Win Some, Lose Some

Yesterday, the season came to an end for the Boise Hawks. Sloppy play in the ninth turned a 2-1 Dust Devils lead inton an 8-1 Dust Devils win.  Of course, such sloppyness is to be expected in short season Class A ball. It’s remarkable to note the number of times that I’ve seen/heard the Hawks give a game away and how many the Hawks have gotten one.  On Tuesday night, Catacher Josh Donaldson’s amazing play of picking a runner off of second came because of sloppy baserunning on Tri City’s behalf. Players are developing and learning and the purpose of Minor League ball is to make sure these type of things happen as little as possible at the big league level.

In the end, Andrea and I enjoyed 3 games of good baseball and it was a fun first season of following minor league baseball. So my final Hawks notes:

• The Hawks actually ended up tied (37-39) with the Tri City Dust Devils but the Dust Devils won the season series 7-5,  so they won the Division crown. Does anyone else think that’s a cheap way to do it. Not to take anything away from the Dust Devils (who came from tied for third to get into first place.) but when a division ends up tied, we should have a playoff for it. This could be facilitated by having an off day before the 5-game division playoffs start. There’s no reason to have the regular season end on Wednesday and the playoffs start on Thursday. There ought to be a travel day, which in a pinch can be used for a division playoff.
• Hawks that will be in the Big Leagues someday #1: Josh Donaldson. We saw his first game and the guy was dynamite. He’s been a great asset all season. His final hitting line (.340-9 HR, 35 RBIs, and 1.075 OPS in 49 games) doesn’t even tell the whole story as to how valuable he’s been. Throw in 6 stolen bases coming from a catcher and he definitely looks like something special. We’re not likely to see him next year. He’s definitely ready for Peoria or Daytona at least.
• Hawks that will be in the Big Leagues some day #2: Tony Thomas looks to be a complete package player. He looks like he can easily develop into a great power-speed guy. In a league where you’re supposed to make mistakes, Thomas didn’t make many on offense. His line (.307-5-33 RBI, a .404 On-Base-Percentage, and .948 OPS) are pretty impressive. Consider the plate discipline he showed to draw the walks. In addition to this Thomas, was also tied for the league lead with 8 triples, which is pretty impressive given that he only played 45 games. He also was second in the league with 28 Stolen Bases (the league leader had 32 in 69 games), but with only 2 caught stealings. Thomas is already so solid even in his first season.
• Hope to see in the big leagues someday: Dustin Sasser. 3-4, 4.59 ERA doesn’t show much promise, but he looked great the times Andrea and I saw him. The guy’s got a ton of potential, particularly at 22, but that can be said of most players in the minors.