Brent Seifert was amazing this year. That is all.
Archive for the ‘Brent Seifert’ Tag
2011 Mustangs Season Highlights: Brent Seifert Leave a comment
2011 Mustangs Award Winners Part 2: Brent Seifert and Jayson Huett Leave a comment
Brent Seifert was a slam dunk for Player of the Year. He batted .353 in league games this year with 2 homers, 3 triples, an eye-popping 23 doubles and drove in 35 runs in just 43 games. Seifert was also great in the field, he consistently made good plays at both third base and second base for the team. If it weren’t for Peter Barrows’ huge year for the Nevada Griffons I think Seifert would have been the player of the year for the entire MINK League.
Jayson Huett had a very good season. He started 6 games and went 4-0 with a 1.82 ERA. In my mind he had some stiff competition for the Pitcher of the Year award. I have narrowed it down to 4 major candidates. They are Jayson Huett, Adam Maddox, Cody Cunningham and Doug Shields. The first three players are starting pitchers and Doug Shields served as the team’s closer. Maddox had slightly better numbers than Huett but was padded by his no-hitter late in the year that happened after the Pitcher of the Year award was announced. Cunningham had a slightly higher ERA than Maddox and Huett and also had a no-hitter to propel his stats into contention. Of the three starters, I think Huett was the correct choice for the award given that Maddox’s no-hitter came after the award was given so it really didn’t count in this case.
Then there is Doug Shields. Shields came in for the Mustangs and closed out many tight affairs without being hit much at all. His sidearm delivery and great breaking pitches made him extremely hard to hit late in the game. His stats were 3-1 record, 0.62 ERA with 9 saves. The ERA is almost invisible and the 3 wins are a big number for a reliever who pitched in only 20 games. All things considered, I think Shields would be my pick for pitcher of the year for the 2011 Mustangs. Huett pitched great and deserved the award but when the game was on the line in the late innnings the Mustangs constantly called on Shields, and he came through in a big way.
2011 Mustangs: MINK League Champions! Adam Maddox throws no-hitter Leave a comment
So it was Adam Maddox that took the mound tonight against the Nevada Griffons. Manager Matt Johnson obviously made a great choice by calling number 22 to the mound as he led the team to their first MINK league championship title. Oh Yeah, he also didn’t give up one stinking hit all night. Adam Maddox pitched a complete game no-hitter against the Nevada Griffons to clinch the MINK league championship!
Maddox was fantastic. He had hitters off balance all night. His breaking pitches were amazing. It seemed as if he got a lot of called strikes. This is an accomplishment because he was not receiving a generous strike zone. The umpire would not give Maddox the low strike. This caused a lot of long stares in at catcher TJ Daily for Maddox wondering why he couldn’t get that pitch called a strike.
Maddox had trouble with the small strike zone as he walked 6 batters throughout the game. To be as effective as he was on this night he had to be what pitching coaches call “effectively wild” anyway. The final strike of the game was high, in all fairness, it was high. Maddox had earned that call by being around the zone all night. If you don’t get the lower half of the strike zone you should get the high strike. This is an amazing accomplishment and I’m sure it has to be the greatest performance of the young pitcher’s career. I remember Maddox pitching a similar game last year actually. St. Joe was in the playoff heat with the Chillicothe Mudcats and the Mustangs had to sweep 3 straight games against the Mudcats. Maddox got the call in the first game and pitched what I think was a complete game shutout. This is all to the best of my recollection. Big kudos should also go out to Maddox’s catcher TJ Daily, the catcher never gets credit in a no-hitter but should.
Every no-hitter has a great play or two to attribute to the great game, it is almost inevitable. This game was no exception. The first great play came in I believe the top of the third inning. A high chopper was hit over the middle and second baseman Brent Seifert ranged all the way to the shortstop side of the bag to snag it and make a strong throw on time to first baseman Brock Chaffin. Getting to the ball was an accomplishment but the throw was something to behold. It was a long throw against his body and he delivered it to first base in time. The second great play came around the 6th inning. With a runner on 2nd base and 2 outs a low line drive was hit to center field and Cameron Bentley made a diving catch coming in on the ball. He caught the ball what must have been inches from the ground; in fact; I thought live that the ball had dropped. The second base umpire ruled it a catch and I’m sure it was the correct call.
On a personal note; it was simply amazing. I never thought I would EVER get to witness a legitimate no-hitter in person. I am a huge baseball fan and this is really one of the “holy grail” accomplishments. I was tremendously jealous when Mustangs pitcher Cody Cunningham threw a no-hitter earlier this year against the Omaha Diamond Spirit. The game was in Omaha so I obviously did not attend; but this time, I saw every pitch.
A big congratulations and thank you goes out to Adam Maddox.
2011 Mustangs: Brent Seifert Leave a comment
I have made no secrets of how much Brent Seifert has impressed me as a baseball player. Tonight he was named the teams most valuable player for the year which was really a given. His performance this year has only been surpassed by the Nevada Griffons’ Peter Barrows. The Mustangs defeated Nevada 3-1 in a great pitching duo between the leagues ERA champion for 2011 Steve Kuligowski of Nevada and the Mustangs’ Adam Maddox. Kuligowski entered the game with a 0.97 ERA and would give up two runs to see it balloon to 1.11. Barrows did not play and I’m not sure why. Seifert did play and once again was a big contributor for St. Joe. On a side note it was General Manager Rick Muntean’s birthday so a big happy birthday to him.
