With Major League Baseball’s divisional playoffs underway, there are numerous former Bisons players who are still in the postseason.
All told, there are 23 former Bisons still playing October baseball. That number grows to 26 when you include the three managers — Boston’s John Farrell, Texas’ Jeff Banister and LA’s Dave Roberts — that have their teams in the postseason mix.
Toronto being in the playoff mix, makes for six players — Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Dioner Navarro, Devon Travis, J.A. Happ and Brett Cecil — who have played at Coca-Cola Field exclusively in MLB injury rehab appearances. Centerfielder Kevin Pillar and pitchers Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez headline the list of players who came up through Buffalo on their way to the majorso. Superman was the Herd’s 2014 MVP and has a .315 average and 79 extra-base hits in 152 games with the Herd over two seasons. Stroman and Sanchez both made their Herd debuts in 2014, combining for 72 strikeouts in only 70 innings of work.
Ezequiel Carrera signed a minor league contract with the Blue Jays before the 2015 season and played 30 games with Buffalo before his promotion to Toronto. Ryan Tepera has made 109 appearances for the Herd over the last three years with a rock-solid 2.95 ERA to go along with 11 wins and 23 staves. Aaron Loup has a 2.45 ERA in his 25 outings with the Bisons over the last two seasons.
The Cleveland Indians have three former Bisons players in reliever Josh Tomlin, catcher Chris Gimenez and the recently re-acquired outfielder Coco Crisp. Crisp hit .350 for the Herd in parts of two seasons (2002, 2003), while Gimenez and Tomlin were both on the Tribe’s final squad in Buffalo in 2008.
Along with Banister, the Rangers have former Herd reliever Jeremy Jeffress in the pen and Shin-Soo Choo in the outfielder. Farrell doesn’t have any former Bisons on his squad, but does have Buffalo Baseball Hall of Famer Torey Lovullo as his bench coach.
Over in the National League, the Nationals lead the ranks with four former Bisons. Outfielder Chris Heisey played for the Herd last season, while infielders Daniel Murphy and Clint Robinson and pitcher Oliver Perez were all in Buffalo during the team’s affiliation with the Mets.
The same goes for Justin Turner, who has become a star with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Turner was a fan-favorite in Buffalo starting with his 2010 season with the Bisons. The hard-nosed infielder put up some impressive numbers over 90 total games with the Herd, posting a .328 average and 39 extra-base hits.
Giants outfielder Angel Pagan rehabbed with the Bisons in 2009. The Cubs are the only team that comes in with no Bisons connections. Chicago could’ve, but left infielder Munenori Kawasaki off their NLDS roster.
from Bisons.com via IFTTT
