Dragons Tales: Post-Season Notes

The Midwest League Championship Series begins on Wednesday with an interesting matchup. Meanwhile, former and future Dragons continue their playoff sets with the Reds Advanced-A and Rookie-level affiliates, Bakersfield and Billings.

Midwest League

The matchup is one of the more interesting in recent Midwest League history. The West Division champ, the Kane County Cougars (Chicago Cubs affiliate), finished the regular season with the best record in all of Minor League Baseball at 91-49. They swept Wisconsin in two games in the first round of the playoffs, then swept Cedar Rapids in two games in the semi-finals. 

The East Division champ, the Lake County Captains (Cleveland Indians affiliate), is a good example of how the split-season format in the Midwest League can work. Lake County actually finished the first half with the worst record in the entire 16-team league at 27-43. They finished in last place in the East, 14 games out of first. Lake County kept virtually their entire team together from the first half, losing only one key player, catcher Eric Haase, to a promotion late in the season. In the second half, they improved dramatically and finished 38-31, in third place, four and one-half games out of first. They qualified for the playoffs because the first and second place teams in the second half standings had already qualified as first half representatives. Lake County upset South Bend in the first round of the playoffs, then knocked off Fort Wayne in the semi-finals. 

Lake County did exactly what the Dragons had hoped to do heading into the final weekend of the season. They reached the playoffs, then got hot at the right time. Unfortunately for the Dragons, the Dayton club finished one game short of qualifying. 

Bakersfield

With a roster stocked with former Dragons, the Bakersfield Blaze are currently battling to advance to the Championship Series in the California League playoffs. On Monday, they beat Visalia to stay alive as former Dragon Jeff Gelalich hit a home run and drove in four runs. Bakersfield still trails Visalia, two-games-to-one, in a best-of-five series.

The Bakersfield lineup on Monday included six starters who played for the Dragons earlier this season (center fielder Beau Amaral; right fielder Jeff Gelalich; designated hitter Sean Buckley; third baseman Sammy Diaz; left fielder Sebastian Elizalde, and catcher Joe Hudson). In fact, 20 of the 22 players who have played for Bakersfield in this playoff series are former Dragons from 2014 or previous seasons. Zach Vincej, the Dragons all-star shortstop from 2013, has gone 6 for 12 in the playoffs with three doubles. Gelalich has driven in seven runs in three games. 

Billings

With many players likely to be part of the 2015 Dragons roster, Billings has advanced to the Pioneer League Championship Series, where they will battle Orem. Billings swept Great Falls in two games in the first round of the playoffs, led by center fielder Brian O'Grady, who went 4 for 9 with three doubles, a home run, and four runs batted in. O'Grady was the Reds eighth round draft pick earlier this summer out of Rutgers University. 

The Billings team has been led this season by all-star right fielder Aristides Aquino, who led the Pioneer League in RBI, extra base hits, total bases, and doubles while finishing second in home runs and stolen bases. In just 71 games, Aquino hit 16 home runs and drove in 64 runs while batting .292. First baseman/outfielder Argenis Aldazoro also enjoyed a huge season at Billings, batting .325 with 11 home runs in just 57 games. Billings hit 78 homers in 76 games as a team to lead the league.

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