And down the stretch they come…

The End is Nigh

The GCL Dodgers defeated the GCL Tigers 4-2 to advance to the league championship series against the GCL Red Sox. 3B Brian Mathews, a 45th-rounder a year ago out of Newton County HS in Covington, GA, delivered a two-run HR in the 10th inning to send the Baby Dodgers into the LCS.

With a week and a half to go in the regular season, the postseason picture in the AAA and AA leagues set up this way.

International:

Charlotte is in from the IL South. Everyone else is out.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre leads Rochester by a game in the IL North. Both teams have 13 games remaining, including the final two of the season against each other at Frontier Field. Buffalo and Ottawa are six back, but have enough games left with the leaders where it’s possible that one or the other could make a charge. The second-place team in this division, barring a collapse, is likely to be the wild card; Rochester is currently four games ahead of Toledo for that spot.

Indianapolis leads Toledo by two games, Louisville by 3 in the IL West. The Indians play their next nine games in the road, starting with a pair in Toledo, before closing with a home-and-home set against Louisville. The Mud Hens have five at home against Indy and the Bats, followed by a six-game, three-city road trip to Durham, Charlotte, and Columbus, then close with the Clippers in a pair at Fifth Third Field. The Bats are off on an 11-game road trip to five cities (second stop Toledo, last stop Indianapolis) before the final two-gamer with the Indians at Louisville Slugger Field. This one will likely go down to the final series.

Pacific Coast:

Round Rock (magic number 4) is just about assured of a postseason berth from the American South division. The Express leads Oklahoma by 10 games and New Orleans by 10 1/2 with 13 games remaining, and has its next nine games at home before a final road trip to Nashville.

Nashville leads Iowa by four games in the American North. The Sounds go to Memphis for five games and Albuquerque for four before entertaining Round Rock at Greer Stadium to close the schedule. The ICubs have New Orleans at home, then close at Oklahoma and Omaha. If Iowa can hang on until the final series, the schedule favors them, with Omaha having the worst record in the PCL and the Express the second-best, but Nashville has the easier row to hoe up to that point.

Tucson, despite the best record in the PCL at 79-51, hasn’t quite been able to shake Sacramento in the Pacific South. The River Cats, despite shuttling pitchers back and forth between Sacramento and Oakland a couple of times a week, have managed to hang in, just 5 1/2 games behind the Sidewinders, with a big four-game series in Raley Field between the top two next week. Tucson has a six-game, five-day series with Tacoma at home on tap before that trip, while the River Cats visit Fresno for five. The Sidewinders close with four at Tacoma, and Sacramento with four at Colorado Springs.

Salt Lake leads Tacoma by five games in the Pacific North. The Bees have five at home with Colorado Springs, a big four-game set at the Rainiers, and close with five in four days at home against Portland. Tacoma sandwiches its big series with Salt Lake between two with Tucson - definitely not a simple task for the Rainiers.

Eastern:

The top two teams from each division qualify for the postseason.

Trenton leads Portland by 5 1/2 and Binghamton by 7 1/2 games in the Northern Division. The Thunder has a tough road trip coming up following tonight’s game with Erie, going to Akron (the Southern Division leader) for five games in four days, followed by a four-game set in Erie. Trenton closes with four at home against Reading. Portland plays the BMets at home tonight, goes on the road for eight against New Britain and Binghamton, then closes at home with New Hampshire. Binghamton, which has seen its pitching staff decimated by callups and moves to Olympic teams in recent days, goes home to play Erie for five and the Sea Dogs for four, then travels to Connecticut to close the schedule.

Akron and Altoona are almost certain to be the Southern Division representatives. The Aeros lead the Curve by 6 1/2 games for the top spot, and it’s a further 5 1/2 games back to Reading, in third. Akron has a road contest in Portland tonight, returns home for a set with Trenton, then finishes on the road at Altoona and Erie. The Curve closes a home series with Bowie tonight, goes to Harrisburg for four, then returns home to Blair County Stadium to face the Aeros and Baysox.

