Baseball – Page 2 – Dugout Tales

That is a wrap to the 2024 season in Sacramento for the River Cats who finished the second half of the season with a record of 36-39 for sixth place. The Cats fell to the Sugar Land Space Cowboys by a score of 8-3 after leading 3-1 going into the 8^th. The game ended with Will Wilson being thrown out at home by a laser from Sugar Land centerfielder Jacob Melton in the bottom of the 9^th which seemed a very River Cats thing to do in 2024.

Overall, the Cats finished the year 80-70, the third best record in the Pacific Coast League behind Sugar Land (93-56) and Tacoma (82-68). This has been the River Cats first winning season since 2019 when they won the National Championship in their 20th Anniversary seaon. While 2024 didn’t end in the same fashion, and while their second half record looks worse than the team actually was, it was two weeks in June that really set the River Cats back this year as they celebrated 25 years in Sacramento.

One of the highlights of the final homestand was the appearance of 2023 Giants first round pick Bryce Eldridge being added to the roster, who at still just 19 was one of the youngest players in Triple-A. He will turn 20 in October of this year, and while he isn’t quite ready at this point in my opinion to start 2025 at Triple-A he looked a lot more comfortable and ready than when I saw Jackson Holliday’s first go at Triple-A with Norfolk at the end of the 2023 season.

I had never been a fan of rushing prospects through the Minor Leagues but I just read an article in Baseball America today that spoke of Eldridge, Holliday, and a handful of other young players out of high school who were making appearances in Triple-A within a year of being drafted. The article by JJ Cooper explained that the new format of how the Minor League schedule has changed since 2021 allows teams to keep their most talented players playing and jumping one or two levels within a couple of weeks. Prior to 2020 Minor League ball usually ended within a day or two of each in early September, but the new format ends Single-A on September 1, Double-A a week after that, and Triple-A yet another week after that. Not only does this allow players to play a little longer it really gives them a taste of what is to come. I do not think the small sample size should be used as a way to exploit the young players weakness and give up hope on their future but it allows them to see what they need to work and hopefully the teams will invest that time into them. I think Holliday is great example of how this can pay off.

The River Cats released their end of year team awards today which highlight some of the accomplishments from the 2024 season. The winners are, Best Teammate: Donovan Walton, Most Exciting Player: Grant McCray, Most Improved: Hunter Bishop, Most Versatile: Brett Auerbach, Defensive POY: Casey Schmitt, Offensive POY: Trenton Brooks, Pitcher of the Year: Carson Seymour, and Team MVP: Donovan Walton. Seymour’s 28 starts were the most by a River Cats pitcher since 2003 when Eric Hiljus started 29 for a River Cats team that would win their first PCL Championship in Sacramento. As of this publishing, Minor League Baseball has not announced the league award winners.

Looking around at the final individual stats we can see how these numbers helped carry their teams into the post season. These numbers are only for the Pacific Coast League Leaders and how the River Cats leaders faired in each category as well.

BATTING

Three Reno Aces were the top three hitters in the PCL this season with Bryson Brigman hitting .334, Andres Chaparro .332, and Adrian Del Castillo .312. Former River Cat Jason Vosler hit .303 for Tacoma and Trenton Brooks led Sacramento with a .302 average,

Nick Allen led the league with 111 Hits for Las Vegas, while David Villar topped River Cats hitters with 106.

Ryan Ward of Oklahoma City led the league with 33, Jason Vosler had 31 for Tacoma, and David Villar hit 16 for the River Cats

The River Cats did better in the RBI category with Hunter Bishop in second place behind Oklahoma City’s Trey Sweeney and his 61 RBI.

The most surprising category to me were stolen bases where Jimmy Herron of Albuquerque, and Trey Sweeney of Oklahoma City tied for the league lead with 16, but Sacramento’s Blake Sabol and Casey Schmitt were not far behind with 11. Sabol runs a lot better than the average catcher, and Schmitt’s numbers are just shocking to me especially after watching him play every day.

