Month: August 2007

It looks like the Y-D Red Sox moved one step closer to their second consecutive championship, beating Falmouth 8-2 today in game one of the finals series. I wasn’t there and the score is about the only information I can find right now, but I’ll have more when it becomes available.

Update (9:07 p.m.): Check out the codball.com recap. It looks like Y-D kept up the power display as Grant Green hit a pair of home runs. The victory is Y-D’s 34th this season. What I’m not sure about is whether the playoff victories count in the record books. If they do, Y-D just set the new mark, but I’m thinking it might be a regular-season wins record. The 1979 Hyannis Mets hold the record with 33. I’m going to try to find out for sure whether playoff wins count, but if anybody knows, feel free to post a comment.

Game two is tomorrow in Falmouth at 7 p.m. Y-D will go with reliever-turned starter Trevor Holder and his .89 ERA. Falmouth counters with Christian Friedrich, one of the top strikeout pitchers in the league.

(Two very good games tonight and two sweeps. Falmouth beat Bourne 5-3 and Y-D bested Chatham 4-0. The finals begin Monday at Y-D at 3 p.m. Here’s my recap of the Y-D vs. Chatham game.)

The Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox only had four hits.

Three of them went a long way.

The dynamic Red Sox offense — which led the league in home runs by a wide margin — put its power on full display as Gordon Beckham, Nick Romero and Jason Castro homered to turn a pitchers’ duel into a 4-0 victory. Scott Green, D.J. Mauldin and Nick Cassavechia combined to shut out Chatham and give the defending champion Red Sox a return trip to the title series.

Before the game, Chatham’s Tom Milone was presented with the league’s Outstanding Pitcher award, and the USC lefty showed why in six of the first seven innings.

But the first inning did him in. Milone struck out two but sandwiched in between was a base hit by Buster Posey. That put a man on for Beckham, who didn’t waste the chance. He just had to be a little patient.

Beckham ripped the first pitch he saw from Milone down the left-field line. It would have been gone, but the ball hooked foul. Two pitches later, Beckham didn’t hook it, this time crushing a two-run blast.

Milone was simply dominant from there, retiring 19 of the next 20 batters he faced and not allowing a hit until a solo home run by Romero in the eighth. He struck out nine, and his dominance kept Chatham in the game.

Green didn’t let the A’s any further in. The 6’8″ righty from Kentucky allowed three hits and struck out seven in 6.1 innings. He got himself into a handful of jams, but worked through each and every one. In the first, Chatham put two men on before Green got three quick outs. In the fourth, Green stranded Jermaine Curtis at third, striking out Jeremy Synan to do it. And in the sixth, with runners on first and second, Green got Allan Dykstra to line out then struck out Tim Federowicz to end the inning. In the seventh, Green hit Zach Putnam with one out, the impetus for a call to the bullpen. Mauldin came in and after falling behind 3-1 to Sean O’Brien, he started a strike-’em-out, throw-’em-out inning-ending double play.

Chatham got another baserunner in the eighth when Addison Johnson lined a one-out single to right, but Mauldin struck out Kyle Seager and got a little help from his defense to get Curtis. Romero went to his left at third base to make a diving stop and came up firing to get Curtis for the final out of the inning.

Y-D added an insurance run on Castro’s line-drive home run off Kevin Couture, but closer Nick Cassavechia didn’t need the extra help. After hitting Federowicz with one out, Cassavechia got Synan to ground into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.

NOTES

• The crowd in Chatham was huge. I would have taken a picture but I didn’t have my camera. I can tell you the hill in right field was almost completely covered, the fences down both lines had people standing two-deep and everybody in the bleachers was squeezed in tight. I didn’t hear a crowd estimate, but I’m going to guess 5,000. They didn’t announce what the 50/50 prize was but it had to be way up there. I only know I did not win.

• Green and Milone were both completely dominant. They both flashed great control and consistently got ahead. The difference in the two was in what the hitters were doing. Against Green, they were flailing. He generated dozens of swings-and-misses. Against Milone, on the other hand, the hitters were frozen. He used his big curveball to get ahead and Y-D’s hitters rarely swung at it. Since he almost always threw it for strikes, hitters were constantly in a hole.

