Following the All Star break and with just 3 game mini-series last week, “Hoosier Alumni Series Stars” is back just in time to highlight some impressive performances from our Hoosier alumni chasing their professional baseball dreams.
Alumni Position Player of the Week
Grant Richardson
Hudson Valley Renegades – (Advanced A) New York Yankees
Photo: Hudson Valley Renegades
AB
H
2B
3B
HR
R
RBI
BB
SB
AVG
OBP
SLG
OPS
13
7
2
0
3
6
7
2
0
.528
.625
1.385
2.010
In mid-June, Grant Richardson went on a run which saw him put up what could best be called “video game numbers”. He slashed (AVG/SLG/OBP) .667/1.267/1.973 for that series against the St Lucie Mets. There must be something about the Yankees-Mets rivalry which gets Richardson going because he victimized the Mets’ High A Brooklyn Cyclones for even more outlandish numbers. Grant’s slash line saw him hit .538, slug 1.385, and hit for a mind boggling 2.010 OPS.
Other Notable Performances:
Craig Dedelow – Birmingham Barons (AA) – Chicago White Sox
AB
H
2B
3B
HR
R
RBI
BB
SB
AVG
OBP
SLG
OPS
24
6
0
0
4
5
8
3
1
.300
.375
.900
1.275
Kyle Schwarber currently on pace to hit 51 home runs. This would best Ted Kluszuski’s MLB record for a Hoosier alum by 2. It should be noted that Big Klu hit his 49 home runs in 154 games. Schwarber ended the month of July with 10 home runs. This was a similar rate to his record setting June.
Grant Richardson and his performance this week should not be much of a surprise, but it does come shortly after Grant was promoted from the Tampa Tarpons (A) to the Hudson Valley Renegades (A+)
Craig Dedelow recent power surge has propelled him back into 3rd place in the Southern League in home runs. Dedelow’s 19 paces him behind Drew Lugbower’s 21 (Michigan) and Jackson Reetz’s 22.
Sam Travis sent the Duck fans home happy Thursday night with an RBI single to right in the bottom of the 11th inning to chase the winning run home for a 4-3 victory over the rival Staten Island Ferry Hawks.
Alumni Pitcher of the Week
Gabe Bierman
Jupiter Hammerheads (A) – Miami Marlins
This week Gabe Bierman completed his longest outing of his professional career when he went 7 innings, allowing 0 earned runs and just 3 hits while striking out 8. Bierman has been trending up throughout July. In his other outings this month, Bierman has extended the depth of each of his appearances. In doing so, Gabe has become much more economical with his pitches in cutting almost a pitch per batter faced than the previous month.
Photo: MiLB tv
G
W
L
ERA
IP
TBF
H
R
ER
BB
SO
AVG
WHIP
K/9
2
1
0
0.00
7
24
3
1
0
1
8
.130
0.570
10.29
Tommy Sommer – Winston-Salem Dash (A+) – Chicago White Sox
W
L
IP
TBF
H
R
ER
BB
SO
AVG
WHIP
1
0
5.2
20
3
3
3
0
3
.150
0.536
Scott Effross – Chicago Cubs
G
W
L
ERA
IP
TBF
H
R
ER
BB
SO
SV
Hold
AVG
2
0
0
0.00
2
10
2
0
0
2
1
1
1
.250
Pitcher Notes:
Andrew Saalfrank was promoted from Hillsboro (A+) to the Armadillo Sod Poodles (AA) of the Texas League at the start of last week.
Saalfrank and Richardson were not the only Hoosiers to see promotions as of late. Tommy Sommer got the call to move up from Kannapolis (A) to Winston-Salem (A+) of the South Atlantic League. His first outing had an interesting occurrence. Sommer’s first strikeout at the level came when the batter was assessed a pitch clock violation with two strikes.
In his first outing since June 10th Kyle Hart was back on the mound for the Portland Sea Dogs, earning Co-Player of the Game honors from his Wednesday outing where he pitched 2 perfect innings in relief.
Scott Effross continues to be one of the leading bullpen arms in the National League. Effross currently is 3rd in the NL in Inherited Runs Scored with only 14.7% of the runners he inherits crossing the plate.
