The Brooklyn Paper: SNA Newspaper of the Year, 2007

The current issue
Neighborhood Map
Bay Ridge
  • Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights
Brooklyn Heights
  • Downtown, DUMBO
Carroll Gardens
  • Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Boerum Hill
Fort Greene
  • Clinton Hill, Crown Heights
North Brooklyn
  • Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
Park Slope
  • Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights
GO Brooklyn
Brooklyn Cyclones
Not Just Nets
Police Blotter
Perspective
Parenting
Politics
Transit
Podcasts
The Brooklyn Bride
Brooklyn Boom
Classifieds
Merchant news
About The Paper
RSS Feeds
Esquire Bank
September 4, 2008 / Sports / Brooklyn Cyclones / Ups & Downs

It’s been a revolving door at short

for The Brooklyn Paper

Reese Havens, a Mets’ first round draft pick this year, was supposed to be Brooklyn’s regular shortstop this season.

Yet the shortstop position has been a revolving door, with 10 players manning the position, six of them actually seeming to hold the starting job, albeit briefly.

Brooklyn Bridge Realty

Opening Day found Brandon Richey holding down the job until the injured Havens was ready.

But Havens’s wounds were more severe than originally believed, so Matt Bouchard, a Cyclones regular last season, was called down to Brooklyn to help out. Bouchard played regularly for almost two weeks, but he injured his hip and Jake Eigsti, another Cyclone from the past, became the starting shortstop on July 1.

In mid-July, Matt Smith, on a rehab assignment from St. Lucie, started to become the regular when Eigsti didn’t hit. Smith played a lot of shortstop in July. Havens still hadn’t played shortstop because just as his elbow injury was almost healed, he pulled a groin muscle.

Then, on Aug. 10, Havens finally played shortstop, playing in that game and another the next day at the position.

But he would re-injure his groin, and not play shortstop for the rest of the campaign.

The Cyclones used a mix of shortstops in August, including brief appearances by Anderson Machado, J.R. Voyles, and even second baseman Josh Satin, for parts of two games.

Later in August, the Cyclones used Juan Lagares, a 19-year-old who had been called down from Class A Savannah. Then the Cyclones moved Lagares to third and now have an even younger shortstop, 17-year-old Wilmer Flores, the phenom called up from Kingsport.

Havens return to shortstop this season is up in the air, so Flores may be Brooklyn’s choice for the last few games — and possibly any play-off games.

Reader Feedback

Enter your comment below

By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:

You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.

First name
Last name
Your neighborhood
Email address
Daytime phone

Your letter must be signed and include all of the information requested above. (Only your name and neighborhood are published with the letter.) Letters should be as brief as possible; while they may discuss any topic of interest to our readers, priority will be given to letters that relate to stories covered by The Brooklyn Paper.

Letters will be edited at the sole discretion of the editor, may be published in whole or part in any media, and upon publication become the property of The Brooklyn Paper. The earlier in the week you send your letter, the better.

Frame It in Brooklyn
Water Street Restaurant
La Bagel Delight
Corcoran