W: J. Jeffress (1-0, 3.00); L: J. Manship (0-1, 6.00)
HR: None.

Former Miracle hurler Jeff Manship (Minnesota) gave up 3 runs on four hits over three innings while fanning 3, putting the Desert Dogs in an early hole that they never recovered from.  He'd take the loss, his first of the season for the defending Arizona Fall League champions.

The Dogs actually got on the board first, with Evan Frey (Arizona) taking a lead off walk.  Eric Young (Colorado) would bunt into a force out, then stole 2nd.  Following a ground out to J.P. Arencibia (Toronto), Sean Doolittle (Oakland) doubled to drive in Young.

Manship with drill former Sarasota Reds Drew Stubbs with a pitch to lead off, but got Carlos Triunfel (Seattle) to ground into a double play and Austin Jackson (NY Yankees) to fly out to get out of the inning.  Juan Miranda (NY Yankees) singled to lead off the bottom of the second.  Greg Halman (Seattle) singled, moving Miranda to 3rd.  He'd then try to steal 2nd, and would have been caught, but an error Adrian Cardenas (Oakland) gave Halman the base.  Manship would would get J.T. Hall (Tampa Bay) out on strikes, but then unleashed a wild pitch at scored Miranda, and put Halman on 3rd and Hall on first.  Justin Turner (Cincinnati) would ground into a double play that served to plate Halman before Rob Johnson (Seattle) would go down on a foul tipped strike to end the inning.

Taylor Green (Milwaukee) doubled in the bottom of the 3rd before Manship could take Stubbs down on strikes.  Triunfel then doubled as well, knocking in Green.  Jackson would hit into a fielder's choice double play to end the inning.

Tony Barnette (Arizona) replaced Manship for the fourth, then gave way to Jeff Gray (Oakland) in the fifth.

Peoria struck again in the sixth with Zach Dials (Toronto) on the mound.  Miranda tripled and was singled in by Halman.  Hall singled as well before Turner and Johnson could be taken out on strikes.  Mike McDonald (Oakland) would be summoned from the bullpen.  Green would reach on a Josh Donaldson (Oakland) fielding error, which scored Halman as well, before Stubbs would be induced to hit into a ground out to end the inning.

McDonald returned to the mound for the bottom of the 7th, allowing a double to Truinfel to open things up.  Jackson's ground out put Truinfel on 3rd, and Miranda would double him in, to make the score 6-1 in favor of the Javalinas.

The Dogs would finally get back onto the board in the 9th, with Doolittle singling off reliever Rob Manuel (Cincinnati), then moving to second on a wild pitch.  Danny Valencia (Minnesota) singled to move Doolittle to 3rd, and a sac fly by Rusty Ryal (Arizona) would bring the South Dakota native home.

Chris Mason (Tampa Bay) would take over the pitching chores for Peoria in the ninth, getting Chris Nelson (Colorado) to ground out before giving up a walk to Ryan Patterson (Toronto).  A fielding error by Stubbs allowed Scott Campbell (Toroto) to reach and Patterson to score.  Eric Young's ground out would plate Campbell, but that was the all the Dogs would get despite a single to Young and walk to Doolittle.

Milwaukee's Jeremy Jeffress took the win for the Javelinas who remain unbeaten after three games.

Phoenix continues their string of night games, facing the Scottsdale Scorpions for a 7:05 PM MST contest Friday at Scottsdale Stadium.

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Beloit Snappers' centerfielder Ben Revere was honored by Baseball America once again in their most recent issue after his impressive 2008 campaign. The speedy outfielder from Kentucky was rated as the 4th best prospect in the Midwest League, trailing Mike Moustakas (Burlington Bees), Neftali Feliz (Clinton LumberKings) and Jarrod Parker (South Bend Silver Hawks).

