RIGHT FIELD FOG

Marc Krauss
Harwich/Bourne 2008
Outfield
Ohio University

There was a chance that Marc Krauss’ Cape League career could have ended after four games.

A star but still a relative unknown at Ohio University, Krauss was with the Harwich Mariners in June of 2008. After four games — in which he had three hits — the Mariners needed to make room for players that had already been signed. Krauss wasn’t one of them. He packed his bags.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to go very far.

The handling of releases like this is one of the great things the Cape League does. If a player leaves one team, another team that does have room can pick him up. It gives another chance to a player who deserves to be on the big stage.

In the case of Krauss, he took his chance and ran with it. The rest is history.

After hooking on with the Bourne Braves, Krauss put together an all-star season that would have been MVP-worthy in a lot of years. He hit .344 with 10 extra-base hits, three home runs and a league-best 34 RBI. He also led the league with a .473 on-base percentage. In the decade, that’s second only to Kevin Youkilis.

Those numbers hinted at what Krauss could become — a true professional hitter.

Thank goodness he got the chance.

After the Cape

Building on his successful summer, Krauss delivered a huge junior season at Ohio, hitting .402 with 27 homers, 70 RBI and an obscene .523 on-base percentage.

The Diamondbacks picked him in the second round of the 2009 draft and he didn’t disappoint in his debut, hitting .304 for the South Bend Silverhawks of the Midwest League.

Ryan Patterson
Brewster 2003 & 2004
Outfielder
LSU

In 2003 and 2004, the Cape League’s best hitter was a Brewster Whitecap from LSU.

It wasn’t Ryan Patterson both times — that would have put him a little higher on this list — but Patterson still had himself a really solid Cape League career.

In 2003, while his Brewster and LSU teammate J.C. Holt won the Cape League batting title with a .388 average, Patterson hit .288 and led the Whitecaps in doubles with eight and RBI with 24. He also struck out just 19 times in 118 at-bats.

The next spring, in his junior year, Patterson emerged as a bona-fide star for LSU, hitting .341 and leading the team in homers, doubles and RBI.

He picked up where he left off in the summer of 2004.

Back with Brewster, Patterson won the batting title with a .327 average. He added six doubles, five home runs and 25 RBI. He finished third in the league in slugging percentage.

The race for the batting title came down to the season’s final day. Three players — Patterson, Jordan Brown and Pat Reilly — were within nine points going into the games of August 8. Patterson ended up going 1-for-4, Brown went 0-for-4 and Reilly went 2-for-4. Patterson’s average turned out to be five ten-thousandths of a point better than Reilly’s.

After the Cape

After hitting 20 homers for LSU in 2005 and earning a host of All-America nods, Patterson was drafted in the fourth round by the Toronto Blue Jays. He played four seasons in the Blue Jays’ system before he was released after spring training in 2009. He signed on with the independent Fort Worth Cats and hit .284 with 12 home runs and 27 doubles.

Kevin Youkilis
Bourne 2000
Third Baseman
Cincinnati

In his bestselling book Moneyball, Michael Lewis tells of Oakland’s fascination with Kevin Youkilis, then a minor-leaguer in the Red Sox system. Members of the A’s front office dubbed him “The Greek God of Walks.”

He fit their style perfectly. Every step of the way, he’d shown a remarkable amount of plate discipline and an uncanny ability to get on base.

Every step of the way.

After his junior year at Cincinnati, Youkilis headed to Bourne, where he did his thing for the Braves. He hit .309 with 11 extra-base hits, three home runs and 14 RBI. Most notably, he led the league with 40 walks and a .488 on-base percentage. That mark still stands as the best on-base percentage of the decade.

Is it any wonder Youkilis is the one holding that record?

Youkilis’ summer didn’t vault him immediately into upper-echelon status. But after he went undrafted after his junior year, Youkilis’ performance on the Cape and his big senior season paved the way for the Red Sox to pick him in the eighth round in 2001.

After the Cape

I feel like you probably know. Youkilis has become one of the most successful alums of the decade.

After ascending through the Red Sox system, Youkilis grabbed a starting spot in 2007 and he hasn’t let go. He had his best season in 2008, when he hit .312 with 29 home runs and 115 RBI.

Brad Lincoln
Bourne 2005
Pitcher/DH
Houston

Every spring, there’ll be a handful of college players who shine at the plate and on the mound. But when summer rolls around, those guys usually focus on one thing, especially on the Cape.

Brad Lincoln was the exception.

One of the few two-way regulars, Lincoln gets a nod here not just because he did both, but because he did both well.

Playing for a Bourne team that lost in the championship series, Lincoln made nine starts on the mound and saw action in 39 of 44 games as a hitter. He was one of the league’s busiest players in 2005, and also one of the best.

As a hitter, he batted .243, but made up for that low average with 12 extra-base hits, six home runs and 25 RBI.

