A Farewell to the Regular Season and a Look at the Post-Season

It is with zero regret that I bid adieu to the 2014 regular season. Each year around this time I've hit a wall and those 5:00 a.m. writing sessions start to take their toll. I absolutely hate making mistakes in what I post, but each year it seems that more and more mistakes creep into my work toward the end of the season when I become mentally exhausted. I apologize for those mistakes. I always try to be accurate.

Many thanks to Dustin who has toiled thanklessly to get you the minor league recaps every day. With his post today, he will have recapped all but a handful of the 904 games played in the system this year. I do not know how he does it, but thankfully he has agreed to continue doing it again next year. And I would be remiss if I didn't thank DeAnna as well for handling the Facebook duties. She's done a great job with that.

I will continue to post regularly throughout the off-season as we follow those Astros players who will be playing in the Arizona Fall League and in Winter League ball in the more tropical climes. I will also continue interviewing players over the off-season and, hopefully, I can sweet talk Jeff Luhnow into continuing our annual State of the Farm System talk.

More immediately, over the next couple of weeks I'll be doing a season recap on each of the minor league teams (I've already done the DSL team), and I will have my Players of the Week, Month and Year coming out before too long. In other words, the posts will keep coming regularly and I hope that you will come back to read them.

But first, there are two Astros minor league teams in the playoffs ~

LANCASTER JETHAWKS

As the South Division first half champions, the JetHawks have a "bye" in the first round of the playoffs which is a Mini-Series between the second half champion (Inland Empire) and the Wild Card (Lake Elsinore). Those two teams will play a best-of-three series starting Wednesday so Lancaster will not know who their opponent in the South Division Finals will be until Thursday or Friday.

The best-of-five South Division Finals will start on Saturday, September 6th at 6:00 local time (8:00 CST) at The Hangar. The 'Hawks will play two at home on Saturday and Sunday; two on the road on Monday and Tuesday (if necessary); and will return to The Hangar for Game 5 on Wednesday the 10th if necessary. The Championship Series will start on Thursday the 11th.

The rotation for the Division Finals has already been announced: Vince Velasquez, Kent Emanuel, Kyle Westwood, Brian Holmes and Lance McCullers.

TRI-CITY VALLEYCATS

The ValleyCats clinched home field advantage throughout the playoffs with their win on Monday. They will play Connecticut who won the Wild Card berth on Monday. Tri-City is 7-3 against Connecticut for the season. In a best-of-three series, the 'Cats will travel to Connecticut for the first game on Wednesday the 3rd at 6:35 local time (5:35 CST) on Wednesday and then return to The Joe on Thursday and Friday (if necessary). I have not seen the probable pitchers announced for that game yet.