The Brewster

Aloha Ka Punahou 2003.27

Mr Mueller visits the majors
and minor league post season summary

September 2

Triple-A Death Valley Scorpions begin post-season RHML play as the wild card team of the
Roundfield League. The Scorpions will be missing a handful of players, who have been added to
the....


Hawaii Tropics expanded roster for September, including infielders Jeff Mueller and Raúl
García; pitchers Jessie Blankenship, Montrelle Capuana, and Chico Ramirez, who completed a
rehab assignment in the desert. Mueller has been one of the Tropics most successful farm
system stories this season.

Hawaii snatched 1B-3B Jeff Mueller 11 months ago after Greenville released the then 23-year-
old prospect (12th overall pick in 2001 amateur draft) after 2002, when Mueller suffered a
three-month injury for the second straight year. Mueller made it hard for Hawaii to "go slowly"
with him by beginning the season batting .322 in 35 games at Double-A.

Mueller then went .319-18-61 in 88 games for Triple-A Death Valley. Expect him to start for
Hawaii v left handers and every other day v righties.



Double-A Carson City Gamblers (74-46 .617) go to the Warren Cox League Finals against
either the Providence Bees (79-41 [Des Moines]) or the Corpus Christi Crawfish (80-40 [need
we say New Orleans Crawdads?]), who play a deciding game today.

Carson City defeated the Flying Tigers (85-35 [Long Beach], best record in the WCL regular
season) 2 games to 1 before dismantling the Juneau Blizzard (73-47 [Seattle]) 3 games to 1 to
advance. Carson City outscored the Blizzard 28 to 11 in the series.


Meanwhile Single-A Medford Mules (78-42) play a deciding game today against division rivals
and wild card team Aspen Surge (77-43, [New Orleans]) in an attempt to advance to the CPL
Finals against the winner of the Moline Mallards [Birmingham]-Lancaster Cactus [Valencia]
match up, which is also notched 2-2.

It was Medford that surged ahead in its division, winning 11 of its final 12 regular season
games to finish a game ahead of the Surge, who had swept three from Medford before the
Mules made their non-mulish magnificent finish.