He shined a little brighter with the ball in his hand. In his nine starts, he went 3-1 with a 1.32 ERA, putting himself in the same company as standout contemporaries Tim Norton, Andrew Miller and Daniel Bard. He struck out 56 and walked only 10 in 54.2 innings. He was also honored with the 10th Player Award.

His performances on the mound garnered the most attention. Baseball America rated as the league’s best prospect, noting that his 90-95 mph fastball and his power curveball sent him on a track toward a pitching future.

After the Cape

The Pirates made Lincoln the fourth overall pick in the 2006 draft. He was one of seven Cape Leaguers to go in the top 10 picks.

In April of 2007, Lincoln needed Tommy John surgery, but he returned last year and he has been healthy since.

All the way along, he has been ranked among the top four prospects in the Pirates system every year. In the 2009 season, he posted a 2.28 ERA in Double A before getting a promotion to Triple A Indianapolis, where he had a 4.70 ERA.

He was recently added to the Pirates’ 40-man roster.

Derrik Lutz
Chatham 2005 & 2006
Pitcher
George Washington

For whatever reason, Chatham has been home to some dominant closers over the years, but few had as good a season as Derrik Lutz did in 2005.

On a team stacked with fireballers, power hitters and future pros — one of the more talented teams of the decade — Lutz emerged as one of the key pieces of the puzzle, despite the fact that he came from an A-10 school and didn’t have the typical pitcher’s frame. But after working as a starter at George Washington in 2005, Lutz slid into the closer’s role for the A’s and was absolutely lights-out.

He tied for the league lead with 12 saves and he didn’t allow a single run — earned or unearned — in the regular season. In 25 innings of work, he struck out 39, walked only three and allowed just 13 hits. Do a little math and you realize that’s a WHIP of 0.64. It doesn’t get much better than that.

After another strong spring with George Washington in 2006, Lutz was drafted in the 19th round by the Reds. He opted to make the trip to the Cape and pitched in six games before signing. He allowed one run in those six appearances, bringing his career regular-season ERA to 0.28.

After the Cape

Lutz has climbed slowly but surely through the Reds system and 2009 saw him put up his best numbers yet. Working out of the pen for Double A Carolina, Lutz had a 1.99 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 22.2 innings.

Cotuit became the third team to release its 2010 roster. There are 23 players so far. The headliner is Arkansas’ Zack Cox, though he’s draft-eligible sophomore, so he may not make it back for a second summer in Cotuit.

Just two returning players, at this point:

Zack Cox – 3B – Sophomore – Arkansas
Zach Cone – OF – Sophomore – Georgia

Cox was picked by Baseball America as the second-best prospect in the league last summer. If he somehow makes it back, he’ll be one of the more proven highly-touted players to return in a few years.

Cone was 12th on the same list. A third-round pick out of high school, Cone hit .243 for the Kettleers in 2009.

As for the rest, some impressions:

Konstantine Diamaduros is an easy name to notice. Between that and the numbers he put up last summer, his name is one I remembered immediately. Diamaduros, a lefty-swinging sophomore from Wofford College in South Carolina, tore up the Coastal Plain League in 2009. He led the league with a .376 average and added four home runs, 19 extra-base hits and 45 RBI. Diamaduros hit .299 last season for Wofford. He was originally a Clemson signee.

I love the fact that Oklahoma freshman Chad Kettler is going to be playing for the Cotuit Kettleers. It’s perfect. Kettler was a 24th-round pick out of high school.

Freshmen represented some of the biggest names on the Cotuit roster this time last year, but there aren’t quite as many this year. Kettler is one of just four. The other other three are Arizona State’s Deven Marrero and Brady Rodgers and Vanderbilt’s Michael Yastrzemski.

Yes, that Yastrzemski family. Mike is Carl’s grandson.

Among those four freshmen, Marrero might be the best. He was a 17th-round pick and is expected to compete for the starting shortstop job immediately in Tempe.

Two players who were on Cotuit’s early roster last year but didn’t make it are back on there this year. Jonathan Taylor made a big splash early for Georgia and ended up hitting .309. Vanderbilt’s Sonny Gray had a strong freshman campaign and spent the summer with Team USA.

Kentucky’s Chad Wright hit .343 last season, second on the Wildcats to ’09 Kettleer Chris Bisson.

Michael Schum was a dynamic closer for Wright State last season. He finished with 13 saves, a 1.95 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 74 innings.

Kent State’s Andrew Chafin will be an interesting player to watch. He had a tremendous freshman season as a closer and was invited to Team USA, but he had Tommy John Surgery in June. He is working his way back but may redshirt this season. Next summer could represent his return.

The Citadel’s Drew Mahaffey had really good numbers as a closer last season, striking out 71 in 50 innings.

Cotuit had good luck with a junior college pitcher last summer — Chad Bell — and will hope for good things from San Jacinto’s David Rollins in 2010. Rollins struck out 69 in 66 innings last spring.