• A draft-eligible sophomore, Green was a 15th-round pick of the Boston Red Sox this spring and he has until Wednesday to sign. If he was looking for a sweeter deal by pitching on the Cape, he may have gotten it. His performance Sunday was the finishing touch on a spectacular summer.

• As for Milone, I’ve got to think he’ll be high on draft boards next year. I’m not sure he throws that hard, but he seems to have a great feel for pitching. His control was among the best in the league this summer — 46 strikeouts and just 7 walks. Those numbers are similar to the ones put up by James Simmons last summer, and Simmons was a first-round pick. Milone has the added advantage of being a lefty.

• Sean Ochinko didn’t play tonight. He apparently has an elbow bruise. Not sure if he’ll miss any more time, but if anybody can make up for the loss of a .300 hitter with eight home runs, it’s Y-D. The Red Sox have some ridiculous depth. Grant Green, who’s been the ultimate utility-man this year while hitting .291, started at first in Ochinko’s place.

• Speaking of depth, it’s amazing how much Y-D manager Scott Pickler juggles the lineup. In trying to put together those previews earlied in the week, I looked back through old box scores to figure out Y-D’s probable starters. I failed. The lineups were never the same, which is unusual for a very good team. But Pickler, I guess, pushes all the right buttons.

• The Cape Cod Times is reporting on its Insider Blog that Falmouth’s Conor Gillaspie is heading home tomorrow and won’t play in the finals. That really hurts Falmouth’s chances, but honestly, I’m not sure those chances were that great anyway. This was my first chance to see Y-D, and they are impressive in every facet of the game. A complete team if there ever was one. I can’t see them losing two out of three, even against Falmouth’s starting pitchers.

Y-D and Falmouth will take the field looking for a first-round sweep, with two of the league’s best starters on the mound in Scott Green and Kyle Gibson. But the guys on the other side are no slouches either. Lefty Tom Milone and his 46:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio goes for Chatham while Rick Zagone — who threw a complete-game shutout in his last start — takes the ball for Bourne.

Should be a fun night.

Y-D at Chatham, 7 p.m., Veterans Field
Bourne at Falmouth, 7 p.m., Guv Fuller Field

I’ll be at the Chatham game so if you want a recap check back late tonight.

The league is being all covert about their end-of-season awards, maybe so the recipients won’t know beforehand, but it looks like the awards have been chosen and some have been given out.

According to Russ Charpentier in the Cape Cod Times, these are the winners.

MVP – Conor Gillaspie, Falmouth
Manager of the Year – Scott Pickler, Y-D
Relief Pitcher of the Year – Nick Cassavechia, Y-D
Top New England Prospect – Bill Perry, Bourne
Top Pro Prospect – Aaron Crow, Falmouth
10th Player Award – Nate Freiman, Orleans
Sportsmanship Award – Shea Robin, Hyannis

Still to be given out is the Top Pitcher award.

The Gillaspie for MVP pick is a good one. For a while it seemed Gordon Beckham was a shoo-in for that award, but when his average dipped, Gillaspie’s didn’t. The sophomore from Wichita State just kept hitting, finishing with the batting title. He also was third in home runs, fourth in doubles, second in OBP, first in extra-base hits and first in slugging percentage. I’ve been following the Cape League for awhile, and this is one of the best seasons for a hitter in recent memory, probably even better than Evan Longoria’s ’05 season, which is a measuring stick for me. By the way, does anybody know if Gillaspie’s .673 slugging percentage is a record? That’s not one of the individual records listed in the record book, so I’m not sure, but in looking back through the archives of past seasons online, the best slugging percentages were in the low .500s. I know there were some ridiculous offensive seasons back in the 70s so someone from that era probably will hold on to the record, but I’m guessing Gillaspie’s mark is the best in the last decade.

I found it interesting that Crow was named the top pro prospect. From everything I’ve read, he certainly is, but I thought the league might give it to someone like Ryan Perry and give Crow the top pitcher award. He deserves that one, too. Here’s hoping he gets both.

(I had my choice of games today and went to the Falmouth-Bourne game. Turns out, Chatham-Y-D was probably a better game. In that one, Matt Long hit a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to give the Red Sox a 4-3 victory in a back-and-forth game. You can find full recaps on chathamas.com and codball.com. My recap of the Falmouth-Bourne game is below.)

