Week 3 - April 9, 2007

Swimming With The Sharks

The preseason sims were high on the Honolulu Sharks, predicting last year's last-place team would rebound all the way to the playoffs this year. But so far, the Sharks appeared dead in the water, unable to climb above .500 for the first two weeks. This week, however, they went 6-1 -- including an active six-game winning streak -- to jump from a four-way tie for 6th place overall into sole possession of 4th place -- and just 2 games behind the Hanover Division-leading Newark Sugar Bears, who went 5-3... No team could keep up with the Sharks, but Matthew's Mighty Men of Marietta are now all alone in 6th place after a respectable 5-2 week, a half-game ahead of the Hoboken Cutters, who went 4-2. The Sardine City Straphangers could only manage a .500 record in their six games this week, but that was good enough to jump from last in the division, and 12th overall, to 5th and 9th, respectively. That's because New Jersey Team Buddah dropped six out of eight and the Las Vegas Rat Pack dropped five out of six.

The top of the Morris continues to be a slugfest between the Philadelphia Endzone Animals and Arkansas Golden Falcons. This week, Philly regained the lead by going 5-2 -- including four straight wins -- moving a half-game ahead of Arkansas, who went 4-2... The Vancouver Ironfist went 4-4, but that was enough to hold onto 5th place overall; the team they were tied with last week, the Hillsborough Hired Hitmen, dropped five out of seven games to fall all the way to .500... The South Boston Gang also moved a couple rungs up the ladder thanks to a 4-3 record... Plummeting from 6th place overall into a tie for 12th with New Jersey are the Carolina Mudcats, who were a league worst 1-7 this week. They're now just a game ahead of the last-place D.C. Bushslappers, who went 3-4 -- which was, unfortunately, their best weekly performance this year.

Twelve From Teahen

The Sugar Bears scored 84 runs this week. That was 7 more runs than was scored by the Ironfist, Rat Pack and Bushslappers -- combined. Exactly half those runs came courtesy of two games against not only the same team, but the same pitcher -- a 28-8 beatdown of Jason Jennings on Monday, followed by a 14-4 drubbing on Saturday afternoon. Before running into the Crunch With Punch, Jennings had an ERA of 3.79 -- now it's 12.08. But remember, that was just half their runs -- they beat up on other teams as well. The numbers are ridiculous: Jim Edmonds hit .625 with a .667 OBP  and 1.250 SLG with 3 HR and 11 RBI in just 18 plate appearances. Chipper Jones hit an even .500 (1.869 OPS) with 4 HR and 14.2 runs created. And Nick Johnson hit .400 (1.263 OPS) with 4 HR and 14 runs scored. In fact, as a team, they hit .361 with a .443 OBP and .672 SLG -- roughly the same numbers as your typical JRCigars.com Smokin' Batter of the Week candidate -- so you can take your pick as to who will be puffing on those Montecristos this week. So we polled 100 Sugar Bear fans and the overwhelming choice was Mark Teahen, who hit .419 (1.164 OPS) with 1 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR and a league-leading 12 RBIs. The 25-year-old third baseman is off to a great start, leading the league in batting average (.410), on-base percentage (.483), RC/27 outs (15.1) and total average (1.396), and ranking second in OPS (1.188). However, contrary to previous reports, he is not a rookie as he had eligibility last year but sat out the season. So there will be no Listach in Teahen's future, but in his present, he can enjoy some high-quality stogies courtesy of JRCigars.com. "JRCigars.com, the ONLY address you need for buying cigars on the web."

The Sugar Bears weren't the only offense hitting on all cylinders this week. In fact, outside of the Jennings massacre, the Sugar Bears scored "only" 7.0 runs per game, which ranked second behind Marietta's 7.7 rpg (54 runs in 7 games). But while the Sugar Bears spread their offense around, with an astounding nine batters posting at least a .300 BA/1.000 OPS, the Mighty Men had just three batters accomplish that feat. In fact, those three players -- Matt Diaz, Todd Helton and Jorge Posada -- accounted for nearly three-quarters of the team's runs created this week. Diaz hit .531 (1.306 OPS) with 11 RBI, despite not hitting a home run; Helton hit .500 (1.379 OPS) with 2 HR and 9 R; and Posada hit .462 (1.440 OPS) with 3 HR and 7 RBI.

This week's top batters not on Newark or Marietta: Arkansas's Justin Morneau (.391, 1.152 OPS, 2 HR, 5 R); Carolina's Travis Hafner (.313, 1.177 OPS, 5 HR, 8 RBI); D.C.'s Carl Crawford (.414, 1.038 OPS, 2 3B, 4 SB); Hillsborough's Ryan Howard (.333, 1.305 OPS, 5 HR, 8 RBI); Hoboken's Miguel Cabrera (.455, 1.156 OPS, league-high 16 game htiting streak); Honolulu's Frank Catalanotto (.625, 1.460 OPS, 3 2B, 5 R in 16 AB); Las Vegas's Joe Mauer (.480, 1.100 OPS, 3 2B, 4 R); Philly's Adam LaRoche (.385, 1.121 OPS, 2 HR, 6 RBI); and South Boston's Dave Roberts (.469, 1.059 OPS, 11 R, 2 SB).