Seifert went a pedestrian 1-4 but that doesn’t tell the whole story. I remember two of Seifert’s outs being hammered, one very deep into the left center gap but was run down by the Griffons center fielder. Seifert’s one hit was a triple with no runners on, he would score on a wild pitch soon after to make the game 3-1 as Doug Sheilds once again closed the game out.
Speaking of closing the game out; Brent Seifert recorded the putout on the final play. It was no average 5-3 ground ball. The ball was hammered down the third base line by the potential tying run. Seifert ranged to his right and made a diving stop, gathered himself and threw a strike to first base to end the game and regular season.Win to Maddox, loss to Kuligowski.
Forget Johnny Coy St. Joe; Brent Seifert is the best player to ever put on a Mustangs uniform.
2011 Mustangs: Kris Koerper Leave a comment
The Mustangs finished their long homestand with another big win. This time they defeated the Joplin Outlaws 18-1. Several Mustangs had big wins in the route. Kyle Jackson picked up the win and Jordan Guida drove in 4 runs. I’m posting Kris Koerper’s card today because of the way he heated up on this homestand. He finished the string of games with a 3-5 performance raising his MINK league average to an impressive .296.
No surprise that it was another good game from Cameron, MO’s own Brent Seifert, he was 3-4 with 2 RBI. Shortstop Spiker Helms went 4-4 and has jumped his average all the way up to .336. This is a huge improvement from his average last year with the Mustangs which I believe was well under .250. Mark Robinette also put together a multi-hit and multi-RBI game with 2 of each.
With the Clarinda A’s losing their last two games, the Mustangs have stretched their lead in the division to 6.5 games. With just 8 games left on the Mustangs schedule, they could wrap up the division early next week. The Mustangs have had two successful seasons in St. Joseph but have yet to win a division title.
2011 Mustangs: Andrew Polly and Jake Kretzer Leave a comment
Andrew Polly picked up the win tonight in the 12-3 victory over rival Chillicothe. Polly had a solid game, pitching 6 1/3 innings while giving up 3 runs on 8 hits. He also struck out 4 while not allowing any Mudcats to reach base by walk or hit by pitch. The Mustangs offense was led by the amazingly consistent Brent Seifert who drove in another 3 runs giving him 25 RBI in MINK league play while sporting a .343 average.
Kris Koerper also knocked in a couple runs on his way to a 2-3 day. The true offensive hero was Jake Kretzer. The Northwest Bearcat went 4-5 and drove in a huge 5 runs. Kretzer mixed a double in with 3 singles to compile his 4 hits. His most impressive at bat in my opinion was the at bat where he planned to give the Mudcats and out. After TJ Daily got hit by a pitch to leadoff the inning, Kretzer squared around for a sacrifice bunt and put the ball perfectly between the first baseman, second baseman and pitcher for a hit. I have seen Kretzer come through with a couple good bunts this year, I think bunting is one of the lost arts of the game and I really like watching a team willing to bunt and have the players with the ability to do so.
2011 Mustangs: Andrew Nellestein Leave a comment
Andrew Nellestein didn’t play Monday night, the local catcher doesn’t see a lot of time with TJ Daily and Landinn Eckhart ahead of him at the position. The Mustangs did win 7-1 thanks to a strong start by Jayson Huett and two doubles by Brent Seifert. Seifert drove in 3 runs on those two hits. It seems he always gets hits with runners in scoring postition. Huett got the win and is now 3-0 with an impressive 2.13 ERA.
St. Joe Mustangs Brent Seifert 1983 Topps custom card Leave a comment
I saw the picture of Brent on the Mustangs facebook page for the mugshot and paired it with my shot of him trotting around the bases after drilling a 3-run shot over the party deck last week. I am a huge fan of both Seifert and 1983 Topps cards so I really wanted to do this one.
2011 Mustangs: Jeff Roy Leave a comment
Jeff Roy hit a long 2-run home run off the top of the party deck to help the Mustangs win 9-3 last night against the Joplin Outlaws. Brent Seifert (like he always does) also produced with a 2-run double to get the Mustangs on the board and he ended the game 2-4 with 3 RBI. Seifert is up to a very impressive .340 average now.
Mark Robinette continued his scoreless streak on the mound by pitching a scoreless 9th inning after playing 8 innings at third base. Robinette also made the best defensive play of the year for the Mustangs last night. He was playing in, about even with the bag, and the leadoff batter of the inning sent a rocket right down the third base line. Robinette snags it on a full headfirst dive and throws the runner out at first. Needless to say, Mark Robinette is a very impressive ball player.
2011 Mustangs: John Wegener Leave a comment
The Mustangs beat non-league opponents Omaha Strike Zone handily tonight 13-7. A non-league opponent means that several of the bench players will get into the game so several players played that don’t normally see a lot of action. I actually got to watch several players I hadn’t seen before. One of these was John Wegener. It looks as if it was Wegener’s first action with the team and made a very good impression. He started the game with a triple to right center field then followed that with a double to left center later in the same inning. Wegener would end the day at 4-5 while driving in 3 runs.
The 8-run first inning set the tone for the game. Brent Seifert continued to hit well by going 2-5 with 4 RBI. Seifert blasted a long home run to straight away right field as the third batter of the game to put the home team up 3-0. Several Mustangs had good a good day at the plate including the catcher from St. Joseph, Andrew Nellestein who was 3-5 with 2 RBI.
It will be interesting to see how the Mustangs work somebody like Wegener into the lineup. I wondered how they could get Seifert, Robinette, Koerper and Chaffin all in the lineup earlier this year but they solved that problem by giving 3rd year Mustang Brent Seifert some time at second base. I don’t know who will sit to get Wegener into the batting order but I do know that it is a good problem to have.
A Hair Off Square 