Six Aeros will be accompanying Aeros manager Tim Bogar to the Eastern League All-Star Game July 11 - the highest number of players from the 12-team league.

Making the trip to Norwich, Ct., with Bogar are pitchers Randy Newsom and Reid Santos, first baseman Jordan Brown, shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, catcher Wyatt Toregas and right fielder Brian Barton.

‘‘I’m not surprised at all that we placed so many guys,” Bogar told me Monday aftrenoon from Erie, Pa., where the Aeros are playing on the second leg of a three-city road trip. “Jordan Brown is having a great year, Brian Barton is doing well and Asdrubal Cabrera is perhaps the best player in the league. Wyatt’s catching abilities behind the plate set him apart, and enough
can’t be said about the job Reid has done in a variety of roles for us and how Randy has stepped right into such an important closer’s role.”

Bogar is right. Hoever, that doesn’t always translate into the right players being picked (anyone remember Ronald “Bear” Bay going just last year?) But voters - media and fans - got it right this season. Consider:

Cabrera and Brown vied for the honor of the Aeros’ first-half MVP, with the slick fielding Cabrera owning the third-best batting average in the league at .338 (91-for-269) featuring a league-high 64 runs scored.

But the slugging Brown has been just as important, checking in at sixth place in league batting average (.321), but owning league highs in hits (95) and doubles (25).

Toregas may be batting just .240 (41-for-171), but there’s more to the selection of the catcher than the obvious stats - as Bogar said he considers Toregas’ game-caling and defense to be among the leagues best.

While steady most of the first half, Barton has begun to take his game to another level over the last month of play. Plus, he’s not afraid to take one - or two - for the team. In 75 games, Barton is batting .303 (82-for-271) with 11 doubles, seven home runs, 40 RBI and a minor-league-leading 24 hit-by-pitches.

That leaves the lefty Santos and side-arming righty Newsom - a pair of pitchers who have been instrumental in keeping the Aeros pitching staff ranked among the best in the league.

The do-it-all Santos started out as a late-inning reliever, moved over to closing when the team’s original closer Bubbie Buzachero was promoted to Triple-A and has spent the last six game in the starting rotation. In 22 games, he’s 5-1 with a save and a sparkling 1.99
ERA and 44 strikeouts.

All Newsom has done since he joined the team May 12 is go 12-for-12 in save opportunities while recording a 3-0 mark and 2.28 ERA along the way.

The revolving door that has become the Aeros bullpen spun some more over the past week as the Aeros added right-hander T.J. Burton to the mix from Class-A Kinston.

Burton joins recent newcomers in left-hander Rich Rundles from Extended Spring Training and right-hander Randy Newsom from Kinston - both, as luck would have it, are sidearmers.

“You have a bunch of guys out there now who are bullpen guys, and have been,” Aeros manager Tim Bogar said. “I like the way our bullpen sets up now. I like having Newsom and Rundles like that and (Reid) Santos closing the game.”

Bogar was referring to the Aeros starting the season with a handful of pitchers in the bullpen who were really starters like Joe Ness (who’s now in the starting rotation) and Jake Dittler (since promoted to Triple-A Buffalo).

On Monday, right-hander Nick Pesco joined the group from Triple-A Buffalo, giving Bogar even more options late in the game.

Newsom earned his first save Tuesday night in the Aeros 5-3 win - a sight Aeros fans ought to get used to, especially with Santos struggling as of late.

Not long after writing my last post about hoping to see Aeros lefty Reid Santos get a shot as the closer for the team, guess what happens?

Of course, it happened by default, as Santos simply slid into the role when veteran right-hander Bubbie Buzachero was promoted to Triple-A.

Buzachero got the nod recently when the Indians demoted (and most likely have lost) reliever Jason Davis, causing a chain reaction of moves that sent Buffalo closer Edward Mujica to Cleveland, Buzachero to the Bisons and Santos…well into the closer’s role in Akron.

I don’t know for sure if the kid can close, but right now he’s the best candidate - especially among a bullpen even manager Tim Bogar admits is “going through a rough patch right now.”

Closing is a weird thing in the minors. In many respects, closers aren’t necessarily “developed”, meaning they may close at one level and just be part of the bullpen mix at the next.

Take for example my favorite Aeros closer of the last five years - Rafael Betancourt. Betancourt may take forever on the mound, but he was near perfect for Akron the season he closed. Still, since he made it to the Indians, he’s been a set up guy.

Is Reid Santos the answer to the Aeros problems late in games? I’m not sure. But I’m willing to sit and watch to find out.

There is nothing all that impressive on first glance at Reid Santos. The 6-foot-1, 170-pound pitcher from Wahiana, Hawaii, could easily be lost in a crowd of teenagers at the mall if he wasn’t careful.

However, what makes Santos stand out on the baseball field is the fact that the unseemly kid simply gets the job done.

Aeros manager Tim Bogar admitted recently he isn’t quite sure how Santos does it either, except that everytime he calls the quiet lefty from the bullpen, he not only gets a crucial left-handed hitter out, but tends to be equally effective against right-handers as well.

“His changeup makes him a good commodity against right-handed hitters, so he can be more than a left-handed matchup guy,” Bogar said.

In the Aeros first game of a double header sweep Monday in Binghamton, Santos came on for the last two outs of the game to earn his second save of the season.

Three days earlier, he helped rescue closer Bubbie Buzachero after the veteran right-hander allowed visiting Harrisburg to come back and tie the game with four runs on five hits in an eighth-inning rally.

Now with two saves to his credit, many are wondering if Santos shouldn’t be closing all of the Aeros close games - a concept Bogar said he’d heard tossed around the dugout recently.

“I don’t think we know what we want to do with Reid yet,” Bogar said. “He’s one of those guys who snuck up on us last year and now he’s here doing it again.”

I’d like to see Santos at least get a shot.