there will be as many this year. Outside of Kyle Schwarber – who may end up with Team USA – only one Cape Leaguer was in the NCAA’s top 50 in home runs – Harwich’s A.J. Reed with 13. There were eight last year.

  • If you’re looking for names to watch this summer, Kiley McDaniel’s list of players to watch for the 2014 draft is a good place to start. Several of the pitchers are on the Cape, including Wareham’s opening night starter Sean Newcomb and Southern Illinois righty Sam Coonrod, who’s slated to start for Y-D tonight. The hitters list includes Bourne returnee Mason Robbins, who’s already on the Cape, and Derek Fisher, who’s slated to be in Harwich.

  • Another of the pitchers on that list is Falmouth’s Brandon Finnegan, but he’s not long for the Cape. Finnegan, a lefty from TCU, is on the Team USA roster and according to a TCU release, he’ll report to Team USA on June 20. Fellow Commodore Preston Morrison will also be leaving.

  • The top pitching performance so far belongs to Y-D’s Erick Fedde. The right-hander from UNLV struck out eight in 6.2 innings of two-hit ball in the opener. Last year, Perfect Game liked Fedde as Nevada’s top prospect for the 2014 draft.

  • Lukas Schiraldi is scheduled to start for Chatham on Saturday. He is the son of former Big Leaguer Calvin Schiraldi. He pitched in the junior college ranks this year and was drafted in the 35th round. He has a commitment to the University of Texas.

  • Princeton’s Mike Ford is back in Cotuit on a temporary contract, and he returns after a tremendous season. Ford was both the Ivy League Player of the Year and the Pitcher of the Year, the first time one player has ever won both honors in the history of the league. Ford hit .320 with six home runs at the plate and had a 0.98 ERA on the mound.