RIGHT FIELD FOG

In that first week without the Cape League, when there’s no games to listen to and no box scores to stare at, I find myself at a momentary loss for how to fill the time. I wasn’t lost for long this year, though. The Olympics got going at the perfect time. I spent inordinate amounts of time watching synchronized diving, fencing, table tennis and the like. Fencing sucks, but still, I watched.

For all those types of sports, though, there wasn’t much in the way of stories.

It seemed like in the whole of Olympics, there were only three stories — Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and the gymnastics girls. They were great stories, but at some point, could we have gotten to the other stuff?

It didn’t bother me all that much. It’s fencing and table tennis, after all, but it did get me thinking.

In much the same way a few names monopolize coverage at the Olympics, a few names do the same thing in the Cape League. And more than the coverage, they monopolize individual perceptions. When 300 players show up, you naturally latch onto a few. For me, the ones I latch onto early don’t usually get un-latched. That’s why, perception-wise, I would tell you Connor Powers had a better summer than Andy Wilkins. He didn’t, but because he got off to a fast start, he was at the forefront of my mind.

He was one of many who fit into the Michael Phelps category. That’s not to say that they all did well then faded, but they all worked their way into my perceptions of the league with their early play then never left. And since I can only have so many names in my head, the guys who get in early stay there at the expense of others.

But it’s time to let them in.

Let’s celebrate our Ma Lin’s (that’s your table tennis gold medalist).

Josh Rutledge – SS/OF – Yarmouth-Dennis
.294, 1 HR, 10 RBI, 12 XBH, .365 OBP
Among these guys, no one slipped through the cracks more than Rutledge. I have no idea why, but he just wasn’t part of my consciousness this summer. He should have been. The freshman from Alabama started fast and never really slumped. He finished the year with the second-best average and the second-most extra base hits on the team.

Ryan Pineda – 2B – Wareham
.273, 3 HR, 18 RBI, 16 XBH, .341 OBP
Another freshman middle infielder, Pineda was among the most productive freshman in the league. He was a late addition to the Wareham roster, which is probably why I lost track of him, but he was the Big West Conference Freshman of the Year at Cal State Northridge. Definitely a player to watch.

Andy Wilkins – 1B – Yarmouth-Dennis
.271, 5 HR, 26 RBI, 15 XBH, .356 OBP
For someone who likes to keep track of which freshmen are doing well, I really must have been slacking. Wilkins, a freshman from Arkansas, ranks as one of the top DH/1B types in the league. Among the freshmen, only Kevin Patterson had a more productive season.

James Meador – OF – Brewster
.280, 2 HR, 17 RBI, 12 XBH, .321 OBP
After I saw that Meador hit .380 this spring for San Diego, I expected big things. Apparently, I’m impatient. Meador got off to a slow start and I barely noticed when he turned it on. He finished with a pretty solid season, considering he was hitting .122 after the summer’s first two weeks.

Darin Ruf – 1B – Falmouth
.305, 1HR, 24 RBI, 8 XBH, .414 OBP
Ruf was named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year at Creighton this spring after hitting .377 with seven home runs. He didn’t make a huge impression on me in the early going, but by the end of the season, he was second on the team in batting average, with a great on-base percentage to go with it.

Mike Freeman – 2B – Brewster
.274, 1 HR, 22RBI, 9 XBH, .366 OBP
Freeman is a guy who’s name I saw constantly, so constantly that it was easy to take him for granted. The sophomore from Clemson started every game for the Whitecaps and was one of their most consistent performers.

Kyle Roller -1B/DH – Bourne
.280, 2 HR, 22 RBI, 14 XBH, .352 OBP
Chicks dig the long ball, not the double. Apparently the same applies to little-known Cape League bloggers. I always knew Roller was having a good season, but I’m not sure I realized the East Carolina soph was such a doubles machine. He finished with 12, second in the league.

Caleb Cotham – RHP – Brewster
5-1, 2.54 ERA, 46 IP, 51 K
Cotham wasn’t an all-star or an all-league pick, but he easily could have been both. With a great record and his strikeout numbers, the Vanderbilt sophomore was definitely one of the top pitchers in the league.

