YGY Staten Island Yankees Top 5 Players Of The Week: (8/13-8/19)

Home of the Staten Island Yankees-Mandatory Credit: milb.com

This past week in Staten Island Yankees’ baseball saw the team play a homestand that brought out a chip in some of the players. Against the Connecticut Tigers and Tri-City Valleycats, the team went 4-2 to keep themselves in the Wild Card Race with 13 games left in the New York-Penn League season. The 4-2 was significant, considering that they went 1-5 on the road against both of those teams a couple of weeks ago. Left Fielder Chris Breen told me about how these players approached these past two series:

“It brought a little edge in us,” said Breen after Saturday’s night loss. “We need to take it one game at a time and win the games we are supposed to win.”

The last two days brought a mini-break for the Baby Bombers as the New York Penn-League All-Star Game took place on Tuesday night. Four Staten Island Yankees (Luis Torrens, Isaias Tejeda, Ty McFarland, and Connor Spencer) took part in the game with Spencer and McFarland getting the starts at first and second base respectively. Torrens scored the lone run of the game for the South All-Stars when he lead off the seventh inning with a double. He would later score on a sacrifice fly for the South team’s only run. The game would end in a 1-1 tie.

There was a roster move on Tuesday afternoon as the Yankees promoted first baseman Bubba Jones to Low-A Charleston. In 15 games this season, Jones hit .132 with two home runs and four RBI’s. The two homers tied his total from last season, which he achieved in 60 games. Earlier today, second baseman Billy Fleming was added to the roster. Fleming, who was hitting .375 in 22 games in the Gulf Coast League, played with pitcher Sean Carley at West Virginia University.

With the All-Star Break now over, this week brings a critical point in the playoff. Staten Island starts a stretch where they play five of their next eight games against the Brooklyn Cyclones. The two teams haven’t played since June 29 and Staten Island needs every game they can get, considering that they are 3.5 games behind the Cyclones heading into Wednesday night’s action.

Staten Island starting pitcher Ty Hensley would tell the media after the game on Sunday that this series with the Cyclones is “going to be big. I think if we are able to get quite a few wins there, we will be alright.”

With that being said, before tonight’s matchup with Brooklyn at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark in St. George,  here are my top five Staten Island Yankees’ players from this week’s action: