The Tri-City ValleyCats and Auburn Doubledays squared off Monday night in game three of a best-of-three series with the winner hosting game one of the Championship series on Tuesday. The game did not disappoint. Four ties and five lead changed later, the ‘Cats came out on top 16-7 thanks to an 11-run outburst in the seventh and eighth innings.

Here are a few photos from the night:

by: Evan Valenti (@EvanValenti)

Afternoon folks! Welcome back to “The Joe” on this opening week of the NFL season. ValleyCats getting ready to take on Auburn Doubledays for game two of this best-of-three series. Here are the tidbits from today:

1.) The ValleyCats and Doubledays have faced off in the playoffs once before. In the 2006 opening-round series the ‘Cats swept Auburn by the scores of 1-0 and 4-3. Friday night marked the third one-run win for Tri-City against the now-Nationals affiliate.

2.) Shortstop Joe Sclafani has a mild ankle sprain on his left ankle. He sprained in during the five-hit game against the Hudson Valley Renegades on September 4. It doesn’t seem to be bothering him too much. He’s 2-9 with the mild sprain, including his first career home run as a professional. He put in multiple good rounds during today’s batting practice.

3.) Fatigue is starting to really take a toll on everyone, but the casual baseball fan wouln’t notice. Catfish Elkins explained to me that he’s not necessarily “tired”, but he says his bat speed has regressed just a hair.

4.) Dan Gulbransen loves to leave on a high note. Each batter gets three swings in the final round of batting practice. Gulbransen hit a solid line drive to the opposite field and immediately left the cage. Why? He believes that batting practice should end on a high note, and as soon as he puts a good swing on it he will call it a day.

Batting Practice Hero: How could it not be Dan Gulbransen? He did hit two line drive home runs, but that last swing was a thing of beauty. He left me wanting more. Kind of like some other guy I know. His name is George Castanza. Props if you get the reference.

Pictured below: Jarrod McKinney

Today’s Lineup:

Sclafani – SS

Elkins – 2B

Tucker – RF

Wierzbicki – 1B

Heineman – C

Cokinos – DH

Gulbransen – LF

Dineen – 3B

King – CF

RHP – Rodgers

by: Evan Valenti (@EvanValenti)

Greetings from Leo Pinckney Field at Falcon Park located in Auburn, NY. The ValleyCats are getting ready for their first playoff game since 2010, and I think we all know how that ended. Here are the tidbits from today:

1.) If you had blindfolded me, put me in the car, not told me where we are going, took off the blindfold while I was in the press box, and asked me where I thought I was I would have told you we were at Dwyer Stadium, home of the Batavia Muckdogs. The stadiums are eerily similar. Why is that? They are designed by the same architecture group (Highland Associates).

2.) I asked red-hot Joe Sclafani what game meant more to him: the five-hit game or the game where he hit his first home run as a professional? It took a while for him to give me an answer, but he eventually responded with the five-hit game. Sclafani understands that home runs are not going to come along too often so he wanted to savor the moment (which was evident by the GIANT smile he had on his face as he rounded third base). The five-hit attack against the Hudson Valley Renegades in a 9-3 victory marked the second time in his career he had collected five hits in a single game. The other time? He was a junior in college. Dartmouth crushed UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County) 17-2 on March 24, 2011. He was 5-6 with three singles, a double, and a triple.

3.) Some of the ValleyCats players and coaches believe the team never should have gotten no-hit. Tucker claims he had a hit in the middle innings that was changed to an error after the inning was completed. As an official scorer, I understand the dilemma of making that kind of call. Given the situation, I might have done something similar.

4.) Talking with some of the hitters in the last group of batting practice (Elkins, Gulbransen, Tucker, King, McKinney) they all mentioned how hard it is to hit off Manager Stubby Clapp. His pitches might not look like much, but everyone remarked how his fastball has a lot of late sink to it. They all said he is the hardest to hit out of all the coaches by far, especially with fatigue starting to set in.

5.) I asked Tyler Heineman for a scouting report on Auburn DoubleDays’ starting pitcher Brett Mooneyham. He told me he has a lively fastball but really no secondary pitch, which explains the low strikeout total (29 K’s in 42.1 innings).

Batting Practice Champion: M.P. Cokinos.

