RIGHT FIELD FOG

Joe Saunders
Harwich 2001
Pitcher
Virginia Tech

The league batting average in 2001 was .224, a sign that it was a year for pitchers. You never know what exactly that means — whether the hitters were especially weak or whether the pitchers were especially strong. In most cases, it’s probably a combination of both.

But to do what Joe Saunders — and some of his fellow standouts who are on this list — did in 2001, you have to be pretty strong, regardless of who you’re facing.

Saunders came to the Cape from Virginia Tech, a school that’s certainly not a baseball powerhouse. But once he donned a Harwich uniform, he started rubbing shoulders with guys who did hail from powerhouses.

Saunders, a 6’3 lefty, helped secure his status as a top prospect with an outstanding summer. He went 4-3 and put up a 1.02 ERA, which was second in the league. He struck out 61 and walked just 11. It was a big year for strikeouts, so Saunders didn’t rank in the top five, but he also had a better ERA than just about everyone else on the strikeout leaderboard.

And plenty of people took notice.

Saunders was picked as the East starter for the all-star game. He picked up the win in that game with two shutout innings and three strikeouts.

After the Cape

Saunders had an outstanding final season in Blacksburg, posting a 2.88 ERA with 102 strikeouts in 97 innings. He was drafted by the Angels with the 12th overall pick in the 2002 draft. Since making his debut in 2005, Saunders has become a reliable big-league starter. He won 17 games in 2008 and 16 in 2009.

Chris Manno
Harwich 2008
Pitcher
Duke

They say that Irish storytellers never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

I’m Irish and I have a little story. And the facts are pretty good in their own right, so this story is getting told.

Let’s start here: I’ve gotten a few emails about this list, mostly from people who want to tell me they’re enjoying it.

Three of them also made a plea for Chris Manno to be included. He’s the only one who’s had a case made for him. Maybe there’s a Chris Manno fan club. Maybe it’s Manno, himself, writing me using three different emails.

Or maybe he made a pretty huge impression on a lot of people.

I think the last one’s right.

To be perfectly honest, Manno was not originally on this list. He was under consideration. I wanted to put him on. He was my favorite pitcher in 2008, but his numbers don’t quite measure up, especially to the guys from early in the decade, when pitching was king on the Cape.

But two things made me change my mind. The emails planted the seed and sparked my own recollections; an unrelated email chain with some friends debating MLB Hall of Fame credentials did the rest. I’ll let my friend Matt explain: “I’m becoming less and less enamored with the idea of best being defined by numbers, but I don’t know how else to define it. I want the HoF to tell the story of baseball.”

And thus, Chris Manno makes this list.

The numbers are great. I think he was the best pitcher in ’08 even though he didn’t win the award. The Mariners didn’t lose a game in which Manno pitched. He went 3-0 with a 1.93 ERA. He struck out 45 in 42 innings.

But with Manno, it was more than that. In the all-star game, with the requisite flame-throwers lighting up radar guns, Manno was the best pitcher. I watched him in the bullpen. Before I looked at a program and realized who it was, I legitimately wondered if he was a ball boy or maybe a pitching coach. Manno is tall, but incredibly lanky. He doesn’t look the part.

Not long after he walked in from the bullpen, though, I was sold. He came into a bases-loaded jam and struck out two to end the inning. He struck out two more in the next inning. In a game where pitchers almost always go just one inning, Manno’s probably the only pitcher with four all-star game strikeouts. He’s the craftiest lefty I’ve seen on the Cape since I started this blog.

When the games counted, Manno’s story was even better. He was the leader of a team that brought Harwich its first championship in 21 years. He pitched the clinching game of the finals, allowing just an unearned run and striking out nine in 6.2 innings. By all accounts, Manno was among the best team-first players you’ll ever see on the Cape.

For that — and for some numbers that stand up to anyone’s in his class — I can make room for Chris Manno.

(And make room for an excessively long entry. Apologies.)

After the Cape

Manno struck out 72 in 2009 for Duke but did have an ERA above four. He was drafted in the 38th round by Washington in June, but he has opted to return to Duke for his senior year.

