American Association Insider: Saturday August 29th Takeaways

 Kevin Luckow

(non member of IBWAA)

Once again the games in the American Association were having an impact on playoff seeding. The roster freeze/trade deadline came and went with no impact moves made by anyone. I really miss those days where you'd hear the rumors right before the deadline and then anxiously await, refreshing the league transaction pages to see who did what. It seems like those days are long behind us. I have no idea why. Is there a sense of "why build for next year, I may not even be here". Are they wanting to show their current players they believe in them. As a sell off would not make a good impression on players that they want to return next season. Whatever the reason be, it's made the deadline really really dull.

I'm doing this from the CHS Field Press Box, likely to finish when I get home. It's nice that the Saints still give me a seat "at the table". Frankly, the local media really drops the ball when it comes to Saints coverage. I guess with the Twins being so close, they'll focus on player stories when they make the bigs? It's just me and the ABS guy in Press Row where Rob Pannier and I used to hold court. 



Sioux Falls 5 Gary SouthShore 4

Both teams were in need of a win. The Canaries have Sioux City on their heels. There is a faint chance for the RailCats. The Cats led this one 4-2 heading to the eighth, but the Canaries scored a run in the eighth to cut the lead to one before a Mike Hart double plated the eventual game winning run. Jabari Henry homered twice for Sioux Falls as he tries to hold off Jose Sermo for the all time AAPB home run lead. 

Kane County 18-2 Sioux City 8-4

The Cougars were not messing around in game one, racking up a 15-2 lead after three innings. Alex McGarry returned to the Cougars lineup after an extended time, and smacked home runs in the second and third innings as part of a four RBI game. Jairus Richards did him better homering twice but driving in six runs. Konnor Ash picked up the win as he went six innings allowing two runs. I would like to send my condolences to the Baseball Reference page of the Explorers Jarod Wright who had to wear this one to the tune of 13 earned runs, 15 over all in three innings pitched.

Give the Explorers credit as they bounced back to win game two. Alberto Osuna drove in two runs to lead the Explorers attack. Derek West who just joined the Explorers on Friday threw the final two innings for the save allowing a  hit and striking out a pair. Kane County now sits 1.5 behind Lake Country with the Cougars only playing 99 games, so tiebreakers are irrelevant. Meanwhile with the win, the Explorers are one game behind the Canaries, tiebreaker going to the Canaries.

Winnipeg 3 Lake Country 2

Ray-Patrick Didder hit a three run home run in the first inning and it was all that the Goldeyes needed, defeating the DockHounds at Blue Cross Park. After James Colyer opened for the Goldeyes allowing a pair of runs in three innings, Luke Boyd threw five shutout innings to pick up the win.

Kansas City 9 Lincoln 1

The Saltdogs made an unlikely push for a playoff spot a little more unlikely with a loss again to the Monarchs. The Saltdogs now sit five games behind Sioux Falls for the final playoff spot in the West with Sioux City in between. Luken Baker got back in the home run column with his 22nd and Jimmie Endersby threw one run ball in 7.2 innings pitched striking out 10 to pick up the win. 

Cleburne 9 Chicago 1

Four deuces produced a winning hand for the Railroaders as they dealt Chicago a fourth consecutive loss in their six game series this week. The Roaders scored two runs in four different including two in the first three innings. Cody Thomas homered twice and Merik chipped in with one to lead the Roaders attack. Scott Ellis was superb going eight innings allowing a run on five hits. Cleburne now sits 5.5 games ahead of the RailCats for the final playoff spot in the East. 

Milwaukee 9 Fargo-Moorhead 3

The Milkmen keep chugging along, holding a game lead in the best overall record in the league. Down 3-2 in the fourth, the Milkmen scored the last seven runs of the game to pull away, winning their second in a row at Newman Outdoor Field. The Milkmen increase their lead in the East to three games while the RedHawks now trail the Goldeyes by two games in the race for second place and home field in their likely first round matchup. Charlie Marion keeps his sneaky good rookie season going with a three hit effort from the 9th spot in the Milkmen order. Juan Diaz won his fifth straight decision allowing three runs in six innings. He has not lost a game since July 21. 








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

American Association SUNDAY Insider: Speaking in terms of "what if?"

Image
 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) What was once a rumor passed between league colleagues, has now been reported by media. The story being the potential move of the Kane County Cougars and Cleburne Railroaders to the Frontier League, soon to be renamed National Association of Professional Baseball. The move would be made for the 2027 season. A real blow to an American Association that has ambitions of expansion.  To get a real feel for what this would mean to AAPB, let's go all the way back to 2006. In the Fall of 2005, the St. Paul Saints, Sioux Falls Canaries, Sioux City Explorers and Lincoln Saltdogs all departed the Northern League. Philosophical differences between ownerships being cited as a major reason for the defection. But a four team league was not going to cut it. Enter the St. Joe Blacksnakes as a stopgap, a team that likely would not have long term stability but filled an immediate need.  Enter Texas. The Texas-Louisiana League was winding down. So the five...
Read more

American Association SUNDAY Insider: The underpaid, overworked liaisons of the American Association

Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA)  The idea of this Insider came to my head on Thursday night as I was watching a game in Cleburne. It was the 750th American Association broadcast for voice of the Railroaders, Brad Allred. The Railroaders produced a video for Allred with numerous colleagues from the past, former players and current players paying tribute to Allred.  It got me to thinking just how important the play by play men are to the teams which they are employed. Teams in the AAPB do not have local newspapers following the teams on the road. Often times it is the play by play guys that may put a game story on their team website that the local newspaper picks up to condense into a tiny part of the newspaper. Not to discount the media relations director who also do gamers with no byline given if the newspaper picks it up.  For myself this goes all the way back to the Northern League. Although St. Paul had great coverage from Mike Augustin (mentioned a few weeks ago in...
Read more

American Association SUNDAY Insider: American Associaiton returning to Minnesota

Image
 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) It's been funny. I've seen stories, thoughts and opinions all around about the announcement of an American Association team in Blaine. They are nice recaps, crosses the t's and dots the i's. But all from an outsider perspective. There's a phrase I like to use when people refer to me as knowledgeable about the going ons in Independent Baseball. It's not that I'm smart, it just means I've been around a long time. For this story I think we have to go back to September of 2020. The St. Paul Saints were playing their final game of the Covid season against the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks. It was in front of a relatively sparse crowd. A weeknight in mid to late September and there was nothing at stake outside of who was going to win the American Association batting title. Drew Ward would end up edging Correlle Prime after Prime was robbed of a base hit late in the game. After the game I talked to Jeff Bittiger who was traveling w...
Read more