Skip to main content

Travis d'Arnaud Has High Hopes

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.

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?
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.

Popular posts from this blog

Jason Knapp Q&A

PhoulBallz .com was fortunate enough to meet with Phillies prospect Jason Knapp just one day after he caught the attention of the baseball world with his 7 shut out innings, 14 strike out performance against the Indians' Lake County team. - I asked Jason, the Lakewood BlueClaw , for some thoughts about his big game... I had pretty good command of three pitches (fastball, curve, change up). I was on the same page with my catcher, D'Arnaud , and I ended up, ya know, I felt pretty good. - In a great performance like that, how much credit goes to Travis D'Arnaud , the catcher? More than you might expect, definitely. I didn't shake him off once. He told me what to throw and I do what I'm told. And if it works out, a lot of the credit goes to the catcher. - Does the lack of run support (Lakewood has scored 3 total runs in his 3 starts), in your few starts, increase your stress level, or enhance your focus? No, I just try to go out and do my job every outing. Ya know, we...

PhoulBallz Q&A with Mike Stutes

Mike Stutes completes "The Reading Phils Mike Tri-fecta" over three days, here on PhoulBallz.com. Stutes, a 22 year old, was an 11th round selection by the Phillies in the 2008 amateur draft. Stutes, a right handed starting pitcher, helped lead Oregon State to the College World Series championship in both 2006 and 2007. Stutes and teammate Vance Worley are the first players to begin a season at Reading the year after being drafted since Pat Burrell did it in 1999. Stutes was the Phils' minor league pitcher of the month in August '08, when he went 4-1 with a 1.72 ERA in 6 starts. Check out my Q&A with the third Mike below. Can I get you to talk about the coaching staff and how they help you deal with ups and downs? They've been real positive with me. I started out good and then I hit a rough patch. They've stuck with me through it all. I haven't heard any negative words from them. Every day they try to come out, work with me, try to get me turned around...

Eric B Needs to be Cut (and My Name is Rakim)

While the Phillies are on a hot streak this month, one player on the team is not. Eric Bruntlett is 1-for-12 in July. Since the start of May, Bruntlett's apex in batting average has been .167 on June 14th. Bruntlett's ineptitude can be tolerated no longer. Get rid of this guy NOW! Eric B. is the 2009 Endy Chavez. Remember Endy...the guy who in 2005 managed just 2 hits in his final 42 games played as a Phillie? That is about the sort of output the Phillies are getting from Bruntlett, and it's time to fix this void. Julio Lugo was designated for assignment last week by the Red Sox and is expected to become a free agent. The Metropolitans are rumored to be interested. Why wouldn't the Phillies be interested in a guy who could surely outhit Bruntlett? Lugo was hitting .284 through 37 games played this season with Boston. Suspended Lehigh Valley IronPig Pablo Ozuna is eligible to return next Wednesday. Ozuna is batting .294 through 51 games at triple A. Miguel Cairo is also...