Here’s the lineup for game one:

Sclafani – SS

Elkins – 2B

Tucker – RF

Wierzbicki – 1B

Heineman – C

Cokinos – DH

McKinney – LF

Dineen – 3B

King – CF

RHP – Aaron West

Picture Below: Jean Batista

by: Evan Valenti (@EvanValenti)

The ValleyCats held a special practice today before getting on the bus and heading to Auburn to play game one of this first-round series. Here are some tidbits from the two-hour practice today:

1.) Half of the practice was spent going over situational drills in a game called “27 outs”. Manager Stubby Clapp simulated different game situations by yelling out the number of men on, the inning, the score, and by randomly hitting it somewhere to see if the defense could make the correct play. One of the few hiccups came “in the ninth inning” with runner’s on first and second, one out and the ValleyCats were up two runs. Stubby hit a single to center field and Emilio King came home with the throw. It was a good throw and it maybe gets the runner (knowing how good King’s arm is it probably would get a runner), but Stubby was not happy with it. In that situation you want to go to second with the ball instead of home. Yes, you sacrifice the run, but the throw into second keeps the game-ending double play in order and you maintain the lead.

2.) Tri-City took batting practice as well. The batting practice hero goes to M.P. Cokinos. In his third round he hit three home runs in five attempts.

3.) Now that the season is finally over, we can finally proclaim Tyler Heineman as the 2012 New York-Penn League batting champion. Heineman hit .358 in his first season of professional baseball, absolutely crushing the competition in that category. But like he does most of the time, Tyler steered the attention towards his teammates. He thanked his teammates for giving him good counts to hit it in by getting on base in front of him.

4.) Lastly, I want to take the chance to thank all of you readers and ValleyCats/Astros fans. In the most recent MLB.com Blogs Central publication, ‘Cats Corner ranked 24th in terms of total viewership for the month of August among all the professional blogs (there is a difference between pro blogs, fan blogs, and beat writer blogs). Last month, ‘Cats Corner ranked 42nd. It’s an honor to be ranked in the top-50 to begin with, never mind squeaking inside the top-25. When Kevin Whitaker and I created this blog in 2010 I don’t think either of us fathomed this kind of popularity. We made a huge jump this month, our best month ever, and it’s all thanks to you guys! You’re the best! I’ll make sure we still produce the same quality of material you have grown to expect from us.

I apologize that I have not had the chance to continue this feature of our blog, but I simply have not had time. I worked hard last night to make sure that I could fit this in because I honestly enjoy writing it.

Today’s game comes with a threat of inclement weather (some of the remnants of Hurricane Isaac). I am not a meteorologist in any fashion, but according to my understanding of weather.com it looks like the game will start on time. As for whether we finish it, that I cannot say. Let’s hope the rain stays away.

As for some of the tidbits from today:

1.) The team is on their worst losing streak this season, the worst since a five-game stretch last year spanning from July 30-August 3. As a coach there are a couple of ways to try and motivate your team to maybe jump-start them. Some might be harsh, but Manager Stubby Clapp, Hitting Coach Mark Bailey, and Pitching Coach Rick Aponte have decided to keep it light. In his speech with the pitchers today, Aponte reminded the group how could they are and have been this entire season. Clapp gave some guys extra rips in the cage to try and relax everyone.

2.) Some people use vaseline to break in their baseball gloves and keep the leather “healthy” and soft. M.P. Cokinos uses Barbasol shaving cream (insert advertisement here). He told me it is a trick he learned from his dad years ago, and considers it another part of his ritual (much like putting the bats in the freezer).

3.) The ValleyCats have struggled to score during this losing-streak. In these five games the league’s best offense is averaging only 1.8 runs per game. Hitting with runners in scoring position has clearly been the biggest problem. During this stretch, the ‘Cats are 1-40 with RISP (.025), by far their worst stretch. They are still ranked third in the New York-Penn League in that category.

4.) Brian Holmes has simply dominated the Hudson Valley Renegades this year. In two appearances the former-Demon Deacon has pitched 14 scoreless innings, has allowed one hit and one walk, while fanning 13. He has a 0.14 WHIP against the ‘Gades. Is it too soon to send him back out there?

