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| Carolina MVP’s From out of nowhere, Kinston outfielder Jordan Brown won the league MVP award. The award caps an amazing turnaround for Brown, as back on May 6th he was only hitting .232 with 0 HRs and 9 RBIs in 28 games. But, as other stalwarts in the lineup like Ryan Goleski, Trevor Crowe and Brian Barton left after being promoted to Akron, Brown seemed to take it upon himself to fill the huge void left by those players. On the season, Brown is hitting .293 with 15 HRs and 87 RBIs (which lead the league). He also has seven triples and a .478 slugging percentage, which also lead the league, and he is third in hits with 135. Brown is the first Kinston player to win the MVP award since Victor Martinez won it in 2001. Also, lefty Chuck Lofgren was named the Carolina League Pitcher of the Year, thereby giving the Indians a clean sweep in the individual player awards. Brown, Lofgren and Brian Barton were also named post-season All-Stars. Record Breakers Kinston left-hander Chuck Lofgren and Akron right-hander Adam Miller are the cream of the crop as far as pitching prospects go in the Indians farm system, and this season they have done nothing but cement their position at the top. Lofgren pitched six innings of two-hit baseball earlier in the week to set a Kinston modern-day franchise record for victories by a pitcher in a season with 16. The old record was 15, set by Brian Slocum in 2004. The 16 wins by Lofgren are the most since Kinston became affiliated with the Indians in 1987, and the most since Frank Bork won 19 games for Kinston in 1962. On the year, the 6’3” lefty is 16-5 with a 2.42 ERA with 103 hits and 122 strikeouts in 134 IP. Adam Miller continues to cruise along in the Akron rotation. In his final start of the regular season, last night Miller went 6 innings and allowed 1 run on 4 hits and struckout 7. It was Miller’s 15th win of the year, which passed Paul Byrd's 1992 franchise record of 14 wins in a season. Also, the single-season team record for strikeouts of 149, which was set by Travis Driskill in 1996, was crushed by Miller (161). Miller ends the season with a 15-6 record and 2.75 ERA, to go along with 133 hits and 161 strikeouts in 158.1 IP. Miller and Lofgren should be the Game 1 starters for their teams when the playoffs start next week. Speaking of Playoffs Akron and Kinston are in. Lake County and Buffalo are out. Mahoning Valley (35-34) is in a battle and will likely take it down to the wire as they are 3 games out of 1st. With 7 games remaining, they do sort of control their own destiny as 4 of the 7 games are against the two teams ahead of them. Kinston will travel to Salem for Game 1 of the best-of three Carolina League Division Series on Sept. 6th, and then Game 2 and 3 will be in Kinston on Sept. 7th and 8th. Akron’s opponent is not known at this time, but they also should start on Sept 6th. Buffalo and Lake County were officially eliminated from playoff consideration from their respective leagues this past week. With the Bisons missing the playoffs this year, it is just the third time in 12 years as a Cleveland Indians affiliate Buffalo has failed to reach the postseason. Also, the Bisons two-year reign from 2004-2005 atop the International League North Division came to an end. For the Captains, since their amazing debut season in 2003 season when they went 97-43, they have failed to make the playoffs in each of the last three seasons. Fire and Ice At one time this season, CF/2B Trevor Crowe was blistering hot with the bat and OF Brad Snyder in a deep freeze. Over the past month, the two have seen their season’s take drastic turns as now Snyder is on fire and Crowe ice cold. In the past 10 games, Snyder is hitting a blistering .441 (15 for 34) with 3 HRs and 8 RBIs, and in August is hitting .314 (32 for 102) with 9 HRs and 20 RBIs. Crowe on the other hand is hitting .158 with 0 HRs and 5 RBIs in his last 10 games. Apparantly, the ankle injury Crowe suffered may still be bothering him as he is only hitting .218 (24 for 110) with 1 HR and 10 RBIs in August. Early Reports on Crowe at 2B: Not Good Crowe made his debut at 2B about a week ago, but has bounced between CF and 2B since the Indians plan on only exposing Crowe to 2B during the remainder of the regular season, but also want to keep him sharp in CF for the playoffs. The going has been tough for Crowe early on at 2B as in the 5 games he has played at 2B, he has made 5 errors. According to Akron officials, a big reason for Crowe's early problems with the position switch is he is over-thinking and not reacting, and sitting back waiting for balls rather than being aggressive and charging them. Crowe played 6 games at 2B in college, but mostly has played the outfield since his sophomore season in high school. Farrell has repeatedly mentioned that if it is found that the position switch is hindering Crowe’s path to the big leagues, they will scrap the experiment. He’ll go back to CF for the playoffs, but return to 2B full-time in the Arizona Fall League this winter. |