The Padres Low A Affiliate, the Fort Wayne TinCaps, are playing for the championship of the Midwest League. Some of you may recall theywon the Championship back in 2009. Well, not only are they playing in the championship, but they are already 2 games in and are all tied up in the series at 1 game a piece. They clinched the playoffs a couple of weeks ago with a wild card spot due to their second half record. Since then, they defeated the first half champion Lansing Lugnuts (Blue Jays) in a best of three series and the Lake County Captains (Dodgers) in another best of three. The Championship series is a best of five with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Brewers).
Tin Caps Players worth noting:
- Austin Hedges, C - Padres' 14th best prospect by Minorleagueball.com, 2011 2nd round pick, MWL All Star.
- Jace Peterson, SS - Padres' 19th best prospect by Minorleagueball.com, 2011 1st round pick, MWL All Star.
- Yeison Asencio, OF - Formerly known as Yoan Alcantera, led the MWL with .323 batting average.
- Jeremy Baltz, OF - 2012 2nd round pick.
- Travis Jankowski, OF - 2012 1st round pick, 17 steals in 59 games.
- Johnny Barbato, P - 2010 6th round pick, converted to relief this season, 1.84 ERA, 84 Ks in 73.1 IP.
- Frank Garces, P - 9-6, 2.81 ERA in 25 starts, 112 Ks in 121.2 IP, MWL All Star.
- James Needy, P - 2011 6th round pick from Santana HS in Santee, 1.75 ERA in 28 relief appearances and 4 starts, also pitched for San Antonio and Tucson as reliever this season.
- Joe Ross, P - Padres' 11th best prospect by Minorleagueball.com, 2011 1st round pick.
- Matt Stites, P - 0.74 ERA in 42 relief appearances, 13 saves, 60 Ks in 48.2 IP.
While those are some of the top prospects to note, there are others that have contributed to this playoff run. Colin Rea started game 2 and pitched 7 shutout innings for second win of the playoffs. First baseman Lee Orr led the team with 11 HRs in the regular season and has 4 in the postseason. You can check out the entire roster here, their 2012 here, the game 1 (loss) championship box score here and the game 2 (win) championship box score here.
Game 3 will be played Saturday, September 15 at 4:05 PT and the series will move to Fort Wayne after being in Grand Chute for the first 2 games.