A Neutral Game

It is now the 2019 New York-Penn League playoffs. Unfortunately the Staten Island Yankees were bounced from contention during the penultimate game of the regular season, but fortunately the Brooklyn Cyclones stayed in it until the end as they took the McNamara Division.

Yesterday was the rubber game in the best-of-three semi-finals round between the Brooklyn Cyclones (Mets) and the Hudson Valley Renegades (Rays). Because it's September that means that the Cyclones are practically begging people to come to games by making tickets $5. $5 baseball games in New York City? Sure I'll stop by! Especially since it gave me a great opportunity to nab some autographs.

Autographs

First up was the Renegades' starter, John Doxakis.
Doxakis was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the second round of the 2019 MLB Player Draft out of Texas A&M. The 6'4 southpaw is armed with a low-90's fastball, a slider and changeup. All of which he uses to get strikes or generate (at best) weak contact. Whether or not he stays a starter long-term or switches into more of a relief role remains to be seen, but what is clear is that the Rays will turn him into a bonafide major leaguer, because they always do.

Next up is Renegades' shortstop, Greg Jones.
Jones was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the first round of the 2019 MLB Player Draft out of UNC Wilmington. The 6'2 is, at the moment, a speed demon. He's got legitimate 80-grade speed and it shows. He's also hits for contact and could be an absolute threat on the basepaths. He's got some power but it's yet to come. I'm sure that as he fills out his frame that power will come in with due time. There are questions about whether he can stay at shortstop long term, but that speed can play just as well in center if need be. Jones is part of an incredibly deep line of shortstops in the Rays org along with Wander Franco, Vidal Brujan, Jake Cronenworth, Taylor Walls, Lucius Fox, Tyler Frank and the beleaguered Willy Adames. They'll likely keep Jones at short until they deem that his talents aren't being utilized to their fullest potential there.

Going over to the Cyclones' side, here's Jake Mangum.
Mangum was drafted by the New York Mets in the fourth round of the 2019 MLB Player Draft out of Mississippi State University. Mangum is an outfielder with lots of speed at his disposal. He also has some solid on-base skills that pair well with his speed and make him a potential threat on the basepaths. Mangum kind of projects to be the speedy fourth outfielder type with a good glove and solid arm to handle the late innings, but if some of that power can come through he could grow to be so much more.

My last autograph yesterday came courtesy of Joe Genord.
Genord was drafted by the New York Mets in the ninth round of the 2019 MLB Player Draft out of the University of South Florida. Prior to turning pro, Genord was well regarded for his power. Immediately after turning pro he proved everyone right by socking three dingers in 12 games in June. He'd go on to hit five in his first 18 pro games. Unfortunately Genord's got a massive roadblock ahead of him in the form of Pete Alonso, another first baseman who can hit dingers, so the hope is that Genord can possibly shift to another position.

And those were my autographs. Miraculously all four of the Renegades and Cyclones representatives in the 2019 NYPL Top Prospects set were still with their teams. Even more miraculously I got all four of them in one night. Woof!

The Game Itself

Unfortunately I didn't stay throughout the whole game because it was cold, wet (stupid rain), windy and above all I was finally just getting over my cold. But what little I did get to see was rather good. I stayed for first inning of the game and got a lot more action happened than I expected. The Renegades got off to an early 1-0 lead thanks to a dinger. Then the bottom of the first happened and the Cyclones tied it 1-1.

Lost in all of that exciting madness was a very good match-up between top pitching prospect John Doxakis and rehabbing major leaguer Jed Lowrie. I'll never get tired of seeing what low-A prospects can do against big leaguers. The Doxakis-Lowrie at-bat was quite fun. Doxakis threw a little bit of everything in his arsenal and Lowrie worked him to a full count. Eventually Doxakis managed to get Lowrie to ground out to shortstop Greg Jones, but I was impressed. The autographs more than justified the $5 ticket but that at-bat alone was worth the price of admission.

After I left the game would go on to have a few more scoring plays happen. Eventually the Cyclones walked off on the Renegades and won the game 4-3 (BOX). Sucks for the Renegades that their season came to an end, but now the Cyclones are headed to the 2019 New York-Penn League finals. They'll be going up against the Lowell Spinners (Red Sox) who won their semi-final match against the Batavia Muckdogs (Marlins). Here's the BOX for that game. The finals will be played across two (three if necessary) games next week. Should be fun.

2019 IP Auto Count: 60