Kiermaier within range of Southern League batting title

Kevin Kiermaier, had he posted one more hit while with the Biscuits, would be the Southern League's leading hitter going into the season's final day.

Kiermaier was promoted to Triple-A Durham in late July, but he already had enough plate appearances to qualify for the Southern League batting championship.

Kiermaier was 114-for-371, giving him a .3072 batting average.

Mobile's Justin Greene is ahead ... barely.

Greene, who is 0-for-11 in his last three games, didn't play Sunday. The BayBears finish the regular season Monday afternoon against Pensacola.

Greene is 117-for-379, giving him a .3087 batting average. Kiermaier, had he turned a single out into a hit, would be at .3099.

But Kiermaier could still win it if Greene plays and goes at least 0-for-2 or 1-for-6 Monday.
0-for-2 -- .307087
1-for-6 -- .306484

If Greene goes 1-for-5, imagine this: Greene wins at .307292 with Kiermaier second at .307277.

Kiermaier, when he was recently named the Biscuits' most valuable player, quipped that "it would have been nice to have had a few more hits to make it tougher" on Greene.

Last year, Montgomery's Omar Luna was the league batting champion with a .315 average. With a difference of one hit, Pensacola's Josh Fellhauer would have won.

If you're curious, a batter must have at least 2.7 plate appearances for every game a team plays to qualify. The Biscuits will play their 140th game Monday, so Kiermaier needed 378 plate appearances. He had 417 when he was promoted.

UPDATE: But Kiermaier won't win.

Sunday: Barons 7, Biscuits 1

Trayce Thompson homered twice and scored three times in the Birmingham Barons' 7-1 win over the Biscuits on Sunday.

Thompson hit a solo shot in the third inning off Biscuits starter Marquis Fleming to give the Barons a 3-0 lead. His two-run blast in the seventh off Jeff Beliveau Neil Schenk capped the scoring.

The Biscuits scored in the third inning. With two outs, Ryan Brett singled and scored on a Shawn O'Malley double.

The Barons grabbed the lead in the first inning. Micah Johnson hit a leadoff single, stole second and scored on a David Herbek single. With two outs, former Auburn running back signee Brandon Jacobs singled home Dan Black.

Montgomery will take a 70-69 overall record into Monday's season finale.

Breaking down end-of-season Rays by draft

Triple-A Durham, after beginning the season with just one player originally drafted by Tampa Bay, is now up to five players in the last week of the season.

Following up on what I did at the beginning of the season, below is a breakdown of when the Rays drafted each of their current players or the ways they acquired them.

I'm listing how they were before today's major league roster expansion and any late-season maneuvers that preceded it. I also went (or at least tried to go) with how the rosters fell before Jeremy Hellickson was paper-moved to the minors.


2004 draft
Tampa Bay: Jake McGee (5th round)
Tampa Bay 60-day DL: Jeff Niemann (1)

2005 draft
Tampa Bay: Jeremy Hellickson (4)

2006 draft
Tampa Bay: Evan Longoria (1), Alex Cobb (4), Desmond Jennings (10)
Montgomery: Shawn O'Malley (5), Kyeong Kang (15), Robi Estrada (19)

2007 draft
Tampa Bay: David Price (1)
Tampa Bay DL: Matt Moore (8)

2008 draft
Durham: Tim Beckham (1)
Montgomery: Neil Schenk (23), Marquis Fleming (24)
Montgomery DL: Ty Morrison (4)
Bowling Green DL: Trevor Shull (19)

2009 draft
Montgomery: Todd Glaesmann (3)
Charlotte: Luke Bailey (4), Jeff Malm (5), Andrew Bellatti (12), Jake Partridge (18), Marcus Jensen (30)

