Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Shelley "Slam" Duncan Finishes 2nd in AAA HR Derby

From Jared Ravich:
It was a big night for hometown heroes at Portland's PGE Park, where the Beavers' own Chad Huffman took the trophy -- as well as $1,000 and a brand new laptop -- at the 2009 American Family Insurance Triple-A All-Star Home Run Derby.

He outlasted Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's Shelley Duncan of the International League with a total of 15 homers.

"It was great to have the fans behind me, helping me get through it," the outfielder said. "It's not a distance game, it's a numbers game. I was just trying to get there and put good wood on it. It will take care of itself."

Duncan, who came into the competition with 21 regular-season homers to lead all competitors, squeezed into the second round with five and added another four before slugging just one in the final frame.

"I feel great," Duncan said. "I'm happy it was fun out there."

Duncan was greeted at the plate with a smattering of boos at the mention of the Yankees, clearly not a popular franchise in the Portland area.

"I did notice that," Duncan said with a smile. "It's kind of funny, too, because it's the complete opposite on the East Coast. Where we play and every city we go to there's Yankee fans everywhere. To tell you the truth, it's kind of neat to have a little change. It was fun to hear boos. It really was."

I wouldn't mind see Shelley blasting some shots in the Bronx come September, or who knows, maybe even earlier.

By the way, isn't it funny that baseball fans even hate our minor leaguers? I love being a Yankees fan.

5 Comments:

Anonymous said...

ransom is so much better than shelley. just compare their numbers. he's EASILY the greatest utility hitter in the history of the game.

bruceb said...

I wish people would give Ransom a break. What do they expect from a player who makes the odd start here and there? Imho, he's not done too badly for the Yanks and got injured at just the wrong time. As for Shelley Duncan, I can't believe another team (the Mets, for example) haven't taken a chance with him. We know he's a pure fastball hitter and struggles with the offspeed stuff but he does have some pop and has to be a better bet than people like Argenis Reyes and Jeremy Reed.

Greg Cohen said...

Bruce, Pena handled that situation much better than Ransom has. That's why people get on his case.

Anonymous said...

i wouldn't so much get on ransom,...i would rather get on the people who picked him over pena...it's not ransom's fault...

Danny said...

That's great! Shelly actually works hard and produces and is buried, but we get to see Swisher be an ass on daily basis, so it's okay cause he makes us all laugh while we sit in third and not beat teams in front of us.