Outlawed Baseball

Sioux Falls is king of the American Association after last night's long-n-strong victory over stubborn Grand Prairie. It was a smashing summer in South Dakota essentially from day one.

Also on Friday, Calgary vaulted into the GBL championship series by flexing its brute North Division superiority. ... Long Beach jabbed out a surprising road knockdown of Orange County in Fullerton. ... Speaking of the unexpected, Kansas City is a finalist in the Northern League -- mighty Fargo-Moorhead completes its postseason disappointment.

PHOTO COURTESY: Elisha Page/Argus Leader

I mentioned yesterday how winning the GBL title this season has seemed like the Orange County Flyers' destiny. They had been 4-0 in extra-innings games before Tuesday's playoff loss and 21-11 in games decided by two runs or less.

Yet it was those Calgary Vipers who were openly saying from the beginning of the year about the season being a mission to avenge last season's elimination from the Northern League playoffs. Here they are back in the postseason and pushing around Canadian rival Edmonton in that North Division title matchup. It made me go back and pull the quote from manager Mike Busch when we spoke at Nettleton Stadium in June:

"In the offseason, we dedicated this season to finishing the job and getting to the postseason for a shot at the championship, and they bought right into it," he said.

Busch (pictured above) said it was a motivating factor for many of the team's top veteran performers to return this year and they truly have punished the division painfully. The Vipers can move up into the GBL title series by beating Edmonton tonight in Game 3 since the series is already at 2-0.

PHOTO COURTESY: Mark Mauno

There's a reason the phrase "survive till September" means something in independent league baseball. Though the United League has already completed its playoff tournament (the Amarillo Dillas capitalized on their 50-win season with four more wins in five postseason games, including the 7-4 victory over the Alexandria Aces pictured above that sealed the title) and the Atlantic League is still three weeks away from such action (very, very fitting that this usually entertaining playoff tourney is saved for last), this is still the most ripping week for big games around the horn.

So before summer ends, and while college football has no problem dominating attention, there is still no doubt these games have a compelling feel that can't be duplicated in August or July. I found out during last year's Chico-Long Beach GBL title series.

A look at what's in store this week:

*In the American Association, Grand Prairie (Texas) AirHogs and Sioux Falls (S.D.) Canaries are facing off in the grand final series. It is 1-1 after last night's 6-3 Grand Prairie win. Sioux Falls has been able to prove this season that a team outside of St. Paul can be a dominant North Division force in the AA, but manager Steve Shirley and the boys need to truly finish the business (win the championship) to truly rile up the fan-friendly Birdcage. The place should be rocking when the series resumes tomorrow night.

*In the Can-Am League, four teams are left and the star of the show remains the Quebec Capitales. Their success, unmatched around the indy league national scene, has been documented here on the blog quite a bit this summer. And the Capitales got their playoff campaign started with a riveting ballgame against the stingy Atlantic City Surf in a Sandy Koufax special ... a 1-0 victory in 12 innings. In the other CAL division final, the Worcester (Mass.) Tornadoes took down the Sussex (N.J.) Skyhawks 3-2 in Game 1.

*In the Frontier League, action starts tomorrow in both division title series. The Gateway (Ill.) Grizzlies take on the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Kings, one of three 60-win teams in the FL this season. The other two meet in what looks like a close battle -- the Windy City (Ill.) Thunderbolts versus the Southern Illinois Miners.

*The Golden Baseball League tournament, as has been discussed prevalently here and will continued to be covered, is a rivalry festival. The Calgary Vipers' 8-2 win over the Edmonton Cracker Cats last night made it a 2-0 series in the North Division final; the Orange County Flyers, determined to keep this year's destiny flavor rich, encountered resistance in extra innings against the Long Beach Armada. Both the Canadian clash and battle for Los Angeles continue this weekend.

*The Northern League has also had some close games ring in its playoff schedule. The Winnipeg Goldeyes beat the Gary Southshore Railcats 7-6 last night to even the series 1-1. It is indy power Winnipeg's eighth division title series appearance in the past 14 years (with merely one league championship coming during that span ... yikes). The Fargo-Moorhead (N.D.) Redhawks-Kansas City T-Bones series remained 1-0 in KC's favor because of weather problems. Game 2 has been rescheduled for tonight.

So hey, the stage is set.

PHOTO COURTESY: whaddyathinkin.blogspot.com/

Tonight's GBL South Division playoff matchup opens up with the two Southern California rivals that revamped themselves a bit in the offseason. The Orange County Flyers took out most of the sheer power in their lineup and installed what I would classify as more dynamic power. In Long Beach, the pace-filled lineup that carried the Armada to last season's GBL championship series was replaced with something much more subtle but just as opportunistic. A look at how both hitting lineups regrouped:

2007/2008 (Batting Avg)
ORANGE COUNTY
Bacani (.320)/Okano (.271)
LeVier (.261)/Bacani (.369)
Pohle (.338)/Acey (.374)
Williams (.344)/Breen (.396)
Goodman (.259)/LaRue (.302)
Okano (.263)/Arhart (.325)
Morales (.310)Rios (.337)
Templeton (.279)/Mayorga (.202)
Thomas (.289)/Van Houten (.305)

