New York Penn League Second Half News & Notes

Read Time:2 Minute, 23 Second

The second half of the New York Penn League season is underway and the playoff push is on as the dog days of summer are set to begin. Here is some of what is taking place around the league.

The Batavia Muckdogs may be having an under .500 season thus far, but one player who is trying to change that is Sean Reynolds. He leads the league in games played at 39, home runs with eight, runs scored with 30, and in walks with 26. Hitters that drive the baseball also have a tendency to strikeout as well. Reynolds leads in that category with 69, in 135 at-bats. That is fourteen more than anyone else. He is second in RBI with 26, fourth in total bases with 61, and is second in Best HR/AB Ratio at 1/16.88. In his case, some numbers you live with and some you just have to accept.

Edwin Fiquera of State College Spikes has been finding different ways to get on base to help his team. One way is by leading the league in hit by pitch. Fiquera has been hit 12 times in the first half of the season. It’s one way to maintain a high on-base percentage which in his case sits at .404, which is good for fourth place in the NYPL .

Tyler Frank of Hudson Valley has had a fine first half. He leads in on-base percentage at .464, and his batting average of .318 has him fifth in the batting race. His 25 runs scored put him third in that category, and his 10 doubles place him fourth in that department.

On the pitching side of things, Jaison Vilera, of the Brooklyn Cyclones had a terrific first half. His earned run average of 0.92 leads the league. In 39 innings of work, Vilera has allowed only 21 hits, which also has him at the top of Lowest Batting Average at .160 (21 hits in 131 at-bats). His 48 strikeouts put him second in Highest SO/9IP ratio at 11.08.

The Vermont Lake Monsters are getting good work out of their bullpen from Jose Mora. He leads in Lowest Batting Average for Relievers at .143 ( 10 hits in 70 At-Bats) and is third in Highest SO/9IP ratio with 27 K’s in 19 innings out of the pen. That works out to a 12.79 ratio. His overall is batting average of .194 is fifth among all pitchers in the league.

And then there is Lowell Spinners Jarred Duran, who we could mention and it seems like we do every week in this column. On Saturday night in a loss to the State College Spikes, Duran whacked his 10th triple of the season. The triple breaks the franchise single-season record previously held by Michael Myers in 2014.