September 4, 2001

East Division

Four Albany-Colonie players were named to the Northern League East post-season all-star team Sunday while three were chosen from Elmira. Allentown and New Jersey both got two nominations and Adirondack received one. Each East manager cast one vote and one media representative per team also voted.

C--Scott McKee (Albany-Colonie) is hitting .334 with seven homers and 47 RBIs. He tops the East with 118 hits and is second with 32 doubles. His first professional game was with the Diamond Dogs in 1999 and he has spent all three seasons with Albany-Colonie. McKee is a lifetime .333 hitter in the Northern League.

1B--Ryan Soules (Allentown) is the top player in the East at reaching base. His on-base percentage is .467, and he is also third in doubles (30), sixth in batting average (.332) and fifth in slugging percentage (.524). Soules signed with Allentown after three years at Class A with the Yankees.

2B--Julio Zorrilla (Albany-Colonie) is hitting .287 with 12 doubles, five triples and four homers. Zorrilla played in the Mets organization from 1993-98 before signing with Albany-Colonie in 1999. He has spent the last three seasons with the Diamond Dogs.

SS--Francisco Matos (Allentown) is poised to smash the all-time East Division single-season batting average record. He is currently hitting .417--26 points higher than Albany's Dan Kopriva in 1998. Matos, who was 7-for-28 in the big leagues with the Oakland Athletics in 1994, spent almost all of the last seven years in Triple-A. He ranks fourth in the East with 26 doubles, second with a .462 on-base average and second with a .579 slugging percentage.

3B--Ryan Kane (New Jersey) is hitting .316 with 33 doubles, two triples and 10 homers and 56 RBIs. He's first in doubles and his 45 extra-base hits are second in the East. Kane is hitting .372 since New Jersey acquired him from Quebec. Kane was a sixth-round pick of the Anaheim Angels in 1995 and played for Massachusetts in '99 and Quebec last year.

OF--Brandon Curtis (Albany-Colonie) is hitting .301 with 12 homers and 10 stolen bases this season. He has spent all four professional seasons in the Northern League since he left Houston Baptist College. He played for St. Paul in 1998 and 1999 and Sioux Falls last year before being traded to Albany-Colonie early last season.

OF--Tarrik Brock (Elmira) is hitting .289 with four homers and 26 stolen bases for Elmira just one year removed from playing in the major leagues. Last year, Brock capped a 10-year National Association career by reaching the majors with the Cubs and going 2-for-12. He was a second-round pick of the Tigers in 1991.

OF--Rodney Clifton (Adirondack) has posted gaudy power numbers this year, batting .285 with 21 doubles and a league-high seven triples and 18 homers. His 66 RBIs are first in the East, and he has also stolen seven bases. Clifton played five seasons in the Oakland organization.

DH--Marlon Roche (Albany-Colonie) is hitting .333 with 10 homers and 47 RBIs. Roche, along with all-stars McKee and Zorrilla, has been with Albany-Colonie for three seasons after finishing a minor league stint with the Astros in 1997.

LHP--Justin Stine (Elmira) has accumulated a 9-2, 3.87 record and a save in 15 starts and five relief outings covering 102 innings. Toronto selected Stine in the 22nd round in 1999 and he recorded a 3.16 ERA in 91 innings for Blue Jays Class A teams in St. Catharine's and Hagerstown the last two seasons.

RHP--Joel Bennett (New Jersey) is tied for first place in the East with 10 wins against five losses. He ranks first with 118 strikeouts and second with a 2.57 ERA in 129 innings. He leads the division with two shutouts and four complete games and was named player of the month for June. Bennett played in the big leagues for the Baltimore Orioles (1998) and the Philadelphia Phillies (1999), and he serves as the Jackals pitching coach. Bennett, who used the league as a springboard to the big leagues, played for Newburgh in 1996.

Reliever--Ryan Halla (Elmira) has managed to improve on a spectacular 2000 campaign with Elmira to post a 1.26 ERA and 17 saves in 34 appearances for the Pioneers this year. He's 2-2 and has allowed 16 walks while striking out 44. Last year Halla saved 20 games and posted a 1.40 ERA before Elmira sold his contract to the Atlanta Braves.

