Scranton rules the International League
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Sep 12, 2008 
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Congrats to Scranton, which put a 20-2 beating on Durham tonight to win the International League title, three games to one.
Phil Hughes struck out 12 in five innings for the win. Just about every hitter did something with Juan Miranda driving in six runs. Scranton moves on to the Bricktown Showdown in Oklahoma City against the PCL Champion on Tuesday. The game will be on ESPN2.
The MVP of that game will receive an award named for the late Bobby Murcer.
I had a chance to attend a game in Scranton this season and they have some great fans. Be happy for manager Dave Miley, who suffered the death of his teenage son in a car accident a few weeks ago. A baseball game can’t change how he feels, but hopefully this victory gave him a reason to smile.
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Joe Girardi said last week that the Yankees would add players only if there were a need to. I’m not sure how many – if any – of the Scranton guys will get the call. You would think they’d keep the team together through Tuesday. Kennedy could start that game on Tuesday.
But it also make sense for the Yankees to have Hughes and Kennedy make a start or two in the majors instead of guys like Sidney Ponson and Carl Pavano. They need innings.
Mark Melancon could be at his innings limit. Dave Robertson could come back, maybe.
Nice job scranton!
at least the yankees won something this year
At this point, it feels great to say that this organization rocks!
Hughes in his last 2 starts…
13 IP, 8 H, 4 BB (.923 WHIP), 1 ER (.692 ERA), 23 SO (12.93 K/9)
Congrats Scranton!
Congrats to the guys in Scranton. I’m so happy for Phil Hughes, I was getting quite tired of all the negativity coming from fans. Like Pete said, he’s just 22.
15.923 K/9, not 12.923
The Yankees brass cannot be happy about seeing Torre and Santana light up October….
Yes, but Phil is 154 in dog years.
I saw the game on MiLBTV. Hughes wasn’t even on the top of his game and the umpire’s strike zone was the size of a postage stamp (hence the walks and only 5 IP). He still gave up one run and K’d 12.
His curve was borderline unhittable and he threw in a few changeups and cutters that looked VERY good. Even on an off night, he still made adjustments and was leaps and bounds over his competition.
It’s way too early to give up on this kid.
Can we stop with Torre already. He is gone playing in a garbage nl west.
Congrats to SWB! I was hoping the milb broadcast would show some of the players or manger speak.
Yeah, Nick, but, Hughes is a young 154.
But Hughes can come up to the major and the crack committee coaching staff can limit him and only let him throw 2 maybe 3 pitches. Lets be predictable. What a novel concept
But Hughes can come up to the majors and the crack committee coaching staff can limit him and only let him throw 2 maybe 3 pitches. Lets be predictable. What a novel concept
But Hughes can come up to the majors and the crack committee coaching staff can limit him and only let him throw 2 maybe 3 pitches. Lets be predictable. What a novel concept
Nice triple post by myself.
Hughes is going to be a very good MLB pitcher. I don’t think he’ll ever be an ace like Joba, but he is going to be above average and has the makings of a great big game pitcher.
Let him come up and reward him for his brilliant postseason. Cashman is acting like an idiot with his new found tough love approach.
Dave Miley certainly deserves to smile.
No more Ian Kennedy please.
Enough is enough.
He sucks.
Try back in another year or trade him.
I’d rather see Kei Igawa.
Maybe Kennedy and Igawa can mind-meld and produce one major league pitcher.
Good post, Pete. Congratulations to Scranton Yankees and Dave Miley.
I agree, Kennedy sucks.
On the other hand, they might just produce one pitcher who wakes up and feels like he’s going to make them look stupid in Japanese sunglasses.
I think that Kennedy’s going to be a pretty good pitcher in the major leagues. Just not sure the AL East is the place for his type pitching. If he could get more sink and become a ground ball pitcher, then he could do it. Wish Stottlemyre was still around to teach him that pitch.
Just got back from the game. Wow. Franchise was impressive. More Yankee fans then Bulls. LETS GO YANKEES all night long.
“Can we stop with Torre already. He is gone playing in a garbage nl west.”
Torre was good for the Yankees while he was in NY and both have now moved on. End of story. No villains are necessary.
As for playing in the “garbage nl west”, you don’t control the competition, all you can do is play the teams on your schedule.
I was at the Yankees and Bulls game tonight and I have never seen so many hard hit balls in my life by one team. Nearly every ball Miranda hit was perfectly squared up. His HR was an absolute tank. Someone mentioned that Hughes didn’t have his best stuff…he sure didn’t but that didn’t stop him for dominating. His walk total was a bit high though. It great to see the team pile up on the mound.
pete: does the success on this level mean anything to the major league level? should we be looking forward to replicating this success on the major level in a few years?
schiano –
Success at the minor league level does not always equate to success at the big league level; we’ve seen it with outstanding prospects in the past.
However, it should be noted that there doesn’t exist many superstar players who put up bad minor league numbers. So you NEED minor league success to get your chance in the first place.
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The key word is PATIENCE – you must have it with young players, especially young pitchers. Hughes is not going to come up here and strike out 23 hitters in his first two starts. Only guys like Randy Johnson in their primes do that in the first place.
Again, just sitting down and looking at raw minor league stats won’t tell you what a future holds; but if you look at everything (age, experience, k-bb ratios, gb-fb ratios, whether the player is repeating a level, scouting reports, etc. etc.), you can actually start forming an opinion on the future of a player.
While I’m excited about the Scranton win (which shuts about David Chalk at BugsandCranks.com for about 5 minutes, maybe 10), two of the Yankees starters in the Cup playoffs were IAK and Kei. A number of Scranon pitchers this year were players that couldn’t produce in the majors – Igawa, Ohlendorf, IAK, Karstens. Plus their roster included players by the likes of Shelly Duncan, Brett Gardner, and Melky, which makes me nervous about the players in the Yankee farm system.
Hopefully my concerns are unwarranted, as I don’t closely follow Scranton. Peter, who are the prospects that we may be able to expect something in the majors in 2009 and 2010?
of the 60 who played for scranton this year, 26 have already been in ny in 2008. of the remaining 34, you can expect the following to visit the majors in 2009, either with the yankees or some other team:
1B miranda
OF carson
S wright
R melancon
R cox
R sjackson
R strickland
R perez