American Association Baseball Insider

 In a series that delivered in every possible way, the Kane County Cougars outlasted the Sioux Falls Canaries 7-5 in ten innings to win the Miles Wolff Cup for the second year in a row. It was the Canaries that got on the board first in the second inning. Joe Vos who was a force in the last three games, singled and later scored on a Mike Hart single.  It was a similar script two innings later as Hart connected for another RBI single to score Vos who had reached on a fielder's choice.  Matt Solter was cruising for the Canaries. But the Cougars got on board in the sixth. Josh Allen and Marcus Chiu both singled with Todd Lott driving home Allen with the sacrifice fly. The Canaries had chances to extend the lead but left nine runners on base in the first five innings.  In the sixth the Canaries went to the bullpen and Kane County tied the game with Nick Delasandro driving in Claudio Finol. Finol gave the Cougars their first lead of the night in the following inning with ...

 It seems appropriate that You Can't Always Get What You Want is playing at the Birdcage as I'm starting this blog. The Sioux Falls Canaries were within three outs of a Miles Wolff Cup but the Kane County Cougars after being left off the scoreboard all evening put up three runs in the ninth inning to extend the American Association season by one last deciding game winning 3-2 at the Birdcage. Tomorrow afternoon at 5:05 will be first pitch for all the marbles.  Photo courtesy of Jennifer Andreachi Photo courtesy of Jenna Spanola, Kane County Cougars  The Canaries opened the scoring in the second inning. Jordan Barth homered to left field and Josh Rehwaldt clobbered a home run to right center to give the Canaries a 2-0 lead.  Tanner Brown shut down the Cougars offense from there. The biggest threat to score was in the third inning when Trendon Craig tripled with two outs, but Brown struck out Josh Allen. Vin Timpanelli kept the Cougars in the game after allowing the so...

 Going into tonight's matchup between Konnor Ash of Kane County and Ryan Zimmerman of Sioux Falls, that if one of them would go seven innings, allow three runs and strike out twelve to give his team a chance to win the Miles Wolff Cup tomorrow, you'd guess Ash. But it was Zimmerman spinning the gem as the Canaries defeated Kane County 5-3 at the Birdcage. Picture courtesy of Jennifer Andreachi It looked good early for the Cougars as Blake Rutherford opened the scoring with a double and Zane Spinn added a home run for to stake Ash to a 2-0 lead after two innings. Mike Hart turned the game around however with a three run home run after the bottom two batters in the Canaries order, Joe Vos and Scott Combs both singled with one out in the third. The bottom of the Canaries order came through again in the fourth as Vos drove a run home on a sacrifice fly and Combs followed with an RBI single to make it a 5-2 game. Claudio Finol got Kane County within two runs with a solo home run in ...

 Sioux Falls had won Game Two in their first two playoff series and had 11 game winner Thomas Dorminy pitching. In the words of philosopher Alfred E. Neuman, what me worry? And the Canaries did not have to worry as they evened the series with a 5-4 win on Tuesday night. The series shifts to the Birdcage for the rest of the series where the Canaries have to feel confident, even with Konnor Ash pitching Game Three on Thursday night. The Canaries handed Ash a loss in his only outing in Sioux Falls in June. Although not made official as of press time, I would expect Sioux Falls to counter with Tanner Brown.  With the game tied at one in the fifth inning, Jordan Barth came up big with a three run home run just over the left field wall to give the Birds a 4-1 lead as Cougars starting pitcher Chris Mazza made his only mistake of the night.  The Cougars got a pair back in the seventh on a Blake Rutherford single and an RBI groundout by pinch hitter Zane Spinn. And it was once aga...

 As someone who wears the American Association cap, figuratively and literally, tonight's Game One of the Miles Wolff Cup Finals was a great showcase for the league. A Marcus Chiu single plated Trendon Craig in the last of the ninth as the Kane County Cougars took a 1-0 lead in the series winning 4-3. Photo courtesy of Kane County Cougars Let's deep dive into this one.  Jack Fox got the start for the Cougars. Fox was hit around by Chicago in his other post season start, allowing five runs in the first inning. So eyes were on Fox as this one began. The five year Cougar vet though got out of the first retiring the Canaries in order. Feeding on that, the Cougars scored in the first with Todd Lott driving in Craig to make it 1-0. The Canaries got to Fox in the second with the first three batters singling. With the sacks loaded, a Peter Zimmerman fly out tied the game, But Jordan Barth was thrown out trying to steal third and Scott Combs flew out as the Birds could not put up a cro...

I had a hard time deciding what I was going to do on an unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon with no American Association playoffs going on. Then I saw a post that today is the six year anniversary of the St. Paul Saints winning the 2019 Miles Wolff Cup. I knew I had to be at CHS Field today, sitting right where I was in 2019. Yes, the AAA Saints have a game today, I didn't break into the ballpark. With all the St. Paul connections in the Miles Wolff Cup this season, it makes for the perfect place to preview this season's match up. I'm sure nobody had the Cougars vs. Canaries in their preseason picks. Matter of fact, I'm guessing nobody had them meeting in the Finals in their playoff pool (if anyone actually does pools for that). It is an intriguing match up as you can find. Both teams are pretty even in the pitching department. You may say Sioux Falls has the advantage at the plate, but we've seen Kane County rise to the occasion in the first two rounds of the playof...