2010 draft
Durham: Merrill Kelly (8), C.J. Riefenhauser (20), Adam Liberatore (21), Kevin Kiermaier (31)
Montgomery: Jake Thompson (2), Ryan Brett (3), Robby Price (13), Austin Hubbard (14), Jimmy Patterson (18), Steve Tinoco (34)
Charlotte: Drew Vettleson (1), Jake DePew (9), Nate Garcia (16), Parker Markel (39)
Charlotte DL: Jesse Hahn (6)
Bowling Green: Justin O'Conner (1), Matt Spann (25)
Bowling Green DL: Brandon Henderson (15)
Princeton: Travis Flores (11)

2011 draft
Montgomery: Mikie Mahtook (1), Cameron Seitzer (11)
Montgomery DL: Riccio Torrez (4), Jake Floethe (6)
Charlotte: Jake Hager (1), Lenny Linsky (2), Ryan Carpenter (7), Taylor Motter (17), Matt Ramsey (19), Shay Crawford (41), Grayson Garvin (s1), Kes Carter (s1)
Bowling Green: Jeff Ames (s1), Blake Snell (s1), Tyler Goeddel (s1), Brandon Martin (s1)
Bowling Green DL: Taylor Guerrieri (1)
Hudson Valley: Granden Goetzman (2), John Alexander (8), James Harris (s1)
Princeton: Johnny Eierman (3), Jake Faria (10), Isaac Gil (31)

2012 draft
Charlotte: Richie Shaffer (1), Dylan Floro (13), Willie Argo (22)
Charlotte DL: Sean Bierman (10)
Bowling Green: Andrew Toles (3), Marty Gantt (7), Joey Rickard (9), Tommy Coyle (16), Ryan Dunn (17), Kevin Brandt (18), Jordan Harrison (25), Ryan Garton (34), Geoff Rowan (39), Nick Sawyer (40)
Bowling Green DL: Luke Maile (8)
Hudson Valley: Chris Kirsch (14), Willie Gabay (15), Ben Kline (32)
Princeton: Spencer Edwards (2), Nolan Gannon (4), Bralin Jackson (5), Chad Nacapoy (38)
GCL: Damion Carroll (6), Clayton Henning (11), Taylor Hawkins (12)

2013 draft
Bowling Green: Austin Pruitt (9), Andrew Hanse (22)
Hudson Valley: Johnny Field (5), Ty Young (7), Aaron Griffin (10), Pat Blair (12), Ben Griset (13), Jaime Schultz (14), Julian Ridings (18), Harmen Sidhu (20), John Farrell (inactive) (21), Rick Teasley (23), Stone Speer (25), Derek Loera (28), Colton Reavis (30), Anthony Tzamtzis (32), Cory Jordan (35)
Princeton: Hunter Lockwood (11), Coty Blanchard (15), Darren Fischer (16), Josh Kimborowicz (19), Hunter Wood (29), D.J. Slaton (37)
GCL: Nick Ciuffo (1), Riley Unroe (2), Tommy Milone (3), Kean Wong (4), Roel Ramirez (8), Jeremy Hadley (24), Hyrum Formo (27), Hector Montes (33), Ryan Henley (40)

Free agents
Tampa Bay: James Loney, Kelly Johnson, Roberto Hernandez, Jose Molina, Joel Peralta, Fernando Rodney, Jamey Wright
Tampa Bay DL: Luke Scott
Tampa Bay 60-day DL: Juan Carlos Oviedo
Durham: Jason Bourgeois, Shelley Duncan, Jesus Flores, Mike Fontenot, Evan Frey, Chris Gimenez, J.D. Martin
Montgomery: Michael Colla, Carlos Fisher, Juan Sandoval, Joe Van Meter, Delmon Young
Montgomery DL: Matt Nevarez
Charlotte: Jared Mortensen