Revere had what may turn out to be the most successful season in Snappers’ history. The Twins’ 2007 first round draft pick ended up hitting .375 with 129 hits and 44 stolen bases while picking up the following awards:

- Midwest League MVP
- Midwest League Prospect of the Year
- Midwest League All-Star
- Midwest League Post-Season All-Star
- Best Batting Prospect (Baseball America)
- Best Strike Zone Judgment (Baseball America)
- Fastest Baserunner (Baseball America)
- Most Exciting Player (Baseball America)
- Topps Co-Midwest League Player of the Month (May)
- Minnesota Twins Minor League Player of the Month (May)
- Brodie Trophy Player of the Year

Miracle catcher Wilson Ramos as also honored by the magazine as the 8th best prospect in the Florida State League. Ramos batted .288 with 13 home runs and 23 doubles during the 2008 season for the FSL West Division Champions. Wilson also collected an impressive 130 hits in 452 at-bats.

Ramos was signed by the Twins as a non-drafted free agent on July 7th, 2004. In 73 games for the Snappers in 2007, Wilson hit .291 with eight homers, 17 doubles and 42 RBIs.

 The honor often times leads to good things for the players chosen by the prestigious magazine. Five of the ten players listed in 2003 by Baseball America as the top prospects in the Midwest League are now playing at the major league level. Prince Fielder #1 (Beloit Snappers), Manny Parra #4 (Beloit Snappers), Joe Blanton #5 (Kane County Cougars), Joel Zumaya #6 (West Michigan Whitecaps) and Felix Pie #8 (Lansing Lugnuts) all called the Midwest League home at one time in their playing career.

GCL Twins outfielder Aaron Hicks leads off the list of Baseball American's top 20 GCL Prospects. This is probably not surprising has Hicks enjoyed a great season with the GCL Twins, having a chance to focus on his fielding and his batting.

The list also included Michael Almanzar (3b), Casey Kelly (SS/rhp) and Derrik Gibson (3b) for the GCL Red Sox and Jarek Cunningham (3b/ss) for the GCL Pirates in the South Division.

Former GCLer Angel Morales picked up recognition as a top Appalachian League prospect, finishing up 8th on B.A.'s list. While the E-Twins enjoyed a great deal of success on the field, Elizabethton was largely snubbed by BA in the post season honors category.

BA will announce their top Midwest League prospects on September the 23, their top Florida State League prospects on the 29th, the Eastern League list on the 30th and the International League list will post on October 3rd.

BA also announced their first and second team All-stars. The Twins prospects were shut out of both except for the inclusion of closer Rob Delany as a post season All-star pitcher. Delaney is one of five former Beloit Snappers headed to the Arizona Fall league.

From a Beloit Snappers press release:

Five former Snappers will be participating in the upcoming Arizona Fall League next month for the Minnesota Twins. Rob Delaney, Jeff Manship, Anthony Slama, Steve Tolleson and Danny Valencia will all be members of the Phoenix Desert Dogs along with prospects from the following teams:

- Arizona Diamondbacks
- Colorado Rockies
- Oakland Athletics
- Toronto Blue Jays

The Arizona Fall League is considered by many to be final step before entering the Major League level. Six top prospects from each Major League team are chosen to compile six different teams split into two divisions. Each team will be made up of 30 players, totaling 180 with the league schedule running from October 7th to November 20th.

Rob Delaney was a member of the 2007 Beloit Snappers where he went 1-0 with a 0.77 ERA in 36 games. His 28 saves broke the all-time record for the Snappers and were good enough for second in the Midwest League, even after he was promoted to Fort Myers half way through the season. Delaney signed with the Twins as a non-drafted free agent on June 19, 2006.

Jeff Manship was a Snapper during the beginning of the '07 season. Manship went 7-1 with a 1.51 ERA in 13 starts, while compiling 77 strikeouts in 77.2 innings of work. He was a 14th round pick by the Twins in the 2006 First-Year Player draft.

Anthony Slama was another member of the '07 Snappers, taking over the closer role after Rob Delaney's promotion to Fort Myers. In 21 games for the Snappers, Slama saved 10 while posting a 1.48 ERA. Anthony also had an impressive 39 strikeouts in 24.1 innings pitched. Slama was a 39th round pick by the Twins in the 2006 First-Year Player draft.