Captain Jean-Luc Bedard

Remember how the Sugar Bears scored 84 runs this week? Well, the Endzone Animals have given up 84 runs -- this year! Philly's league-best pitching staff has a team ERA of just 2.99, almost a full run better than the Mighty Men. (Who, it should be noted, rank second in both pitching and hitting!) The Animals also have the lowest R/9 and OPS allowed of any team in baseball, and lead the league in both quality starts and save percentage. That's just not fair! The bullpen was exceptional this week, with David Aardsma, Scott Proctor, J.J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez all combining to give up 0 R, 5 H, 3 BB and 12 K in 8.0 IP. But the top hurler was starter Erik Bedard, who pitched 13.0 innings and gave up just one little old run for a microscopic 0.69 ERA. In his two starts, Bedard allowed just 9 hits and 2 walks while striking out 12 for a 7.6 R/9, but he got just one win to show for it as his opponent, D.C.'s Kelvin Escobar, matched him 0 for 0 on the scoreboard. (The Animals finally won it, 1-0, on a 10th inning double by Scott Rolen.) Bedard's two terrific outings earned him The Easter Bunny Hates You Pitcher of the Week Award. The 28-year-old lefty struggled in his first two seasons in the DMBL (5-19, 7.27 ERA in 43 career starts), but is finally off to the kind of start that made him an 8th round pick in both the 2005 and 2006 drafts. On the season, Bedard is 3-0 with a 1.47 ERA and 10.6 R/9, and is tied for the league lead in quality starts (4) and quality start percentage (.800).

This week's other top starting pitchers: Carolina's Clay Hensley (1-0, 1.32 ERA, 10.5 R/9, 6 BB, 14 K in 13.2 IP); D.C.'s John Maine (2-0, 2.51 ERA, 9.2 R/9, 3 BB, 13 K in 14.1 IP); Honolulu's Jered Weaver (1-0, 1.00 ERA, 6.0 R/9, 0 BB, 7 K in 9.0 IP); Marietta's Jeremy Sowers (1-0, 1.38 ERA, 11.1 R/9, 2 BB, 10 K in 13.0 IP); Newark's Javier Vazquez (1-0, 3.86 ERA, 10.3 R/9, 0 BB, 16 K in 14.0 IP); Sardine City's Adam Loewen (2-0, 3.46 ERA, 9.7 R/9, 6 BB, 12 K in 13.0 IP); and Vancouver's Rich Hill (2-0, 3.75 ERA, 10.5 R/9, 5 BB, 15 K in 12.0 IP).

Honolulu's Tom Gordon was off to a rough start this year but jumped onto the leaderboard after a league-high four saves this week (0 R, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 K in 4.2 IP). The lefty-righty tandem of Geoff Geary and Mike Myers did a terrific job setting him up, combining to give up 0 R, 3 H and 4 BB in 7.0 IP. Geary also vultured 2 wins... This week's other top relievers: Arkansas's Justin Duchscherer (3 SV, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 3 K in 3.1 IP); Carolina's Brian Fuentes (1 SV, 0 R, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 K in 6.0 IP); Marietta's Rafael Betancourt (1 W, 1 SV, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 4 K in 5.1 IP); Newark's Ruddy Lugo (0 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 0 K in 7.2 IP); South Boston's Brandon League (2 W, 0 R, 6 H, 1 BB, 6 K in 8.2 IP) and Huston Street (3 SV, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 5 K in 4.1 IP); Sardine City's Akinori Otsuka (2 SV, 0 R, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K in 2.0 IP) and Vancouver's Billy Wagner (1 W, 2 SV, 0 ER, 1 H, 4 BB, 5 K in 4.0 IP).

Rockin' in Marietta

It was a relatively quiet week on the injury front, with most players missing just a handful of games. The most serious injury befell Marietta's Derek Jeter, who will be out about a week after spraining his thumb playing Guitar Hero. "I can't help it, man. I gotta rock," Jeter said, before launching into a kick-ass version of The Ocean. While Jeter is out, the fans can expect a heavy dose of Tony Graffanino. But while the Nino is hitting just .256 on the season, that's actually better than Jeter's .243, and they have almost the same OPS (.608 to .615) -- all this while Graffanino has a .971 fielding percentage to Jeter's .957. But the captain shrugged off any talk of a shortstop controversy. "I'm going to get my Led Zep on and then I'm going to step right back into the lineup. I'm not afraid of Graffie. Now, if Nick Punto was still here? No doubt, I'd be on the bench."

Also this week, Hoboken's Mike Jacobs, Newark's Bobby Abreu and Arkansas's Aaron Hill all missed a few games to various aches and pains. Of the three, only Hill is expected to miss an extended amount of time, as Arkansas put him on the Disabled List despite estimates from team trainers that he'd miss six games at most. "Yeah, well, we won't be missing him," said manager George Brett of Hill's .257 BA, .588 OPS and 2:13 BB:K ratio.

Comings and Goings

Jeter's injury hurts, but at least the Mighty Men welcomed back Jim Thome, who went down in Week 1 and has already missed 19 games this season. Thome, hitting .438 (1.884 OPS) with 4 HR in just 5 games, said there was no way he was going to miss Wednesday's game against Newark. The former Sugar Bear has never faced his old team before. To make room for Thome, the Mites bid good riddance to Scott Hatteberg -- though he hit a respectable .270, it was pretty empty (.351 SLG). In fact, Hatteberg wasn't available in nine of the 19 games he was with the team.

This week's other moves: New Jersey activated SP Jake Westbrook and released SP Livan Hernandez; Hillsborough cut infielder Julio Lugo and signed outfielder Endy Chavez; Arkansas put Hill on the D.L. and signed 2B Jose Valentin.