Miller Time - Dodger Minor League Playoffs Start Today
by Phil Gurnee on Sep 9, 2009 10:54 AM PDT
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The Isotopes (AAA) and the Loons (A) carry the minor league postseason hopes for the Dodger on their shoulders.
Minor League Baseball breakdown of the series between the Isotopes and the Redbirds
Albuquerque vs. Memphis
Best-of-5 semifinals begin Wednesday, Sept. 9
Watch every game on MiLB.TV
- PCL American South Division champions
- Overall record: 80-64
- Statistical leaders
- Postseason roster
The Isotopes offensively will be lead by PCL Home Run Champion Mitch Jones (35), batting average champion Tony Abreu (.353), all around slugger Hector Luna (.351/.414/.610), defensive whiz Chin-Lung Hu, Blake DeWitt, Xavier Paul, Jamie Hoffman, and Dee Brown. They have plenty of offense, do they have enough pitching?
The starting pitching will be old Dodger standby Eric Stults and 13 game winner Giancarlo Carlos Alvarado. In relief we will see top prospect Josh Lindblom, along with ex Dodgers Corey Wade, Travis Schlichting, and Brent Leach. To close out the games ex major league setup man Scott Strickland usually gets the call with 32 saves.
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The Great Lake Loons are making their first franchise appearance in the post season.
Great Lakes vs. West Michigan
Best-of-3 series begins Sept. 9
Great Lakes Loons
- Eastern Division Wild Card
- Overall record: 81-59
- Statistical leaders >>
- Postseason roster >>
Offensively: Loons will be led by Dee Gordon who lead the Midwest League with 73 stolen bases, 22 in front of the nearest competitior. Some consider Gordon the most exciting player in the minor leagues and he was the Co-MVP along with teammate Kyle Russell. Russell lead the MWL in home runs with 26, and in strikeouts with 180. 26 home runs in the pitching rich MWL is quite a feat but he is 23 years old so given his history in Texas, this was not unexpected. Rounding out the offense is Jerry Sands who has been moved from the outfield to 1st base since being promoted back up to the Loons, Jamie Pedroza who was hot and cold, Anthony Hatch, and Tony Delmonico. Dee Gordon might be the only real top prospect in this group. By that I mean as someone who projects to be a starting major league player.
Pitching: What a cadre of arms. They do it with several real starters then a tag team of powerful arms. Jon Michael Redding led all of the minor leagues with 16 wins but he won't be starting the first playoff game, that honor goes to Aaron Miller. No mention has been made who will follow Miller to the mound as he has only averaged a little more then 4 innings per start. Redding will get the 2nd start. Josh Walter has been the most effective starter with a 3.27 ERA while the tag team of Martin/Eovaldi can certainly chill an oppossing teams lineup. Also need to mention Bobby Blevins and Geison Aguasviva with Cole St. Clair probably getting the closing call. Unlike the offensive team, many of these pitchers will be populating the Dodger Top Prospect list.
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Hoffmann
I must have missed this, but I guess Hoffmann cleared waivers and was outrighted to AAA. I guess all my complaining about Hoffmann getting the DFA was misplaced and it turns out to be a smart move by the Dodgers. Assuming the Dodgers wanted Repko with the ML club, in addition to Hoffmann another DFA candidate would have been Haeger. I can’t imagine Haeger would have sneaked through waivers without a claim. All in all, not too bad….
He was technically released and re-signed a minor league deal (apparently at a substantial raise, too).
by Eric Stephen on Sep 9, 2009 11:03 AM PDT up reply actions
Tripon is right
from the New Ulm Journal:
He said that he is not back on the 40-man major league roster now because that can’t happen until next May.
“That was part of the deal also,” Hoffmann said, “but hopefully I can get back on that 40-man roster as quick as possible.”
There is no rule.
It’s just that contract.
by Chad Moriyama on Sep 9, 2009 2:32 PM PDT up reply actions
And yes you did miss it.
Eric’s detailed transactions for the month:
http://www.truebluela.com/2009/9/7/1019048/dodgers-week-22-in-review-running
That stupid Monday day game really buried the week in review this week.
The night game Sunday allowed me to sleep in Sunday, but also made it difficult for me to finish the review to get it up early enough Sunday night.
At least we won Monday. :)
by Eric Stephen on Sep 9, 2009 11:15 AM PDT up reply actions
Ya, I was away from internet connections through the long weekend. I felt so lost and confused when I got back into my office Tuesday morning….
There also appears to be a new running joke around here having to do with “soul” that I apparently missed.
by Michael White on Sep 9, 2009 11:19 AM PDT up reply actions
It was another fan post fail, someone questioning the Dodgers’ heart because, among other things, the way Russell Martin strides to the plate.
by Eric Stephen on Sep 9, 2009 11:20 AM PDT up reply actions
I believe you can listen to the games online (assuming the regular season links still work)
Great Lakes – 4:05pm
http://asx.aicmail.net/mlb/loons.asx
ABQ – 6:05pm
http://gateway.andohs.net/player/default_noax.aspx?nid=2920&sid=2927
Do you think Cory Wade and Blake DeWitt are hoping for a quick exit by the Isotopes in the PCL playoffs, just so they can get called up sooner? :)
Both are unlikely to play much with the Dodgers, but I think they will both be up once the ABQ season is over.
No
I think once the playoffs start every professional athlete’s competitive juices kick in. Hating to lose seems to be a big component of successful athletes.
Don't forget my alternate PTBNL theory
That both of those players could be on the list of players the D-Backs can choose from if the Abreu part falls through. It will be interesting to see if anyone gets called up since that would eliminate them from being part of the Garland deal.
As far as I can tell, even if the deal is not completed until after the regular season, any player that has been brought to the MLB since August 31st is not eligible to be a PTBNL.
No offense to Cory Wade
But he doesn’t have any trade value.
DeWitt is a possibility. But it would absolutely kill our 3B depth.
I don't know, he could provide another arm in the pen
I am not sure Blake Dewitt is any better than Augie Ojeda.
On a related note
Isn’t it strange how a AAA playoff series (which is essentially meaningless to most people) can be a best-of-5 affair, yet the stepping stone (LDS) that every major league team needs to complete on the road to a world title is the same?
Well, it used to
Best 2 out of 3 for the Divisional Series.
And the LCS was best 3 out of 5 until the mid-eighties.
The 2 out of 3 really wasn’t a Divisional Series. It was a Tiebreaker format back in the day.
I’ve always hated the idea of best of five. I was too young to remember when that was the LCS, but the LDS format has always bugged me (although it has been better since 1998 when they tweaked it to 2-2-1, instead of 2-3).
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