 We have a matchup for the 2025 Miles Wolff Cup Final as Kane County defeated Chicago 10-3 and Sioux Falls defeated Fargo-Moorhead 11-2. Here are my observations from the evening. Chicago... basically in arms race that is the baseball postseason, the Dogs ran out of weapons having to utilize their main arms in Game Four. John Baker was the starter and only got through two innings. Four more Dogs pitchers were utilized, none of which where their main bullpen arms. You felt better about the Dogs solving Konnor Ash when they scored three runs in the second inning on home runs from Johnni Turbo and Henry Kusiak. But they could not solve Ash or two Cougar relievers after that.  Kane County.... As a team that at times struggled to score runs, the Cougars have been a post season juggernaut. The Cougars scored in seven of their nine innings tonight. The veteran core of the offense is hot right now with Josh Allen, Todd Lott and Claudio Finol all hitting over .300 in the playoffs. I th...

 Wow, have I really wrote nothing in almost a week. Sorry about that everyone. It was hard to focus in the last week due to another painful bout of gout. Then last night it was a long ago planned date night to see a Weird Al Yankovic concert with my wife. But I'm all yours the rest of the way.... unless there is a game five of the MWC, then another date night but I'll have a wrap up. Just some observations from both games tonight as Chicago defeated Kane County 5-3 and Fargo-Moorhead outlasted Sioux Falls 4-1 in ten innings. First from the Chicago side. Give credit to Zach Davidson for nearly getting through four innings. Only once this season has Davidson gone more than four. His only blemish was a Josh Allen two run home run. The Dogs played their Trey Braithwaite card as the right hander got through two scoreless. He did run into trouble as the Cougars nearly scored on him in the seventh needing a T.J. Hopkins running catch to keep the lead. J.C. Keys pitched in his second c...

 If there is something I've learned in the last week, it's that I'm no Lee Corso when it comes to picking winners of American Association Playoff Series. Three decisive Game Three's tonight, only one of which had late game suspense. But we are now on to the Division Finals starting on Monday. Enjoy your NFL Sunday and be ready to get at it on Monday Night.  Sioux Falls 7 Sioux City 1 Whatever it was that the Canaries found in the seventh inning last night in Sioux City, they best make sure they bottled it and bring it to the ballpark on Monday. I can remember driving home from a Minnesota Gophers football game in 1993. The late Jim Wacker was the Gophers coach and more times than often, salesman and pitch guy. After a win, Wacker said, "Great players got to play great games". I thought of this tonight as Jabari Henry homered three times and drove in five runs and Ryan Zimmerman allowed just one run in six innings of work to lead the Canaries to Round Two. The ...

 After an interesting night one, four teams went into Friday night in a win or else situation. Not ideal, but keep in mind a line that I heard from the former Minnesota Hockey coach Don Lucia, "the toughest game to win is the one that ends the other team's season". Milwaukee 12 Kane County 0 For anyone that was wondering if the Kane County Cougars were ever going to lose a playoff game again, that question was answered early and often at Northwestern Medicine Field on Friday night. The Milkmen jumped out to a 3-0 lead and chased Cougars starter Chris Mazza in the first inning only recording one out. Any doubt about the outcome were erased in the fifth and sixth inning when the Milkmen added seven more runs. Jhordany Mezquita only had to go five innings for the Milkmen only allowing two hits for the night. Andy Blake homered and drove in four runs as part of a four hit night to lead the Milkmen. Chicago 4 Lake Country 0 Jacob Teter reached on an error and scored on the fro...

 Night one did not disappoint as two of the four games were one run games and another was a walkoff winner. A huge round of applause to American Association TV who debuted Playoff Central tonight where fans could watch all four games on their TV screen. I've already nicknamed it the Quadcast.  Fargo-Moorhead 1 Kansas City 0 I think the big surprise here is that the RedHawks did not start Jake Dykhoff, but opted for Kyle Crigger. It ended up being a great call as Crigger shutout the Monarchs in his seven innings of work allowing only two hits. The only run of the game was off the bat of Lamar Sparks and an RBI single in the seventh inning. Blake Goldsberry was great for Monarchs as well allowing just one run in 6.1 innings in picking up a hard luck loss. Now the RedHawks have Dykhoff and Tyler Jandron available to try to take one of two games at Legends Field. Kane County 2 Milwaukee 1 The Milkmen understood Lake Country's logic in picking Chicago for their first round opponent...

 After three and a half months and 100 games, it has come down to this, eight teams battling for one thing, the Miles Wolff Cup. As a player it doesn't matter if you've played in the Major Leagues or if this is your first year of professional baseball, the goal at the end will be holding up the Miles Wolff Cup. Leon Durham said after a very good major league career that winning the 1993 Northern League Championship was like winning the World Series, and that feeling carries on today in the eight teams battling for the Cup. So let's take a look at the four series beginning on Wednesday night. Lake Country vs. Chicago Why Lake Country will win: Lake Country battled through a nine game losing streak to sweep Chicago at Kamp Oconomowoc. They would go on to drop three more games in Milwaukee before winning their final two games. They must have a short memory and focus on their success against Chicago. Although the DockHounds offense isn't as prolific as last year's club,...

 The 100 game marathon known as the American Association regular season has concluded. Varying away from my normal recaps we'll just give you the scores from six games that had no meaning other than affecting players stats and giving playoff teams one last tune up.  The 100 game season has eliminated four teams. In the next week in three game series, four more teams will be eliminated. When you look at it that way, it lends doubt as to whether the eight team playoff format is the right thing. The defenders say that it gives hope to teams that struggle but make the playoffs. The cynics will say the only race there was this season ended up being for the last playoff spot in the East with the Milwaukee Milkmen going 13-4 in their last 17 games to overtake the free falling Cleburne Railroaders. If the old format was still around, we would've seen a dogfight in the West for the top two spots. And in the East, Kane County was only 1.5 games behind Chicago. But the format is likely n...