Near Triple Crowns, Alumni Making their Marks among MLB Partner League Highlights as Miles Wolff Cup Playoffs Begin Tonight
The American Association of Professional Baseball (@AA_Baseball) finished off its regular season with exciting races for the final spots, setting off the Miles Wolff Cup Playoffs, beginning tonight. All AAPB playoff games are available for free live viewing at aabaseball.tv.
Here are 10 (or so) Things to Know about the AAPB this week:
- The AAPB Miles Wolff Cup Playoffs begin tonight, as the top seeds in each division have chosen their respective opponents in the lightning-quick best-of-three Division Series opening at the lower seed and continuing Friday and Saturday (if necessary) at the higher seed. Winners meet in the Division Championship Series beginning next Wednesday, Sept. 11. Full schedules below.
- Playoff Notebook:
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East: #1 Cleburne (60-40) vs Chicago (55-45)
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Cleburne won the season series, 8-4, going 4-2 both at home and on the road
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Cleburne selected Chicago as its first round opponent
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It’s a rematch of the 2023 wild card round, won by Chicago two games to one
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Cleburne led the league in batting (.281), runs (656), home runs (129) and on base (.384) but Chicago’s Jacob Teter (Melbourne, Fla.) had 28 HR, second in the league, and Narciso Crook (Nagua, Dominican Republic) was third with 26.
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- East: Kane County (55-45) vs. Lake Country (53-47)
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Lake Country won the season series, 7-5, including 4-2 at KCO
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LC swept KCO twice over the season’s last 2 1/2 weeks, Aug 16-18 at KCO and Aug 27-29 at LC
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LC is league’s hottest team, going 25-9 since July 27
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Kane County’s Cornelius Randolph (Griffin, Ga.) hit .388 with .504 OBP in August/September, ending the season on 15-game hit streak
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- West: #1 Winnipeg (56-43) vs. Sioux Falls (55-44)
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Winnipeg won the season series, 7-6, including 4-2 at home, outscoring the Canaries, 67-46
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Winnipeg selected Sioux Falls as its first round opponent despite finishing just one game ahead of the Canaries in the standings
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The clubs have never met in AAPB postseason
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The series pits the Goldeyes’ pitching (3.74 ERA overall, best in league, 3.16 vs SF) against Sioux Falls’s power (115 HR, second-most in league, but just 9 vs WPG)
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- West: Fargo-Moorhead (53-47) vs. Sioux City (49-51)
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Fargo-Moorhead took the season series, 8-5, including a 5-2 record at home
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This is a rematch of the 2023 wild card round, won by Sioux City in a two-game sweep
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Will speed be the key? The Explorers led the league with 200 stolen bases, 26 of those vs. F-M, while the RedHawks had league leader Izzy Alcantara (El Mirage, Ariz.) with 70 (nine vs SC).
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A few other postseason notes:
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The pitch clock will be used in all post-season games, and infractions will be called as they have in the regular season.
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During the post-season, the International Tie-Breaker rule is not used. Extra inning games will continue until a winner is decided.
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Three-man umpire crews will be assigned for each of the Division Series games. The league will switch to four-man crews for the Division Championship Series and the Wolff Cup Final.
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Last Week, Ryan Miller, who pitched for the Sioux Falls Canaries in 2022, made his Major League debut with the Los Angeles Angels, tossing a hitless inning at Detroit. He recorded his first career hold with a scoreless seventh inning in a win over Seattle on Sunday. Miller is the 57th player in AAPB history to reach the majors and the 19th to see action this year. He is also the fifth Sioux Falls alum to reach the bigs.
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Fargo-Moorhead’s Izzy Alcantara (El Mirage, Ariz.) came up one stolen base shy of the league record set last year by Milwaukee’s Bryan Torres. Alcantara stole three bases in Saturday’s win at Kane County, but his bid for the record-tying 71st was snuffed on an eighth inning attempt when the Cougars’ Hayden Dunhurst (Carriere, Miss.) gunned him out at second.
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Speaking of Torres, he’s done nothing but rake for the St. Louis Cardinals’ AA affiliate in Springfield, Mo., pacing the Texas League with a .328 average, 135 hits and .416 on base percentage at press time. His Cardinals teammate and Sioux City alum (2023) Matt Lloyd is second in the circuit with 68 RBI.
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We’ve followed the eagle eye of Cleburne’s Thomas Dillard (Oxford, Miss.) all year here, and the Ole Miss product indeed set the season bases on balls mark, drawing three walks in an 8-6 win over Sioux City on Friday to reach 93, one more than T. J. Middlestaedt of Kansas City in 2014.
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Winnipeg’s Joey Matulovich (Danville, Calif.) finished one win short of the AAPB pitching triple crown, recording league-leading marks of a 2.12 ERA and 145 strikeouts, and winning 11 games, one short of Ty Culbreth (Bryan, Texas) of Sioux Falls. Matulovich had a no-decision in his final start, a 6-3 win at Gary SouthShore on August 26 and tossed just one tuneup inning on Sunday as Winnipeg readies for its series with Culbreth’s Canaries.
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Chicago’s Jacob Teter (Melbourne, Fla.) also fell just short of the triple crown on the batting side, riding a torrid final eight games (16-for-29, .552) to edge Sioux City’s John Nogowski (Tallahassee, Fla.) for the batting title, .349 to .346). Nogowski did everything he could to close the gap on the season’s last day on Monday, rapping three hits, but Teter’s 1-for-2 with three walks staved off the challenge. Teter’s 95 RBI led the league, but his 28 home runs were one fewer than Lake Country’s Ryan Hernandez (Hyde Park, Mass.).
- East Division Series (Best of 3) (all times CT)
- Wednesday
- Cleburne @ Chicago, 6:30 p.m.
- Kane County @ Lake Country, 6:35 p.m.
- Friday
- Lake Country @ Kane County, 6:30 p.m.
- Chicago @ Cleburne, 7:06 p.m.
- Saturday (if necessary)
- Lake Country @ Kane County, 6:30 p.m.
- Chicago @ Cleburne, 7:06 p.m.
- Wednesday
- West Division Series (Best of 3)
- Wednesday
- Winnipeg @ Sioux Falls, 6:35 p.m.
- Fargo-Moorhead @ Sioux City, 7:05 p.m.
- Friday
- Sioux City @ Fargo-Moorhead, 6:30 p.m.
- Sioux Falls @ Winnipeg, 7:00 p.m.
- Saturday (if necessary)
- Sioux Falls @ Winnipeg, 6:00 p.m.
- Sioux City @ Fargo-Moorhead, 6:30 p.m.
- Wednesday