Allan Dykstra
Chatham 2006 & 2007
First Baseman
Wake Forest

The decade’s best run producer wasn’t Justin Smoak or Evan Longoria or Gordon Beckham. Those guys may have gotten all the headlines, but the guy driving in all the runs? That was Allan Dykstra.

Of course, the big first baseman from Wake Forest spent two summers in Chatham, which paved the way. But he still had to do the driving — and the driving in.

He did a lot of it.

In 82 career games, Dykstra drove in 60 runs. There are plenty of other guys who spent two summers on the Cape and drove in a lot of runs, but no one this decade drove in as many as Dykstra.

After his freshman year at Wake, he immediately became a mainstay in the middle of Chatham’s order. That first summer, he only batted .232, but he still managed seven home runs, and he led the league with 29 RBI.

The next year, Dykstra got off to similar start — not a ton of hits, but a lot of big hits — until he caught fire in the midway point of the season. He ended up as one of the best hitters in a class that was stacked with them. He hit. 308 with five home runs and 31 RBI.

With some big hitters in the league that same year, Dykstra finished third in RBI in 2007. It would have been pretty cool if he had won two RBI titles, but that doesn’t take anything away from the numbers.

If a Chatham run was scoring in 2006 and 2007, there was a good chance Dykstra was knocking it in.

After the Cape

Dykstra was picked by the Padres with the 23rd overall pick in 2008. In 2009, his first full season, he hit .226 with 11 home runs and 60 RBI.

Jimmy Cesario
Falmouth 2008
Outfielder/Infielder
Houston

Jimmy Cesario didn’t stay on the Cape quite as long as everyone in Falmouth would have hoped. He signed a pro contract with the Rockies soon after the All-Star game.

But in the 34 games he played in before he left, Cesario made his stay worthwhile.

Much like J.C. Holt, Cesario got hot at the beginning of the summer and never really cooled down. His league-best .387 average was one point off Holt’s decade-best average.

Cesario is a little higher on this list because he delivered some amazing run production for a guy who wasn’t flashing a whole lot of power. He had one home run, eight doubles and one triple, but finished the season with 30 RBI, which ranked fourth in the league.

Cesario put up those numbers despite a situation that could have left him unsettled. He’d been drafted in June but not until the 46th round. He hooked on with Falmouth to try and enhance his stock. Once there, he bounced around the batting order and the field, playing 17 games in the outfield, 14 games at second base and two at first.

Through it all, Cesario just kept hitting and kept driving in runs. His 30 RBI were the most by a batting champ in the decade.

After the Cape

By the team the season was over and awards were getting handed out, Cesario was already a professional. He hit .333 in 22 games with Casper of the Rookie Pioneer League. He spent 2009 with the Asheville Tourists of the South Atlantic League, batting .285 with 11 home runs.

Jared Hughes
Chatham 2005
Pitcher
Long Beach State

Jared Hughes came to Chatham with his Long Beach State teammate Evan Longoria. Both of them had breakout summers and both of them had a big hand in getting Chatham its highest win total of the decade.

While Longoria, being an everyday player, had an impact on a few more games, Hughes contributed as much as he possibly could.

Literally.

In the regular season, the towering righty made seven starts. He won all of them. And I don’t mean the A’s won all his starts. He got credited with a win in each of them.

In the Cape League’s statistical landscape, that’s exceedingly rare.

Hughes is one of only three players in the decade to win seven games. Six is generally the high-water mark. Among the three who did get to seven, Hughes is the only one who went undefeated.

At least in this decade, Hughes stands alone.

While the victories speak for themselves — and say more than enough — they aren’t the only reason Hughes is on this list. As you might expect for a guy who went 7-0, his other numbers were also outstanding. He finished the regular season with a 1.62 ERA and he struck out 54 in 50 innings, with just 11 walks. His best start came early in the summer, when he struck out 12 and didn’t walk anybody in a complete-game win over Falmouth.

After the Cape

Hughes was rated as the 18th best prospect in the league by Baseball America and he was drafted the next year in the fourth round. In four minor-league seasons so far, Hughes has compiled a career ERA of 4.55. Though he went 1-6 this year in Double A, he had a 3.88 ERA.

