August 10, 2011
Minor league notebook: Spinners named All-Stars
by Roger Brown/
Four members of the Lowell Spinners have been selected to the American League roster for the 2011 New York-Penn League All-Star Game, which will be played Tuesday at Lowell's LeLacheur Park.
Left fielder Matty Johnson, center fielder Keury De La Cruz and right fielder Seth Schwindenhammer will represent Lowell in the game. Lowell third baseman Garin Cecchini was also selected to the roster, but suffered a broken wrist last month and will not play.
Cecchini was hitting .298 with 12 doubles, a triple, three home runs and 23 RBI when he was injured. He had also stolen 12 bases.
The Red Sox signed Johnson, a switch-hitter, out of the Independent Frontier League in 2010. He was batting .330 with 16 stolen bases in 16 attempts in 31 games.
De La Cruz was Boston's Latin Program Player of the Year. He was hitting .295 and shared the team lead in stolen bases with Johnson through 48 games.
Schwindenhammer, a fifth-round pick in the 2009 draft, led the team in home runs (nine) and was second in RBIs (25) in 43 games.
New York-Penn League players from American League-affiliated teams will face players from National League affiliates in the All-Star Game, which is being played in Lowell for the first time.
More star power
The New York-Penn League All-Star Game will also include five players from the Vermont Lake Monsters: catcher Nick Rickles, infielders Chih-Fang Pan and Sean Jamieson, and relief pitchers Tanner Peters and Jeff Urlaub.
Rickles, a 14th-round pick in the 2011 draft out of Stetson University, has hit .348 (24-for-69) with six doubles, two triples and 13 RBI in 21 games since joining the Lake Monsters on July 3. He has hit safely in 18 of the 20 games he has started.
Pan, a 2010 free-agent who was signed out of Taiwan, is hitting .327 (37-for-113) with 15 runs scored and 16 RBI in 28 games.
Jamieson, a 17th-round selection in 2011 out of Canisius College, is hitting .257 (43-for-167) with six doubles and 12 RBIs. He is tied for the league-lead with 18 steals and is fourth in the New York-Penn League with 28 walks.
Peters, a 2011 16th-round pick out of UNLV, is tied for second in the New York-Penn League with nine saves. He began the season with 16.2 straight scoreless innings. He is 0-1 with a 1.45 ERA and 22 strikeouts in 18.2 innings.
Urlaub, a 30th-round selection in 2010 out of Grand Canyon University, is 1-0 with four saves and a 1.75 ERA in 16 appearances. He has 39 strikeouts three walks in 25 .2 innings.
No team has more all-stars than Vermont, which is affiliated with the Oakland As.
New Britain's hit man
New Britain shortstop Brian Dozier had one of the best weeks of his professional career and was named the Eastern League's Offensive Player of the Week for the period that ended Sunday.
Dozier hit .520 (13 for 25) in six games during the week. He had back-to-back three-hit performances, and four of his 13 hits were doubles.
The Minnesota Twins selected Dozier in the eighth round of the 2009 draft out of Southern Mississippi. His .325 average between Class-A Fort Myers and New Britain ranks second among minor leaguers in the Twins' system this season.