The post below is the beginning of a series looking back on the best Cape League players of the decade.

I had the idea awhile ago and once I confirmed that this is in fact the last year of the decade, I set out working on it. It was all ready to go about two weeks ago, until I realized I had left two players out who clearly should have been on the list. This shot holes through the whole thing, so I kind of started over. Without a lot of spare time, I wasn’t able to get it done as quickly as I hoped, but it’s finally ready. Since there are fewer than 50 days before the end of the decade, I’ll do two per day a few times to catch up. At the end, I’m planning on picking a team and franchise of the decade, as well.

A few notes on the list:

At some point, it turned into splitting hairs, especially among the pitchers. In a Cape League sample size, there isn’t much difference between a 0.50 and 1.50 ERA, so it was a little tough to make distinctions. There were 20 more pitchers who you could make a pretty good case for. It’s all in fun, though, so I’m not too worried about it.

Stats were the biggest factor, but I gave some weight to subjective stuff, too. Two big factors: how a player was thought of in his season and how a player performed relative to his peers. For instance, Evan Longoria put up huge offensive numbers in the best pitching year of the decade. I tried to take stuff like that into account where I could.

The year 2005 was ridiculous. You’ll see.

The debate for the top spot came down to two players, and it was really hard to separate them. The suspense must be killing you.

So that should sum it up. We’ll have at least one every day until the New Year. Feel free to comment on the posts and share your memories of these guys. More than rankings, that’s what this thing is all about.

Emmanuel Burriss
Orleans 2005
Infielder
Kent State

Of all the tools that are shown off on Cape League fields, elite speed seems to be the most elusive. You see plenty of blazing fastballs and off-the-table curveballs, plenty of power and contact hitting. But speed? Sometimes, it’s just not there.

In 2005, it was there, thanks to entirely to Emmanuel “Manny” Burriss.

You could make a pretty convincing argument that Burriss is the most exciting Cape League position player of the decade. His overall numbers were not overwhelming — he has the lowest average and the lowest number of homers and RBI on this list — but his speed changed the game. And he did have a few stats that stood out, one in particular: 37 steals, the highest total of the decade.

Burriss was also a crucial piece of the puzzle for an Orleans team that went on to win the league championship. He led the league in hits and was third in runs scored. In a league where teams sometimes struggle to find everyday leadoff hitters, Burriss was the prototype.

And he was at his best when it counted the most. In the three-game championship series, Burriss went 5-for-13 with four runs scored and two RBI. He scored the only run of Orleans’ 1-0 game-one win on a tag-up from third then went 4-for-6 with three runs and two RBI as the Cardinals blasted Bourne 13-1 in game three.

He was selected as the Playoff Co-MVP, along with teammate Brad Meyers. He was also tabbed as the all-league shortstop.

After the Cape

Burriss was drafted in the first round (33rd overall) by the Giants in the 2006 draft, with his speed as the primary draw.

He climbed the ranks quickly and made his debut with the big-league club in 2008, which was just his second full season in pro ball. That year, he played in 95 games for the Giants and hit .283 with 13 steals. In 2009, he split time between the majors and Triple A before a toe injury ended his season. He’s expected to be ready for spring training.

For the second year in a row, the Cape League will have a new playoff structure in 2010.

I haven’t seen anything official from the league, but Wareham’s web site — kind of the captain of the league web sites — is reporting that four out of five teams from each division will now make the playoffs. It was three this year, and two for as long as I can remember before that.

With eight teams, there will now be four opening-round playoff series, two division championship series and the league championship series.

I gotta say, when we talked about solutions as the league slogged through dozens of doubleheaders to cram in the last games of a rain-soaked season, I didn’t think “Adding Another Playoff Series” would be the answer. Seems kind of counter-intuitive.

The positives? It’s a guaranteed East vs. West championship match-up, which I like. We also won’t have the one-game playoff like last year, and I think that’s a good thing to scrap. Baseball wasn’t built for that.

But more games? I’m not sure I like it. Yes, it could be mitigated by the fact that each team will play at least two scheduled doubleheaders; I guess that’s all the extra days you really need. But if monsoon season rolls in again, that’s going to be trouble.

And the more teams in? I’m pretty sure I don’t like that. I understand that it’s good for the franchises, but I really feel like eight teams making the playoffs out of 10 is too many. If this system had been in place last year, Brewster (17-22-5) and Falmouth (17-24-2) would have been in. If one of those teams caught fire in the postseason, good for them, but at that point, you start asking questions about the importance of the regular season. I guess parity has reigned lately so any team could have a shot, but I feel like you have to earn that shot over the course of 44 games. Not over the course of nine games.

What does everybody think?

In other news from that same story, the season will start Sunday, June 13th with a one-game slate. Thanks to Wareham’s Scott Eaton for getting all of this info out there.