When Josh Satin took an inside-out swing and lined an 0-2 pitch into right field for an RBI single, Aaron Crow was upset.

That was just about the only thing he had to be upset about.

Crow, the most dominant pitcher on the Cape all summer, continued his dominance in the playoffs, allowing one run and striking out seven in six innings as second-seeded Falmouth rolled past No. 1 Bourne 7-2 at Doran Park.

The right-hander from Missouri — who finished the regular season with a league-leading .67 ERA — was in control almost from the get-go. He allowed a walk and a single in the first but then retired 12 in a row. After the first, Bourne didn’t get a baserunner until the sixth when Bill Perry walked. Perry eventually came home on Satin’s single to right, but that was all Crow allowed.

And by then, he had a big lead. Falmouth scored a run in the first, four in the third and one in the fourth to give Crow all the cushion he needed.

With the pitching match-up, it looked like offense would be at a premium on both sides. D.J. Mitchell was on the hill for Bourne, making his first start since striking out 15 against Wareham in the final week of the regular season. Mitchell finished fourth in the league in ERA.

But the righty from Clemson didn’t have things going his way this time. He didn’t get hit that hard, but Falmouth found the holes. The Commodores’ first run came home when Phil Carey chopped a sinlge just over the leaping Addison Maruszak at shortstop.

From there, Bourne’s defense created a few holes. After an infield single by Joey Wong and a walk to Conor Gillaspie in the third, Bourne catcher Adam Zornes fired to second on a pickoff attempt. The ball bounced in front of the bag and skipped away, allowing Wong and Gillaspie to move up a base. David Adams followed with a ground ball to shortstop, where Maruszak fielded it cleanly. But the throw pulled Satin off the base at first, allowing Adams to reach and Wong to score. Aja Barto then laced a two-run double down the third-base line, the hardest-hit ball Falmouth had all day. That made the score 5-0.

Falmouth tacked on a run in the fourth on an RBI single by Wong and another in the ninth on Jeremy Farrell’s ground-rule double that scored John Wallace, who’d tripled with two outs.

Bourne’s only chance for a rally came in the seventh when Ben Guez led off the inning with a solo home run off reliever Aaron Shafer. Bourne put two more men on in that inning, but couldn’t get anything else across. Shafer, who was a starter most of the season, picked up a three-inning save.

NOTES

• This was my first time seeing Crow and the thing that struck me was his confidence. Maybe this is something I wouldn’t notice if I didn’t know how dominant he was, but you can definitely see it. He’s in command of everything. He’s always in rhythm. He works quickly. He seems to trust his stuff. Easy enough, you might say, for someone with a 96-mph fastball, but there are plenty of guys throwing in the mid-90s who don’t have that confidence. I think it’s one of the things that separates Crow.
• I picked Bourne to win this series, but that prediction didn’t look too good today. The Braves faced great pitching, sure, but their lineup isn’t that potent, and not as potent as it was with Mitch Moreland in the mix. I still think they’ve got a shot with Rick Zagone going Sunday, but the initial reason I gave them a shot was Falmouth’s quasi-limp to the finish line in the regular season. But today, the Commodores looked like a team to be reckoned with. That lineup has some great hitters, and they took advantage of every opportunity.
  If the offense is going, and the pitching is where it usually is, it’s hard to pick against Falmouth.
• Bourne’s Bill Perry was awarded the John Claffey New England Top Prospect award before the game. The infielder from Hartford hails from Falmouth and he started the season with the Braves as a temporary player. But he finished as a key part of the team, hitting .222 with two home runs and 10 RBI. Receiving the award had to be a special moment for a guy who undoubtedly grew up on Cape League baseball.
• This was my first trip to Doran Park, the Braves’ new field, and I came away impressed. It’s a very nice facility. The field itself is beautiful, and the seating area down the third-base line — with tiers providing a perfect spot for beach chairs and a perfect view — is great. I know Bourne was at the back of the pack in attendance numbers, but I can’t see that lasting. Once fans go to Doran Park, they’ll come back.
• Greg from Codball was in attendance with his son, and he was kind enough to give me one of his famous codball shirts. He also made a nice catch on a foul ball, though he didn’t give that to me. If you haven’t been to codball.com, you should go.

