An Essay on the Loons vs. Silver Hawks

A terrific game at Dow Diamond tonight, but unfortunately, the Silver Hawks game up on the short side of the scoreboard 3-2. Wade Miley and Bryan Woodall pitched excellent baseball for 8.0 innings, but the 9th got away from the Hawks and the Loons picked up the victory.

I know I hammered this home in the early innings of the broadcast, but I again want to make sure that what I was saying is clear. This Loons team is more advanced than the Silver Hawks. That doesn't mean they are better, and it doesn't mean that the Loons are going to sweep the series. All it means is that the players on the Loons roster have a lot more minor league experience.

Prior to the '09 season, eight different players on the Loons roster had played at least one game at the high-A level (most had played more). Now all of these guys likely would have repeated high-A this year, but it appears as if the Dodgers have not made a distinction between high-A and low-A. So basically what you have with Great Lakes is a team that is half full of high-A caliber players, and half full of low-A players.

Compare that to the Silver Hawks roster. Only one player on South Bend's roster had experience at low-A last season, and none had advanced to high-A.

The difference is clear -- The Loons are a lot more experienced.

Now, I've said a number of times on the air this season that experience wins early in the season, and talent wins late. I've seen it in each of my first three years in the Midwest League, and it happens at the Major League level as well. In early April, the guys that have been there before, typically win a lot of games. But by the end of the season, the most talented teams will be the ones left standing.