Steve Tolleson played in Beloit for parts of the 2005 and '06 seasons, totaling 78 games. During the '06 campaign, Steve hit .287 with 49 hits, 23 runs and 16 RBIs. Tolleson was the Twins' 5th round pick in the 2005 First-Year Player draft.

Danny Valencia played for the Snappers during the 2007 season, hitting .302 with 15 doubles, 11 home runs and 35 RBIs. Valencia also sported a .374 on-base percentage in 66 games. Danny was drafted by the Twins' in the 19th of the 2006 First-Year Player draft.

Delaney, Manship, Tolleson and Valencia all spent the majority of the 2008 season with the Twins' Double-A Affiliate New Britain Rock Cats, while Slama spent the entire season with the High-A Affiliate Fort Myers Miracle.

Joining the five for the AzFL are Dustin Martin, who was acquired in a 2007 trade with the Mets and pitcher Tim Lahey, a catcher converted to pitcher. Neither wore a Snappers uniform during their Twins minor league careers.

Fort Myers 3 at Daytona 7

W: A. Cashner (1-0, 0.00); L: A. Burnett (1-1, 3.38)
HR: FTM: J. Woodard (1). DAY: J. Adduci (1), Y. Carter (1).

The Daytona Cubs were bound and determined not to wait one more day for a Florida State League Championship.  As a result, they wasted little time defeating the Fort Myers Miracle, 7-3 to take the title.

I said I would be happy of the Miracle got past Dunedin and I stand by that.  Great job boys!

The Miracle actually got on to the scoreboard first, with Johnny Woodard putting one over the right field wall in the 2nd inning.

Daytona took it right back with Yusef Carter going yard in the bottom half of the stanza.  John Mota would follow that up with a single, and be plated by Darwin Barney's double.  Tony Thomas smacked a line drive out to center that scored Barney.  He'd try to stretch it for a double and failed, finishing the inning with the Cubs up 3-1.

James Adduci took a home run off Miracle starter Alex Burnett as well, putting his over the left field fence just to be a little different.  Ty Wright singled and advanced to second on a error by Yancarlos Ortiz as he and Wilson Ramos attempted to take out Wright, who chose to steal 2nd.  Following a ground out to Blake Lalli that advanced the runner to 3rd, Russ Canzier hit a sac-fly to bring Wright in, for the fifth Cubs run.

Back-to-back doubles by Ramos and Whit Robbins gave the Miracle another run.  Edward Ovalle would single Robbins to 3rd, and after Woodard went down on strikes, Garrett Olson hit into a sac double-play that plated Robbins.

The score would stand at 5-3 until the bottom of the sixth when the Cubs tacked on two more.  Steve Clevenger doubled and moved to 3rd on a wild pitch by Spencer Steedley.  A walk to Carter signaled a pitching change for the Miracle, with Ozzie Sosa coming in to replace Steedley.  Mota singled to drive in Clevenger, and Barney followed that up with a double that brought in Carter.  Jose Lugo would be brought, the second pitching change of the inning, to get Adduci to ground out before the Cubs could add a few more runs.

In the end, the Cubs out hit the Miracle 48 to 25 and it was their prowess with a bat that made the difference.

Fort Myer recorded five hits in the final match of the contest with Steve Singleton, Ramos, Edward Ovalle and Johnny Woodard all going 1-for-4 and Robbins going 1-for-2.  Sing, Ramos and Robbins all had extra base hits, Woodard had the home run and Robbins, Woodard and Olson had the RBIs.

The Miracle conclude what can only be considered a successful 2008 season under field manager Jeff Smith.  With Fall Instructional League and Arizona Fall League on the way,  www.miraclefans.com will be taking a look at some of the prospects you can expect to see in a Miracle uniform in 2009, so don't go away!

Again, thanks to the Minnesota Twins for providing us with a great group of players, and to the staff of the Fort Myers Miracle for being such wonderful hosts at Hammond Stadium.

Congratulations to the Cubs who captured their second Championship since the turn of the century.

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