Sioux Falls and Winnipeg each placed three players on the Central's post-season all-star team. Lincoln had two on the team while Sioux City, Fargo-Moorhead, Schaumburg and St. Paul each received one nomination.

C--Ryan Robertson (Winnipeg) is hitting .311 with six homers and 43 RBIs. He returned this season to the league where he got his first shot as a 22-year old with the Thunder Bay Whiskey Jacks in 1995. That first season led to five years in the minor leagues with the Florida Marlins.

1B--Jermaine Swinton (Sioux Falls) is a hulking righthanded power hitter from Brooklyn, N.Y., who leads the league with 25 homers and ranks second in slugging percentage (.572) and extra-base hits (47). Houston originally drafted him in the second round in 1989 and he played as high as Class A Stockton in the California League. Swinton played for the Northern League's Madison Black Wolf in 1999 and 2000.

2B--Felix Pagan (Sioux Falls) continued the hot hitting that started in mid-2000 when Sioux Falls acquired him from Duluth-Superior. He batted .328 with the Canaries last year and is batting .330 this season. Pagan is second in doubles (31) and third in the league in slugging (.571) and hits (120).

SS--Brent Sachs (Winnipeg) is first in the league with 72 runs. He is also hitting .305 with 10 homers and 51 RBIs for the Goldeyes. Sachs made his professional debut in independent baseball with the Canton Crocodiles of the Frontier League in 1997. He spent 1998 in Madison and 1999 in Winnipeg before his contract was sold to the Cubs for 2000. He led the league with seven triples in '99.

3B--Josh Patton (Sioux City) ranks fifth in the Central with a .335 batting average. He's also third in on-base percentage (.413) and fourth in hits (114). He's clubbed 18 doubles, four triples and six homers while stealing 12 bases and knocking in 46. Patton is playing his fourth straight season for the Explorers after starting his professional career in Thunder Bay in 1997. Patton led the league in average (.350) in 1999.

OF--Charles Peterson (Sioux Falls) is finishing his third straight season in Sioux Falls and it has been his best. A 1993 first-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Peterson leads the Central with a .366 average and 130 hits. He ranks fourth in the Central in runs (66), RBIs (71) and slugging (.561). Peterson has 16 homers and 15 steals.

OF--Carmine Cappuccio (Winnipeg) has already demolished the all-time Central Division doubles record with 37 this season. He also leads the Central with 77 RBIs, on-base percentage (.421) and hits (130-tie) and ranks second with a .363 batting average. He is also among the top five in slugging, runs and extra-base hits. Cappuccio played for New Jersey in 1999 and set an East record with a 39-game hitting streak.

OF--Ricky Freeman (Fargo-Moorhead) has been a steady batter in the Fargo-Moorhead lineup all year, hitting .304 with 25 doubles, 14 homers and 74 RBIs. He put up similar numbers with the RedHawks in 2000 after a six-year stay in affiliated ball.

DH--Matt Nokes (Schaumburg) leads the Northern League with a .601 slugging percentage. He is also third in the league in batting average (.358) and has hit 24 doubles, two triples and 16 homers while driving in 68 runs. Nokes spent 11 years in the big leagues from 1985-95 with the San Francisco Giants, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles and Colorado Rockies before retiring. He came back two years later to play for St. Paul in 1998 and 1999.

LHP--Jake Whitney (St. Paul) has recorded a 7-6, 2.75 record for St. Paul as a reliever and starter. He has four complete games in nine starts, and one save in 21 relief appearances. Whitney has thrown 101 innings and yielded 103 hits, 19 walks and has struck out 74. He spent three seasons at Class A ball for the Astros after attending Iowa State.

RHP--Clay Eason (Lincoln) is in line to post the second-best ERA (1.57) in modern Northern League history behind Rob Andrakin (1.12 with Sioux Falls in 1994). He is 10-3 and has two shutouts in 18 starts. Eason, a graduate of North Carolina State, has been named pitcher of the week three times this year. After the Phillies released him during spring training last season, he signed with New Jersey and was its closer.

Reliever--Chris Weidert (Lincoln) ranks first in the Central with 19 saves. He is 4-6, 2.88 in 38 appearances (36 in relief). Weidert has walked 13 and struck out 55 in 56 innings. He began his professional career with Montreal in 1994 and played for the New Jersey Jackals in 1998.