{"id":4477,"date":"2011-08-04T10:53:30","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T15:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=4477"},"modified":"2011-08-04T12:49:49","modified_gmt":"2011-08-04T17:49:49","slug":"2011-connie-mack-world-series-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/4477","title":{"rendered":"2011 Connie Mack World Series Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With the Connie Mack World Series slated to begin Friday night at Ricketts Park, the city of Farmington is once again beginning to stir with baseball anticipation.\u00a0 The tournament is again loaded with a collection of national powerhouse clubs including the Legends from Miami, the Midland Redskins, South Troy Dodgers, and Arizona Firebirds.\u00a0 The Series is also welcoming several newcomers like the Murfreesboro Diamondbacks, who accomplished the near impossible last week in the Southeast regional when they knocked off both the East Cobb Yankees and Florida Bombers.<\/p>\n

The East Cobb Yankees organization has a tremendous following in Farmington, a product of the tourney\u2019s host family tradition, and the fact that they have been here practically every August since the mid-90\u2019s.\u00a0 They surely will be missed, but Farmington always welcomes talent regardless of what uniform it is wearing, and the town is very excited to watch the group of 17-year olds from Tennessee that were able to win one of the toughest regionals in the country.\u00a0 Also headed to the Series for the first time are the Arecibo Lobos from Puerto Rico, who open up Friday in the nightcap against the host Strike Zone Cardinals from Farmington and Farmington\u2019s own Dominic Moreno, who will be on the mound for the home squad.<\/p>\n

Moreno is no stranger to the World Series spotlight as he took the ball last year for the Cards against the Firebirds in an elimination game.\u00a0 Moreno, signed at 2009 JUCO national champion Howard College, features a fastball that reaches the low-90s and two quality secondary pitches in the form of a breaker and changeup \u2013 the latter of which is the pitch to get excited about.\u00a0 While the Legends take on South Troy in the early game Friday, there is a realistic chance that the best arm of Friday night will belong to Moreno.\u00a0 Saturday\u2019s match ups include Midland vs. the Danville Hoots, Murfreesboro against Sam Carpenter\u2019s D-BAT Mustangs, and the Firebirds taking on the Ann Arbor Travelers, a newcomer but with a coaching staff that is no stranger to Farmington.<\/p>\n

Travelers\u2019 coach Jordan Banfield was a member of the Ann Arbor Braves, the last group from Ann Arbor to make it to Farmington, in 2005.\u00a0 That squad featured 2005 Gatorade Player of the Year Zach Putnam<\/a><\/strong>, currently a reliever in Triple-A for Cleveland.\u00a0 This Ann Arbor bunch features similar talent and several major conference signees, including three early commits in Daniel McKinney, Travis Maezes, and Jason Gamble.\u00a0 Of these three, Maezes has the highest ceiling featuring at least three average or better tools in the form of his bat, feet, and arm as a position player, and a low-90s fastball on the bump.<\/p>\n

Sam Carpenter is once again on his way to Farmington for his zillionth CMWS appearance despite missing last year\u2019s event.\u00a0 Instead the top 17-year old DBAT squad was able to win the tough 2010 South Plains regional.\u00a0 That group featured Dylan Bundy and Archie Bradley, the 4th<\/sup> and 7th<\/sup> players selected in June\u2019s MLB draft.\u00a0 Neither has signed yet, but they will both make well over $5 million.\u00a0 This year\u2019s DBAT Mustangs are essentially last year\u2019s team minus those two arms.\u00a0 They still feature premier talent like CF Adam Toth, who is signed at Baylor.\u00a0 They will not, however, be featuring last year\u2019s SS, Mike Bernal.\u00a0 Bernal of El Paso instead is the SS for the host Cardinals.\u00a0 Bernal (signed at OK State) hits third for the Cards in front of CF Shilo McCall, who could very well also commit to a major conference university in the next couple of months.<\/p>\n

The Redskins again feature a tremendous pitching staff of nothing but flamethrowers; three pitchers 6\u20198\u201d or over (Chase Mullins, Matt Smoral, Taylore Cherry), who feature fastballs that reach the mid-90s, as well as Dillon Howard, Cleveland\u2019s 2nd<\/sup> round pick.\u00a0 Danville is making its second trip in three years after qualifying in 2009, the first time a team from northern California had done so in decades at the time.\u00a0 Since winning the West in 2009, Danville has emerged as a premier national organization with appearances in many of the top club events.\u00a0 Their lineup features lefty and University of San Diego commit Robert Martinez, who got the win in the regional final against the 2001 West regional champs, the Orange County Renegades.\u00a0 Martinez features excellent command of a high-80s fastball with decent arm-side action as well as a tight bender, which also can command well to both sides of the plate.\u00a0 His changeup lacks fade, but he maintains arm speed with it, and a commandable changeup is a must to win in the high elevation in northern New Mexico.\u00a0 He very well could take the ball against Midland at noon on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers from South Troy have become the premier organization in the northeastern United States, as have the Arizona Firebirds in the desert southwest.\u00a0 The Dodgers won a nail-biter in the regional finals against last year\u2019s CMWS representatives, the Ontario Blue Jays, 5-4.\u00a0 The Firebirds won one of two national qualifier events in Phoenix, thereby bypassing the formidable West regional.\u00a0 The other national qualifier took place in New Jersey and was won by the Florida Legends, who bypassed the Southeast Regional in the process.\u00a0 The Dodgers, Legends, and Firebirds all know what it takes to play deep into the week here in Farmington as Arizona won the CMWS in 2006, South Troy played for the title in 2000, and the Legends have played into the semifinals three times.\u00a0 This year\u2019s Legends group is under new management and has a new financial situation, but the talent is still there.\u00a0 The 2011 Legends feature 3B David Thompson, who is headed to Miami, and CF Albert Almora, who has a chance at the 2012 first-round and is also headed to Miami.<\/p>\n

This is going to be a tremendously exciting week of baseball as it always is.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait.\u00a0 We here at the Sombrero will certainly miss Griffin Phelps managing the host squad.\u00a0 He led last year\u2019s Cardinals to the finest showing a host team had produced in a decade, but hopefully the Cardinals can continue to succeed in the way they did under Griff.\u00a0 With players like Bernal, Moreno, and Shilo McCall, they certainly have the talent.\u00a0 Best of luck to all of the tournament\u2019s participants!<\/p>\n

Go Cards!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Connie Mack World Series slated to begin Friday night at Ricketts Park, the city of Farmington is once again beginning to stir with baseball anticipation.\u00a0 The tournament is again loaded with a collection of national powerhouse clubs including the Legends from Miami, the Midland Redskins, South Troy Dodgers, and Arizona Firebirds.\u00a0 The Series […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,15,1300,8,16,9,13,10,14],"tags":[2529,2517,2515,1994,2511,2508,2524,609,2514,2519,2513,2528,1996,865,671,668,48,2510,2521,2516,2525,634,2523,2509,269,2527,2522,2282,2507,2512,2526,2520,2518],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4477"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4477"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4479,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4477\/revisions\/4479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}