Cola Bats Held In Check Against Hickory

Hickory Crawdads @ Columbia Fireflies

April 21, 2018

Jean Casanova @ Jake Simon

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Hickory	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	1		4	9	0
Columbia	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0		1	3	0

W: Casanova (1-1, 2.45 ERA); L: Simon (0-3, 3.38 ERA); Save: Zawadzki (1)

Boxscore

The Stats:

Pitchers

Jake Simon (L, 0-3, 3.38 ERA) – 5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 4 K: 2 BB, 1 HR, 6 GO: 4 FO

Aaron Ford (0.00 ERA) – 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 K, 3 FO

Nicolas Debora (2.89 ERA) – 1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 K: 2 BB, 2 GO: 1 FO

Carlos Hernandez (0.00 ERA) – 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 IR – 0 S

Batters

RF – Raphael Gladu – 0-4

2B – Blake Tiberi – 1-3, BB

LF – Matt Winaker – 0-4

1B – Jeremy Vasquez – 0-3, BB, K

CF – Quinn Brodey – 0-3, BB, K

3B – Rigoberto Terrazas – 0-4, GIDP

C – Ali Sanchez – 1-3, CS

DH – Scott Manea – 1-1, R, HR, RBI, 2 BB

SS – Gio Alfonzo – 0-3

Recapish

            The Columbia Fireflies took a 4-1 loss to the Hickory Crawdads Saturday evening in South Carolina, which has them at a 2-1 disadvantage in this four game set. The Fireflies offense entered the game as arguably the best in the SAL but was held to just 1 run on 3 hits by three Hickory pitchers. Cola starter Jake Simon was very good over his first 4+ innings of work but then ran into two out trouble in the 5^th, allowing three runs on three straight hits, including a two-run homer from Melvin Nova. That proved to be the difference in this game, as both pens were strong over the final four innings. As an aside, there was no gameday log for this game and I didn’t have time to make one, so no pitch count information is available, official or unofficial.

Kingsport Mets: 2017 Season In Review

Taking a closer look at how the Kingsport Mets finished the season with a 29-37 record but just 3.5 games out of a playoff spot

What’s in this post:

-       Season Summary

-       Astro’s Awards

-       Coaches

-       Team Stats

-       Mets on the APPY Leaderboards

-       Promotions

-       Links to 2017 highlights (34)

What Happened

            Kingsport has long been a staple of the Mets farm system, offering New York a Rookie ball squad in the Appalachian League for all but one season since 1980 (stadium renovations in 1983 forced the Mets to the GCL for a season). And Kingsport has been the first minor league stop for some of the best talent to come out of the Mets system: from Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden in the early 1980’s to Jose Reyes and David Wright in the early 2000’s. While it’s unreasonable to expect any rookie ball player to reach the peaks those Mets legends reached, there were plenty of interesting Mets prospects playing in Kingsport last year that could be ready to put their name on the prospect map in 2018.

            The 2017 Kingsport Mets started the season with a 3-game winning streak, but those good feels quickly went away as they went on to lose 8 straight after that. The long losing streaks became a recurring problem for Kingsport, as they would go on to lose 8 of their final 11 games in July and then 8 of their final 10 games in August. So, what happened?

Fireflies Series in Review: @Rome

Columbia Fireflies @ Rome Braves

September 1-4, 2017

            This is a series breakdown for the Columbia Fireflies final series of 2017. Given the timing of the post, this format seemed more appropriate than individual recaps, but there are more highlights included below than in the three similar early season posts that are also going up today.

The Stats:

Batters

Fireflies Drop Second Straight To Asheville

Asheville Tourists @ Columbia Fireflies

August 30, 2017

Antonio Santos @ Justin Brantley

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Asheville	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0		4	9	0
Columbia	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0		1	4	1

W: Santos (9-9, 5.30 ERA); L: Brantley (2-3, 5.18 ERA); Save: Humphreys (12)

Boxscore

Jose Leger

The Stats:

Pitchers

Justin Brantley (L, 2-3, 5.18 ERA) – 7 IP, 7 H, 3 R (3 ER), 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 13 TB, 3 BB, 9 K (8 K/Sw), 1 GIDP, 9 GB: 6 FB: 2 LD, 97 Pitches (65 Strikes), 14 Swinging, 8 Called, 14.4% SwStr, 24.6% Whiff/Swing, 13.9 Pitches/IP, 29 BF

Keaton Aldridge (6.48 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 3B, 4 TB, 1 BB, 1 K (1 K/Sw), 3 GB: 2 FB: 1 PU, 24 Pitches (16 Strikes), 3 Swinging, 5 Called, 12.5% SwStr, 27.3% Whiff/Swing, 24 Pitches/IP, 7 BF

Aaron Ford (10.38 ERA) – 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 K (2 K/Sw), 2 GB: 1 LD, 22 Pitches (16 Strikes), 2 Swinging, 4 Called, 9.1% SwStr, 16.7% Whiff/Swing, 22 Pitches/IP, 5 BF

Table 1 – Brantley pitch stats by inning

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	Total
Total	16	17	21	7	8	9	19	97
Strikes	12	13	13	5	4	7	11	65
Swinging*	2	4	2	2	0	0	4	14

*14.4% Swinging strike rate; 24.6% Whiff/Swing rate

Batters

CF - Gene Cone - 0-4, 2 K, 11.8% SwStr, 40% Whiff/Swing, 4.25 Pitches/PA

3B - J.J.  Franco - 1-4, 1 K, 2.75 Pitches/PA

LF - Quinn Brodey - 0-4, 1 K, 2.75 Pitches/PA

1B - Dash Winningham - 0-4, 2 K, 4.8% SwStr, 12.5% Whiff/Swing, 5.25 Pitches/PA

C - Brandon Brosher - 0-3, 2 K, 27.3% SwStr, 50% Whiff/Swing, 3.67 Pitches/PA

DH - Dan Rizzie - 0-3, 2 K, 9.1% SwStr, 33.3% Whiff/Swing, 3.67 Pitches/PA

2B - Luis Carpio - 2-3, 14.3% SwStr, 40% Whiff/Swing, 4.67 Pitches/PA

RF - Arnaldo Berrios - 1-3, 1 R, 1 3B, 1 K, 10% SwStr, 25% Whiff/Swing, 3.33 Pitches/PA

SS - Oliver Pascual - 0-2, 1 RBI, 1 SF, 6.2% SwStr, 14.3% Whiff/Swing, 5.33 Pitches/PA

Recapish

            The Columbia Fireflies dropped a second straight game to Asheville Wednesday night, taking a 4-1 loss to the Tourists in their second to last home game of 2017. Cola starter Justin Brantley rebounded from a weird outing to give the Fireflies seven strong innings and he matched a career-high with nine strikeouts. Unfortunately for Brantley, the Cola offense was a no-show, so he was stuck with the tough-luck loss.