Thursday August 28th minor league updates

[Caveat Emperor]

Stubbs is 2-3 with a triple for Louisville and he scored on a sac fly to give the Bats a 3-2 lead.

Stubbs is a mystery to me -- I'm struggling to figure out how he gets better as the competition around him gets more advanced.

Part of me wants to just throw out small sample size, but the optimist in me wants to believe that he's responding to coaching and tapping into potential that was already there when the Reds drafted him.

The other interesting theory I've been kicking around a bit with fellow Reds fans at work is that he's benefiting from seeing more "consistent" pitching at the high minors. I imagine that some hitters, perhaps Stubbs being one, get better when they're not being forced to face wild flamethrowers and guys who can't keep a consistent arm slot or release point from pitch to pitch. Lots of those kinds of players in A/A+ ball -- not so much in the upper levels.

Maybe seeing lots of pitches around the plate has helped his recognition skills.

[BigRed07]

Heisey hits a Grand Slam. That's 2 for the Lookouts.
They lead 11-5.

[dougdirt]

Heisey hits a Grand Slam. That's 2 for the Lookouts.
They lead 11-5.

Man, its like when guys leave the FSL they turn it up another notch. Heisey is killing it.

[BigRed07]

He has made 4 more great catches in CF. He needs a triple for the cycle again.

[OnBaseMachine]

Dayton clinched a playoff berth with their win and Fort Wayne's loss.

Billings, Dayton, and Louisville are all going to the playoffs.

[dougdirt]

Stubbs is a mystery to me -- I'm struggling to figure out how he gets better as the competition around him gets more advanced.

Part of me wants to just throw out small sample size, but the optimist in me wants to believe that he's responding to coaching and tapping into potential that was already there when the Reds drafted him.

The other interesting theory I've been kicking around a bit with fellow Reds fans at work is that he's benefiting from seeing more "consistent" pitching at the high minors. I imagine that some hitters, perhaps Stubbs being one, get better when they're not being forced to face wild flamethrowers and guys who can't keep a consistent arm slot or release point from pitch to pitch. Lots of those kinds of players in A/A+ ball -- not so much in the upper levels.

Maybe seeing lots of pitches around the plate has helped his recognition skills.

I have argued all year that he has been a good hitter all year, but the FSL was hiding some of it in his overall stat line, but he carried over last years second half to this year. No clue if thats right or not, but his last 500+ Ab's have been pretty darn good.

[dougdirt]

Chattanooga won 11-7

Player	       AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG
DeJesus 2B	4	2	2	1	0	0	0	1	0	.282
Heisey CF	5	2	3	1	0	1	4	0	0	.339
Dorn LF	        5	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	.284
Gutierre 1B	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.282
Valaika SS	4	1	1	0	0	0	1	1	1	.302
Henry RF	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	.291
Eymann 3B	5	2	3	1	0	1	4	0	0	.299
Rodrigu C	4	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	.227
Vazquez P	2	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	.455
Manuel P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Szymanski	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.226
Geronimo P	 0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000

BATTING
2B: Heisey (5, Jeffress), DeJesus, Mic (9, Jeffress), Eymann (28, Ryan).
HR: Eymann (8, 1st inning off Jeffress, 3 on, 1 out), Heisey (2, 7th inning off Bray, 3 on, 2 out).
TB: DeJesus, Mic 3; Heisey 7; Valaika; Henry; Eymann 7; Rodriguez, E; Vazquez 2.
RBI: Dorn (60), Valaika (50), Eymann 4 (68), Vazquez (3), Heisey 4 (9).
2-out RBI: Heisey 4.
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Heisey 2; DeJesus, Mic; Eymann 2.
SF: Vazquez.
Team LOB: 8.

BASERUNNING
SB: Gutierrez, T (8, 2nd base off Jeffress/Salome).

FIELDING
E: Gutierrez, T (10, fielding).

a-Grounded into a forceout for Manuel in the 7th.

