You Saw the Best in Lowell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Lowell just two years ago, Clay Buchholz graces the cover of this month’s Baseball America as this year’s top Double-A Eastern League prospect, and Jacoby Ellsbury received a write-up in the Red Sox section.

But that’s not all the accolades the Spinners garnered in the issue. Three 2007 Spinners were named the top prospects of the year in the New York-Penn League, meaning Spinners fans saw some of the most exciting players in the league every night:

• No. 6 - CF Ryan Kalish
• No. 8 - SS Oscar Tejeda
• No. 12 - SS/3B Yamaico Navarro

That’s three of the top 12 New York-Penn League prospects in Lowell, according to Baseball America.

The following former Spinners were also recognized:

• Overall Minor League All-Star and top Double-A Eastern League prospect RHP Clay Buchholz (2005)
• No. 8 Eastern League prospect SS Jed Lowrie (2005)
• No. 5 High Single-A prospect RHP Justin Masterson (2006)
• No. 4 Gulf Coast League prospect CF Che-Hsuan Lin (2007)
• No. 7 Gulf Coast League prospect SS Oscar Tejeda (2007)

Congratulations to all of them!

Harvey Garcia Makes Major League Debut

Harvey Garcia, a Lowell Spinners starting pitcher in 2004, made his Major League debut earlier in September with the Florida Marlins, bringing Lowell’s toll of Major Leaguers all the way up to 32, including seven this year, by far the most ever. Garcia was 4-6 with a 5.16 in his time in 14 starts for the Spinners and struck out 54 batters in 61.0 innings. Part of the trade that sent Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell to Boston before the 2006 season, Garcia split time between Double-A and Triple-A before his promotion to Florida as a September call-up. Congratulations, Harvey!

Marks Named Baserunner of the Month

The Red Sox recently named Spinners OF David Marks as their Minor League baserunner of the month for August and September.

The outfielder was a perfect 9-0 in stolen base attempts by August 25, and stole 10 in all last year, four in August and September combined.

Other former Spinners winning monthly awards included:

• • • • OF Zach Daeges (2006) - Offensive Player of the Month, Top Quality Plate Appearance Percentage (calculated)
      • RHP Dustin Richardson (2006) - Pitcher of the Month
      • SS Jed Lowrie (2005) - Defensive Player of the Month

Congratulations to David and the rest of our former Spinners tearing up the Minor Leagues.

Dan Giese Makes MLB Debut

Former Lowell Spinner Dan Giese made his Major League debut on September 8 as a relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, striking out one batter in two scoreless innings. He became the 31st former Spinner to make the Majors and the sixth this season, the most ever in a year.

Giese appeared in 33 games as a Spinners reliever and closer in 2000 and 2001, going 3-0 with 11 saves and 47 strikeouts in 54.0 innings pitched with Lowell.

Congratulations to Dan and the rest of the Spinners crew to make it to the bigs this season!

Read about Giese and his interesting road to the Majors (which included a temporary retirement and time as a car salesman) in this article from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Former Spinners win a Host of California League Awards

Bubba Bell Named California League MVP &

Chad Epperson Named Manager of the Year

Bell, Zach Daeges, and Aaron Bates named league post-season All-Stars

                                                                              

(LANCASTER, CA) –  The California League announced its 2007 post-season All-Stars and Awards today and the JetHawks captured three of the four biggest honors.  OF Bubba Bell was named the league Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year, while skipper Chad Epperson earned the honor of Manager of the Year.  Bell joined fellow outfielder Zach Daeges and first baseman Aaron Bates on the post-season All Star team.  The voting is done by league managers, general managers, and broadcasters, as well as selected members of local media.

 

Bell’s spectacular rise helped spark the JetHawks to the first half championship.  The 24-year old Texan is well on his way towards winning the league batting title, having posted a .370 average before moving up to AA Portland.  Bell was a candidate for the Triple Crown at the time of his promotion as he also was among the league leaders with 22 home runs and 83 RBI.  Bell won every award he qualified for this season as a post-season All-Star, MVP, and Rookie of the Year, to go along with his mid-season All-Star nomination and All-Star game MVP award.  A fan favorite, Bell is the second player in the history of the JetHawks organization to win each of the post-season honors.  In the 2000 campaign, Juan Silvestre was named the league MVP while Willie Bloomquist won the award for Rookie of the Year.

