D. J. Baxendale will start game one for the Lookouts Thursday.
photo by Tim Evearitt
Chattanooga Lookouts (76-61, North Division first-half champion) vs.Montgomery Biscuits (77-61, North Division second-half champion)
Chattanooga won the season series, 9-8
Game 1 at Chattanooga, Sept. 10 at 7:15 p.m. ET
Game 2 at Chattanooga, Sept. 11 at 7:15 p.m. ET
Game 3 at Montgomery, Sept. 12 at 7:35 p.m. ET Watch on MiLB.TV
Game 4 at Montgomery (if necessary), Sept. 13 at 6:35 p.m. ET Watch on MiLB.TV
Game 5 at Montgomery (if necessary), Sept. 14 at 8:05 p.m.
ET Watch on MiLB.TV
Max Kepler wasn't a major factor in the playoffs a year ago when Fort Myers won the Class A Advanced Florida State League title. The Minnesota Twins' No. 6 prospect will likely have to be this year, though, if Chattanooga is to give manager Doug Mientkiewicz a second championship in his third year as a Minor League manager.
Kepler, a 22-year-old from Germany, flew mostly under the radar as the Lookouts won the first-half title in the North Division with a loaded roster that included center fielder Byron Buxton, third baseman Miguel Sano and right-handed pitcher Jose Berrios.
But the left-handed hitting outfielder/first baseman ended up in the spotlight during a breakout season in which he was named SL Player of the Year, leading the circuit in on-base percentage (.416), slugging (.531) and OPS (.947).
"He's got a tremendous upside," Mientkiewicz said. "He's come a long way since he was signed at 16."
If Montgomery is to advance in the playoffs, the Biscuits will have to get Kepler out far more often than they did in the regular season. He hit .395 against them with a .509 on-base percentage and drove in 11 runs in 12 games while hitting four doubles and two homers.
Pitching, though, has been a Montgomery strength, and the Biscuits didn't play the Lookouts after July 21, a couple of weeks before they began a closing push of 21 wins in 29 games.
Left-hander Jaime Schultz, who led the league with 168 strikeouts in 135 innings while going 9-5, will start the series opener at Chattanooga, with right-hander Jacob Faria to pitch the second game.
Faria, promoted for the second half after dominating the Class A Advanced Florida State League, was 7-3 with a 2.51 ERA and had 96 strikeouts in 71 1/3 innings over 13 starts for the Biscuits.
The 10th-round choice by Tampa Bay in 2011 led the Minor Leagues in victories, going 17-4 with a 1.92 ERA overall.
Now the pressure to win will be ramped up with the playoffs. Mientkiewicz says it's the time when you see whether a player has the "chip" to be a Major Leaguer.
"I challenged them at Fort Myers last year and they responded," said the World Series winner with the 2004 Boston Red Sox. "I've challenged them again and we'll see what happens. Rosters change, but the goal is still the same. This is when you learn a lot about players."
Power packed:
The 31 home runs by Adam Brett Walker II were not only a modern Chattanooga record, but also the most in the Southern League since Bucky Jacobson hit that same number for Tennessee in 2003. Walker, a right-handed-hitting outfielder, homered in the regular-season finale to better the 30 homers by Mobile's Paul Goldschmidt and Carolina's Neftali Soto in 2011. Minnesota's No. 10 prospect also led the league with 106 RBIs -- another Lookouts record. He had a league-high 195 strikeouts in 133 games, though. The 23-year-old also had a .239 batting average, .309 on-base percentage -- thanks to 55 walks -- and a .498 slugging mark with a league-best 250 total bases.
--- Source: MiLB.com
Max Kepler was named the Southern League Player of the Year.
photo by Tim Evearitt