Eastern League News
"The League Leader"
 The Official Newsletter of the Eastern League of Professional Baseball Clubs, Inc.
Volume XVI
May 06, 2008
Issue 5

Quote of the Week

" I believe we owe something to the people who watch us. When we don't try 100%, we steal from them. "

Roberto Clemente
Pittsburgh Pirates
Three Eastern League Teams Break April Attendance Records

After suffering through a cold and wet spring last year, fans across the Eastern League have enjoyed unseasonably warm and dry weather during the first month of the season. Nowhere has that been more evident than in Binghamton, New Britain and Portland where each club broke their franchise attendance record for the first month of the season.

The B-Mets set the tone for their strong start on the opening night of the season when they drew their largest crowd for an opener since the 1994. In total 34,997 fans came through the turnstiles at NYSEG Stadium in April, breaking the record of 30,586 fans, which was set in 1994.

The Portland fans have been supporting their team equally as enthusiastically so far this season. In 13 openings at Hadlock Field during the month of April a total of 65,254 fans were in attendance, which shatters the previous record of 54,201 fans that was set during the 2002 campaign.

The largest increase over the previous record for attendance during the month of April came in New Britain, where a total of 53,471 fans turned out at New Britain Stadium. That total represents a 43-percent increase over their previous record of 37,522, which the team set last season.

Overall attendance around the Eastern League is increased by over 75,000 fans from where it was last April. The 12 teams in the Eastern League welcomed a total of 482,973 fans to their ballparks during their 148 openings in April.
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Another Top Rated Prospect Promoted To New Hampshire

Just days after Toronto’s top rated prospect Travis Snider was promoted to New Hampshire from Dunedin he was joined on the Fisher Cats roster by former teammate Brett Cecil. Brett, who was ranked by Baseball America as the second best prospect in the Blue Jays organization behind only Snider entering this season, joins the New Hampshire pitching staff after posting 11 strikeouts and a 1.74 ERA in four starts for the Dunedin Blue Jays of the Florida State League.

The 2008 season is the first full season as a professional for Brett after being taken by Toronto in the supplemental first round as the 38th overall pick in the 2007 draft out of the University of Maryland. Cecil was drafted by the Blue Jays after going 10-12 with 23 saves, 156 strikeouts and a 3.96 ERA in 163.2 career innings of work with the Terrapins.

The 21-year old made his Double-A debut for the Fisher Cats last Wednesday night against Reading and gave up three earned runs on four hits while striking out four in three innings of work.
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Minor League Strikeout Leader Joins R-Phils

On Friday the Philadelphia Phillies announced that left-hander Antonio Bastardo was promoted from the Class-A Clearwater Threshers to the Reading Phillies. At the time of the promotion the 22-year old led all of Minor League Baseball with 47 strikeouts and had a record of 2-0 with a 1.17 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP in five starts for the Threshers.

Bastardo, who was originally signed by the Phillies as an amateur free agent on February 17, 2005, made his Double-A debut for the R-Phils on Saturday night at Harrisburg and surrendered only one run on five hits and three walks in 5.2 innings of work to earn the win. Antonio struck out four batters in the win to improve his season total to 51 strikeouts, which still ranks as the highest total among all of the pitchers in Minor League Baseball entering this week.
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Senators UCP Auction Raises $40,000

The Harrisburg Senators held their 22nd annual UCP Sports Memorabilia Auction on Saturday at the Carousel Pavilion at Commerce Bank Park and raised $40,000 to benefit United Cerebral Palsy of Central Pennsylvania.

One of the highlights from the event came when Harrisburg manager John Stearns approached the podium and acted as auctioneer when a broken car window and baseball signed by Senators outfielder Justin Maxwell was auctioned off. The final bid for that item reached $1,000 thanks in part to Stearns signing a baseball and adding it to the package.

In all more than 200 items were auctioned off, with the largest bid coming on an autographed 500 Home Run Club poster and additional autographed cards that raised $5,000. Other top items were an autographed Tiger Woods photo, an autographed Michael Jordan photo, a Muhammad Ali lithograph and the Maxwell autographed car window and ball.
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Defenders Raise Money For Apartment Fire Victims

On Thursday night the Connecticut Defenders and their fans raised $2,909.78 to support the victims of the Peachtree Apartments fire that claimed the homes of 155 Norwich residents on April 26th. Monies were raised by a portion of the ticket sales from the game as well as fan donations and raffles at the ballpark.

