Saturday, September 6, 2014

Down on the Farm: 9/6/2014

Chris Stratton pitched one of his better games of the season and the Richmond Flying Squirrels pulled away from the Akron Rubber Ducks for a final score of 5-1 to win the 2014 Eastern League Western Division Championship.  Key Lines:

Devin Harris(LF)- 1 for 3, HR. 
Tyler Horan(RF)- 1 for 1, 3B.
Chris Stratton(RHP)- 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 K's. 
Cody Hall(RHP)- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  

Harris' HR gave the Squirrels a 2-0 lead that lasted until Phil McCormick replaced Stratton in the 7'th inning. Horan's 2 run triple in the 8'th sealed the game and the series.  The 3 run rally in the 8'th robbed Cody Hall of  Save Opportunity.

The Flying Squirrels now advance to the EL Championship series facing the winner of the Binghampton Mets vs Portland Sea Dogs Eastern Conference Championship series.

11 comments:

  1. Unlike most years, Richmond has been the best among our minor league clubs. It also happens that the AA level is where most clubs have their best major league ready prospects, most of them might spend a partial season in AAA before being promoted, if they don't go straight, to the big show.

    To me, it's like Taiwan used to dominate the Little League. You can win the Northwest league or the California league where we are talking about kids a few years from being ready to the ML, but it seems either our AA hitters struggled there in the EL, or we got dominant pitching from guys like Escobar, Surkamp or Heston, but Richmond rarely, IIRC, as a team, never did much.

    But this year, we have had a lot of good players there...some of them are already in SF this month.

    PS: very encouraging start by Stratton...finishing strong.

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    1. environment is key

      if im the giants, i sit down with richmond, buy a piece of the club and sign a long term development deal

      nothing against norwich, but both the city and the park left much to be desired

      this is the second time in the franchise's short history that they have made it to the finals

      richmond has a much better park and much better fans....and with the improved economy, they may even get a new downtown stadium


      bacci

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    2. The EL seemed to be a bit more hitter friendly this year and have more young hitters as league leaders. Not sure what that means, but I agree, the Giants seem to be developing more hitters who aren't necessarily elite prospects, but can still help the team.

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    3. Carbonell, Miller, Horan, Delfino, Villalona... that's a nice group of hitters in that Richmond lineup right now. Devin Harris has flown a bit under the radar (understandable for a 26 year old "prospect"), but he's shown nice power for the 2nd year in a row. I'm thinking he'll be in Fresno next year, where he could have another breakout season. For some crazy reason, I've had my eye on his name in the box scores all year.

      Nice to see the Giants make it to a championship series. AA has been a tough spot for them in recent years.

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  2. Completely off topic, but what is the latest on Cabrera? I have not heard anything on him since about a week after the accident.

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    1. No word that I have been able to find. In this case, I am going to say no news is bad news.

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  3. Way to go Stratton! That's his best performance of the year most likely, under pressure.

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  4. Interesting how well Stratton has performed since he got bumped up, after a less than great season in A ball. Was he just bored? Would be awesome if Stratton joins the ranks of Crick, Blackburn, Beede and Fleet as legit pitching prospects (on top of guys like Fleet, who seems to be more on the edge, and the young guys coming up). Tons of talent in the pen.

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    1. I am cautiously encouraged by what Stratton has done since being promoted to Richmond. Still want to see how he handles the PCL though. Maybe still a year or two away? Hopefully the talent has been there all along and he's just learning how to pitch.

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  5. As our Squirrels celebrate this years successes; and advance to this years Eastern Finals - lets not forget the outstanding contributions by Duffy (AA batting title) and Parker. Without these guys for the first 100 plus games of the season - who knows. Let's go Squirrels.......

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    1. Well said Anonymous. AND . . . let's not forget the those who played their butts off after Duffy and Parker left. I understand why we got Carbonell, Horan, and Delfino, but honestly, having seen all four games, including the two in Akron, Delfino and Horan didn't bring anything extra. We would have been just as well off to have left Schroder (3B) and Blair (RF) in the lineup. At least they would have been accustomed to pitching on the AA level, and may have had better ABs. And Tomlinson played absolutely LIGHTS OUT, offensively and defensively, the entire series. Shoot, he even got some love from Laze (the radio guy) who hasn't given him much this year. His opinion was that Tomlinson was the MVP of the series . . . hands down, which is true. We're going to need him to stay hot if we have any hope against the BMets.

      It was fun watching Carbonell play. He still some work at the plate at the AA level, but he won't be long in figuring it out. He covers a lot of ground in OF. He's something special for sure.

      I'm really hoping this group of guys can bring SHIP to the RVA. #letsfinishthis

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