Chris Gloor – RHP – Falmouth
1-0, 2.59 ERA, 41.2 IP, 36 K
The junior from Quinnipiac isn’t hard to miss. He’s 6’6 and throws left-handed. But in terms of his roles on Falmouth’s staff, you could easily lose track. He pitched both in relief and in the rotation. Wherever he was, he put up great numbers.

Josh Eidell – RHP – Harwich
1-0, 2.56 ERA, 31.2 IP, 33 K
I’ll confess. Eidell is the only guy on this list whose name looked completely foreign to me. He was in that middle relief group that I can’t seem to get a handle on, but he was one of the best. In 31.2 innings, the junior from Villanova struck out 33 and walked only four.
Graham Stoneburner – RHP – Hyannis
2-2, 2.93 ERA, 30.2 IP, 30 K
Stoneburner won’t get mentioned among the top starters in the league, but outside the top guys, he was one of the most consistent.

Austin Hudson – RHP – Hyannis
1-2, 1.50 ERA, 36 IP, 25 K
Yes, he won the ERA title, but how many people knew that without looking?

And a few more guys who deserve a mention:
Tyler Cannon – UTIL – Bourne – Hit .265 and played six positions.
Jason Nappi – SS – Brewster – Started 41 games and hit .277.
Evan Ocheltree – OF/1B – Chatham – Hit .266 with 10 XBH.
Michael Gilmartin – SS – Cotuit – Robbie Shields’ replacement hit .257.
Jeff Kobernus – 3B – Cotuit – Hit .263 with 11 XBH.
Trevor Coleman – C – Falmouth – Played in every game and hit .244.
Kevin Nolan – 3B – Falmouth – Opening-night star finished at .255.
Joey Wong – SS – Falmouth – Defensive wiz also hit .256
D.J. Belfonte – OF – Harwich – Catalyst for the M’s offense.
Matt Bowman – 2B – Orleans – Quietly one of Cards’ best hitters.
Aaron Baker – 1B – Wareham – Started every game and had 12 XBH.
Kipp Schutz – OF – Wareham – Tied for team lead in HRs.
Ricky Bowen – SP – Bourne – Struck out 46 in 43.1 IP.
Kevin Landry – RP – Bourne – Lights-out all summer.
Kevin Couture – RP – Chatham – Star last summer turned it on late.
Daniel Wolford – RP – Cotuit – Had 33 strkeouts in 24 IP.
Michael Morrison – SP/RP – Harwich – Led team in strikeouts.
Mike Belfiore – RP – Y-D – Had a 13.5 K/9. Also a hitter.
Tyler Waldron – SP/RP Y-D – Struck out 33 in swing role.

Baseball America yesterday released its list of the Cape League’s top 30 prospects. The full release, with scotuing reports, is subscriber content over there, but I’ll go ahead and list the names here.

1. Grant Green, ss, Chatham (Jr., Southern California)
2. Dustin Ackley, of, Harwich (Jr., North Carolina)
3. Matt Harvey, rhp, Chatham (So., North Carolina)
4. Ben Tootle, rhp, Falmouth (Jr., Jacksonville State)
5. Brandon Workman, rhp, Wareham (So., Texas)
6. D.J. LeMahieu, ss, Harwich (So., Louisiana State)
7. A.J. Pollock, of, Falmouth (Jr., Notre Dame)
8. Brett Jackson, of, Cotuit (Jr., California)
9. Jeff Inman, rhp, Yarmouth-Dennis (Jr., Stanford)
10. Brad Stillings, rhp, Orleans (Jr., Kent State)
11. Ben Paulsen, 1b, Hyannis (Jr., Clemson)
12. Robbie Shields, ss, Cotuit (Jr., Florida Southern)
13. Matt Thomson, rhp, Orleans (Jr., San Diego)
14. Bryce Stowell, rhp, Bourne (signed with Indians)
15. Shawn Tolleson, rhp, Yarmouth-Dennis (So., Baylor)
16. Rich Poythress, 3b, Orleans (Jr., Georgia)
17. Kevin Patterson, 1b, Cotuit (So., Auburn)
18. Craig Fritsch, rhp, Yarmouth-Dennis (So., Baylor)
19. Mike Bianucci, of, Cotuit (signed with Rangers)
20. Brad Boxberger, rhp, Chatham (Jr., Southern California)
21. Chad Bettis, rhp, Falmouth (So., Texas Tech)
22. Tim Wheeler, of, Orleans (Jr., Sacramento State)
23. Dusty Coleman, ss, Bourne (signed with Athletics)
24. Evan Danieli, rhp, Falmouth (So., Notre Dame)
25. Sean Black, rhp, Harwich (Jr., Seton Hall)
26. Nick Hernandez, lhp, Cotuit (Jr., Tennessee)
27. Marc Krauss, of, Harwich/Bourne (Jr., Ohio)
28. Matt Bashore, lhp, Wareham (Jr., Indiana)
29. Ryan Wheeler, 1b, Brewster (Jr., Loyola Marymount)
30. Chris Dominguez, 3b, Hyannis (Jr., Louisville)

