The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

TODD Isaacs Jr received the highest minor league promotion of his career after just two months within the Colorado Rockies organisation.

Isaacs was called up to the Albuquerque Isotopes of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League yesterday.

In his first plate appearance with the club, Isaacs hit a double in the seventh inning of the Isotopes’ win over the Reno Aces.

The Pacific Coast League operates in the Western, Midwestern, and Southeastern United States. Along with the International League and the Mexican League, it is one of three leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball.

Isaacs, 23, was signed by Colorado in April to begin his stint with the second club of his minor league career. After spending nearly four years with the Cleveland Indians organisation, Isaacs was released at the end of March.

With Colorado, he was assigned to the Grand Junction Rockies at the Rookie Level in the Pioneer League earlier this month. In five games with the Rockies, Isaacs hit .316 with six hits, four stolen bases, an OPS of .855, a .381 OBP, two RBI, nine total bases, three doubles, and four runs scored.

In their season-opening series against Ogden, the Rockies dropped the first two games. Isaacs went 1-3 in game one and went 3-5 and scored two runs with three stolen bases in game two.

Last season, Isaacs completed his second season with the Lake County Captains, of the Class A - Midwest League.

In 106 games with the Captains, Isaacs hit .232 with 90 hits, 30 stolen bases, an OPS of .608, 31 RBI, 128 total bases, 20 doubles, and four home runs.

In 82 games in 2017, his first with the club, Isaacs hit .224 with 18 stolen bases, slugging .376, an on-base percentage of .260, an OPS of .636, 33 RBI and nine home runs.

The Pioneer League operates in the Rocky Mountain region and, in the past, it also operated in adjoining portions of Canada. It is classified as a rookie league, and is staffed with mostly first and second year players in a short-season league operating from June to early September.

“It’s definitely a business, I’m forever grateful to the Indians for giving me the opportunity in 2015. They really shaped and molded me as the man I am, the person I am and the baseball player I am today,” Isaacs said on the PVO Podcast.

“There really was a lot of values that I learned from the organisation that I will carry for the rest of my life, I made some really good friends, met some really cool people, the biggest thing for me was in my life wherever I go I want to leave an effect on the people around me and that’s what I feel like I did.

“I felt like I built lifelong relationships with people that will last forever.”