Week 2 - April 2, 2007

From the Depths

The same three teams remained atop the standings, but the best performances in Week 2 actually were turned in by the two teams that had the worst opening weeks: The Hoboken Cutters and New Jersey Team Buddah each went 6-2 to climb from last place to -- well, not quite the front of the pack, but a lot closer to it! The Cutters ran off six straight wins before losing both ends of Sunday's doubleheader, while Jersey ran off four straight at one point. Hoboken is now tied for the league's 6th-best record, but Buddah -- while just a game behind them -- is tied for 10th.

Hoboken, even at a game under .500, also is tied for 2nd in the Hanover Division, where only the Newark Sugar Bears have a winning record. The defending champs went 5-3 this week; everyone else in the division went 4-4: Matthew's Mighty Men of Marietta and the Honolulu Sharks are tied with Hoboken, the Las Vegas Rat Pack are tied with Jersey, and bringing up the rear in the Hanover, and in 12th place overall, are the Sardine City Straphangers.

The Morris continues to be the league's toughest division -- four of the league's top five teams are in this division. Tied atop the standings are the Arkansas Golden Falcons, who tied Newark for this week's third-best record at 5-3; and the Philadelphia Endzone Animals, who went 4-4. Arkansas and Philly are tied for the league's best record, a game ahead of Newark. Tied for third in the division and fourth overall are the only other teams with winning records, the Hillsborough Hired Hitmen and Vancouver Ironfist, who each went 3-5, as did the Carolina Mudcats, who join the four-way tie for the league's 6th-best record... Bringing up the rear are the South Boston Gang, who went 3-5, and the D.C. Bushslappers, who went 2-6 to fall into last place overall.

Wanna B.J.? Go Otsuka!

Is there a closer controversy brewing in Sardine City? Just eight pitchers in the DMBL have at least three saves -- and two of them are on the Straphangers! The team has veteran closer B.J. Ryan plus former Sugar Bear Akinori Otsuka with 3 saves apiece. But it seems there will be more than enough saves to go around -- oddly enough, while the Straps have the league's third-worst record, they're second in saves (7), just one behind Arkansas, and tied for 1st (with Carolina) in save opportunities, with 11. So while Ryan gets the closer title, manager Bucky Dent appears willing to go with the hot hand -- Ryan got two saves the first week and Otsuka got three this week. And while Ryan was terrific this week (0 R, 2 H, 1 BB, 6 K in 3.1 IP), Otsuka was even better, allowing just 1 hit and no walks while striking out 6 in 4.1 innings to pick up three saves and a hold in four appearances, to earn the Japanese hurler the Samurai Kittens Pitcher of the Week Award!

This week's other top relievers: Arkansas's Bob Howry (1 W, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 3 K in 5.0 IP); D.C.'s Joe Nathan (1 W, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 7 K in 4.1 IP); Hillsborough's Takashi Saito (1 SV, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 4 K in 3.1 IP); Las Vegas's Taylor Tankersley (2 SV, 1 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 7 K in 6.1 IP); Marietta's Mariano Rivera (1 SV, 1 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 3 K in 8.2 IP); Newark's Cla Meredith (1 W, 2 SV, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 3 K in 5.2 IP); and South Boston's Russ Springer (0 R, 1 H, 0 BB, 5 K in 5.0 IP).

It was a great week for Ks, as several young fireballers showed off their stuff with impressive strikeout totals. Hoboken's Scott Kazmir struck out 18 while walking just 3 in 15.2 IP (1.72 ERA, 8.0 R/9); he got the win in his first start (8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K), but got a no-decision despite a strong effort in his second outing (7.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K) thanks to a blown save by the bullpen. Marietta's Francisco Liriano struck out 17 and walked 3 in 13.1 IP (1.35 ERA, 9.4 R/9) but also had just one win; in fact, he should've gone 1-1 this week, but he was the beneficiary of that blown save by Hoboken, as it got him off the hook for the loss... This week's other top starting pitchers: Honolulu's Jeff Francis (2-0, 3.31 ERA, 11.0 R/9, 3 BB, 10 K in 16.1 IP); Las Vegas's Oliver Perez (2-0, 1.20 ERA, 11.4 R/9, 4 BB, 16 K in 15.0 IP); New Jersey's Tom Gorzelanny (0-0, 1.69 ERA, 10.1 R/9, 1 BB, 14 K in 10.2 IP); Philly's Johan Santana (1-0, 2.00 ERA, 8.0 R/9, 7 BB, 19 K in 18.0 IP); and South Boston's Chuck James (2-0, 2.08 ERA, 11.1 R/9, 4 BB, 8 K in 13.0 IP).

A Big Week From Big Papi

The Ironfist didn't have a winning week, but you can't blame David Ortiz. The Dominican Shrek led the league in just about everything, hitting 7 home runs in just 29 at-bats (1.103 SLG!). In addition to HRs and SLG, Papi led the DMBL this week in runs scored (11), runs created (16.3), isolated power (.724), total bases (32), OPS (1.589) and AB/HR (4.1); he also hit .379 with 10 RBI to pick up the JRCigars.com Smokin' Batter of the Week Award. Ortiz's big week included 5 HRs in two games against Carolina. Despite his pitcher-pounding numbers, Ortiz didn't get an intentional walk all week -- even though he didn't get much protection from the other big bats in the lineup, notably Moises Alou (.143, .555 OPS) and Jason Bay (.267, .720 OPS). If they don't start hitting, the only good pitches Ortiz is likely to see will come in batting practice.