Some Thoughts:

• No surprise that Green and Ackley go 1-2.

• Kind of a surprise for me that Harvey is in the third spot. He came in with a lot of hype. The fact that he wasn’t starting made me think he wouldn’t have as good opportunity to live up to it, but clearly that’s not the case. And Harvey actually ended up with some tremendous numbers after pitching a lot down the stretch. He had 29 strikeouts in 21.2 innings and allowed two runs all summer.

• Ben Tootle is the top junior pitcher, but after that, you see that trend where the stars in the class of ’09 weren’t on the Cape. That means Jeff Inman and Brad Stillings, two pitchers I wouldn’t have guessed would be so high, are in the top 10.

• Here’s another trend: you didn’t have to play a lot to make a big impression. Both Ackley and No. 12 Robbie Shields played about a fourth of the season before leaving with injuries.

• The class of 2010 certainly had its say. Three are in the top 10 with Brandon Workman and D.J. LeMahieu joining Harvey. In all, there are eight from that class.

• Not a single catcher on the list. I thought Tommy Medica, Tony Sanchez or Robert Stock would make it.

• A few other notable names who I thought might crack the list but didn’t: Angelo Songco, Jason Kipnis, Chris Manno, Nick McCully, Sammy Solis and Andrew Carraway.

Last summer, a shortstop from Los Angeles fresh off a big sophomore season headed East with a lot of hype. But Brandon Crawford arrived in Orleans and never quite got his feet under him. Widely considered the top shortstop prospect in his class, Crawford hit just .189 for the Cardinals, a far cry from the .335 average he had in the spring for UCLA.

Crawford still had a tremendous junior season, and he got drafted by the Giants in the fourth round this June. But at the time, the summer of ’07 must have felt like a missed opportunity.

This summer, another shortstop fresh off a big sophomore season headed East with a lot of hype.

Grant Green did not have a disappointing summer.

Playing for Chatham, the USC shortstop had an incredible season and was named the league’s top pro prospect. He was thought of by many as the top shortstop in his class to begin with. Now, he’s drawing comparisons to Major Leaguers Evan Longoria and Troy Tulowitzki.

I think Green’s success is one of the great storylines of this Cape League summer. That’s in large part because it was supposed to happen, and when things are supposed to happen in the Cape League, they rarely do.

Take Crawford, or countless other players who came in with hype and left with question marks. A lot of times, Cape League success stories come from the players who don’t have all the hype. That was particularly true last year, when Aaron Crow and Conor Gillaspie burst onto the scene with big summers.

Green’s success is really the first of its kind since 2006, when Matt Wieters came in as a top prospect, hit .307 with eight home runs for Orleans, and left as the top prospect. The next year, Wieters was the fifth overall pick in the draft.

It may end up being a similar path for Green. He’s already being mentioned as the top prospect among positional players for the ’09 draft. There’s a very good chance he’ll be a top-10 pick, maybe a top-five pick.

The cool part for fans of the Cape League is that you can trace much of Green’s status back to his time on the Cape.

After becoming the first freshman since the 1990’s to start at shortstop for the Trojans, Green headed to Yarmouth-Dennis last year and simply couldn’t be kept off the field, even though Gordon Beckham was ahead of him on the depth chart at shortstop. Green played four different positions and still managed to hit .291 with four home runs.