"We are grateful to Lou DiBella and the entire Defenders ownership group for allowing us to do this event," said Connecticut GM Charlie Dowd. "Even more so, we are grateful to our fans as they showed up in force to help. We are overwhelmed with the amount of support that they have shown."
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Eastern league Team News and Notes
For the week ending 8/30/99
Akron Aeros
The Aeros were swept by Bowie over the weekend, the first time they’ve been swept since Erie took all three games at Canal Park July 7-9 of last year. 1B Michael Aubrey earned his first career promotion to Triple-A last week after hitting safely in 22 of his 24 games with the Aeros this season.

Altoona Curve
RHP Jimmy Barthmaier, LHP Josh Shortslef and RHP Kevin Roberts combined for 15 strikeouts in last Friday’s 10-9 victory against Erie. The 15 strikeouts matches a single-game franchise record, which has been accomplished twice before. Altoona played its first extra-inning game of the season on Sunday in game one of a doubleheader against Erie and earned the win on Melvin Dorta’s walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Binghamton Mets
1B/DH Mike Carp hit .356 (36-for-101) with seven doubles, six home runs, 20 RBI and 16 runs scored in 26 games for the B-Mets during the month of April. 1B/OF Nick Evans is tied for second in the league with four triples after entering this season with just 10 triples over the previous four seasons of his professional career.

Bowie Baysox
Bank of America Eastern League Pitcher of the Week Julio Manon recorded five saves in six days for the Baysox last week and currently leads the league with nine saves on the season. OF Luis Montanez currently has a 13-game hitting streak and has at least one hit in 21 of his last 22 games. The Baysox have won six straight games and 10 of their last 12 to climb to second place in the Southern Division standings.

Erie SeaWolves
C Dusty Ryan has reached base safely in 14 straight games and is hitting .345 (20-for-58) with six doubles, three home runs, 16 RBI and 14 runs scored during the streak. Erie currently leads the league in team batting (.280), hits (288), runs scored (185) and steals (50).

Harrisburg Senators
The month of April marked the third straight month with a winning record for the Senators. Last August the team went 16-12 and then 2-1 in September to close out a poor season on a high note. Their 16-9 record during this April is their best record in a single month since June 2006 when they went 16-9. The Senators have won the opening game in each of their first nine series this year.

  New Britain Rock Cats
The Rock Cats won all six of their games last week to climb to a season-high four games over the .500 mark and move to within 1.5 games of first place in the Northern Division standings. INF/OF Luke Hughes leads the league in batting with a .378 average and also ranks first in home runs (9), hits (45), extra-base hits (18) and runs scored (28). 3B Toby Gardenhire made his Double-A debut for the Rock Cats last week and is hitting .455 in three games.

New Hampshire Fisher Cats
SS Ryan Klosterman hit three home runs last week to match his season total in 103 games with the Fisher Cats last season. OF Jacob Butler went 4-for-11 with three doubles, one home run and eight RBI in three games at New Britain over the weekend and he has driven in 20 runs over his last 13 games.

Connecticut Defenders
The Defenders combined to score 33 runs on 35 hits in two wins at Binghamton on Saturday and Sunday. Their 19 runs in the victory on Saturday is the most runs scored by any team in Minor League Baseball this season. Bank of America Eastern League Player of the Week Ben Copeland is batting .611 (11-for-18) with three doubles, one triple, two home runs, 11 runs scored and six RBI in four games during the month of May.

Portland Sea Dogs
Portland pitchers have allowed the second fewest home runs (12) and lead the league in strikeouts (266) and ERA (2.90). The Sea Dogs have scored 52 of their 127 runs with two outs and have a league-best .293 average with runners-in-scoring position and two outs this season. 1B Aaron Bates went 0-for-3 on Thursday to snap his hitting streak at 14 games, which is tied for the longest hitting streak in the league this season.

Reading Phillies
C Lou Marson has reached base in 18 straight games and 22 of the 23 games he has played in this season. Over his last 10 games OF Jeremy Slayden is hitting .343 (12-for-35) with one home run, 10 RBI and five runs scored.

Trenton Thunder
OF Matt Carson earned a promotion to Triple-A on Saturday after hitting .277 with seven doubles, four triples, five home runs and 26 RBI in 27 games with the Thunder. Carson continued his hot hitting in his Triple-A debut on Saturday, going 4-for-6 with one triple and four runs scored against Durham. RHP Dan McCutchen is ranked second in the league in strikeouts (39) and seventh in ERA (2.33).