Playoffs Today
Chatham at Y-D, 3 p.m. (Alex White vs. Eddie Burns)
Falmouth at Bourne, 3 p.m. (Aaron Crow vs. D.J. Mitchell)

I may have erroneously mentioned yesterday that the playoffs were set to start on Thursday. I was overly excited. It happens. I’m sorry. The playoffs start today.

Or not.

Per the official site, both of Friday’s games have been postponed. The entire schedule will be pushed back one day.

Playoffs!? You kiddin’ me?

LAST NIGHT

• All four playoff teams lost their final regular-season games
• Cotuit beat Y-D in eight innings despite a Gordon Beckham grand slam . . . Beckham’s blast gave him the home run crown and tied him for the RBI lead . . . Robert Stock finished strong for Cotuit with a home run and three RBI
• Orleans beat Chatham behind a 3-for-5 day by Nate Freiman
• In what could have been a winner-take-all game but wasn’t because of Hyannis’ loss Tuesday, the Mets still finished strong, besting Falmouth 9-3 . . . Falmouth’s Conor Gillaspie clinched the batting title, finishing at .345
• Michael Marseco went 4-for-5 to lead Brewster past Harwich
• Wareham beat Bourne 6-2 . . . Dallas Keuchel allowed two runs in seven innings

A year ago, Bourne finished with the worst team batting average and worst team ERA in the league. Not surprisingly, the Braves had the worst record, too, closing with just nine wins and 32 losses.

The stats this year didn’t quite take the Braves from worst to first in those categories.

But the Braves went from worst to first in the category that counts.

Bourne made an early-season run in the West and never looked back, cruising to the division title. It’s the second in three years, and it’s part of an up-and-down four years for the Braves. They finished last in 2004, first in 2005, last in 2006 and now first in 2007.

They did it this year with a solid, balanced team, one that was molded perfectly despite the loss of several players before the season began. Bourne used a host of temporary players and two of them — Ben Guez and T.J. Hose — turned into all-stars. In all, the Braves were near the top in both offense and pitching — not the most powerful offensive team nor the most dominant pitching team, but still very good.

The Braves will run into a pitching rotation that is dominant.

The top two in No. 2 Falmouth’s rotation, Aaron Crow and Kyle Gibson, are the league ERA leaders. The third pitcher, Christian Friedrich, is near the top in strikeouts. That’s a powerful 1-2-3 punch, and in a three-game series it could be tough to overcome.

But for all the dominance atop the rotation, the Commodores finished seventh in team ERA and in a way, backed into the playoffs. They lost their last two games and went 4-6 in their last 10, barely holding off a charge from Hyannis.

Still, you can’t underestimate those three pitchers. They give Falmouth its best chance.

Here’s a little breakdown of the series.

SEASON SERIES

Six Meetings
Bourne: 2 wins (15-8, 4-1)
Fal: 4 wins (4-3, 2-1, 7-0, 12-0)

• In two wins, Bourne outscored Falmouth 19-9
• In four wins, Falmouth outscored Bourne 25-4
• Total runs in six games: Falmouth 34, Bourne 23

Games at Bourne
Bourne: 2 wins
Fal: 1 win

• In two wins at Doran Park, Bourne outscored Falmouth 19-9
• In one win at Doran Park, Falmouth outscored Bourne 7-0

Games at Falmouth
Bourne: 0 wins
Fal: 3 wins

• In three wins at Guv Fuller Field, Falmouth outscored Bourne 23-3

Last Meeting
Bourne beat Falmouth 4-1 at Doran Park on Aug. 6. Steven Hensley allowed a run in six innings for Bourne.

Conclusions
Home field didn’t necessarily mean anything, but the numbers suggest a correlation. Bourne won twice at home. Falmouth won three times at home. Falmouth won once on the road. Also, Falmouth’s victories over Bourne were big ones.

STACKING UP THE STATS: OFEENSE

As of Wednesday, August 8, with the regular season completed. Ranks in parentheses.