Green was on the radar before last summer, but his performance with the Red Sox put him more firmly in the cross-hairs. He stayed there with a huge sophomore season. He hit .390 with nine home runs.

And then he came to the Cape, going to Chatham instead of returning to Y-D. He turned down Team USA because he wanted to play every day. He did play every day, and every day, he hit the ball, leading the league in batting average for much of the summer.

He brought power to the table. Some speed too, and in the field, he flashed a strong arm. He was the total package. His summer line finished up like this: .348, 6 HR, 21 RBI.

That’s some serious production, and it matched the projection scouts like to talk about. So often in the Cape League, you’ll see a guy struggle but still get high marks. That’s the way it works. A bad summer might raise some questions, but there are so many factors at play — small sample size, wood bats, tougher competition, the daily grind — that it can be written off a little bit. If you’re a top prospect, you want to have a good summer, but if you don’t, it’s not the end of the world. For scouts, projection is just as important, if not more important, than production.

I am not a scout, and frankly, I was pretty excited to see Grant Green do what he did. It’s not that I don’t like seeing stars come out of nowhere. And no matter how much a player struggles on the Cape, it’s always cool to see his name get called in June.

But this was different.

The first Major League baseball game I ever went to was at Fenway Park. Roger Clemens was pitching, back in the days when he was flat-out dominant. I was so excited. I had visions of a no-hitter, maybe a 21-strikeout game.

He lasted something like an inning and a third. I was fairly disappointed. You go to a game to see the stars, and when the stars deliver, it’s something special.

Well, Grant Green delivered. It occurs to me now that he might someday be a Cape League Hall of Famer. By then, if things go the way he wants them to, he’ll have some other hardware, too.

But I bet he’ll remember this summer, and I think the rest of us will, too.

Originally, I was going to find a few random stats and numbers and throw them out there for this post. That’s pretty much what I did, except there are a ridiculous amount of numbers, and oddly enough, they can tell you a lot about the Cape League season. Some reveal statistical truths behind an impression, like the idea that the hittters dominated the league this summer. Others offer new confirmation on truths estbalished all summer, like the fact that there was an insane amount of parity in the league this year. And finally, some stats reveal absolutely nothing, other than my own desire to make this post longer.

Here goes, from 0 to 334,251 (Don’t worry, I skipped some numbers along the way):

0 – The number of nine-inning no-hitters in the league this year. Usually, there’s at least one. All we got this year was a five-inning fog-shortened perfect game from Nick McCully and a near-no-hitter from Brandon Workman.

0 – Players with a better baseball name than Dusty Coleman.

0 – Number of fog-outs in Chatham. Has to be some kind of record.

.032 – The difference in team average between league leader Y-D and last-place Hyannis. Typically, that number is in the .050 range. Kind of a clue that there was some parity, huh?

.230 – The team batting average for Hyannis, the lowest average in the league. It’s also the highest league-low batting average this decade. As in, this year’s worst was better than a lot of other worsts.

.473 – League-best on-base percentage posted by Marc Krauss. It’s the highest mark since 2000, when none other than Kevin Youkilis had a .488 OBP.

.667 – The on-base percentage of Cotuit pitcher Sam Brown. He had three plate appearances and walked twice. Good eye, kid.

1 – The number of Harwich pitchers who made all their appearances in a starting role. Chris Manno was the only one. Everybody else pitched at least once out of the bullpen.

1 – The number of players on the Cape who had a BCS National Championship on their resume. Y-D’s Jared Mitchell is a wide receiver for LSU’s football team, as well as an outfielder for the baseball team. He left the Cape after five games to head to fall camp.

1.50 – The league-leading ERA belonging to Hyannis’ Austin Hudson. That’s the highest number this decade, and the first time since 1999 that the league-best ERA was over 1.00.

2 – Errors made by Falmouth shortstop Joey Wong, the lowest number for any everyday shortstop in the league.

3 – The number of streakers at the all-star game. They were quite the trio.

