Batter's Box Interactive Magazine

The Auburn Doubledays clinched the division title and a playoff spot Saturday. Josh Banks made a strong claim for a promotion. With Lansing and Auburn in the playoffs the other teams in contention continued to slip. Dunedin lost their fourth in a row and are now out of the playoffs. New Hampshire are a half game back with two games left, three games left for Portland, their rivals in the chase. The Dunedin and New Hampshire offenses have struggled with the playoffs in sight.

Syracuse 5 Ottawa 1

Josh Banks made a strong case for a promotion yesterday when he pitched 7.2 innings giving up one run on six hits. The run allowed by Banks was in the first inning but Kevin Barker responded with a home run in the second inning. The Chiefs tacked on four runs in the sixth highlighted by a two run double from John-Ford Griffin and an RBI double from Barker. Ryan Roberts, Griffin and Barker had two hits each.

Trenton 3 New Hampshire 1

For the fourth day in a row Dustin Majewski hit a home run, this one in the third inning put the Fisher Cats ahead. But Trenton tied it against Ty Taubenheim and went ahead against Jean Machi in the eighth. New Hampshire had only five hits, two from Aaron Mathews.

Fort Myers 1 Dunedin 0

Adrian Martin pitched seven innings but a solo home run allowed in the fourth inning gave him the loss. Brandon League pitched one inning in relief. The hitters managed only six hits, MVP Josh Kreuzer, just off the DL, had two of them.

West Michigan 4 Lansing 7

Lansing scored four runs in the first inning, held on as West Michigan came to within one at 4-3, then scored three late runs to win 7-4. James Dougher was just promoted from the GCL to make the start but left after one batter due to an injured arm. The bullpen took over, notably Chris Reddout who pitched three shutout innings. Lansing's four runs in the first started with doubles from Jonathon Diaz and Chris Emanuele and was capped by a three run double from Paul Franko. Travis Snider had a day off. Brian Pettway had three hits, Paul Franko had two hits and four ribbies.

Jamestown 2 Auburn 7

Auburn were up 3-2 after three innings and cruised to a division clinching win. Luis Perez started but only pitched four innings as he allowed five hits and three walks. Nathan Melek pitched three hitless, shutout innings to get the win. Victor Santana and Ben Zeskind hit two run homers to pace the offense. Leance Soto also had a hit and two RBI's.

3 star selection

3rd star - John-Ford Griffin
2nd star - Paul Franko
1st star - tie, Victor Santana and Ben Zeskind

Posted by Gerry on Sunday, September 02 2007 @ 09:06 AM EDT.

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BigTimeRoyalsFan - Sunday, September 02 2007 @ 06:51 PM EDT (#173802) #

No idea where to post this, so I am posting it in the most recent topic.

Has a study ever been done that figures out how many "free" outs the average As pitcher gets from the expansive foul ground? I guess you can take an average size foul ground and determine that anything caught behind this imaginary border is a "free" out. I ask because I am watching the Detroit-Oakland game and I think it's crazy how many pop outs stay in the park. You can never figure out what their ERA would be without these "free" outs because you can't just say otherwise a hit replaces the foul out, but I still wonder how much Oakland's pitchers benefit from it. And I guess, subsequently, how many ABs the batters lose because of it, on average.

dan gordon - Sunday, September 02 2007 @ 10:54 PM EDT (#173807) #

Oakland has long been known as a pitchers park because of the large foul territory. Bill James and others have done analysis as to the extent to which it reduces offense, hurts batting average and helps ERA. I have an analysis which was based on the 2003-2005 seasons, which is a pretty small sample size. During those 3 seasons, Oakland was actually a neutral park when it came to number of runs, but reduced hits by 2% and homers by 4%. Doubles were up by 6% I believe that over the long run, the park decreases offense by something on the order of 3 or 4%. Nowhere near as bad a hitters park as San Diego, Washington, Florida or Los Angeles in the NL. The parks in Seattle and Detroit also are pitchers parks, replacing parks which were good hitters parks.

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