New York Penn League Notes 7/27/17

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The end of July is here and with it comes another installment of the notes for this week in the New York Penn League. Teams have hit the thirty game mark for the season and things are starting to be defined in all facets of the game. Here what’s going on this week.

The best race is shaping up in the Pinckney Division. Mahoning Valley and West Virginia are tied at the top with Williamsport right behind at only a game back, and State College two games back. All three of these teams are at the top of the wild card standing as well. They are joined by Aberdeen who is one and a half behind. It will make for quite a race down the stretch for both the Division championship as well as the Wild Card entrant.

Joshua Lopez of State College is having a nice summer with the bat. He is second in the batting chase with a .416 average, third in the league in hits with 32, and is second in both on-base percentage at .471 and in slugging at .623. He is one of two players to find themselves in the batting hunt. The other is Evan Mendoza who is tenth in the standing with a .301 batting mark. He finds himself second in runs scored with 20.

Aberdeen has three players in the batting title chase, you know about Ben Breazeale who continues to tear up the pitching in this league. His two teammates are also getting the job done which is why the team trails only Williamsport for the team batting title (.259) One of those mates is Kevin Moesquit whose average of .302 ranks him ninth in the batting race. He leads in runs scored with 23 and is tied for the stolen base lead with 16. The other guy swinging a hot bat for the IronBirds is Ryan Ripken, yes of the Ripken group. His average of .304 has him in eighth place in the batting standings.

Daniel Alvarez of the Staten Island Yankees is involved in a couple of different categories when it comes to pitching in this league. He is tied with four other hurlers in home runs allowed with four and fifth in Avg. at .186. (18 for 97). Sam Tewes of State College has faced a lot of hitters so far this season (156) in the New York Penn League, which can be both good and bad. The good is that he is staying in games longer than other pitchers on his staff and around the league. The bad is because of the total number of hitters faced he leads the league in hits allowed at 45.

Juan Florentino of the Lowell Spinners has fit nicely into the closer role on the team and leads in saves with five, and is tied for games with 10. Also, he leads in games finished, always an important stat for a closer, with 10. He is also fifth in lowest BB-IBB pre /9IP Ratio with 1.32 walks in 13.2 innings pitched this season. The bad news for Florentino is not getting many chances to close games for a Spinners team that at the moment find themselves in last place in the Stedler Division.