4 – The number of players on Harwich’s roster who went by initials — D.J. Belfonte, D.J. LeMahieu, J.T. Wise and J.J. Hoover.

4 – The number of players with eight home runs or more — Chris Dominguez, Ben Paulsen, Ryan Jones and Angelo Songco. That’s the most this decade.

5 – The number of qualifying players who had more walks than strikeouts. The list: Marc Krauss, Trevor Coleman, Chase Leavitt, Tommy Medica and Curt Casali. It’s interesting that three of the five are catchers. The best ratio belonged to Coleman, who walked 39 times and struck out 25 times.

5 – The difference in the number of hits between Orleans catchers Travis Tartamella and Hampton Tignor. That’s the biggest difference in their remarkably similar stat lines.

5 – The number of times Grant Green and Chris Dominguez were each intentionally walked. They tied for the league lead.

5:37 – Approximate length of the version of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” that played at the all-star game. Seriously. It had to be some kind of extended cut.

6 – Positions played by Bourne’s Tyler Cannon. He saw time at all the infield spots, including catcher, and played one game in the outfield.

7 – The number of players who played in all 44 regular-season games for their teams. The list: Mike Freeman, Derek Poppert, Conner Powers, Trevor Coleman, Ben Paulsen, Tim Wheeler and Keenan Wiley. Interestingly, three of those guys are from Brewster. With a play-in game and three playoff games, Coleman ended up with 48 games played, the highest overall total.

8 – Consecutive games Harwich won to close out the season.

8 – Number of teams that hit 20 home runs or more, and you guessed it, that’s by far the most this decade. It’s not really close, either. The previous high was five, which happened four times.

9 – The number of at-bats Grant Green went without a hit on the final day of the season, when Chatham played a double-header. He hadn’t had a stretch like that all summer.

10 – The number of saves Russell Brewer had on July 9, with a month of the season left.

10.53 – Combined K/9 for Team USA pitchers Kendal Volz, Blake Smith, Mike Leake, Mike Minor, Andy Oliver, Kyle Gibson, Stephen Strasburg and A.J. Griffin, all of whom would have been on the Cape. When people say the power arms were missing from the Cape this year, this is what they mean.

11 – The number of times Cole Figueroa struck out, the lowest total among players with at least 100 at-bats.

12 – The number of saves Russell Brewer finished with. It was through no fault of his own. He pitched well when he had a chance, but the Mets weren’t winning consistently.

12 – The number of times Tony Sanchez was hit by a pitch, tops in the league.

13 – The single-game high for strikeouts this summer. Y-D’s Jeff Inman did it in the third-to-last game of the season and Wareham’s Brandon Workman pulled it off in his near no-hitter. The high last summer was 15, a mark set by Brett Jacobson and D.J. Mitchell.

13 – The number of runs scored by Hyannis slugger Chris Dominguez, an exceedingly low number when you consider his 10 home runs and 22 extra-base hits.

14 – The number of pitchers who started a game for Chatham this summer, the highest number in the league.

14 – The number of times I mis-spelled Caleb Cotham’s name. I was going with Coltham for quite awhile . . . and I just had to double-check again because I couldn’t remember which one was right.
15 – Decision-less appearances made by Brewster pitcher Rory McKean. That was his season total in appearances, and he finished with a 0-0 record.

18 – Games finished by Brad Boxberger and Ben Tootle. I never knew what GF stood for on the stat sheet until I looked that up.

23 – Appearances made by Bourne’s David Erickson, tops in the league.

25 – The number of hits allowed by Falmouth’s Nate Karns and Hyannis’ Austin Hudson. Among pitchers who qualified for the ERA title, that’s the best number.

45 – The number of innings Harwich played in the post-season. Typically, that number would be reserved for a team that went three games in one series, and two in another. Harwich swept both series, but had that little 18-inning game mixed in.

46 – Errors made by Harwich, fewest in the league. Y-D made 70.

49 – The combined total of games played and pitching appearances recorded by Orleans’ Alex Hassan, who was the only true two-way player in the league. He was slated to just be an outfielder, but when the Cardinals lost their closer, he stepped into that role.

