Just Because: AFC North Advertising
September 9, 2009Brady Quinn to Start Opening Day
September 9, 2009After finishing the season Monday afternoon with an 89-53 record, the Aeros look to improve upon their second-most successful regular season with another playoff run here in 2009. WFNY was all over the Akron playoff run last September thanks to the help of Travis Hafner and others, and this year features one of the most stacked Double-A teams in franchise history. Playing against the Reading Phillies in a five-game series starting tonight at Canal Park, the Aeros will have their work cut out for them yet again. The team has won the Eastern League Southern Division post-season crown in each of the past four seasons and will look to complete their run of an EL record fifth straight 80-win season with a fifth straight trip to the championship.
The biggest story in this series will be what the Aeros still have on their roster compared to what Reading no longer has. This weekend I mentioned how Akron took home three of the four season-ending awards from the league with the lone exception of the Rookie of the Year award to Michael Taylor. The former Stanford Cardinal got the promotion to Triple-A Lehigh Valley back in July however, and will not be playing for the team as well as two of their top pitching prospects in lefty Joe Savery and prodigee Kyle Drabek. Savery, the first player in the league to reach 10 wins and a post-season All-Star in the league despite being promoted in July, will not play in the series as well while their top prospect in Drabek has been shut down for the season due to his innings count.
Akron still features Pitcher of the Year Jeanmar Gomez, Josh Tomlin, MVP Carlos Santana, Josh Rodriguez, along with first-round draft picks Lonnie Chisenhall and Beau Mills along with several other Single-A prospects who have gotten the call up this season. Eric Berger has been pretty solid in Double-A thus far, and although the Aeros truly have the advantage in terms of the sheer number of prospects it will be interesting to see how they do compared to the regular season match-ups. Reading won seven of the only 10 games between the two teams as they have actually not met since half a season ago on June 9th. Many things have changed in the division and on the rosters for both teams (and organizations) since that time, and thus many things will be different from the last time they have met.
What follows from here is my breakdown of the players to watch for both teams along with the official schedule from the Eastern League:
Reading’s MVP: 3B Neil Sellers – The post-season All-Star was a stud offensively all season long for the Phillies and dominated the Aeros in the 10 contests earlier this season. He finished this year with a .317 batting average, 17 home runs, and 86 RBI in 139 games played while also batting .371 against Akron.
Akron’s MVP: C Carlos Santana – Any doubt now? The top prospect acquired from Los Angeles for Casey Blake last season won his second straight league MVP award this year and was clearly the most consistent hitter in the organization. He tied a franchise-record for 97 RBIs and drew the most walks in the EL in the past half decade with 90.
Reading’s Dark Horse: CF Quintin Berry – The speedy center fielder was neck-and-neck with Akron’s Jose Constanza all year for the stolen base crown and finished just one back with 48 overall. Berry is a game changer when he is at his best, as his .355 on-base percentage and five home runs prove he can be a threat.
Akron’s Dark Horse: RHP Josh Tomlin – He led the league with 14 wins, but also had a 4.19 ERA and was second with 21home runs allowed. The third-place Erie SeaWolves dominated him all year, but Tomlin will have to step it up as the number one starter for the Aeros in this series and the rest of the playoffs with help from Jeanmar Gomez.
Game 1: Reading @ Akron, 7:05 p.m. Wednesday at Canal Park
Game 2: Reading @ Akron, 7:05 p.m. Thursday at Canal Park
Game 3: Akron @ Reading, 7:05 p.m. Friday at FirstEnergy Stadium
Game 4 (if necessary): Akron @Reading, 7:05 p.m. Saturday at FirstEnergy Stadium
Game 5 (if necessary): Reading @ Akron, 7:05 p.m. Sunday at Canal Park
(The photo above is of the boardwalk over looking Canal Park on South Main Street in downtown Akron. Nice job catman47 on Outdoors.WebShots.com.)
6 Comments
Indians could have had Michael Taylor in the Cliff Lee deal (steal), but Shapiro inisted on Lou Marson instead. Thoughts?
And the Lake Erie Crushers won Game 1 of their Best of 5 last night. Playoff baseball!
“Indians could have had Michael Taylor in the Cliff Lee deal (steal), but Shapiro inisted on Lou Marson instead. Thoughts?”
Have you personally talked to Shapiro about this…? Yeah didn’t think so.
Taylor actually played for Reading–but it made no difference as Aeros easily win 9-4.
How dare you doubt Isis. He is all-knowing and can do no wrong. You know where he gets his info? Well it comes straight from his… I do enjoy the replies that his comments produce.
[…] as I did in the first round, I will break down the match-up between the two teams as well as the MVP’s for both teams in […]