Outside of Vancouver, there were some nice one-two combinations, however, including Carolina's Travis Hafner (.370, 1.442 OPS, 4 HR, 10 R) and Grady Sizemore (.382, 3 2B, 7 R, 3 SB); Hoboken's Miguel Cabrera (.438, 1.063 OPS, 1 HR, 6 RBI) and Chris Duncan (.409, 1.318 OPS, 2 HR, 9 R, 8 RBI); Marietta's Ray Durham (.387, 1.231 OPS, 4 HR, 6 RBI) and Brian Giles (.368, 1.057 OPS, 4 2B, 5 R); Newark's Jim Edmonds (.579, 1.811 OPS, 3 HR, 5 RBI in 19 AB) and Chipper Jones (.345, 1.111 OPS, 3 HR, 6 RBI); and New Jersey's Yuniesky Betancourt (.536, 1.331 OPS, 6 R, 7 RBI) and Nomar Garciaparra (.333, 1.051 OPS, 3 HR, 11 RBI).

Love from the Glove

The boyish charm of David Eckstein has won him many fans in Philadelphia, including one fan he may have wanted to just "beat it." Michael Jackson came to visit the diminutive shortstop after a recent game and it turned out the two have quite a bit in common. "You wear a glove on one hand, I wear a glove on one hand," the King of Pop said.
"That's true," Eckstein said.
"You like to run, I like to (moon)walk," Jackson said.
"That's true," Eckstein agreed.
"You like to make little boys happy by hitting balls, and I like to make boys happy by--"
"I gotta go," Eckstein said.
Eckstein said he was so "skeeved" by the encounter that he's going to have to sit out a few weeks. "I have to take a lot of showers," he said.

Also this week, the Cutters' Geoff Jenkins went down with a, uh, "strained groin" sustained when he got a good look at Hoboken's #1 fan. "Holy smokes! I really like her uh, her T-shirt," Jenkins said. "Any idea where I get my hands on them? I mean, it?"

What's up with Scott Hatteberg? The veteran 1B/DH hasn't sniffed the post-season since 2001, yet he's blowing his chance to join Marietta during its run for a fifth straight playoff appearance. Hatteberg was signed to replace Jim Thome, but he's spent more time in the clubhouse nursing minor injuries than actually playing -- in the 10 games since Thome went down, Hatteberg has been available for just three of them, giving him just 10 plate appearances this year. "The Hat" says everything is going according to plan, however. "Look, right now, I'm hitting .300," Hatteberg said. "I don't want to jinx that by doing something stupid, like playing a whole game." Thome might be back at the end of the week.

Comings and Goings

It took exactly one appearance for Orlando Hernandez to wear out his welcome in D.C. El Duque, taken in the 10th round (#130 overall) of this year's draft, was bombed in his first game with the Bushslappers (5 ER, 8 H in 1.1 IP) and was promptly released. And when we say promptly, we mean it: Manager Kevin Elster walked out to the mound, called for a reliever, and then told Hernandez he'd been released. "They didn't even let me walk back to the dugout. I had to leave by climbing over the outfield wall and walking through the bleacher exit," Hernandez sobbed. He was replaced on the roster by 28-year-old reliever Josh Hancock... Meanwhile, Philly put David Eckstein on the D.L. and signed utility infielder Marco Scutaro.

This week's other two moves were the other side of the coin -- bringing players back home. The Cutters brought back catcher Damian Miller, whom they'd protected, but then cut. Miller lost his job in the bigs when the team drafted Josh Bard and Mike Napoli, but the 37-year-old veteran is expected to fulfill a "Crash Davis" role in the minors, working with talented phenom Matt Garza... The other player welcomed back was prodigal son Khalil Greene, who has been like the "bad boyfriend" owners always break up with, but just can't help themselves and always bring him back. The Mudcats drafted Greene as an ineligible prospect in the 7th round (#95 overall) of the 2004 draft, only to release him. Astoundingly, they then drafted him the following year with the 10th pick in the first round! Later that year, the Mudcats traded him to Philly, along with Ray Durham, for Rafael Furcal, Jose Vidro and an 8th round pick. Despite trading for him, however, Philly didn't protect him. He was then drafted the following year by Vancouver (8th round, #110), but they too released him. A month later, Philly signed him, kept him for the rest of the year -- and then didn't protect him again. This year, the Endzone Animals drafted him (14th round, #189), released him, and now have signed him again, replacing Jorge Cantu, who was released. (Oddly enough, Cantu may be following the same career path: He was selected by Philly with the 10th pick last year, but then not protected; they re-drafted him this year in the 12th round with the 161st pick, but now cut him. Is he the next DMBL "bad boy"? He can only hope!)