 

In his first season at the helm of the JetHawks, Chad Epperson has led the club to the best overall record in the league.  The JetHawks won the first half championship after finishing eight games above .500, and now have a magic number of just six to add the second half title as well.  Epperson joins 2000 manager Mark Parent and 2002 skipper Bill Plummer as JetHawks Manager of the Year award winners.

 

Bates and Daeges were also instrumental in the JetHawks success in 2007.  Bates remains second in the league with a .332 batting average, despite an August promotion to Portland.  At the time he went up, Bates led the league in home runs with 24 and had 88 RBI.  Bates was also the leading defensive first baseman in the league with just seven errors.  Daeges broke the JetHawks franchise records for doubles in a season when he notched his 46^th of the year.  He leads all of Minor League Baseball in that category and is within striking distance of the league record of 55.  The Nebraska native is fourth in the league in hitting at .326 and has added 18 home runs with a team-high 94 RBI.

Check Out the Flyover!

If you missed the pre-game festivities for Johnny Pesky night on Thursday, August 23, check out the following link.

Not only was the Red Sox Legend in the house, but the Air National Guard was here and gave us a fantastic flyover after their Air Guard band performed the National Anthem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncQztuW5qB0

Spinners Lead AL-affiliated All-Stars to victory

A trio of Lowell Spinners made their mark on the New York-Penn League All-Star game on Tuesday night at Hudson Valley’s infamous Dutchess Stadium.  Catcher Ty Weeden was the first Spinner into the game, taking over the catching duties in the 4th.  Weeden, one of the league’s strongest defensive catchers, caught 3 innings, during which the AL Affiliates gave up just one run. 

Felix Ventura, the Spinners’ excellent closer, came in for the eighth inning and pitched a scoreless frame.  Ventura struck out Brooklyn OF Brandon Kawal, a .306 hitter, then retired Carlos Piste before Colin DeLome singled and stole second.  Ventura ended the inning by retiring State College’s Austin McClune.

Yamaico Navarro, who came in as a defensive replacement in the sixth, lead off the bottom of the eighth with a lined single to left against Brooklyn ace reliever William Morgan, who sports a 1.04 ERA.  After Ron Bourquin flew out, Jason Dominguez replaced Morgan and Navarrro promptly got himself into scoring position with a stolen base, then Aberdeen LF Joseph Nowicki singled Navarro over the third.  Oneonta star Casper Wells finished the job with a sac fly to drive in Navarro and tie the game.  With the game tied the AL affiliates cracked 3 more base hits to take the lead.  Oneonta closer Noah Krol wrapped things up for the save and Ventura earned the win.

 The Spinners All-Star contingent was without two members, Mike Jones and Ryan Kalish.  Jones sported the best average among NYPL 1B at .340 when he was promoted to Greenville on August 9.  Kalish was the hottest player in the NYPL when he went down on July 16 with a wrist injury.  He was hitting .368 with 18 steals and had reached base in 16 of his last 19 plate appearances.

Spinners Batboy Enjoys Fenway, Job

Check out this Boston NOW story about Spinners batboy Dan Hinckley.

Spinners’ Southern Connection

The Spinners are not the first professional baseball team to be called the Spinners.  From 1939 to 1941, Greenville’s South Atlantic League team were known as the Spinners.   As many of you know Greenville (now the Greenville Drive) is the Red Sox SAL affiliate, and the team many of today’s Spinners play for when they are promoted from Lowell. 

However, that is not the only Spinners team from the south.  From 1946 to 1950 the Sanford Spinners played in the Tobacco State League, a class D league with teams from across North Carolina. Class D teams were equivalent to today’s class A teams, such as the New York-Penn League teams you see every night at LeLacheur Park. 

Futures at Fenway Game Recap

Check out this game summary of yesterday’s game at Fenway Park by MLB.com’s Evan Mohl: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070811&content_id=287717&vkey=news_milb&fext=.jsp