5.) Hitting Coach Mark Bailey took time to congratulate Tyler Heineman for winning the NYPL Batting Title. Even though there are two games to go, Heineman holds a firm 21-point lead over Auburn’s Shawn Pleffner. Unless Tyler goes 0-25 in the next two games, he is going to win that distinguished honor. Heineman shrugged off the compliment by simply saying, “I need to be a better catcher.” Last ValleyCats player to lead the league in batting? J.D. Martinez (.326)

Here is tonight’s lineup:

Sclafani – SS

Elkins – 2B

Tucker – RF

Wierzbicki – 1B

Heineman – C

MP Cokinos – DH

Dineen – 3B

Johnson – CF

Gulbransen – LF

P – Minaya (1-2, 4.99 ERA)

by Evan Valenti (@EvanValenti)

I wrote about a month ago how this year’s team might be the greatest in ValleyCat history. The other two teams that even come close to comparing to this squad are the 2004 ‘Cats and the 2010 version, and each for different reasons.

The 2004 team was stacked with Major League talent (well, stacked in terms of that type of talent on a Short-Season A team). The two most successful Tri-City alums, Ben Zobrist and Hunter Pence, went on to be Major League All-Stars for both the American and National Leagues. Zobrist has cemented himself as one of the most versatile players in the Majors today. He’s the new Mark DeRosa, but better than DeRosa ever was. Pence, even though he has played for a handful of teams in the past couple of teams, is still one of the most productive and hardest working corner outfielders in the game.

Oh, I almost forgot…that team also won 50 games that season!

In terms of historical records, the ’04 team ranks first in ‘Cats history in the following categories: runs scored (425), home runs (63), on-base percentage (.352), slugging (.400),  on-base plus slugging (.752), and total strikeouts by a pitching staff (667).

But that “super-team” failed to bring home the gold. They lost in the New York-Penn League championship, a colossal failure.

The 2010 team has not produced any Major League talent… yet. They had a great clubhouse, some decent prospects (Austin Wates, Ben Orloff, Kike Hernandez, Bobby Doran, Jake Buchanan), but they were more of a team that caught fire at the right time.

Tri-City that year went 17-11 in August, 3-2 in September, and 4-1 in the playoffs. How did they do it? Pitching, what else. In July the ‘Cats posted a 14-14 record, but that was thanks to a .267 average as a team. The pitching staff gave up an average of 5.2 runs per game (that’s with unearned runs factored in). That kind of production simply is not going to win you too many ball games. But the pitchers kicked it up a notch when the calendar turned to August. They propelled the team the rest of the way, sporting a 2.56 ERA in August (down almost two full runs from the previous month) and giving them a chance to win the division.

They did that and much more, as they went on to capture the first, and only, NYPL Championship in franchise history.

Where does this year’s team fit in?

Well, they just captured the 50-win mark with a handful of games to go. It’s safe to say that they will take that record shortly (knock on wood).

In terms of offensive numbers, the 2012 ‘Cats are either close to, tied with, or have already broken numerous offensive and pitching records (they have a new season-high in stolen bases).

They were the first team to win their respective division, which is impressive two-fold. One, Hudson Valley has been elite all season and Auburn is just now starting to fall apart. Two, the ValleyCats were so good against their division this year the three other teams spent the majority of the season behind by double digits in the loss column.

The ValleyCats have a couple of potential elite prospects playing for them currently (plus two that have already been called up). Outfielder Preston Tucker, catcher Tyler Heineman, former outfielder Andrew Aplin, pitchers Aaron West, Vincent Velasquez, Brady Rodgers, Travis Ballew, and Kenny Long have all drawn rave reviews from scouts one way or another.

But let’s not kid ourselves here. This season could totally be wiped out if Tri-City falters at all during the playoffs. Anything short of a championship will be considered a failure.

This team has been a joy to watch and a pleasure to cover for the three-plus months they have been playing. Previous results indicate that this team should be the favorite to win the whole thing. But there’s a reason why the games are played on the field and not on paper. Tri-City has a few more hurdles to jump and a steep mountain to climb if they want to finish this season the way they started it.

ValleyCats Broadcaster talks with Tri-City Manager Stubby Clapp about the team’s playoff aspirations, pitcher Joe Bircher, outfielder Preston Tucker, and much, much more! Leave your questions for next time in the comments section!