Skip to main content

Travis d'Arnaud Has High Hopes

By
Two years ago, Travis d'Arnaud was leading the Phillies' Class A affiliate, the Lakewood BlueClaws, to their second ever South Atlantic League championship. This year, d'Arnaud was named as the Double A Eastern League's Most Valuable Player and is back in the post-season with New Hampshire.

Originally selected in the supplemental round of the 2007 draft, d'Arnaud became a well regarded prospect with his strong bat and tremendous skills behind the plate. In 2008, in his first full season as a professional, the California native posted a .305 average with 6 HR and 30 RBI in 64 combined games at two levels with short-season Williamsport and Lakewood.

The following season, d'Arnaud led a prospect laden BlueClaws club in RBI, with 71. His strides on the field caused folks all around baseball to take notice, and d'Arnaud was included in the December, 2009 trade that sent Cy Young Award winning hurler Roy Halladay to Philadelphia from Toronto.

In the Blue Jays system, d'Arnaud, has focused on staying healthy, following a 2010 filled with time on the disabled list and a concussion early this year. After finishing among the 2011 EL leaders in HR (21- tied for 4th in EL), RBI (78- 6th), OPS (.914- 2nd) and batting average (.311- 5th), d'Arnaud won the biggest individual honor at the Double A level. However, the MVP Award is not the hardware the 22-year-old is most concerned with. d'Arnaud hopes to lock down a team achievement and win the Eastern League championship, along with his Fisher Cats teammates.

"We're all really excited for the playoffs," d'Arnaud stated. "We want to go out there and win and bring the championship to the city (of Manchester) and to the Jays organization."

The focus on the greater team goal certainly doesn't mean that d'Arnaud won't recognize and appreciate the importance of the MVP nod. The humble backstop was quite surprised to learn of the commendation.

"I feel honored that whoever out there mentioned me and voted for me for the MVP and I'm still shocked. I got it and I'm real proud and I'm just happy," d'Arnaud said.

While expressing a childlike amazement over his 20+ homerun season milestone, a career high, d'Arnaud feels there's room to continue to develop more power as he moves up the baseball ladder.

"That's what I'm hoping for, man," d'Arnaud said when asked if he could increase his power production even more. "In the Major Leagues the ball goes further, so as long as I just stay with this and make the little adjustments I need to, throughout my career, I should be alright."

Before d'Arnaud, who once regarded The Hills as his favorite television program, gets any opportunities to test himself at the highest levels of the sport, he'll have his sights set on doing to pitches from the Reading Phillies what Spencer Pratt did to relationships among the cast members of MTV's hit faux reality program...destroy them.

After a rain out on Wednesday, New Hampshire will host the R-Phils for games 1 and 2 of the EL divisional series on Thursday and Friday, respectively. Game 3 is slated to be played at Reading's FirstEnergy Stadium on Saturday, while game 4 (if necessary) is set for Sunday in Reading. A game 5 would be played back in Manchester, NH.

The winner of the best-of-five New Hampshire/Reading series will face the winner of the Harrisburg/Richmond series for the Eastern League championship.

___________________________________________

You can follow PhoulBallz on Twitter by clicking HERE.

You can also connect with PhoulBallz on Facebook by clicking HERE.
Labels:

Comments

Mamboon said…
Just curious, three of the Blue Jays farm club teams are still in the playoffs - New Hampshire, Lansing and Vancouver. That could mean an extra two weeks expenses for players. Prospects and bonus babies could handle it, but what about the non-prospects? Do teams get extra comp or bonuses for the playoffs or do they get a slap on the back and 50% off the cost of a ring?
September 10, 2011 at 10:02 PM
Jay Floyd said…
Quite sure it's not a situation where players are stuff fronting things on their own dimes for an extra 1-3 weeks. Teams take care of their guys.
September 12, 2011 at 11:44 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Former Player Proposes Marriage on the Field in Lakewood

By
Three's a crowd, Buster...Image- Jay Floyd For one New Jersey couple a unique meeting at the ballpark led to a new meaning for the term baseball diamond. Brian Parker spotted the woman of his dreams from the bullpen bench at Lakewood, NJ's FirstEnergy Park on July 9th, 2010. The right-handed reliever for the Orioles affiliate Delmarva Shorebirds wasn't summoned to pitch that night, but it didn't stop him from getting up and going through his usual warm up and stretching routines to inch closer to a young blonde Brick Township native that he felt drawn toward. "I was acting like I was staying hot, but really I was just trying to talk to her," Parker, a 19th round draft choice by Baltimore in 2007, stated. "I ended up putting my (phone) number on a baseball and we decided to hang out and throughout that whole next year it was back and forth trips between the both of us." The lady that caught Parker's eye was Kristin VanDeventer, who was ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rappers in Phillies Caps

By
Weekend greetings to you phine pholks out there. Today's post features pictures of rappers wearing Phillies caps. Why rappers in Phillies caps, you ask? Because... Any other questions? We will start things off properly by going with a highly recognizable hip hop star. 50 Cent stays constantly relavant by consistantly creating radio friendly material to help sell (G) units, while he "keeps it real" by still rapping about the thug life he lived before becoming the 2nd highest earning black entertainer in America. 50 is seen here in a recent interview rocking a throw-back Phillies cap. Next up we'll use a throw-back screen cap from what may be the very first major appearance by a rapper wearing Phillies gear. Chuck D, of legendary rap group Public Enemy, wore a Phillies cap in the music video for rap anthem Fight The Power in 1989. The song was the lead single from the soundtrack for Spike Lee's film Do The Right Thing . Next up we'll go with some home grown tal...
3 comments
Read more

Lidge Shaky, T-Mac Honored in Trenton

By
TRENTON, NJ- Brad Lidge made his second rehab appearance for the Double A Reading Phillies on Thursday night and it didn't go as well as the veteran reliever or the team had hoped. Lidge struggled with his command and turned in a rather poor outing for the club that entered the night in a playoff race, 1 game behind division rival Trenton for the Wild Card spot in the Eastern Division. On the disabled list since spring training with a strained right rotator cuff, Lidge experienced an elbow strain when he was working back from that issue in late May. In his outing against the Yankees affiliate in Trenton, Lidge displayed difficulty with his control as he threw three wild pitches, hit two batters, walked another and gave up a single, all while letting up two earned runs on 28 pitches in 2/3 of an inning. After the disappointing performance, Lidge was composed and focused on some positive aspects, having reached 89 and 90 MPH on scouts' radar guns, according to some reports. ...
Post a Comment
Read more