     
     
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Transactions

Akron Aeros
Sent INF Michael Aubrey to Buffalo (AAA)
Activated OF Stephen Head from the DL

Altoona Curve
Placed RHP Pat Bresnehan on the DL
Received LHP Josh Shortslef from Extended Spring Training
Received LHP Brian Holliday from Lynchburg (A)
Sent RHP Jimmy Barthmaier to Lynchburg (A)

Binghamton Mets
Sent LHP Edgar Alfonzo to St. Lucie (A)
Activated RHP Joe Hietpas from the DL
Sent OF Josh Petersen to St. Lucie (A)
Received OF Caleb Stewart from New Orleans (AAA)

Bowie Baysox
Sent RHP Jim Miller to Norfolk (AAA)
Received C Justin Martin from Aberdeen (A)
Received RHP Jason Burch from Frederick (A)
Placed C Zach Dillon on the DL
Received OF Freddie Bynum on Major League Rehab Assignment
Sent C Justin Martin to Aberdeen (A)
Received C Mike Pierce from Frederick (A)
Sent OF Sebastien Boucher to Norfolk (AAA)
Activated OF Mike Rodriguez from the DL

Erie SeaWolves
Sent RHP Freddy Dolsi to Detroit
Received LHP Jon Connolly from Toledo (AAA)

Harrisburg Senators
Sent C Pat Nichols to Extended Spring Training
Received C Devin Ivany from Potomac (A)
Sent RHP Bobby Brownlie to Columbus (AAA)
Placed RHP Ismael Ramirez on the DL
Received LHP Cory VanAllen from Potomac (A)
Received RHP Zech Zinicola from Potomac (A)
Sent RHP Jim Ed Warden to Columbus (AAA)

New Britain Rock Cats
None

New Hampshire Fisher Cats
Sent INF Marcos Cabral to Dunedin (A)
Received LHP Brett Cecil from Dunedin (A)
Sent C Erik Kratz to Syracuse (AAA)
Released RHP Kyle Yates
Received OF Eric Nielsen from Syracuse (AAA)
Received RHP Julio Pinto from Dunedin (A)

Connecticut Defenders
Sent RHP Brooks McNiven to Fresno (AAA)
Sent C Dayton Buller to Fresno (AAA)
Received C Nestor Rojas from Augusta (A)
Sent INF Travis Denker to Fresno (AAA)
Received INF Brad Boyer from San Jose (A)
Received INF Jake Wald from Fresno (AAA)
Sent RHP Adam Cowart to Extended Spring Training

Portland Sea Dogs
Sent OF Sean Danielson to Pawtucket (AAA)
Activated OF Zach Daeges from the DL

Reading Phillies
Sent RHP Jason Anderson to Lehigh Valley (AAA)
Sent OF Javon Moran to Lehigh Valley (AAA)
Received RHP Joe Bisenius from Lehigh Valley (AAA)
Activated 1B Juan Tejeda from the DL
Sent RHP Ron Hill to Clearwater (A)
Received LHP Antonio Bastardo from Clearwater (A)
Received OF Javon Moran from Lehigh Valley (AAA)
Placed INF Carlos Leon on the DL
Received 1B Mike Eylward from Clearwater (A)

Trenton Thunder
Received RHP Anthony Claggett from Tampa (A)
Sent RHP David Robertson to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (AAA)
Received OF Edwar Gonzalez from Tampa (A)
Sent OF Matt Carson to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (AAA)
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Past Issues
Volume XVI - Issue 4 - April 29, 2008

Volume XVI - Issue 3 - April 22, 2008

Volume XVI - Issue 2 - April 15, 2008

Volume X - Issue 1 - April 08, 2008

Volume IX - Issue 22 - September 18, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 21 - September 11, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 20 - September 04, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 19 - August 28, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 18 - August 21, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 17 - August 14, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 16 - August 07, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 15 - July 31, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 14 - July 24, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 13 - July 17, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 12 - July 03, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 11 - June 26, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 10 - June 19, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 9 - June 12, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 8 - June 05, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 7 - May 29, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 6 - May 22, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 5 - May 08, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 4 - May 01, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 3 - April 24, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 2 - April 17, 2007

Volume IX - Issue 1 - April 10, 2007

 
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