Results tagged ‘ Chad Mottola ’
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK (8/13 – 8/19)
BATTER OF THE WEEK: OF Chad Mottola put together a historic week for the Chiefs. Mottola belted two home runs Thursday in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre which were homers number 99 and 100 in his Chiefs career. Mottola became the second member of the century club joining Dutch Mele and his 111 career Chiefs home runs. Other than the longballs, Mottola had four two-hit games in five games played. Mottola went 8-for-21 (.381) with two doubles, a triple and two home runs with four RBI.
HONORABLE MENTION: OF John-Ford Griffin hit two home runs in the past seven days which were his 25th and 26th jacks of the season. With homer number 25 Griffin became the first Chief ever to register two 25 or more home runs seasons with the Chiefs. Griffin his 30 dingers back in 2005.
PITCHER OF THE WEEK: It hasn’t been a pretty week for Chiefs hurlers since the team has yet to pick up a win. But reliever Ryan Houston made two scoreless appearances. Houston threw three innings giving up only one hit and striking out one.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK (7/30 – 8/5)
BATTER OF THE WEEK: C Robinzon Diaz began the week in style with a breakout 3-for-4 night at the dish August 1st versus Rochester. Diaz picked up his first two extra-base hits in Triple-A (a double and a homer) while driving in four. For the whole week, Diaz batted .400 (8-for-20) with five runs batted in and three runs scored.
HONORABLE MENTION: OF Chad Mottola continued to climb closer to becoming the second Chief in the history of the club to have 100 career home runs in a Syracuse uniform. Mottola drilled his 97th homer for the Chiefs (his 14th of the year) during a 7-for-25 week (.280). Mottola scored five runs and drove in three for the Chiefs.
PITCHER OF THE WEEK: During a historic week for Josh Banks he was outshined by RHP Jeremy Cummings. Cummings made two starts compiling a 1-0 record with a 1.54 earned run average allowing two runs in 11.2 innings. Cummings threw 5.2 shutout innings in Ottawa on August 4th.
HONORABLE MENTION: Banks does earn an honorable mention bid picking up a win in his only start of the week. Banks throws seven solid innings August 1st versus Rochester for his 10th win of the season. The victory made Banks the first Chiefs pitcher since Doug Linton from 1990 to 1992 to put together consecutive ten or more win seasons. Banks went 10-11 a year ago.
CHIEFS TO RETURN JULY 12
The Chiefs will take on the Richmond Braves tonight and tomorrow before taking four days off for the All-Star Game.
Chiefs outfielder John-Ford Griffin will suit up for the International League on Wednesday in Albuquerque, NM. Game time is set for 7:30 pm and the game will be broadcast live on ESPN2. Complete coverage of the game, including live audio and pitch-by-pitch gamecast, can be found at ilbaseball.com.
The Chiefs will be back at Alliance Bank Stadium on Thursday to open a four-game series with the Pawtucket Red Sox. The Rochester Red Wings will follow for a four-game series from July 16-19.
Another pre-game concert and post-game fireworks show are on the schedule for Friday the 13th. Dunes & The Del-Tunes, featuring Chiefs in-game host Gary Dunes, will play in front of the main gates from 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm. Fans should plan on staying after the game as a fireworks show presented by Alliance Bank will light up the skies above the stadium.
Don’t forget that Sunday, July 15 is Chad Mottola Figurine Night presented by Time Warner Cable. The first 2,000 fans 12 & younger through the stadium gates will receive a limited edition action figurine. Each figurine is hand numbered and also features Chad’s signature on the base.
AROUND THE FARM: MATHEWS
Inside the Chiefs’ “Around the Farm” takes a look this week at Outfielder Aaron Mathews who is in his first season with the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
Mathews saw a 16-game hit streak come to an end on Sunday going 0-4 vs. Portland. The 16-game streak tied Mathews with Adam Lind and Maikel Jova for the longest streak in franchise history. During the streak the 5’10″ right-handed hitter hit .403 (27-67) and overall for the month of June he is hitting .355 (22-62) with 2 HR and 9 RBI.
Mathews’ hot June has vaulted him into the top of the Eastern League batting race where he currently finds himself second with a .335 overall average on the season trailing just Jesus Merchan of Reading. The 25-year old Oregon resident also ranks 5th in the Eastern League with a .522 Slugging Percentage.
After a rough Sunday at the plate Mathews must have enjoyed seeing his Alma-matter, the Oregon State Beavers, capture their second straight NCAA Baseball Championship.