Dennis Raben
Orleans 2007
Outfielder
Miami

In retrospect, I think Dennis Raben sometimes got lost in the shuffle. His was a summer of stars like Gordon Beckham, Yonder Alonso, Conor Gillaspie and Aaron Crow. Raben belongs right alongside them.

In terms of production, there are only a handful of players on this list who had a better summer than Raben did.

He came to Orleans without a ton of fanfare. He hit .280 as a sophomore at Miami with 12 home runs. Good numbers but not spectacular. Once he put on a Cardinals uniform, though, he turned himself into one of the league’s biggest power threat, and in the process, turned himself into a major prospect.

For the season, Raben batted .298 with six home runs, 18 extra-base hits and 35 RBI. He tied Beckham for the league lead in RBI and was among the top five in three other offensive categories — slugging percentage, extra-base hits and runs scored.

He may have made his biggest splash in a game that didn’t count. A starter for the East squad in the all-star game, Raben blasted a home run that ultimately proved to be the difference in the East’s 3-2 victory. Raben was named East MVP.

After the season, Raben was tabbed by Baseball America as the seventh-best prospect in the league.

After the Cape

While players like Beckham and Buster Posey built on their summers with enormous junior season, Raben didn’t deliver an overwhelming performance when he got back to Miami. He still had solid numbers, though, and got picked in the second round by the Mariners. He hit .275 in his debut season but missed all of 2009 after knee surgery. He is expected to be ready for spring training in 2010.

Chris Dominguez
Harwich 2007 & Hyannis 2008
Third Baseman
Louisville

We’ve seen more talented and more well-rounded prospects than Chris Dominguez.

But on one night, with three swings of the bat, Dominguez put himself into exclusive company.

It was July 9, 2008. McKeon Park in Hyannis. A Wednesday. Dominguez was in the midst of an up-and-down start to his summer. He had been drafted in the fifth round in June. He was trying to prove himself.

On that night, he delivered the best single-game performance of the summer and one of the best of the decade. Dominguez belted three mammoth home runs, tying a Cape League record. The last guy to do it before Dominguez? Frank Thomas.

That’s pretty good company, and in terms of pure power, Dominguez belonged.

He was all-or-nothing at times. Playing for Harwich in 2007, he hit just .216 He struck out 38 times in 97 at-bats. The next spring, though, he was outstanding and he carried that into the summer. He still wasn’t the most balanced player and he struck out a lot, but he also hit .262 for the Mets in 2008. He led the league with 10 home runs and 22 extra-base hits. He finished third in slugging percentage and RBI.

For his Cape League career, Dominguez totaled 13 home runs and 30 extra-base hits.

Add in his one historic night, and you’ve got a player who we’re going to remember.

After the Cape

On the heels of his strong summer in 2008, Dominguez opted not to sign. He returned to Louisville, hit 25 home runs and repeated as the Big East Player of the Year.

In 2009, he was drafted in the third round by the Giants. He spent most of his first pro season in Low-A, where he hit .254 with nine home runs in 181 at-bats.

J.C. Holt
Brewster 2003
Outfielder
LSU

Few players — even the great ones — get their name mentioned every season. The years pass by. You remember those players, but they don’t necessarily have an anchor in the present.

J.C. Holt is the exception.

In 2003, Holt won the batting title with a .388 average. To that point, it was the highest average of the decade.

Six years later, it still is.

When Conor Gillaspie chased the batting title in 2007, we talked about Holt. It was the same thing in 2008, when Jimmy Cesario came as close as anybody has. Todd Cunningham hovered in the .400s for much of 2009 and again, Holt’s name popped up.

All because the little outfielder from LSU had himself one heck of a summer in 2003.

Holt came to the Cape after his sophomore season with the Tigers. He was a standout player, but there weren’t any numbers that predicted a record-setting summer. He had hit .349 as a freshman and .299 as a sophomore.

All summer, though, he just kept hitting. He played in 33 games for Brewster. He had at least one hit in 29 of those games. At one point, he put together a 20-game hitting streak, which ended on the last day of the regular season.