Player	        IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Vazquez 	5.0	5	5	5	5	4	1	6.05
Manuel (H)	2.0	1	0	0	0	1	0	1.34
Geronimo 	2.0	2	2	2	2	3	0	3.91



HBP: Henry (by Jeffress), Parejo (by Geronimo).
Groundouts-flyouts: Jeffress 1-1, Ryan 4-4, Bray 3-7, Vazquez 4-7, Manuel 1-4, Geronimo 2-1.
Batters faced: Jeffress 10, Ryan 15, Bray 18, Vazquez 26, Manuel 7, Geronimo 11.
Inherited runners-scored: Ryan 2-0.

[NorrisHopper30]

Soto took 6 innings to get his hitting streak extended? He must be in a slump.

[dougdirt]

I have argued all year that he has been a good hitter all year, but the FSL was hiding some of it in his overall stat line, but he carried over last years second half to this year. No clue if thats right or not, but his last 500+ Ab's have been pretty darn good.

Just to expand further on this.... Over his last 436 PA outside of the FSL Drew Stubbs has hit .305/.388/.483 with 29 doubles, 7 triples and 8 HR.

[bubbachunk]

Stubbs is a mystery to me -- I'm struggling to figure out how he gets better as the competition around him gets more advanced.

As long he keeps mystifying his way to the big leagues i dont mind

[AmarilloRed]

Sarasota lost 2-1

Hale:1-2, double

Alonso:1-3, RBI

Klinker:6 IP, 2 hits, 1 BB, 10 K

Young: 2 IP, 3 hits, 0 runs

[AmarilloRed]

Mustangs lost 9-0

Bucholz: 1-4, double

Sappelt:1-3, double

[Edd Roush]

Does any body know why Tyler Stovall hasn't gotten into a game for Billings since August 23? He's put up a pretty strong line all year long .348/.406/.478 and he's a local product from Moeller so I was wondering if anyone knew what was up.

[OnBaseMachine]

Evan Hildenbrandt made an appearance out of the Billings bullpen last night: 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 K.

[OnBaseMachine]

Dragons are in the playoffs

Staff Report

Friday, August 29, 2008

LANSING, Mich. — The Dayton Dragons are playoff-bound.

Enerio Del Rosario fired a five-hit, complete-game shutout and struck out 10 as Dayton defeated the Lansing Lugnuts 2-0 on Thursday, Aug. 28. Meanwhile, the Fort Wayne Wizards were manhandled by South Bend 17-6, putting the Dragons five games ahead of the Wizards with four to play in the wild-card race to qualify the Dragons for the postseason.

This marks the fifth time in the Dragons nine-year history that they have qualified for the playoffs. The club reached the postseason in its first three years, 2000, '01 and '02, then again in '07. This is the first time the Dragons have been a second-half qualifier since 2002. The Dragons have also posted their highest victory total in the second half of a season since 2002 as they improved to 37-29 in the second half.

Del Rosario became the first Dragons pitcher to go beyond seven innings as he threw 94 pitches while allowing only one runner past first base. He walked no one and established a Dragons' team 2008 high with 10 strikeouts. The game lasted just one hour and 59 minutes.

The Dragons scored the only run they would need in the top of the first inning. Jake Kahaulelio walked to start the game and went to second on Zack Cozart?s infield single. One batter later, Brandon Waring singled to center to give the Dragons a 1-0 lead.

Brandon Menchaca drilled a leadoff home run in the seventh, his fifth homer of the year, to give Dayton a 2-0 lead.

Del Rosario allowed a leadoff double in the bottom of the seventh but struck out the next three batters and then closed out the game by retiring the side in order in both the eighth and ninth innings. It was the first complete-game performance of the season for a Dragons pitcher.

Individual playoff tickets are available at the Fifth Third Field box office, (937) 228-2287, or at any Ticketmaster outlet. Box office hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from noon-5 p.m. weekends. See the Web site daytondragons.com for more information.

Next game

The Dragons will open a best-of-three series at Fifth Third Field at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3, against Lansing, which won the Eastern Division first-half title.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/s/con...spdragons.html