I was surprised to see the Rays promote top prospect 3B Junior Caminero. Could be they’ve got a loophole through which they can add him to the playoff roster. Could be they plan to have him break camp with the club next season and want him to get acclimated for a week or so and then feel like a big leaguer all winter long. That’s the takeaway that matters most to our game. After the news of Wander’s lust(s) echoed across the internet, people speculated the fallout could speed up Caminero’s timeline. I didn’t think so because Tampa’s always loaded with functional major league options across the infield, but today I think that’s more or less what happened. Not that we’re likely to ever find out.
I was also surprised to see the Red Sox fire Chaim Bloom. Seems intuitive that you have a down cycle after a Dave Dombrowski title run, and that division is perhaps the game’s toughest setting, but alright. I say I’m surprised, but I’m never particularly shocked when the struggles of an organization get pinned to one human in hopes that the consumers will forget said struggles. Truth is the Red Sox have a pretty good system. It’s the big money signings where Bloom has irritated ownership. Chris Sale and Trevor Story in particular. Kinda feels like the whole Mookie Betts saga is landing on Bloom’s desk, and I don’t know, I wasn’t in the building, but he did get a Rafael Devers extension done. Stands to reason he wasn’t the one saying no on paying Betts a bunch of money before he was anywhere close to becoming a free agent. Easy fall guy though, I suppose. That trade was fugly even at the time and hasn’t looked better since. The next good Sawx squad will likely contain a lot of players Bloom brought on board, so maybe he’ll get a little credit somewhere across the arc of time.
Royals RHP James McArthur has stormed his way through the bullpen battlefield to emerge victorious as the holder of ninth inning duties in Kansas City, at least for now. He posted a 7.31 ERA with the Triple-A Phillies in 16 innings but added a slider with the Royals and hasn’t allowed a run since August 25th back in Triple-A.
Diamondbacks OF Kristian Robinson finished the regular season with home runs in back-to-back games and then homered in the opening game of the playoffs. He and his fellow Sod Poodles beat the Padres’ affiliate two games to one (Robinson hit .400 in the series), so his first season back on the field will continue today in the Texas League Championship against the Arkansas Travelers, a Seattle Mariners affiliate led by a lineup full of tough outs like OF Jonatan Clase, 3B Tyler Locklear, OF Alberto Rodriguez and more.
The High-A Midwest League Championship saw the Dodgers’ Great Lakes Loons fall to the Twins’ Cedar Rapids Kernels, woot woot. Dalton Rushing’s 1.400 OPS just wasn’t enough to overcome a deep CR lineup in the end. Twins OF Emmanuel Rodriguez hit a grand slam in the deciding game.
The High-A Northwest League Finals saw another Mariners affiliate, The Everett AquaSox, lose to the Blue Jays’ Vancouver Canadians three games to one. Blue Jays OF Gabriel Martinez hit .438 in the series. Mariners OF Cole Young hit .400.
A theme you see throughout the minor league playoffs, year over year, is that the good orgs are the good orgs. In the Triple-A International League, Tampa’s Durham affiliate won the second half crown; Baltimore’s Norfolk affiliate took the first half. Rocket surgery to track this trend, I realize, but I guess I would’ve thought the teams that get to pick early year over year and spend the most on the international market would eventually accrue some sort of advantage at the lower levels, which is true for the Low-A Pirates and Tigers this year in the Florida State League’s second half, but untrue in the Carolina League, where Tampa’s Charleston affiliate and Milwaukee’s Carolina affiliate won their leagues.
In the Low-A California League, Seattle’s Modesto Nuts finished with the best second-half record at 43-and-23, one game above the Low-A Rockies. The Arizona League Rockies finished a league-best 40-and-15, and even though wins and losses don’t mean much in a micro sense, you tend to notice when an organization goes 82-and-39 across the two lowest levels.
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