Twittered Baseball Roadtrip #13: Yanks, Sox, Mets, and Phillies Baseball America's Top 10 Prospects Playing in the Eastern League
Dates: April 14, 2011, May 13, 2011, May 19, 2011, July 14, 2011, August 10, 2011, and August 22, 2011
Primary Destinations: Day trips to Trenton, NJ and an over-night trip to Portland, ME
Twitter Address: http://twitter.com/Wtriebel
Games Attended: (r=postponed due to rain)
Game 1: Harrisburg Senators vs. Trenton Thunder, April 14, 2011, 7:05PM, Waterfront Park, Trenton, NJ
Game 2: Binghamton Mets vs. Trenton Thunder, May 13, 2011, 7:05PM, Waterfront Park, Trenton, NJ
r-Game 3: Reading Phillies vs. Portland Sea Dogs, May 19, 2011, 12:00PM, Hadlock Field, Portland, ME
Game 4: Reading Phillies vs. Trenton Thunder, July 14, 2011, 7:05PM, Waterfront Park, Trenton, NJ
Game 5: Binghamton Mets vs. Trenton Thunder, August 10, 2011, 7:05PM, Waterfront Park, Trenton, NJ
Game 6: Harrisburg Senators vs. Portland Sea Dogs, August 22, 2011, 7:05PM, Hadlock Field, Portland, ME
Summary:
This blog post summarizes the second segment of m 2011 summer baseball road trip to attend minor league games in which players that are ranked by Baseball America as top 10 prospects of the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, and Philadelphia Phillies. Each of these major league teams has an AA-level affiliate in the Eastern League. They are:
- Trenton Thunder (New York Yankees)
- Portland Sea Dogs (Boston Red Sox)
- Binghamton Mets (New York Mets)
- Reading Phillies (Philadelphia Phillies)
The primary objective was to attend a game in which each of these teams play in an effort to see as many of the top 10 prospects in action. However, this trip had two additional objects:
- To see the 2011 home opening game of the Trenton Thunder
- To attend a home game of the Portland Sea Dogs.
The Baseball America top 10 ranked prospects that played for each of these teams during the 2011 season are as follow:
New York Yankees:
#3 Dellin Betances (P)
#4 Manny Banuelos (P),
#6 Austin Romine (C)
New York Mets:
#4 Matt Harvey (P)
#6 Reese Havens (2B)
#10 Brad Holt (P)
Philadelphia Phillies:
None
Boston Red Sox:
#9 Stolmy Pimentel (P)
The initial plan was to attend the home opener of the Trenton Thunder on April 14th; then in game #2 see the Binghamton Mets play the Thunder in an away game at Trenton on May 13th; and in game #3, on May 19th, see the Reading Phillies play the Portland Sea Dogs at Hadlock Field in Portland, ME. These three games would fulfill all of my objectives for the trip. However, game #3 was rained out and my plan had to be adjusted.
My new solution was to attend an away game of the Reading Phillies when they played in Trenton and to pick an alternate later in the season to make a return trip to Portland, ME. The Reading-Trenton game gave me a third opportunity to see the Yankees #6 prospect Austin Romine play. As mentioned above, none of the Phillies top 10 prospects played at Reading this season. But, on the night of this game, the Philadelphia Phillies closer Brad Lidge was on their roster rehabbing from an injury and he did pitch in the game.
When I attended the Mets-Thunder game in May, the New York Mets #6 prospect Reese Havens was on the disabled list and did not play. Moreover, on June 22nd the New York Mets #4 prospect, right hand pitcher Matt Harvey, was promoted from the St. Lucie Mets (A-level, Florida State League) to Binghamton. This is the reason a second Mets-Thunder game was added to my schedule for August 10th. In that game, Matt Harvey was the starting pitcher for the Mets and Reese Havens played second base.
On the other hand, the Red Sox #9 prospect Stolmy Pimentel, got off to a poor start with Portland and in early July was demoted to their A+ level affiliate in the Carolina League, the Salem Red Sox. So when I attended the Portland game in late August none of the Red Sox top 10 prospects were on the Sea Dogs roster.