Southern:

Split seasons in both divisions. Chattanooga (North) and Jacksonville (South) are in, and both are still in the second-half chase as well. It’s a four-team race for the North Division second half title, with Huntsville currently ahead of Tennessee by a half-game, with Chattanooga 2 1/2 behind and West Tenn 3 1/2 in arrears, and all teams having 12 games remaining.Huntsville has two at West Tenn, five at home with Mississippi, then five at Birmingham. Tennessee has two at Carolina, five at Jacksonville, and five at home with Mobile. The Lookouts play a pair at Birmingham, come home for five with the Mudcats, then go to West Tenn for five to close the schedule. The Diamond Jaxx play a pair with the Stars at Pringles Park, five at Mobile, and finish at home with Chattanooga. If the Lookouts take the second half as well, West Tenn will be the second playoff team based on overall record.

In the South, Montgomery leads Jacksonville by a game, with Mobile four out. The Biscuits have won three in a row from the Suns to take the lead, and play two more games in Jacksonville, then come home for five with Birmingham before finishing up with five at Mississippi. Following the conclusion of their series with Montgomery, the Suns welcome the Smokies for five before traveling to Five County Stadium to close the schedule with Carolina. If Jacksonville should win the second half, Montgomery will be the second team from the division.

Texas:

Also split seasons in both divisions. Tulsa (North) and Corpus Christi (South) are in. In the second half, Wichita leads the Drillers by 6 1/2 games with 12 left, including a season-closing five game set at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium with Tulsa. The Wranglers will have the second-best overall record in the division even if the Drillers overtake them, so the two teams will likely meet again with a divisional title at stake.

In the South, on the other hand, the situation is fluid. Midland holds a scant 1/2 game edge over Frisco, with the first-half champ Hooks a game and a half back and last-place San Antonio 4 1/2 games out. Midland has three at San Antonio, then finishes at home, playing the Hooks for four and the RoughRiders for five. The Hounds also lead Frisco by just a half-game for the wildcard spot, should Corpus Christi take the second-half title. Frisco has three at Corpus Christi, four with San Antonio at home, then five at Midland. Corpus Christi has three with the RoughRiders at home, four at Midland, and five at San Antonio.

AFL News

The AFL rosters have been announced - well, portions of them, anyway. Some of the announced participants:

Luke Hochevar will be pitching for Grand Canyon, which will also have Colorado’s Troy Tulowitzki, Baltimore’s Jeff Fiorentino and Nolan Reimold, and Pittsburgh’s Neil Walker and Brad Eldred.

Mesa will have Houston’s Matt Albers, Minnesota’s Adam Harben and Kevin Slowey, and the Mets’ Phil Humber on the mound, the Cubs’ Eric Patterson in the infield, and the tandem of Fernando Martinez (Mets) and Hunter Pence (Astros) in the outfield.

Boston is sending Jacoby Ellsbury and David Pauley to the Javelinas. The Indians are sending Michael Aubrey (back permitting), the Braves Anthony Lerew, Joey Devine, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Yunel Escobar (I’d be tempted to sit Salty if I were the Braves, given how much he’s going to have played this year already), the Mariners Michael Garciaparra, and the Marlins Gaby Sanchez.

The Saguaros will have a mound staff that includes Philadelphia’s Gio Gonzalez, Kyle Kendrick, and Zach Segovia, Sean Henn and J. Brent Cox of the Yankees (and Darrell Rasner, interestingly enough), and the Cardinals’ Eric Haberer and Stu Pomeranz. Colt Morton of the Padres will be one of the backstops, and Amaury Marti and Nick Stavinoha of the Cardinals will be in the outfield. No Jose Tabata sighting, unfortunately.

Tha A’s have assigned Dallas Braden to Phoenix, along with C Landon Powell, INF Kevin Melillo, and OF Travis Buck. Other notables on the mound include Tampa’s Jeff Niemann and Detroit’s Jair Jurrjens and Jordan Tata. The hitters include Kody Kirkland and Brent Clevlen of Detroit and Tampa’s Wes Bankston and Ben Zobrist.

Scottsdale has mound prospects Lance Broadway and Adam Russell of the White Sox and Steve Bray, Manny Parra and Dennis Sarfate of Milwaukee. The Diamondbacks, who stock this team, haven’t sent any of their better young arms to the AFL this year, but have sent Jamie D’Antona as a catcher and Mark Reynolds as an infielder. Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun and Jerry Owens of the White Sox are other highly rated prospects on the Scorpions.

The AFL starts October 10.