Cole Irvin named as Lehigh Valley IronPigs POY

Embed from Getty Images

The Lehigh Valley IronPigs have been the Triple-A minor league affiliates of the Philadelphia Phillies since the 2007 season. But the franchise has a long and winding history.

Founded in 1993 as the Ottawa Lynx in Canada, they were an affiliate of the old Montreal Expos for their first decade of existence. The Baltimore Orioles then took control of the club through 2006.

Then in 2007, having grown unhappy with the ownership of their Triple-A affiliates at the time, the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Red Barons, the Phillies entered into an agreement with the Lynx to become their new highest-level minor league affiliate.

With the opening of Coca-Cola Park for the 2008 season, the Phillies relocated that former Lynx franchise to the new Allentown, Pennsylvania facility and changed the team’s identity. The name “IronPigs” is drawn from ‘pig iron‘, or crude iron, which is manufactured in the area.

Allentown, PA is approximately 70 miles north of the Philadelphia area. It takes about an hour-and-a-half to make the drive, with most using I-476.

The IronPigs captured the North Division crown with an 84-56 record that was the best in the entire International League this season. However, first-year manager Gary Jones and the Pigs were bounced out in the playoff semi-finals by Scranton-Wilkes Barre.

Now an affiliate of the New York Yankees, Scranton took the first two games in the best-of-five series by 3-2 and 3-0 scores. Lehigh Valley got back into the series with a 3-2 victory in Game Three, but then Scranton closed it out with a big 7-2 rout in Game Four.

This year’s Lehigh Valley IronPigs Player of the Year is pitcher Cole Irvin. The 6-4, 180lb left-hander will turn 25-years-old just prior to the opening of 2019 spring training. He was the Phillies fifth round pick in the 2016 MLB Amateur Draft out of the University of Oregon.

Irvin went 14-4 with a 2.57 ERA and 1.054 WHIP this season for the IronPigs. He allowed 135 hits over 161.1 innings across 26 appearances, 25 of those as starts, with a 131/35 K:BB ratio.

For his outstanding season, Irvin was selected as the International League Pitcher of the Year and made the start in this year’s Triple-A All-Star Game. He was also named to Baseball America’s all-star team.

His contributions were not only relegated to the field. For the second straight year, Irvin was recognized as one of the Phillies minor league community service award recipients.

Jayson Werth Has Been Worth the Nationals Investment

The Washington Nationals finished at the bottom of the NL East standings in the 2010 season. It was a familiar finish for the former Montreal Expos franchise. 

The team had ended the season in last place in four of the previous five years since relocating south to the U.S. capital city.

That 2010 campaign wrapped up the third season for the team at Nationals Park, and team management was looking to turn around the fortunes of the franchise.

During the off-season, GM Mike Rizzo looked over his youthful roster and believed that he saw things about to change.

Players like Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond, Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, and Danny Espinosa were beginning to emerge. In June, the club picked at the top of the MLB Amateur Draft, selecting mega-hyped teenager Bryce Harper.

Rizzo saw the beginnings of better days ahead in the near future. But he wanted a veteran, proven, run-producing bat to help the club take the next step.

Just in time, star right fielder Jayson Werth of the division-rival Philadelphia Phillies was becoming a free agent.

Nationals / Expos All-Time 25-Man Roster

The Washington Nationals emerged for the 2005 season after the relocation of the original Montreal Expos franchise.

Major League Baseball expanded by four teams and split into a divisional format beginning in 1969. 

The Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots (now the Milwaukee Brewers) went to the American League. The Expos and San Diego Padres were  assigned to the National League.

The Montreal team was named after the successful World’s Fair “Expo 67” held there in 1967 during the Canadian Centennial celebration.

After a decade of losing, a young core of players emerged in the late 1970’s to turn the team into a contender for the first time. Then from 1979-94 the Expos were consistent winners.

There were 11 winning Expos campaigns and another two .500 seasons during that 16 year stretch. However, Montreal reached the MLB postseason only one time in its history.

Tim Raines Deserves Hall of Fame

Voting for the next class of inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame will take place over the next couple of months.

One of the leading contenders for enshrinement in 2017 will be former Montreal Expos outfielder Tim Raines. One of baseball’s biggest stars during the 1980s, Raines is in his final year of eligibility to be considered by the regular voters.

When you examine Raines’ career, it becomes increasingly difficult to determine why he is not already enshrined at Cooperstown.

Eight Teams That Have Never Won the World Series

The World Series, the official championship of Major League Baseball, is being conducted now for the 112th time, and there are eight current organizations that have never won.

As the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians battle for the 2016 World Series crown, much has been made of the fact the neither organization has won the championship of Major League Baseball in a very long time.

The Indians last won the World Series way back in 1948, just a couple of years after the end of World War II and prior to the dawn of the age of television.

The Cubs have not won since 1908, and have for more than half a century been living under the infamous "Curse of the Billy Goat" and in the shadow of Steve Bartman.

With the Cubs' victory in Wednesday's Game 2, the 2016 World Series is now even at a game apiece. At some point in the next week, one of these two teams is going to end their long drought, and there will be much joy and celebrating.

Meanwhile, the losing team and their fans will remain frustrated. They will remain without having won a championship for generations.

But as long as it has been for those two organizations, there are clubs and fan bases out there who are just as frustrated.

In fact, there are teams whose fan bases have never been able to celebrate a World Series title at all.

It Was 20 Years Ago Today

Buck Showalter was just 38 years old
managing the 1994 New York Yankees

As the MLB action ended on August 11th, 1994 the defending National League champion Philadelphia Phillies were floundering 7 games below the .500 mark, and already 20.5 games behind the front-running Montreal Expos in the N.L. East Division race. But neither those floundering Fightins or the explosive Expos would win the division that year. No one would win it that year.

On August 12th, 1994, exactly 20 years ago today, a work stoppage occurred in the form of a strike action called by the Major League Baseball Players Association in response to ongoing labor problems with the MLB franchise owners. The strike would last the rest of the '94 season, resulting in inconclusive division races and the cancellation of the playoffs and World Series.

Many people believe that the entity most injured as a result of the 1994 strike was the Montreal Expos, as well as their fans. The Expos led all of baseball with a 74-40 record at the time, and led the N.L. East by 6 games over the 2nd place Atlanta Braves. Many of these same folks believe that the Expos would have won the World Series that year, and perhaps would still be in Montreal today. Instead, that franchise would see attendance plummet for a decade before moving to become the Washington Nationals.

But don't count me among them. The Expos, never having won anything to that point, would have needed to hold their lead over the Braves for another month and a half. I believe that a good case can be made that instead of Montreal in the World Series, we instead would have witnessed what became the 1996 Series, only a couple of years earlier, between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Yankees.