To make it all more impressive, 2003 wasn’t a particularly offensive year. The league hit .229. Holt was one of only seven players with a .300 average. By contrast, seven pitchers had sub-1.00 ERAs, which is almost unheard of.

Somehow, in that landscape, Holt delivered a season to remember. Despite having just one home run and only nine RBI, he was voted league MVP.

Then and now, I’d say he deserved it.

After the Cape

Holt followed up his summer by hitting .393 as a junior at LSU. He was picked in the third round of the 2004 draft by the Braves, and he remains in their system. He spent the 2009 season at Triple A Gwinnett, where he hit .282.

Buster Posey
Yarmouth-Dennis 2006 & 2007
Shortstop/Catcher
Florida State

Buster Posey certainly deserves a mention if you’re discussing the best Cape League catchers of the decade.

One thing sets him apart: he was a pretty good shortstop, too.

Posey played two summers on the Cape, but from one year to the next, if you remembered him, you probably had to look at a lineup card to find him.

Posey came to Florida State as a shortstop. From day one, he was the starter and he started every game for the Seminoles, hitting .346 and earning a host of Freshman All-America honors. He looked like a star shortstop in waiting, and he more than held his own on the Cape. In helping Y-D to a championship, Posey hit .289 with 10 extra-base hits. He also pitched in four games and had an ERA of 3.12.

Then everything changed.

Before his sophomore season, Posey moved to catcher. Even as he learned the position, he didn’t miss a beat offensively. He still hit .382 for the Seminoles. When he returned to the Cape, he was a catcher through and through. Back with the Red Sox — and leading them to a second straight championship — Posey hit .281.

At the time, especially on that Y-D team, Posey wasn’t the superstar. The overall numbers from his two seasons on the Cape aren’t overwhelming, but he was a driving force on two championship teams. If you watched him, chances are you came away impressed.

And as you probably know, Posey’s Cape summers were just the beginning.

After the Cape

Posey was good in 2006 and 2007, but I don’t know if anybody could have predicted what he did in the spring of 2008, when he became arguably the best player in college baseball. He hit .463 with 26 home runs and 93 RBI.

If Posey was outside the upper echelon of draft prospects after the summer, he was crashing the party in the spring. By June, he was a candidate to go No. 1 overall. He ended up going fifth, but he’s made everyone who passed on him regret it. After dominating at every brief stop, Posey made his Major League debut for the Giants in 2009. He didn’t see a ton of action, but he remains one of the top prospects in the game.

Chris Young
Chatham 2000
Pitcher
Princeton

I once saw Chris Young and teammate Dan Krines eating a pre-game pizza at Carmine’s in Chatham. They were in uniform so they were hard to miss.

Young was a little harder to miss. I don’t know if there any records on this kind of thing, but there’s a decent chance that Young — who stands 6’10 — is the tallest player in Cape Cod Baseball League history. To this day, he’s one of the tallest people I’ve seen in day-to-day life, away from a basketball court. Seeing him sitting at a regular table like an average person would at a child’s plastic table is an image I still remember.

Of course, it helps that he made an impression on the field, too.

I don’t think he pitched that night I saw him — pre-start pizza probably isn’t the best idea — but I saw him other times. This was long before I started Right Field Fog, but I knew then that his was a name I wanted to file away and remember.

Not only was he big, he was very good.

Young pitched just the one summer for Chatham but he had as good a single season as just about anybody. In eight starts, he went 4-2 with a 1.86 ERA. Most impressively, he struck out 69 in 53.1 innings for a K/9 of 11.7.

At the time, Young was a two-sport standout at Princeton, but his Cape League performance helped push him in the baseball direction. He had been drafted before the Cape season, in June of 2000. After the season, he signed with the Pirates, who had picked him in the third round.

After the Cape

Young quickly became one of the top prospects in the Pirates system before he was traded to the Expos and then to the Rangers. He made his major-league debut with the Rangers in 2004. He has been a consistent No. 2/No. 3 starter since then, with his best years coming for the Padres in 2006 and 2007.