CATEGORY	BOURNE	FALMOUTH
Batting Average	.258 (1)	.247 (5)
Runs	194 (5)	191 (6)
Hits	370 (3)	356 (5)
Home Runs	22 (T-3)	17 (T-8)
Stolen Bases	45 (5)	56 (T-2)

The teams are pretty even in most of these categories. Nobody has a clear advantage. These are both solid offensive teams.

STACKING UP THE STATS: PITCHING

As of Wednesday, August 8. Ranks for ERA and strikeouts in parentheses. I don’t have the ranks for WHIP and Opp. Avg.

CATEGORY	BOURNE	FALMOUTH
ERA	3.06 (4)	3.77 (7)
Strikeouts	359 (7)	435 (1)
WHIP	1.25	1.35
Opp. Avg.	.227	.198

Again, I don’t have the ranks, but I think Falmouths’ Opp. Avg. has to be near the top. I think one of the problems for the Commodores is walks, because their pitchers are some of the most unhittable around. If they don’t put people on, look out.

The strikeouts also stand out. Four guys have at least 40 K’s.

BOURNE TEAM CAPSULE

Offensive Leaders:
Average: Kevin Hoef – .317
Home Runs: Josh Satin – 4
RBI: Brian Pruitt – 27

Pitching Leaders:
ERA: D.J. Mitchell – 1.47
Wins: Steven Hensely, T.J. Hose, Rick Zagone – 4
Strikeouts: D.J. Mitchell – 58

Probable Starters (I’m guessing):
C – Brett Basham – .309
1B – Josh Satin – .255
2B – Bill Perry – .222
3B – Kevin Hoef – .317
SS – Addison Maruszak – .278
OF – Brian Pruitt – .241
OF – Ben Guez – .282
OF – Josh Workman – .267
*DH – Adam Zornes – .242
* hard to say on the DH spot

Hoef has hit well all summer at the top of the lineup and is an on-base machine. Guez, Pruitt and Satin give the Braves a solid heart of the lineup.

Top Pitchers:
SP – D.J. Mitchell – 1-2, 1.47
SP – T. J. Hose – 4-3, 2.58
SP – Rick Zagone – 4-1, 2.09
SP/RP – Steven Hensely – 4-2, 3.89
SP/RP – Joe Kent – 2-1, 2.91
RP – Jeff Richard – 2-1, 2.86
RP – Matt Gorgen – 2-1, 2.25
*CL – Jordan Flasher – 1.35, 9 SV

I’m not sure that Flasher is here. It was reported that he was leaving early and he last pitched on Aug. 3. If he’s not in the closer’s spot, that pen doesn’t look as good. As for the starters, Mitchell and Zagone have been two of the best in the league of late.

FALMOUTH TEAM CAPSULE

Offensive Leaders:
Average: Conor Gillaspie – .345
Home Runs: Conor Gillaspie – 7
RBI: Jeremy Farrell – 23

Pitching Leaders:
ERA: Aaron Crow – .67
Wins: Christian Friedrich – 4
Strikeouts: Christian Friedrich – 52

Probable Starters (I’m guessing):
C – Kevin Dubler – .219
1B – Jeremy Farrell – .191
2B – David Adams – .302
3B – Conor Gillaspie – .345
SS – Joey Wong – .252
OF – Matt Hague – .299
OF – Aja Barto – .277
OF – Chris Hopkins – .265
DH – Phil Carey – .225

There are some guys who have struggled in this lineup, but some great hitters too, namely Gillaspie, Adams and Hague. If those three get hot in the playoffs, Falmouth will be in good shape.

Top Pitchers:
SP – Aaron Crow – 3-1, .67
SP – Kyle Gibson – 2-0, 1.17
SP – Christian Friedrich – 4-1, 2.68
SP – Shooter Hunt – 2-2, 4.71
RP – Brett Graffy – 0-2, .87
RP – Kyle Weiland – 1-2, 2.10
CL – Luke Burnett – 4.18, 6 SV

Those top three starters are as good as it gets, but in the regular season, Crow and Gibson rarely went deep into the games, which is why they don’t have that many decisions — the bullpen wasn’t great once they left. If they go deeper in the playoffs, Falmouth may be in business. In the bullpen, Burnett’s ERA is high but he has 41 K in 23.2 IP.