PITCHING

Unlike Reno who rode their bats in the second half to a playoff berth, pitching is what carried Sugar Land this year. AJ Blubaugh led the league with 12 wins, while Clay Helvey had 7 for Sacramento. Sugar Land’s Ryan Gusto led the league with 141 strikeouts, followed by Sacramento’s Carson Whisenhunt and Carson Seymour with 135, and 132, respectively.

Three Sugar Land pitchers were atop the ERA leaders with Gusto’s 3.70, Blubaugh’s 3.83, and Colton Gordon’s 3.94. Carson Seymour led the River Cats with an ERA of 4.82. Diving deeper Sugar Land’s pitchers were in the top four of WHIP with Gordon and Gusto in the one and two spots at 1.22, and 1.27. Blubaugh ranked fourth with 1.35, and Carson Seymour was fifth with a 1.57 WHIP. The most impressive pitching stat for Sugar Land this year is Wander Suero’s 37 saves on the season. The closest saves leader was Austin Davis of El Paso with 14. The River Cats leader was Spencer Bivens with 8.

Wrapping this up, the Pacific Coast and International League Championships begin this week. In the Pacific Coast League, the Reno Aces (Arizona Diamondbacks) and Sugar Land Space Cowboys (Houston Astros) will face off in Texas, while over in the International League the Columbus Clippers (Cleveland Guardians) will face the Omaha Storm Chasers (Kansas City Royals) in Nebraska. The winners of these two series will face off on Saturday, September 28 in Las Vegas for the Triple-A National Championship. I can’t speak for the International League teams but I’m pulling for Columbus because that’s where long time River Cats player Tyler Beede is now pitching and would love an opportunity to catch up with him. In the PCL, while the Space Cowboys have dominated the entire league all season, this past week in Sacramento showed that they are not unbeatable, and Reno has remained hot in the second half. My money is on Reno but mainly because I hate the Houston Astros and by default I hate the Space Cowboys too.

When we last saw our heroes, they were in a tight race to potentially win the first half of the Pacific Coast League Championship and secure a berth in the PCL Playoffs in late September but they then ran into the force that were the Round Rock Express and losing four of their last six along with any hopes of winning the Division. Despite this, the River Cats would end the first half with one of the best records in all of Minor League Baseball in the first half.

The River Cats would start the second half of the season looking like they had righted the ship by going 3-1 against the Las Vegas Aviators before hitting a nine-game losing streak, and losing 11 of their next 12. While the River Cats have fared much better since then by going 23-18 the damage has been done and they sit at the bottom of the PCL West Division with a record of 27-30.

The Reno Aces on the other hand are 32-24 for the second-best record in the PCL behind none other than Sugar Land. Should the Aces keep going we are looking at a potential Reno Aces vs Sugar Land Space Cowboys playoff series September 24-26 with the winner advancing to the Triple-A Championship in Las Vegas on September 28. Should the Aces advance from there, it would be their second appearance in three years.

Speaking of Las Vegas, the River Cats closed out a six-game series this week against the Aviators with a come from behind walk-off courtesy of Cavan Biggio. I left the game early because I was not feeling well. The Aviators had the lead of 8-4 in the 8^th when I decided to leave, and were being carried by their catcher Carlos Perez who was having an amazing three home run game. This was only the second time since 2005 that an opposing player had hit three home runs against the River Cats here in Sacramento.

It was on my way home that the River Cats began to make their move. A two run double by Trenton Brooks, a three run home run by Hunter Bishop to tie it, and then a walk-off two run home run by Biggio and what a way to end a game and a series.

I have not written a story for this page in about six weeks, and I stopped, because like the River Cats I hit a wall. It seems to happen to me almost every year around June or July since I first started writing my book back in 2019. It really goes to show how much the game of baseball itself can wear on your mentally and not just the day in and day out of its physicality.

In this time off from writing I have had a lot going on personally and have been overwhelmed with the day job that I lost track of how the rest of the River Cats season had been going. I was noticing how well the team had been doing after that slow start until I started to write this. I saw the loses and the blown leads but nothing else was registering and that was how I was viewing my life outside of writing as well. So, I am grateful for this outlet, and hopefully this can spark something to get me back on my feet. No, like the River Cats, this season probably will not end on a playoff run, but there is hope for a better tomorrow, and in the words of Winston Churchill, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

Tag: Baseball

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