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Everyone won except for the Chiefs.  Auburn's win kept them 2.5 games ahead in the race for the playoffs with five days left.  Hurricane Ernesto could help Auburn over the weekend if many games are lost to the weather.  Josh Banks, Orlando Trias, Adrian Martin and Barndon Magee pitched well.  Aaron Mathews and Ryan Patterson were the offensive standouts.

Scranton 3  Syracuse 2

Josh Banks has had his struggles this season but he has been improving.  Banks' ERA was north of 6 in both May and June, 5.5 in July and 4.4 in August.  Banks continued his better pitching last night as he allowed three runs in 7.2 innings on 8 hits.  Wayne Lydon led off the bottom of the first with a home run, his ninth, and Rob Cosby hit a home run with two outs in the ninth.  In between the Chiefs had only three hits.

New Hampshire 8  Portland 7

Twenty one hits and four lead changes in this back and forward contest.  Michael MacDonald gets the cheap win as he allowed seven runs, six earned, in 6.2 innings.  Ryan Patterson went 2-4 with a double and a two run home run.  Tracy Thorpe picked up his seventeenth save.

Clearwater 2  Dunedin 7

Dunedin scored in five of the first six innings and held Clearwater off the scoreboard until the ninth inning.  Orlando Trias pitched 6.2 shutout innings with six hits allowed and six strikeouts.  Aaron Mathews was the offensive star, 4-5 with two home runs, a double, three runs scored, two RBI's.

Southwest Michigan 0  Lansing 6

Adrian Martin continued to build on his fine August, 3.33 ERA, with seven shutout innings and four hits allowed.  Joey Metropoulos doubled in a run in the first then Lansing bunched seven singles to score five runs in the fourth.  David Hicks, Anthony Garibaldi and Jesus Gonzalez had two hits each.

Jamestown 3  Auburn 4

Auburn made two erros in the first inning and put themselves down 2-0.  They scored three in the bottom of the first, helped by a Jamestown error, with two of the runs scoring on a double from Matt Liuzza.  Those two runs driven in by Liuzza were the only two runs driven in by a hit in the game, the other runs scored on a wild pitch, a ground out, an error and a double play.  Ben Zeskind and Scott Campbell had two hits each.  Brandon Magee started and pitched six innings, allowing four hits.

Stars

3  Orlando Trias
2  Adrian Martin
1  Aaron Mathews

Aaron Hits Two Home Runs | 5 comments | Create New Account
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Vic Parker - Saturday, September 02 2006 @ 12:25 PM EDT (#154466) #

I was at the game in Auburn last night...

Brandon Magee looked great. He was throwing 93, 94...There should have been NO runs earned against him actually. The Earned Run that scored was nailed at 3rd by the Right Fielder but a bad call kept him there. There was a alot of swinging and missing going on. At one point I think Magee had 2 K's on 6 straight swinging strikes.

Manny Sena should be noted as the nicest guy I met while I was there, he signed a ton of autographs for the kids.

Not too many notable players to keep an eye on there, due to our lack of higher round draft picks but the team looks solid and is making a playoff run.

 

Alex Obal - Saturday, September 02 2006 @ 01:34 PM EDT (#154471) #
Just looking at Tracy Thorpe's stats, his 10.06 K/9 rate is an easy career high, and his 1.06 WHIP is a career low. He's 25 and playing his first full season at AA. He's playing as a clear flyball pitcher, but his LD rate is a very good 16.9. Thorpe has battled through a torn labrum in 2002 and shoulder tendonitis in 2003 to get where he is today, and according to Jordan's 2003 prospect writeup, he's a great contributor to the community. He sounds like a decent sleeper pick to contribute to a major-league bullpen sometime fairly soon.

Before last night's game his splits were:

vs LHB - .183/.330/.296, 29.5% K, 18.2% BB, 52.3% BIP (21.7% LD, 32.6% GB), .273 BABIP
vs RHB - .148/.233/.235, 26.1% K, 8.5% BB, 65.4% BIP (14.6% LD, 31.7% GB), .190 BABIP

Not bad at all, though he definitely walks his fair share of lefties. Allowing 31 hits in 54.2 innings should get you noticed. He's only given up three homers in about 220 PA. That gives him a 6.67% HR/Fly, which is a warning sign. He also has a nifty 30.8% IF/Fly rate (assuming Minor League Splits defines a pop-up as a flyball caught by a non-outfielder), meaning almost a third of the many flyballs he does give up are pop-ups. This is very strange - the highest IF/Fly among major leaguers who have thrown at least 25 innings is Taylor Tankersley's 25.0. I have no idea whether that's sustainable, though I would probably bet against it. Might also be a generous hometown scorer. Still, these numbers look pretty impressive, especially considering he's being used as a closer and therefore facing high-leverage situations most of the time.

Any Fisher Cat fans out there have a scouting report on Thorpe? How hard is he throwing?
Gerry - Saturday, September 02 2006 @ 04:30 PM EDT (#154478) #
Thorpe throws gas, 95 mph when I saw him pitch.  Because of his year I think Thorpe will make it onto top 30 prospect lists this off-season.
Marc Hulet - Saturday, September 02 2006 @ 10:54 PM EDT (#154522) #
Thorpe can become a free agent if he's not added to the 40 man roster.
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