Mathews was drafted by the Jays in the 19th round of the 2004 draft. While other members of the ’04 draft class Curtis Thigpen, Adam Lind, Jesse Litsch and Casey Janssen have sky-rocketed their way through the system to Toronto, Mathews is among a group of a solid class (David Purcey, Ryan Klosterman, Kyle Yates, Patton, Chip Cannon, Mike MacDonald) who are working their way through the system with hopes of finding a spot with the Jays in the future.
Entering 2007 Mathews’ home run numbers weren’t eye popping, just one HR for every 73 at-bats , but he has improved his power stroke this year hitting 5 HR in his first 203 at-bats (one HR per 41 at-bats). And despite lacking the long ball he lead his team in triples in each of his first three professional seasons (2004-06) and had career 23 doubles in 2006.
The Blue Jays went the free agent route to fill the outfield in Syracuse for 2007(Mottola, Vento, Duncan, Lydon) but you can be sure that Toronto is taking notice of Mathews solid performance in Double-A so far this season and a trip to Syracuse is in Mathews’ future.
CONGRATULATIONS ARE IN ORDER
First of all congratulations to Chiefs outfielder Chad Mottola for collecting his 1,000th career RBI in Sunday’s game. Check out Chad’s comments about the accomplishment in a nice story by Donnie Webb in today’s Post Standard and also on milb.com. (Interesting picture of Chad in the milb.com story)
Congratulations to County Executive Nick Pirro for pulling a bill last week that would have put field turf in Alliance Bank Stadium for next year and taking more time to consider grass.
Congratulations to you the fans of baseball in Syracuse who along with many articles by Bud Poliquin voiced a strong opinion publicly in favor of grass.
Congratulations to former SkyChiefs manager Omar Malave who collected his 1,000th Minor League win this week, all in the Blue Jays organization.
Congratulations to Columbus outfielder Brandon Watson on breaking a long standing IL record yesterday by extending his current hitting streak to 43 games. 8 of the 43 unfortunately came against Syracuse.
Congratulations to former SkyChiefs 3B Casey Blake who extended his current hit streak with the Cleveland Indians to a Major League-leading 26 games with a hit on Sunday. And apologies to Casey for leaving him off the current Chiefs poll of which former Syracuse player has the best chance of making his first Major League All-Star game. Blake is now hitting .281 with 10 HR and 35 RBI.
Congratulations to Huntsville Stars GM and former SkyChiefs front office member Tom Van Schaack on winning the Southern League’s North Division in the first half.
CHIEFS OPENER THURSDAY
The Chiefs open the 2007 season tomorrow night in Durham. Dustin McGowan will take the ball for Syracuse against Jason Hammel for the Bulls.
Chiefs’ GM John Simone traveled to Durham for the Opener and to take the team out to dinner tonight. John reports that the team is a good bunch of guys and especially commented on how nice veteran catcher Sal Fasano is.
John will be calling the Chiefs Office tomorrow once the Opening Day lineup is posted and we’ll have it for you right here on Inside the Chiefs blog as soon as we receive the call.
It seems the only major decisions new Manager Doug Davis will have to make will be in RF and DH. He will have to choose from John-Ford Griffin, Mike Vento and Chad Mottola in right with the other two will be candidates for DH along with extra infielder Ryan Roberts.
While plans continue for the Chiefs home opener on Saturday April 14th, we would like to hear what you the fans would like to hear for music played at the stadium this season. If you have a song that you think should be played at the stadium this season, email us at baseball@syracusechiefs.com.
CHIEFS KEEP WINNING
The Syracuse Chiefs won for the 5th straight time today as they roughed up former Chiefs pitcher Justin Miller for five runs in a 5-4 victory. Lefthander David Purcey went 5-strong innings and picked up the win. Purcey is expected to begin the season in AA-New Hampshire after starting last year in Syracuse.
John-Ford Griffin hit a monster home run at the Blue Jays complex today, while Chad Mottola collected 3-hits.
Blue Jays will hold a camp day on Sunday with the Chiefs playing New Hampshire-AA and Dunedin-A taking on Lansing-A.
WAYNE LYDON IN CAMP
2006 Chiefs outfielder Wayne Lydon was in camp today after being released by the Washington Nationals last week. Lydon played center field for the Chiefs all of last season leading the team in runs scored, triples and stolen bases. After the season Lydon became a free agent and elected to sign with the Nationals despite an offer to return to the Blue Jays organization. Pending a physical, Lydon will likely begin the 2007 season with AA-New Hampshire. The Chiefs currently have a wealth of outfielders that include Adam Lind, Mike Vento, Chad Mottola, John-Ford Griffin, Justin Singleton and Jeff Duncan, who is still in major league camp with the Blue Jays.
