Princeton Rays News & Notes As Of April 28, 2008
*Jason Ragan, who began his pitching career at Princeton in 2006 as a non-drafted free agent, was recently named as the South Atlantic League "Pitcher of the Week" in an April 16 news announcement from SAL headquarters. For the time period involved, the 25-year old resident of Ponchatoula, LA was unscored upon in 12 innings of work (two starts) and opponents could only muster a collective .143 batting average against him. At Princeton in 2006, he also demostrated great location with his pitches by allowing only four walks in 35 innings pitched (14 appearances) and logged a 4-2 record to go along with 2.55 earned run average in his professional debut season.
*The "Raywatch" e-mail newsletter trivia question which was asked last month once again brought a lot of readers from far and wide submitting correct guesses to win great Rays' merchandise. To review, the question in our March newsletter was "How many times during the 1997 season did the P-Rays score more than 20 runs in a single game and against what opponents did this occur?" The intention was for the answer to be three but technically the answer is two since the question says "more than" 20 runs. So, anyone answering either two or three will be considered to have the right answer. In saluting that great 1997 P-Rays' offensive powerhouse, 20 runs or more were scored three times by Princeton: in a July 17 20-3 win over the Bristol White Sox, a 25-1 one-sided pounding of the Danville Braves on August 10, and a 21-11 slugfest over the Johnson City Cardinals on August 18. Capturing the prize for correctly answering this question were Cy Campbell (Denton, TX), Bryce Casto (Dunbar, WV), Bobby G. Christian (Princeton), Bobby R. Christian (Princeton), Christie Cook (Princeton), Cherylie Cox (Blacksburg, VA), Mark Davis (Kingsport, TN), Sue Duncan (Princeton), Brad Hart (Birmingham, AL), Jason Hughes (Princeton), Frank Lewis (Rupert, WV), Jaimie Morehead (Princeton), Mark Morehead (Princeton), Tyler Roberts (Galax, VA), Elliot Stewart (Grundy, VA), Olan Williams (Galax, VA), and Wanda Williams (Galax, VA). The "Raywatch" e-mail newsletter trivia question for April, 2008 will appear later in this column. Make this the month you start looking up the answer for a great prize from your Princeton Rays!
*The Florida State League's "Player of the Week" (first baseman Matt Fields) and "Pitcher of the Week" (Jeremy Hellickson) for the week of April 14-20 were both members of the 2005 Princeton Rays while winning this most recent award wesring the uniform of the Vero Beach Devil Rays. For the time period, Fields hit eight doubles in seven games and his week concluded by going 8-11 in a trio of VB victories with three walks and four extra-base hits. April 20 was a big day for him as he reached base five times (scoring three) versus the Brevard County Manatees while unloading his fourth home run of the season in the process. As for Hellickson, he struck out a career-high 13 hitters while yielding only three hits in only seven innings of work versus the Jupiter Hammerheads. Through games of April 20, Hellickson was leading all levels of minor league baseball in both strikeouts (30 in 23 innings) and earned run average (0.78).
*Former 1999 P-Ray outfielder Carl Crawford reached a milestone on the night of April 11 when he delivered his one thousandth major league hit, all in the uniform of the Tampa Bay Rays. By doing this, he became only the eighth major league player since 1900 to reach 1,000 career hits and 250 stolen bases before his 27th birthday.
*Other news concerning Carl Crawford occurred on April 25, when he achieved his sixth career mutliple-triple game by smacking two three-baggers versus the Boston Red Sox at Tropicana Field. Among all major league players that have debuted since World War II, only Willie Mays (10), Lance Johnson (8), and George Brett (7) have more mutliple-triple games than Crawford. Since his inaugural major league game on May 20, 2002, Crawford has more triples (77) than any player in the big leagues with the next closest player, shortstop Jimmy Rollins having 61.
*Jay Sorg, who was the starting first baseman on the 1994 Appalachian League Champion Princeton Reds, is in his first year as head baseball coach at Morehead (KY) State University, his alma mater.
*Five former Princeton players, all pitchers, were released by Tampa Bay right at the conclusion of spring training: Kevin Brophy (2007), Greg Dupas (2003 & 2005), Roberto Gil (2004), Mark Suchowiecki (2006), and Ryan Zimmerman (2006).
*The concession stand at Hunnicutt Field will be under new independent management in the 2008 in the form of Jackie Lee, the owner of Jack's Diner (formerly known as The Blarney Stone) of Princeton. His home-cooked meals are well known around the Princeton area and he is also in charge of concessions operations for the Greater Princeton Little League at Gardner Field.
*It's now time to reveal the "Raywatch" e-mail trivia question for April, 2008 and we will make it easy for you once again by telling you that you can find the correct answer on our website at www.princetondevilrays.com. Please submit your guesses along with your U.S. Postal mailing address to us by e-mail at [email protected] and all entrants who submit the correct answer by May 8 will receive a great merchandise item from our P-Rays' prize vault. Without further delay, here is your question: "What former Princeton player was featured in the 'Where Have You Gone' news article that was produced for the P-Rays' website/newsletter during the month of January, 2007?" Okay, we are waiting to hear from you with your guesses!