WHAT I THINK

Everybody knows Falmouth’s pitching is spectacular, and I think it will be for this series. But don’t sleep on Bourne. Hose has been great all year, while Mitchell and Zagone finished strong and established themselves as two of the top pitchers in the league.

Offensively, I give Falmouth the edge because of their top hitters — Gillaspie, Adams and Hague.

But I think Bourne wins this series. If I were just looking at stats, I’d say Falmouth, but I don’t like the way the Commodores finished the season. They had their destiny in their own hands and they let it slip away. It just happened to work out for them.

So I’ll take Bourne in a sweep, provided Mitchell and Zagone pitch games one and two.

The first-round playoff match-up in the East features two teams that were the hottest in the league down the stretch.

For one team, though, getting hot was nothing new.

Heading into Wednesday’s season finale, the defending champion and top-seeded Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox had lost only 11 games all year. They started the season with a six-game winning streak, had a four-game streak, two three-game streaks and in the last two weeks, put together another six-game winning streak. They never lost more than three games in a row.

Before the finale, the Red Sox had 31 wins. By my research, that’s the most in the last 10 years and just two shy of the all-time record of 33, held by the 1979 Hyannis Mets. The previous high in the last 10 years was 30, a mark reached by the 1999 Chatham A’s and the 2005 Orleans Cardinals. That Chatham team lost in the championship. Orleans won it.

If the Red Sox are going to cap off the big season with a title, they’ll have to get through a very solid Chatham team to do it.

The A’s were toiling in the middle of the pack for much of the summer, but when the offense came alive and the bullpen settled down, Chatham found itself. From July 19 through July 27, the A’s won seven of nine games, losing one and tying one. That burst helped the A’s separate themselves from the pack and they finished strong, too, holding off a charge from Brewster and Orleans to grab the second-place spot.

It should be an interesting series. Here’s a little breakdown.

SEASON SERIES

Six Meetings
Y-D: 3 wins (4-1, 7-1, 7-1)
Cha: 2 wins (12-11, 11-5)
1 tie

• In three wins, Y-D outscored Chatham 15-3
• In two wins, Chatham outscored Y-D 23-16
• Total runs in six games: Y-D 38, Cha 33

Games at Y-D
Y-D: 1 win
Cha: 1 win
1 tie

• In one win at Red Wilson Field, Y-D outscored Chatham 7-1
• In one win at Red Wilson Field, Chatham outscored Y-D 11-5

Games at Chatham
Y-D: 2 wins
Cha: 1 win

• In two wins at Veterans Field, Y-D outscored Chatham 8-2
• In one win at Veterans Field, Chatham outscored Y-D 12-11

Last Meeting
Y-D beat visiting Chatham 7-1 on August 4. Y-D took advantage of five Chatham errors and got 6.2 shutout innings from Trevor Holder. It was the lowest run total for Chatham since a 1-0 loss to Brewster July 26.

Conclusions
Depending on how you look at it, the teams can seem very even or very uneven. There isn’t much disparity in total runs, but Y-D’s average margin of victory in three games was four runs, and Chatham was held to one run in all those games. Both Chatham victories were slugfests.

STACKING UP THE STATS: OFEENSE

As of Tuesday, August 8, with one game left. Ranks in parentheses.

CATEGORY	Y-D	CHATHAM
Batting Average	.275 (1)	.265 (2)
Runs	232 (1)	198 (2)
Hits	385 (1)	375 (2)
Home Runs	40 (1)	19 (5)
Stolen Bases	51 (5)	23 (10)

Chatham trails in every category, but really, who doesn’t? Y-D’s offense was a prolific as any in recent memory, with 10 players posting at least 11 RBI. Chatham had essentially the second-best offense in the league.

STACKING UP THE STATS: PITCHING

As of Tuesday, August 8, with one game left. Ranks for ERA and strikeouts in parentheses. I don’t have the ranks for WHIP and Opp. Avg.

CATEGORY	Y-D	CHATHAM
ERA	2.71 (2)	3.50 (6)
Strikeouts	306 (10)	391 (2)
WHIP	1.17	1.22
Opp. Avg.	.229	.229

Interesting that Y-D is near the top in ERA but at the bottom in strikeouts. That means the ball gets put in play a little more against Y-D pitchers, but that hasn’t been a bad thing. Y-D tied for the fewest errors in the league.