50 – Percentage of hits that went for extra bases off the bats of Chris Dominguez and Angelo Songco. Dominguez had 44 hits and 22 for extra bases. Songco had 36 hits, 18 for extra bases.

56 – The number of singles by Bourne’s Jordan Henry. He had 60 hits total, with only four going for extra-bases.

61 – The number of hits by A.J. Pollock, the best mark since 2003, when Warner Jones had 64.

67 – The number of strikeouts recorded by Brandon Workman. That’s the highest total since 2005, when Daniel Bard had 82.

135.00 – The ERA belonging to Y-D first baseman Andy Wilkins. He’s not a two-way guy but he was on the mound once and allowed five runs in one-third of an inning. Proof that he should stick with hitting.

216.1 – Total innings logged by Wareham starters Robby Broach, Dallas Keuchel, Max Perlman and Brandon Workman. Each of them had over 50. By comparison, there were only four other pitchers in the whole league who got to 50 innings.

321 – The total number of players who were on the Cape this summer. That ranges from the one game played by Harwich’s Patrick McKenna to the 44 played by guys like Paulsen, Coleman, etc.

334,251 – Total attendance for the year, including the all-star game and playoffs. Whether some team’s estimates are inflated or not, that’s still a staggering number.

I put together lists of stats by position last year, and I found them pretty helpful when analyzing exactly what we saw over the course of the summer. So I’ve put them together again. I’m finding them interesting again, so hopefully you will too.

Rather than post them all here, I’ve got them on the right field fog geocities site. Each position has its own page, and the links are below. The players are ranked according to batting average. Next to their name is the number of games they played at the position. Players who saw time at multiple positions are listed at the spot where they played the most. If there’s a star by the name, that means the player did play a lot at another spot.

I think that should explain everything. There’s a little summary for the position at the bottom of each page so be sure to scroll down.

Catcher
First Base
Second Base
Shortstop
Third Base
Outfield

Enjoy.

I’ve been staring at some stats lately, and though I’ve found that you can’t conjure up any more baseball, you can learn some things. I will post some of the stuff either tonight or tomorrow, including a compilation of stats sorted by position. After that, I will get into the season wrap-up stuff that I’ve been promising.

For now, a few interesting tidbits.

• Santa Clara’s official web site did a cool Q&A with pitcher Steve Kalush, who helped lead Harwich to the Cape League championship. Kalush and his Santa Clara teammate Tommy Medica both played big roles for the Mariners, and in the championship, they beat their teammate Nate Garcia, who played for Cotuit. Interestingly, both Kalush and Garcia won the Alaska League championship last summer with the Mat-Su Miners.

• Jim Callis of Baseball America’s had some high praise for Grant Green in this week’s “Ask BA” column: “Green is clearly the top shortstop for the 2009 draft at this point, and he’s the top overall position prospect as well. He was an easy choice for the No. 1 prospect in the Cape this summer. One scouting director I spoke to said he embodied the best of Troy Tulowitzki and Evan Longoria, and others compared his bat to Longoria’s, high praise indeed. Though he’s 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, Green should be able to stay at shortstop.”

• With so many of this summer’s stars signing pro contracts, we’re getting an earlier-than-usual look at professional returns. The short-season Northwest League has a nice little Cape League flavor, with Dusty Coleman, Mike Bianucci and Cole Figueroa all making their debuts there. Coleman is hitting .243 in 10 games with the Vancouver Canadians (Oakland); Bianucci is hitting .318 with four home runs for the Spokane Indians (Texas); and Figueroa is hitting .284 with four home runs for the Eugene Emeralds (San Diego). Also out west, but in a different league, Cape League batting champ Jimmy Cesario is hitting .271 in 17 games with the Rookie Pioneer League’s Casper Ghosts (Colorado). Other guys who signed this year: Danny Meszaros has made nine appearances for the New York Penn League’s Tri-City ValleyCats (Houston) and has a 3.26 ERA with 33 strikeouts in only 19.1 innings of work. J.J. Hoover made his professional debut last week for the Applachian League’s Danville Braves (Atlanta). He hasn’t allowed a run in two outings. Bryce Stowell has been assigned to the Penn League’s Mahoning Valley Scrappers (Cleveland) but has yet to make an appearance.

