Manchester, N.H. - The New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Double-A
affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, are pleased to announce that catcher Travis d'Arnaud has been selected as
the winner of the 2011 Eastern League Most Valuable Player Award and
manager Sal Fasano has been named
the 2011 Eastern League Manager of the
Year, as announced by the Eastern League this evening.
d'Arnaud captures the
award batting .317
(126-for-398) with 32 doubles, 19 home runs, 71 RBI, 70 runs scored, a
.545
slugging percentage and a .378 on-base percentage in 107 games for the
Fisher
Cats this season while helping lead the team to an Eastern
Division-best record
of 71-60. He
currently leads all active
Eastern League players in slugging percentage (.545) and OPS (.923)
while
ranking among the league leaders in numerous other categories,
including
extra-base hits (52-tied 4th), total bases (217-5th),
home runs (19-tied 5th), batting average (.317-6th),
RBI
(71-7th), doubles (32-8th)
and runs scored (70-tied 9th).
The 6-foot-2, 195 lb. slugger has thrown out
26-percent of would be base stealers, which ranks as the sixth best
percentage
among all Eastern League catchers this season.
The
22-year-old native of Long Beach, California,
was selected as the
catcher on the 2011 Eastern League Season Ending All-Star Team. He was also the starting
catcher for the
Eastern Division at the 2011 Northeast Delta Dental Eastern League
All-Star
Game in Manchester
on July 13. d'Arnaud
was recently named
as the "Best Defensive Catcher" in the Eastern League this season by Baseball America.
d'Arnaud,
who entered the season ranked by Baseball
America as the fifth best prospect in the Toronto
organization, was originally drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies with
the 37th
overall pick in 2007 and became a member of the Toronto Blue Jays
organization
when he was included in a trade from Philadelphia
for Roy Halladay on December 16, 2009.
Fasano, 40, has led
the Fisher Cats to an
Eastern Division best record of 71-60 (.542) in his first season with New Hampshire. He became the sixth
manager in franchise
history in November after making his managerial debut with Blue Jays
Single-A
affiliate, the Lansing Lugnuts, of the Class-A Midwest League in 2010.
This
season, Fasano led the Fisher Cats to a record setting 23 wins during
the month
of May, the most wins in a single month in franchise history. The Chicago, Illinois
native has guided the
Fisher Cats to a season high winning streak of seven consecutive games
(5/24-5/30) and has reached a high water mark of 19 games over .500
(46-27) on
June 26. Fasano has
seen his Fisher Cats
perform particularly well late in games, boasting a 55-0 record when
leading after
seven innings this season and earning 17 victories in the team's last
at-bat,
including 10 walk-off wins at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium (ties
franchise
record).
Prior to
his managerial career Sal spent parts of 11 seasons as a Major League
player. He was
originally drafted by the
Kansas City Royals in the 37th round of the 1993
draft and made his
Major League debut as the starting catcher for Kansas
City
in a game at Baltimore
on April 3, 1996. Fasano
played 16 games
with Toronto
in
2007 and went on to hit 47 home runs and drive in 140 runs in 427 games
in his
Major League career.
Sal
is
joined on his coaching staff with the Fisher Cats by pitching coach Pete Walker, hitting coach
Justin Mashore, coach Danny Solano,
athletic trainer Robert Tarpey and
strength and
conditioning coach Brian Pike.
d'Arnaud
becomes the second Fisher Cats player in history to win the Eastern
League MVP
Award, following Adam Lind who won the award in 2006.
Former Fisher Cats manager Mike Basso was
named Manager of the Year also in 2004 after leading the club to an
Eastern
League Championship in the team's inaugural season.
Former Fisher Cats pitcher Kyle Drabek earned
Pitcher of the Year honors last season after Gustavo Chacin was the
first New
Hampshire pitcher to
win the award in 2004.
Fisher
Cats
individual home playoff game tickets, playoff ticket strips and 2012
season
tickets are available now at the Fisher Cats Ticket Office at 1 Line Drive,
Manchester, NH 03101,
online at www.nhfishercats.com
or by
calling the Fisher Cats at (603) 641-2005.