LONG BEACH
Kaplan (.320)/Williams (.265)
Klemm (.270)/Bramasco (.333)
Martinez (.298)/Moss (.299)
Wakeland (.294)/Lehr (.336)
Trumble (.263)/Hutchins (.301)
Mayorga (.239)/Flowers (.309)
Gross (.257)/Trumble (.228)
Ramirez (.273)/Ramirez (.249)
Araiza (.289)/Davidson (.258)

And here is the chat with Ben Shockey, the unassuming rookie sniper out of the Outlaws bullpen late this season. In the same fashion he politely reminds me here I referred to his beloved hometown "Rays" inaccurately as the "Devil Rays," Shockey consistently dismissed GBL hitters without a dominant array of pitches to the point where he was a legitimate candidate for August Pitcher of the Month.

Shockey only stands about 5-foot-9, which struck me — was he not every bit as popular as similarly-sized David Pierson, the Outlaws' middle infield dynamo last year, because he was a relief pitcher? I think so, and that just goes to show you the offensive line-type treatment successful young relievers can expect to receive throughout their careers. Anyway, watch for Shockey to be advertised by the club a lot more going into next season, so say you discovered him "here" first....

While out at Nettleton Stadium putting together the Casey Garrison testimony for last week's brawl, our crew decided to bring Bryan Silverman on the set since the rookie has emerged rapidly as a top young Outlaws prospect who may get a chance to sign in affiliated ball real soon.

The UC San Diego product hit .373 with 31 hits in 83 at-bats. He also posted a .602 slugging average during that span and, perhaps most importantly, shed his "catcher" label with able play in the outfield while also filling in as an infielder on occasion. Remember, positions can mean everything when it comes to whether and where players get signed or not. Ben Shockey also came on to do a bit which will be up later, but here's the conversation with Silverman...

Will there one day be a Canadian Baseball League with enough national hype within the country to exist unto its own as a wholesome major league setup the same way the Canadian Football League has been able to survive swimmingly in the shadow of the NFL? The notion is broached in my column this week.

PHOTO COURTESY: HFboards.com

Here is an interview I did with Casey Garrison a couple hours before last night's Outlaws game at Nettleton Stadium. This should answer all the questions I've been getting about the bench-clearing brawl with the Yuma Scorpions in Arizona earlier this week that wasn't captured in any video or photography.

Just to set up here where Garrison will pick the story up from — it's telling how the bad blood actually started boiling. The common misperception is that a "beanball" starts these sorts of things. But they usually happen more frequently in moments like this that lead up to the flashpoint: When Garrison merely slid in for a double two innings before the fracas went down, the first elements were put in place.

Illustrating the level of seediness that exists in pro baseball in late August, Scorpions shortstop Dionys Cesar began badgering Garrison about stealing pitch signals from the on-deck circle after Garrison reached base on a double (this is all according to Garrison right here as the interview starts out). That set the tone for the string of events that followed, capped by Garrison charging the mound, as described by himself in full detail here...

Todd Gossage has been talked to and Pete Rose Jr. talked about here on the blog. Lincoln Saltdogs first baseman Dustin Yount, fresh off his release from the Balimore Orioles farm system last year, is probably better-suited than any in the Sons of Greatness group around the indy circuit right now to get a chance to battle up to the bigs. After five full seasons within the Baltimore setup, he's still only 25 years old.

His .309 average (108 hits in 350 at-bats) this year won't blow scouts away, but it's still a career year and family names mean a whole lot (sometimes everything, depending on the case) in this industry.

PHOTO COURTESY: http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f161/dodgersrule18/yount.jpg

With the OB Indy Top 10 taking a break for a week, here's a poll in its place rating the GBL players still in the league with the best chance to earn contracts in major league farm system during the offseason. Like the Indy Top 10, there are variables that make all the difference in the world. In other words, this is nowhere close to being a list of the league's top players.

Instead, it's a list contingent on statistical performance, age in the grand scheme, previous minor league history, opponent perception (from conversations with other league players where evaluations were made), my own evals from watching them live and even location (Long Beach players often benefit from the attention they receive being in the LA market so easy for scouts to pop in and out of). The photo above is Van Slyke, who is at the front of the line to receive GBL Pitcher of the Year honors...

1. Eric Van Slyke, Starting pitcher, Edmonton Cracker Cats

2. Gary Harris, Center fielder, Reno Silver Sox

3. Jon Huizinga, Relief pitcher, Calgary Vipers

4. Seth Loman, Right fielder, St. George RoadRunners

5. Bryan Silverman, Right fielder, Chico Outlaws

6. Marcus Nettles, Left fielder, Edmonton Cracker Cats

7. Steve Boggs, Center fielder, Chico Outlaws

8. Carlos Arroyo, Right fielder, Edmonton Cracker Cats

9. Michael Glomb, Shortstop, Long Beach Armada

10. Trevor Caughey, Starting pitcher, Chico Outlaws

PHOTO COURTESY: Mark Mauno