There’s no official release, but if you happen to accidentally click on a link to the CCBL Awards, it does include a Pitcher of the Year. It’s Bourne’s Nick McCully of Coastal Carolina.

Much like last year with Tom Milone, McCully had the edge because of his record, a perfect 5-0 mark. In a year where some of the more dominant pitchers didn’t win much, McCully stood apart. Only Nick Hernandez and Caleb Cotham were in the same category in terms of number of wins, and both of them had more losses than McCully.

These are McCully’s final numbers: 5-0, 1.98 ERA, 50 IP, 44 K, 14 BB, .88 WHIP, 1 CG, 1 SHO

Pretty impressive stuff. It’s the second straight summer that McCully has had a lot of success in New England. Playing in the NECBL last summer, McCully had a 4-1 record with a 2.15 ERA and a no-hitter to his name.

In other news, the Cape League also announced its all-league teams.

Here’s what it looks like:

1B – Ben Paulsen
2B – Jimmy Cesario
SS – Grant Green
3B – Chris Dominguez
Inf. Util. – Raynor Campbell
OF – A.J. Pollock
OF – Marc Krauss
OF – Trent Ashcraft
OF – Jordan Henry
C – Tommy Medica
C – Tony Sanchez
Util. – Joseph Sanders
DH – Kevin Patterson
DH – Brent Milleville

SP – Nick McCully
SP – Nick Hernandez
SP – Matt Thomson
SP – Andrew Carraway
SP – Bryce Stowell
SP – Chris Manno
RP – Russell Brewer
RP – Ben Tootle

Just as it was with the all-star selections, I don’t see too many huge snubs. I’m a little surprised Brandon Workman wasn’t on there but his ERA did balloon a little bit at the end of the year, and it’s tough to push any of the aforementioned guys out of a spot. A few other notable guys who didn’t make it: Ryan Wheeler, Cory Olson, Ryan Jones, Angelo Songco and Ryan Pineda.

Update: I forgot the DH’s, but they’re in there now.

Any baseball going on? I’ll be honest. I’m pretty bored right now.

Does it seem to anybody else than when the Cape League season ends, somebody flips a switch and turns the whole thing off? (I’m looking at you, Cape Cod Times).

It seems to me that when you’ve just closed out a sprint to the finish line of a marathon, you should have a cool-down period. I’ve never run a marathon, though, so maybe not. I guess some people just collapse at the finish line.

But I will not collapse. It’s time for a little jog. Maybe some race-walking. Anything to wind down the summer without going this cruel cold-turkey route.

So, later in the week, I’ll have some season-in-review stuff up and then I’ll formulate a plan for the off-season, which unlike last year, will not involve three months without a post.

For now, a few things to catch up on.

• This got lost in the shuffle for me, but Jason Stidham and Mark Fleury were named co-MVP’s of the playoffs. Stidham had seven RBI, all in the first game of the championship series. Fleury only had one hit in the four-game postseason, but it was a big one.

• Speaking of awards, are we getting a Cape League Pitcher of the Year? Unless I missed it, nothing’s been announced. I have issues with the way the awards are presented (i.e., you might find out if you’re at the game where it’s handed out), but the fact that this award hasn’t been announced yet just muddies the waters further. Maybe there’s a good reason for the delay, but I don’t like it.

• The deadline for signing draft picks came and went on Friday night, and plenty of Cape Leaguers were in the news. Pitchers J.J. Hoover and Bryce Stowell, who had tremendous showings this summer after getting picked in June, leveraged their big summers into big contracts. Hoover, a 10th-round pick of the Braves, signed for $400,000. Stowell, who would have been a redshirt junior at UC Irvine, got an even bigger payday. A 22nd-round pick of the Indians, Stowell inked a deal worth $725,000, which is well above MLB’s slotting recommendation for that pick. By my count that makes seven ’08 Cape Leaguers who signed after, or in the midst of, a strong summer: Mike Bianucci, Jimmy Cesario, Dusty Coleman, Danny Meszaros and Cole Figueroa.