International free agents
Durham: Leslie Anderson, Frank De Los Santos
Durham DL: Alex Colome
Montgomery: Mayo Acosta, Braulio Lara, Victor Mateo, Enny Romero
Montgomery DL: Albert Suarez
Charlotte: Hector Guevara, Felipe Rivero, Alejandro Segovia
Charlotte DL: Roberto Gomez, Juniel Querecuto, Wilking Rodriguez, Eliazer Suero
Bowling Green: Reinaldo Lopez, Jose Molina, Bruedlin Suero, Oscar Hernandez, Leonardo Reginatto
Bowling Green DL: Eduar Quinonez
Hudson Valley: Eli Echarry, Darryl George, Julian Morillo, Omar Narvaez, Ariel Soriano
Princeton: Jesus Araiza, Yoel Araujo, Oscar Armenta, Luis Cabrera, Leopoldo Correa, Wilmer Dominguez, Mario Fernandez, Stepan Havlicek, German Marquez, Enmanuel Paulino, Jorge Rodriguez, Elias Torres
Princeton DL: Douglas Duran
GCL: Yomelbin Almonte, Jose Alonzo, Freddy Alvarez, Jose Castillo, Chris Crisostomo, Geisel De La Cruz, Andres Gonzalez, Jhefferson Hurtado, Jose Mujica, Jose Paez, Ruben Paredes, Adderly Rosa, Alexander Simon, Cristian Toribio, Erick Vasquez

Non-drafted free agents
Durham: Craig Albernaz, Kirby Yates
Montgomery: Keith Castillo (inactive)
Hudson Valley: Justin Choate, Tyler Gauthier, Ryan McChesney, Brad Schreiber
Hudson Valley DL: Corey MacDonald
Princeton: Clayton Crum, David Garcia, Edgar Gomez
GCL: Eric Fredrick, Adam Pendleton, Yael Regalado, Sean Smedley

Trade
Tampa Bay: Chris Archer, David DeJesus, Yunel Escobar, Sam Fuld, Matt Joyce, Wil Myers, Cesar Ramos, Sean Rodriguez, Alex Torres, Ben Zobrist
Tampa Bay DL: Brandon Guyer
Tampa Bay 60-day DL: Jesse Crain
Durham: Jeff Beliveau, Vince Belnome, Matt Buschmann, Cole Figueroa, Steve Geltz, Brandon Gomes, Josh Lueke, Mike Montgomery, Jake Odorizzi, Ryan Roberts
Durham DL: Hak-Ju Lee, Rich Thompson
Montgomery: Curt Casali, Erik Hamren
Bowling Green: Patrick Leonard

Waiver claim
Tampa Bay: Jose Lobaton, Wesley Wright

Today's Rays pitchers

Matt Buschmann is a combined 14-4 with a 2.85 ERA between Triple-A Durham and the Biscuits this year.

In the Tampa Bay organization, he's second in wins and has a large lead in strikeouts. Among full-season players, he's fourth in ERA, though he's within one-tenth of a point of passing both J.D. Martin (2.77) and Enny Romero (2.76).

DUR (Matt Buschmann 8-1, 2.97) at Norfolk (Steve Johnson 1-3, 4.54), 5:05
MGM (Marquis Fleming 4-6, 4.97) at Birmingham (Spencer Arroyo 8-7, 3.50), 3
CHA (Ryan Carpenter 7-6, 4.67) at Palm Beach (Joe Cuda 4-0, 1.56), 11:05 a.m., regular-season finale
BWG (Reinaldo Lopez 7-5, 3.00) at Lake County (7-6, 3.63), 2:05
HV (Ben Griset 3-3, 3.54) vs. Staten Island (Andrew Benak 3-3, 5.73), 12:05

Ranking the Rays ... Lara, Brandt, Shaffer

For Saturday ...

FULL SEASON
1. Braulio Lara, DUR: 3 no-hit innings, walk 3 Ks
2. Kevin Brandt, BWG: 6 1/3 innings, 3 runs, 8 hits, 4 Ks, 7 GBO
3. Richie Shaffer, CHA: 1b, walk, RBI, 2 runs
4. Brandon Martin, BWG: 2-run HR, walk
5. Tyler Goeddel, BWG: 2b, walk, steal, 2 runs

SHORT SEASON
Quorum not present. (Only Renegades still playing.)