As bullpens go, Chatham has some shut-down relievers, while Y-D can be shaky before closer Nick Cassavecchia steps in.

Bottom line: with their rotations in line, both these teams have very solid pitchers.

Y-D TEAM CAPSULE

Offensive Leaders:
Average: Jason Castro – .344
Home Runs: Gordon Beckham and Sean Ochinko – 8
RBI: Gordon Beckham – 31

Pitching Leaders:
ERA: Jerry Sullivan – .56
Wins: Terry Doyle – 6
Strikeouts: Eddie Burns and Terry Doyle – 41

Probable Starters (I’m guessing and they shuffle the lineup a lot):
C – Buster Posey – .274
1B – Sean Ochinko – .311
2B – Joey Railey – .240
3B – Nick Romero – .259
SS – Gordon Beckham – .287
OF – Aaron Luna – .290
OF – Collin Cowgill – .284
OF – Matt Long – .217
DH – Jason Castro – .344
Somewhere – Grant Green – .290 (he plays everywhere)

Beckham and Castro are both MVP candidates and Ochinko isn’t far behind. That trio leads the way but everyone hits. Even Long, with his .217 average, has 13 RBI.

Top Pitchers:
SP – Eddie Burns – 5-1, 2.56
SP – Terry Doyle – 6-3, 2.35
SP – Scott Green – 3-1, 1.56
SP/RP – Trevor Holder – 4-1, .90
SP/RP – Jerry Sullivan – 3-0, .56
RP – D.J. Mauldin – 1-0, 3.00
CL – Nick Cassavechia – 1.07, 11 SV

I’ve read that Burns may not make the game-one start because of a suspension. Doyle or Green would be a fine choice, anyway, though. Both have been very good this year, and Doyle was the winner in Y-D’s championship-clinching victory last summer. Cassavechia is the league’s best closer.

CHATHAM TEAM CAPSULE

Offensive Leaders:
Average: Allan Dykstra – .315
Home Runs: Allan Dykstra – 5
RBI: Allan Dykstra – 31

Pitching Leaders:
ERA: Zach Putnam – .75
Wins: Tom Milone – 6
Strikeouts: Tom Milone – 46

Probable Starters (I’m guessing):
C – Tim Federowicz – .299
1B – Allan Dykstra – .315
2B – Kyle Seager – .257
3B – Jermaine Curtis – .303
SS – Scott Lyons – .248
OF – Jeremy Synan – .378 (in 17 games)
OF – Addison Johnson – .278
OF – Andrew Crisp – .282
DH – Zach Putnam – .253

Dykstra is tearing it up of late and gives the A’s a serious presence in the middle of the order. Johnson has been steady from the leadoff spot and Curtis and Putnam are solid run producers. Federowicz was hitting in the .100’s a week ago but has caught fire.

Top Pitchers:
SP – Tom Milone – 6-1, 2.92
SP – Charles Brewer – 2-2, 1.94
SP – Alex White – 2-1, 2.10
SP – Ryan Hinson – 3-2, 3.86
RP – Kevin Couture – 2-1, .90
RP – Rob Wooten – 1-0, 1.86
CL – Bryan Shaw – 3.32, 7 SV

Milone always finds a way to win and he has an incredible 46:7 strikeout to walk ratio. Brewer and White are both freshman but their inexperience hasn’t hurt them. Couture and Wooten have been dominant out of the pen.

WHAT I THINK

This series — like most baseball series — might come down to pitching. Y-D’s offense is great, yes, but Chatham has some very good starters and a great bullpen. On the other hand, Chatham’s offense isn’t as powerful, and Y-D’s pitchers have been great.

You never know what’ll happen, but I think Y-D’s offense may be too tough. One-through-nine, it’s by far the best lineup on the Cape and one of the best in years. It’s not just a few guys carrying the load. Everybody contributes.

In the end, I think the pitching will be stellar from both sides and the team that can scratch across a few more runs will take the series. I think Y-D gets the nod.

So, Y-D wins. I’ll say it goes to three games.