Another week down and another win for Jamestown Jammers starting pitcher Helpi Reyes, who advanced into the final 16 in an online contest on Minor League Baseball’s official website.
MiLB.com’s Moniker Madness is in its sixth year and is a fan vote to determine “Who has the best name in the Minor Leagues?” The tournament starts with 64 players, similar to NCAA Tournament and has now been trimmed down to the final 16.
“I was the first to notice when we were in Brooklyn,” said relief pitcher and social media-extraordinaire Beau Wright. “We’re aware, but it’s kind of on me to keep checking.”
Reyes defeated Roidany Aguila in the first round and Yogey Perez-Ramos in the second round to advance to the Natty Nattress Region semifinals.
Reyes, who turns 20 on Friday, is native of Cotui, Dominican Republic and doesn’t speak a whole lot of English. While some of his teammates are aware of contest, Reyes isn’t, but it’s hard to fault him on focusing on pitching instead of an online vote.
And the same goes for his teammates.
“I don’t think so,” said Wright referring to if his teammates are stuffing the ballots. “We just think its cool for him to be in it.”
Reyes will face Boss Moanaroa, a first baseman for the Greenville Drive of the South Atlantic League. That voting goes from July 24-26 with the winner to take on either Rougned Odor of the Hickory Crawdads or Zelous Wheeler of the Norfolk Tides. Quarterfinal voting will be this weekend, starting on Helpi’s birthday, July 27 and going through July 30.
“Pretty much I have been plugging it on the website and Facebook,” said Justin Michael, media relations officer for the Jammers. “But beyond that we haven’t made buttons or anything special like that.”
Fans can vote by simply logging onto milb.com and clicking on the Moniker Madness page. Once there, you only need to fill out winners for each matchup before filling out your name and birthdate.
Voting ends at midnight on Thursday
On the field, Reyes has been an important cog to the team. He’s 1-2 with a 3.26 ERA in seven starts this year. He’s allowing opponents to hit just .214 off him and has struck out 26 while only walking 14 batters this year.
In addition, Reyes has improved in a lot of categories this year versus his first stint in Jamestown last year when he went 1-6 with a 5.37 ERA.
“He is slated as our No. 1 starter in the rotation,” Michael said.
Elsewhere in the contest, in the Icicle Reeder Region, it’s top-seeded Caleb Bushyhead vs. Socrates Brito, and Bear Bay vs. Kevin Quackenbush. Winners will face each other next round.
In Farmers Works Region, top-seeded Duke von Schamann vs. Rock Shoulders and Jamodrick McGruder vs. Scooter Gennett.
Finally, in the Razor Shines Region, it’s top-seeded Forrest Snow vs. Tuffy Gosewisch and Michael Goodnight vs. Xander Bogaerts.
