MLW--9/9--Daytona Wins FSL Championship

by Josh Timmers on Sep 9, 2008 8:44 PM CDT

Congratulations to Jody Davis and the Boys of Daytona! The Daytona Cubs won their first individual Florida State League Championship since 2000 tonight with a 7-3 beating of the Ft. Myers Miracle to take the series three games to one.

Starter Marcos Mateo was staked to a lead, but couldn't stay in the game long enough to pick up the win. Mateo pitched only four innings and allowed three runs on five hits. Mateo walked one and struck out three.

Mateo was relieved by first-round pick Andrew Cashner, and Cashner shut down the Miracle for 2.2 innings. Cashner didn't allow a hit. He struck out four (although one strikeout reached base on a wild pitch) and walked only one. Cashner picked up the win in the clinching game.

Jayson Ruhlman didn't allow a run over 1.1 innings and Blake Parker pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to clinch the championship.

Daytona fell behind 1-0 in the second inning, but right fielder Yusuf Carter homered in the bottom of the inning to tie the game up with a solo shot. Carter was 2 for 3 with a walk and scored twice.

The only FSL All-Star for Daytona, center fielder Jim Adducci, pounded on Ft. Myers with a 2 for 3 effort with a solo home run. He also put down a successful sac bunt.

Shortstop Darwin Barney has been on fire the last few weeks of the season, and tonight Barney was 2 for 3 with two doubles and two RBI. The first double was the eventual game winner and Barney was named player of the game. Barney also scored once.

Second baseman Tony Thomas was 2 for 4 with an RBI. Thomas hit .483 in the series and was named MVP of the Championship series.

Third baseman Jonathan Mota went 2 for 4 with a run scored and an RBI.

Oh yeah. Steve Clevenger caught yet again and was 1 for 4 with a double and a run scored.

And yes, they played "GO CUBS GO" when the game ended.

The D-Cubs last won the Florida State League Championship in 2004, but that was a shared title with the Tampa Yankees as the Championship Series was cancelled because of Hurricane Ivan. It's their first undisputed title since 2000. Just for some reference, the star pitchers on that 2000 team were starters (yes, starter) Michael Wuertz and Ben Christensen. Steve Smyth and Juan Cruz also pitched for the D-Cubs that season.

The hitting stars of that team were Hee-Seop Choi, David Kelton, Gary Johnson and Nate Frese.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation or Al Yellon, managing editor (unless it's a FanPost posted by Al). FanPost opinions are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.

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awesome!

great to see cashner pitching well! :-)

Hey Chicago, what do ya say....

by halfblindcubbiegirl on Sep 9, 2008 9:00 PM CDT reply actions

Good to see

Maybe we can call up all these guys and win a major league game.

THE WAVE
to remind us how fans of other teams can win games, despite not caring about whats going on at all. -Rudey

DAMN YOU BASEBALL GODS..

by Rudey on Sep 9, 2008 10:16 PM CDT reply actions

thank you for the minor-league wrap

it’s great to feel informed about the prospects in the farm system.

will you be writing updates for the fall league?

by nathew on Sep 10, 2008 1:39 AM CDT reply actions

No

At least not every day. I will be doing prospect lists, however, and I’m sure I’ll mention the Fall Leagues. If something particularly noteworthy happens there, I’ll say something. But I think it’s damn near impossible to tell anything from just stats and box scored from the fall leagues, and since I won’t be in Arizona or Hawaii, I can’t offer any real insight.

What I know about the Arizona Fall Leagues is that hitting stats are massively inflated. Some of this is because of the ballparks and conditions, but mostly because teams often send their top hitting prospects there to get in extra work, but rarely send their top pitching prospects because they don’t want them to get extra work—they want them to rest their arms. So since I’m not a trained scout and I’m not going down to Arizona to watch them, my insights into the AFL would be pretty close to worthless.

Borowy . . .Sutcliffe . . .Harden?

by Josh Timmers on Sep 10, 2008 2:54 AM CDT up reply actions

All True

Teams will also send pitchers who were hurt during the season as well to get their IP up. I’ve been going to the AZ Fall League for about 5-6 years now and will be back again for about a week. If I have time, I could try to send in some first hand observations. Hopefully, the schedule will work out so I can catch each team at least once.

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

by WayneCampbell08 on Sep 11, 2008 11:15 PM CDT up reply actions

I'd really

like to hear about Barney in the field and Colvin at the plate (I want to know how his approach has changed) if you get the chance to see them.

But yeah, as an example of what I’m talking about, everyone was saying last off-season what a year Sam Fuld was going to have this season, partly based on his callup last September (ignoring that he didn’t get a hit) but mostly based on the fact that he tore up the AFL last year. I was very skeptical and left him off my top-30 list. What I did might have been a bit of an overstatement, but I think I was closer to being right than people who listed him as a top-10 prospect, or even a top-20 one.

Borowy . . .Sutcliffe . . .Harden?

by Josh Timmers on Sep 12, 2008 12:49 AM CDT up reply actions

Josh, thanks once again

This is an awesome amount of work through the full season, and your wraps are one of the first things I read each morning. Enjoy your offseason!

Fontenot (fon-te-no): Cajun for "scrappy"

by cubzfan on Sep 10, 2008 7:38 AM CDT reply actions

Daytona

Daytona Beach Cubs are quite the story. Its a club that had 8 1st year players and in the end they had three pitchers (Coleman, Jackson, Cashner) that were just drafted. So Tennesse Smokies can have some hope for next yr, after a rough year this year.

by Slamdog on Sep 10, 2008 8:50 AM CDT reply actions

Congratulations to Daytona!

It seems like, with all the attention on the big league club and on Triple A Iowa, these guys kinda flew under the radar and landed on a championship. Very cool. And it’s great to hear of Cashner’s clutch performance – talk about paying immediate dividends to the organization.

"I see the playoff schedule posted in the paper, and that stuff makes me nervous because you can't take anything for granted. We have a great team. We have a really good team. We're playing well, but we haven't won yet." - Jim Edmonds, 8/31/08

by daver on Sep 10, 2008 10:33 AM CDT reply actions

Thank you

to everyone who has been reading these posts all season long. Another thanks to everyone who adds to the discussion around here with intelligent questions or smart observations. It’s not just me who makes MLW. Of course, thanks to all of you who attend minor league baseball games and come back with your first-hand accounts. Those can’t be beat.

And of course, thanks to the people who filled in for me when I had my problems this summer. Unique did it while I had my flooding problems in June and my car problems (and vacation) in July. Zambranofan helped me out a bit in May.

I’ll be back with prospect updates and some general assessments of the minor leagues, but I’m taking a break from the farm for a few days!

Borowy . . .Sutcliffe . . .Harden?

by Josh Timmers on Sep 10, 2008 4:57 PM CDT reply actions

I want to share

I got a phone call yesterday from Sacramento River Cats first baseman Casey Rogowski (OK, it was a recorded message, not a personal plea) asking me to come out to Raley Field to see the River Cats play in the playoffs. Except that he didn’t ask me to come to Raley Field, which is pronounced “RAIL-ee” like the grocery store that sponsors it. He asked me to come to RALLY Field.

You’ve been playing for the River Cats all season long, Casey, and you don’t even know the name of your own stadium? Sheesh.

Borowy . . .Sutcliffe . . .Harden?

by Josh Timmers on Sep 10, 2008 5:06 PM CDT reply actions