I wrote a detailed article reviewing this baseball roadtrip titled "Baseball America's Top 10 Propsects of the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Phillies Playing in the Eastern League" for the FanFeedr.com sports website and it my be viewed on their "Standing Room Only" blog by clicking on this link (http://bit.ly/qGnCSe).
I wrote this article prior to attending Games #5 and #6 of the roadtrip. In game #5, Binghamton defeated the Thunder by a score of 9 to 3. Matt Harvey, the Mets big hard throwing right hander, pitched 5 innings and gave up 3 runs on 3hits and no walks. He struck out 6 Trenton batters. Harvey received the win to run his record to 2W and 3L.
At the same time, Reese Haven had an excellent game in the field at with the bat. He went 3 for 5 and scored 2 runs. His hits were 2 singles and a double. Reese singled and scored the Mets first run in the 1st inning and singled again in the 2nd inning to knock in the Mets second run of the game. This was his 15th RBI of the season. Finally, Havens lead of the top of the 5th with a double to left and came around to score Binghamton’s third run. Austin Romine, Trenton’s starting catcher and #6 prospect of the Yankees, was on the 7-da DL at the time of this game and did not play. A link to the box score for the game is provided below.
As mentioned earlier, by the time I attended game #6 in Portland, ME, there were no longer any of the Boston Red Sox top 10 prospect on the team. In my article on FanFeedr.com, I had mentioned that 5 members of the Portland Sea Dogs team were elected to the Eastern League’s Eastern Division All Star Teams. They were:
- Chih-Hsien Chiang, RF
- Alex Hassan, LF
- Will Middlebrooks, 3B
- Stephen Fife, RHP
- Alex Wilson, RHP
However, prior to August 22nd, the date I attended the Portland game, Chiang and Fife had been traded and during the prior week Middlebrooks and Wilson had both been promoted to the Red Sox triple-A affiliate in Pawtucket. For this reason, on the day of the game only Alex Hassen was in the Sea Dogs line-up. He was batting 3rd and playing left field. Most of the game was a pitching duel between the Harrisburg starter right hand pitcher Tanner Roark and Portland starter righty Chris Balcom-Miller. In fact, Roark pitched 5.2 innings of no hit ball before giving up two doubles and 1 run to the Sea Dogs in the bottom of the 6th. Meanwhile, Balcom-Miller pitched 7 scoreless innings giving up 7H, 1BB, and striking out 6. But in the top of the 8th inning, the Senators scored 4 runs off Portland reliever Blake Maxwell for a come from behind victory. The Sea Dogs All Star left fielder Alex Hassan went 0 for 3 in the game, but reach base once on a base on balls.
Two of the Washington Nationals baseball America’s top 10 prospects were on the roster of the Harrisburg Senators during August. Bryce Harper, the Senators #1 prospect and the #1 minor league prospect in all of major league baseball was promoted to Harrisburg in early July. However, he strained his right hamstring in the Senators game on Thursday August 18th and put on the 7-day DL on August 20th. Derek Norris, Washington’s #2 prospect, was catching and batted 3rd for Harrisburg. Derek went 0 for 4 on the day.
Through this series of 5 games, I got to see 4 of the 7 Yanks, Sox, and Met prospects that played in the Eastern League during 2011. By the time I got back to Portland, Pimentel was no longer with the team. Furthermore, I did not get to see the Thunder's starting pitchers, Yankees #3 prospect Dellin Betances and #4 Manny Banuelos. As mention in my earlier blog post, it is hard to plan travel to games in advance and pick days when a specific pitcher will start. However, I did succeed seeing both Brad Hold and Matt Harvey on nights that they were the starter for the Binghamton Mets.