• In other draft news, 2007 Cape League Top Prospect Aaron Crow, the ninth overall pick in June, failed to come to terms with the Washington Nationals. Rather than return to school, Crow is now expected to pitch the rest of this season and the early part of next year with the Fort Worth Cats of the Independent American Association. That’s the same team that former Tennessee star Luke Hochevar played with in 2006 after he didn’t sign. The next year, Hochevar was the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

• The other piece of news from the draft that may or may not have Cape League implications is the decision by first-rounder Gerrit Cole to stick with his commitment to UCLA. Cole, a righthander from Orange, Calif., who has an electric fastball, was selected by the Yankees near the end of the first round. He opted not to sign, which marks the first time in a long time that a high-school first-rounder will be going to college. There’s a decent possibility that Cole is already on a Cape League roster for next year, and if he’s not, somebody’s trying to get him as we speak.

• In the first six rounds of last year’s draft, there were nine high-schoolers who opted for college. Several of them, including Brandon Workman, Matt Harvey and Brett Eibner, played on the Cape this summer. The number of unsigned high-schoolers in the first six rounds was down to four this year: Cole, first baseman Chase Davidson, and outfielders Zach Cone and Khiry Cooper. Davidson and Cone are both committed to Georgia, so that’s a huge coup for the Bulldogs. Cooper has committed to Nebraska, but he’ll be there to play football.

• A few other names to remember from the group of unsigned players: seventh-rounder Jason Esposito (Vanderbilt), and 10th-rounders Drew Gagnon (Long Beach State), Ryan O’Sullivan (San Diego State), Chris Joyce (UC Santa Barbara) and Danny Hultzen (Virginia). We can expect to see many of them on the Cape next summer.

In some circles, the Cape League has a reputation of being a show league. To some extent, it’s probably a deserved reputation. Talent dominates the storylines and the display of that talent is one of the league’s main goals.

But every August, when the all-star game is over and the eyes of scouts are turned elsewhere, the Cape League is not a show league. Anything but, in fact, and the photos of Harwich celebrating last night’s championship tell that story pretty well.

These aren’t talented kids who happen to be playing on the same field. They’re talented kids coming together to create a talented team. They’re compeitors and they want to win. Individual goals and attention from scouts doesn’t change that. When you’re with a group of guys every night for two months, you want to succeed. Seeing players embrace that is one of the coolest things about the end of the season.

The unique thing about Harwich’s championship run is that the players weren’t just embracing that for each other, for their team.

They were embracing it for an organization and a town.

This is what Mark Fleury told the Cape Cod Times: “After being here a few weeks and just talking to the locals, they really wanted, not only a winning team, but a championship team. I’m glad I was a part of it.”

Judging from their reactions, a lot of other players were glad to be part of it, too. That they wanted to be part of it is probably one of the biggest reasons why this team had success.

Take Brian Kemp and Andrew Giobbi. Both got off to strong starts. Kemp, from St. Johns, was hitting the ball well, while Giobbi, a late addition from Vanderbilt, was driving in runs at a faster clip than anybody in the league.

Then they both got injured, Giobbi in scary fashion when he got hit in the face by a pitch. For several weeks, they were out of the lineup and I assumed they were done for the year. That’s generally what happens when you get hurt in the Cape League. You pack it in.

Kemp and Giobbi came back. They both had hits in last night’s championship clincher. And while I’m sure coming back was motivated to some extent by self-interest, I’m betting they also came back because they wanted to be part of this.

When the team caught fire in the last week of the season, they quickly became part of something bigger. Not just a team with good chemistry chasing some goals, but a team and a town chasing an improbable goal.

Last night, there were more than 6,000 fans at Whitehouse Field. I can’t imagine that many people being there. They must have been climbing trees in the outfield.

The high attendance number speaks to what this title chase became. For 21 years, Harwich went without a Cape League title. Most of the players on this year’s team weren’t born the last time the Mariners won.

But they did it, and when the winning run crossed the plate last night, they weren’t the only ones celebrating.

For the first time in 21 years, the Harwich Mariners won the Cape Cod League Championship, and I think this tremendous photo by Ron Schloerb of the Cape Cod Times says it all.

Much more on this game tomorrow.

For now, congratulations Harwich.