Quad Cities Sweep Their Way To The Championship
Posted on September 22nd, 2011 by Jeff in Quad Cities River BanditsAlternately titled, “How Sweep It Is” or some sort of Mary Poppins allusion that I can’t quite put my finger on right now.
The Quad Cities River Bandits did not lose a game in the postseason, sweeping Clinton in 2 games, Kane County in 2 games and Lansing in 3 games. They were in 2nd place for the 1st half of the season, but won the MID Western division in the 2nd half.
Quad Cities lead the league in OPS, lead by new official hyperventilator Oscar Taveras and 2011 first round draft pick Kolten Wong, who arrived after the June draft. They were also 4th in ERA and tied for 1st in WHIP on the pitching side.
The River Bandits called on Boone Whiting to start the playoffs against Clinton and he wasn’t perfect, but he was lifted to the win by Oscar Taveras’ 3 hits and John Rodriguez’s 5 RBIs for a 9-5 win.
Anthony Ferrara was the starter in game 2 and he did his part with 6 innings and 3 runs allowed. John Rodriguez and Colin Walsh lead the bats for a 5-3 win and the series sweep. Awesome River Bandits TV highlights here.
At this point, the River Bandits still had pitching hyperventilator Trevor Rosenthal waiting for his first taste of MWL playoff baseball and he delivered a complete game shutout over the Kane County Cougars. He only allowed 4 hits as the River Bandits won 7-0.
Quad Cities took the next game and punched their ticket to the Midwest League Championship after being down 5-0 in the 8th with 2 runs in the 8th and 4 runs in the 9th including a walk off 3 run HR by Nick Longmire. Bandit TV.
In the Championship series, the River Bandits won Game 1 with help from the same heroes as all season in starter Boone Whiting and Oscar Taveras. They took the game 4-2.
Anthony Ferrara got another game 2 start and another game 2 win with 6 innings, no walks and 6 Ks. Wong, Gil and Walsh were the heroes on the hitters side as the powered the River Bandits to a 5-3 win.
Not going out on a limb saying that the River Bandits have the best 3rd starter in the Midwest League in Trevor Rosenthal who struck out 7 in 6 innings, giving up 3 runs. Taveras, Wong and Klein each had 2 hits as the River Bandits clinched the championship with a 6-3 victory. Bandit TV.
Here’s the compilation video that played after the River Bandits won the league. Very nice tribute to a very nice season.
(Ever notice how JD Davis from Bandit TV is always wearing the same outfit in every video? I’m sure they recorded all the intros on the same day, but it is still a bit disconcerting.)
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I was at the last game….kudos to the Bandits on a great season……kudos to QC for the great venue and the large and energetic crowd. It was a blast……and $2 beer night didn’t hurt any!
Yeah, Rosie as the Low A “third” starter is probably not what the Lugnuts expected to see! Many on this team achieved their 2nd ring in two years. I look forward to following this group through PB and Springfield next year. There well could be up to 5 MLB players come off of this team.
Besides the obvious Taveras and Wong, it is exciting to be able to follow guys such as Rosenthal, Ferrara, Whiting, Walsh and the myriad of other very interesting prospects that played at this level this year. If, in addition to Taveras and Wong, only 1-2 other of these guys surface and contribute at the major league level, the big league future is outstanding.
I am very excited about the Cards future. In addition to the rest of the front office people and the minor league coaches, Luhnow deserves alot of credit for bringing alot of potential talent into the organization.
One of the guys that stood out to me was Klein-Catcher
As regards the comment about “only 1-2 other of these guys,” it’s worth remembering that during the time period 1995-2004, probably the most recent 10-year span for which we have the full picture (i.e., everyone has reached the majors from those years by now if they’re ever going to), 69 players the Cardinals drafted have made it to the Show, for an average of nearly 7 a year. (Incidentally, this is rather above average for major-league teams. Obviously not all made it with the Cardinals.) Presumably a large fraction of those 69 passed through the low-A level; there might have been a few who started higher or bypassed it, but they would be in a distinct minority.
Clearly there is a difference between making it to the majors and having an actual career there. The majority of those success stories, as with any franchise, were guys who got a cup of coffee but didn’t hang around for long. If one or two others beyond Taveras and Wong have actual _careers_ in the majors, then this will indeed be an outstanding crop of prospects, as it looks to be. However, if no more than one or two others get any MLB time at all, it’s not a significant achievement, and indeed would be a somewhat worse return on the draft investment than has been normal for the last 15 years.
I worked for the Rockford Reds in 1999 and I’m not sure there’s ever been before or since a Midwest League team that was so successful in seeing it’s players reach the majors. That team included:
Adam Dunn
Austin Kearns
Gookie Dawkins
Brandon Larson
Corky Miller
Antonio Perez (w/ TB)
DeWayne Wise (w/ TOR)
Lance Davis
Michael Neu (w/ OAK)
Scott Winchester
who all made it to the major leagues in some sort or another. And there were a couple more we were all sure had a chance (Dave Therneau and Jacobo Sequea come to mind) but fizzled out somewhere.
Since you brought it up: the Peoria team in 2004 (still the Cardinals’ low-A franchise at that time, it switched to QC the following year) had TWELVE guys who reached the Show: Daric Barton, Terry Evans, Jarrett Hoffpauir, Joe Mather, Mike McCoy, Matt Pagnozzi, Brendan Ryan among hitters, Dennis Dove, Chris Lambert, Kyle McClellan, Mike Parisi and Mark Worrell among pitchers. The QC team of 2006 also had 12 guys on the roster at one time or another who reached MLB, but two of them were just there for rehab assignments rather than being “developed.” All twelve of those Peoria guys, by contrast, were legitimate farm hands on their way up.
Between 1996 and 2005, the Cardinals low-A teams (Peoria until 2005, QC that year) averaged 7.6 guys on their roster at some point during the year who would go on to play in the majors. Typically one of those guys (0.6 per year, to be more precise) would be a former major leaguer out on a rehab stint; the other 7 would be farm hands who eventually got the call. Roughly 3 a year would go on to an actual “career” spanning multiple seasons and enough innings/plate appearances to get noticed, as opposed to the proverbial cup of coffee. So what you’re talking about is on the high end of the success curve, but not at the extreme top.
I will clarify that when I said “up to 5″ I was talking about more than a cup of coffee – so between 1-5.
walsh didn’t play in game 2 against lansing. stanley, gil and elkiins had multiple hit games that night.