Summary of South Atlantic League Roadtrip Games:
Game 1: April 14, 2011 Link to Box Score: http://bit.ly/prFBb1
Harrisburg 4R 8H 0E
WP: Cory VanAllen (1W:0L)
SV: Patrick McCoy (1)
Trenton 2R 8H 1E
LP: Shaeffer Hall (0W:1L)
HR: Cody Johnson (1)
Game 2: May 13, 2011 Link to Box Score: http://bit.ly/pQNJ2R
Binghamton 3R 4H 2E
LP: Brad Holt (1W:2L)
HR: Eric Campbell (2)
Trenton 5R 5H 2E
WP: Kei Igawa (2W:1L)
SV: Fernando Hernandez (6)
HR: Cody Johnson (5)
Game 3: May 19, 2011 Postponed due to rain
Reading 0R 0H 0E
Portland 0R 0H 0E
Game 4: July 14, 2011 Link to Box Score: http://bit.ly/onEoez
Reading 5R 11H 1E
LP: J.C. Ramirez (7W:9L)
HR: Kevin Frandsen (1), Terry Evans (4)
Trenton 0R 11H 0E
WP: Shaeffer Hall (7W:4L)
Game 5: August 10, 2011 Link to Box Score: http://bit.ly/pH7uH1
Binghamton 9R 15H 1E
WP: Matt Harvey (2W:3L)
HR: Jonathan Malo (2)
Trenton 3R 8H 3E
LP: Shaeffer Hall (10W:6L)
Game 6: August 22, 2011 Link to Box Score: http://bit.ly/nu12ug
Harrisburg 4R 10H 0E
LP: Cory VanAllen (4W:3L)
SV: Rafael Martin (12)
HR: Tim Pahuta (10)
Portland 1R 5H 2E
WP: Blake Maxwell 3(W:4L)
BSV: Blake Maxwell (5)
Twitter Roadtrip Information:
The tweets posted on Twitter for each of the games includes pre-game tweets with information about the league, each team participating in the games, probable starting pitchers, and any of Baseball America’s top 10 prospects on the team rosters. In addition, travel information is provided such as the address of the stadium, a link to photos of the stadium, distance, and travel time. After the game, post-game tweets summarized the result, such as winning team, final score and overall team stats, winning and losing pitchers, a review of the play of any of the BA top 10 prospects participating in the game, and scoring highlights of the game.
Game 1: Harrisburg Senators vs. Trenton Thunder
1st Tweet: 13 Apr Opening day of the Eastern League's 2011 baseball season was Thursday, April 7th..
Last Tweet: 30 Apr Game 4 Phillies #9 Prospect: Domingo Santana, DH, batted 7th in the order, 3AB 0R 0H
Game 2: Binghamton Mets vs. Trenton Thunder
1st Tweet: 12 May Yankees, Phillies, Mets, and Red Sox 2011 Baseball America's Top 10 Minor League Prospects Roadtrip resumes Friday 5/13/11
Last Tweet: 14 May Game 2 Yankees #3 Prospect: Dellin Betances--did not play and #4 Prospect Manny Banuelos DNP.
Game 4: Reading Phillies vs. Trenton Thunder
1st Tweet: 13 Jul Yankees, Phillies, Mets, and Red Sox 2011 Baseball America's Top 10 Minor League Prospects Roadtrip resumes Thursday 7/14/11
Last Tweet: 15 Jul Brad Lidge Update: Started 7th, pitched .2 innings, final stats: 1H 2R 1BB 0SO 2HBP 3WP
Game 5: Binghamton Mets vs. Trenton Thunder
1st Tweet: 11 Aug Yankees, Mets, Phillies, and Red Sox 2011 Baseball America's Top 10 Minor League Prospects Roadtrip continued yesterday, Wednesday 8/10/11.
Last Tweet: 31 Aug Official website of the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees: web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=…
Game 6: Harrisburg Senators vs. Portland Sea Dogs
1st Tweet: 21 Aug Yankees, Phillies, Mets, and Red Sox 2011 Baseball America's Top 10 Minor League Prospects Roadtrip resumes tomorrow Monday 8/22/11
Last Tweet: 23 Aug Highlight #7: Harrisburg's closer Rafael Martin gave up 1 BB, but struck out the other three batters he faced in the B-9th for his 12th save.
Roadtrip Planning Resources
