Week 6 - May 1, 2006

Got a Quarter?

The first quarter of the 2006 season is in the books! It seems hard to believe but almost every team has already played 40 games.

The Carolina Mudcats roared back into a tie for the Morris Division lead and 2nd place overall after a league-best 6-1 week. Carolina got a lot of love from the preseason sims, which projected them as a lock for the playoffs, if not the best record in baseball. But the Mudcats got off to a sluggish start, hovering around the middle of the pack for the past two weeks until this week's break-out performance. The Vancouver Ironfist managed to hang on for a tie for the division lead after going 5-3... The Arkansas Golden Falcons held onto 3rd place in the division after a second straight 4-3 week, while the Philadelphia Endzone Animals continued to tread water with a .500 week... Just a half-game out of the division lead last week, the Hillsborough Hired Hitmen flipped places with the Mudcats, falling into a tie for 7th place overall after a 3-5 week... The D.C. Bushslappers keep sinking after dropping 4 out of 6. They're now just 2 games ahead of the South Boston Gang, which crawled out of last place overall after going 6-2. They're now riding a league-high six-game winning streak.

Over in the Hanover Division, the Newark Sugar Bears broke out of their tie for the league lead after winning 5 out of 7 games to move to 15 games over .500. The Las Vegas Rat Pack couldn't keep up that pace, slipping to 2nd in the division and overall after splitting their eight games this week... The Hoboken Cutters dropped from 3rd overall to 5th after a 2-4 week... The Phoenix Dragons are just a game under .500 after going 5-3.. The Marietta Mighty Men fell all the way to 10th place after going 1-6 this week. But at least they ended their six-game losing streak with a win Sunday... The Honolulu Sharks floated to within a half-game of Marietta despite a 3-5 week, while the Westwood Deductions fell to last place overall after a 2-6 week.

Get Crunching! Miss anything from the first six weeks of the season? Get caught up with an all-new edition of Number Crunch, where Cecil Fielder breaks down who was lucky and who was good over the first quarter. Plus an in-depth look at home field advantage, left/right splits and more.

Mulder Magic

Honolulu's Mark Mulder almost achieved baseball immortality as he came within one out of a no-hitter in his only start this week. Mulder, pitching against the vaunted Hillsborough lineup, took the no-no two outs into the 9th inning, retiring Robinson Cano and Adam Dunn on easy ground-outs to second. But Carlos Delgado jumped on the first pitch he saw from the exhausted hurler, taking a change-up the other way for a clean single between short and third. Mulder, after 134 pitches, was clearly out of gas and the outcome of the game was still very much in doubt as Hillsborough's Cliff Lee had thrown a brilliant game of his own, scattering five hits and no walks while allowing just one run. With the score 1-0, the tying run on first and the winning run at the plate represented by none other than Alex Rodriguez, Honolulu manager Gary Carter felt he had no choice but to pull Mulder for closer Derrick Turnbow. Mulder said he'd have done the same thing. "I would've loved to see finish it and get the shutout at least, but getting the W always comes first," he said. Turnbow almost got Carter run out of town when he fell behind A-Rod 2-0, then watched as he launched a rocket into left field. But Brad Wilkerson raced back and made a sensational diving catch on the warning track to silence the second guessing and preserve the hard-fought victory. Though he didn't get the no-no, Mulder may take some solace in the Dancing Bush Pitcher of the Week Award.

Carolina's Andy Pettitte also threw a one-hitter this week, and he in fact went all the way for the shutout. But his performance was considerably less pressure-packed than Mulder's: His team scored him 14 runs, he was pitching against the woeful Deductions, and his no-no was broken up in the 4th inning. Pettitte also pitched great in his other start this week, leaving him with an impressive 2.16 ERA, 5.9 R/9, 3 BB and 12 K in 16.2 IP. Since Mulder only had one start this week, some would say Pettitte was more deserving of the weekly pitching honors. But Philly's Doug Davis may have had the best week of all: He threw a three-hit shutout, also against the Hired Hitmen, followed by a 5-2 win over Marietta. His final numbers for the week: 1.06 ERA, 6.9 R/9, 2 BB, 15 K in 17.0 IP... d his stat line was even better than Pettitte's. This week's other two-start winners were Hillsborough's Bartolo Colon (2-0, 1.76 ERA, 8.8 R/9, 6 BB, 10 K in 15.1 IP) and Newark's John Smoltz (2-0, 1.17 ERA, 10.0 R/9, 2 BB, 7 K in 15.1 IP).

You know it's going to be a weird week when Mariano Rivera doesn't have a save, but Roger Clemens does. Arkansas's ace notched his save -- the first in a career that has spanned 15 years and 390 games -- in a wild 11-inning game against Las Vegas, a day after a 14-inning game depleted the bullpen. Meanwhile, Marietta's Mo was handed his first loss and first blown save this week, but that did little to derail his first quarter march toward the Dennis Eckersley Award as the Rolaids Reliever of the Year. Rivera, who won the Eck in 2001, has a comfortable lead in both saves and relief points (2 points for a save or win, -1 point for a loss or blown save). Honolulu's Derrick Turnbow claimed second place after tying for the league lead this week with two saves (0 R, 0 H, 2 BB, 4 K in 4.1 IP).

Relief Points Standings - May 1
Reliever	ERA	W	SV	L	BS	Pts
M.Rivera,MAR	0.99	2	12	1	1	26
Turnbow,HON	2.86	1	10	2	0	20
Rhodes, LV	1.00	3	7	0	1	19
F.Rodriguez,PHI	5.70	1	9	2	2	16
Isringhausen,HBK	1.00	1	8	1	1	16
B.Wagner,VAN	2.35	0	9	2	1	15
C.Cordero,HIL	4.11	0	7	1	0	13
Lidge, ARK	3.60	0	7	2	1	11
Shields, NWK	1.80	3	4	0	3	11
A.Reyes, CAR	3.18	2	3	0	0	10

The league lead in vulture wins is shared by Marietta's Trevor Hoffman (4-0) and Hoboken's Dustin Hermanson (4-1), followed by Las Vegas's Arthur Rhodes (3-0), Newark's Scot Shields (3-0) and Brian Shackelford (3-1), Philly's Justin Speier (3-2), Arkansas's Fernando Rodney (3-3) and Honolulu's Gary Majewski (3-3).

The General Lee

The Deductions have the worst record in baseball and one of the league's weakest offenses -- despite having one of its best hitters. Derrek Lee won his second OmahaSteaks.com Batter of the Week Award on the young season after leading the league in just about everything this week -- on-base percentage (.559), slugging percentage (1.296), OPS (1.855), home runs (6), runs created (20.3), RC/27 (36.5), secondary average (1.037), isolated power (.815), AB/HR (4.5), extra base hits (10), total bases (35), total average (2.929) and intentional walks (3). He also tied for 1st in RBIs (11) and was 2nd in batting average (.481), tied for 2nd in hits (13), tied for 3rd in doubles (4) and walks (6), and tied for 5th in runs (8). Now that's a week worthy of some steaks! But it's all the more incredible when you consider, despite Lee's awesome week, the team hit just .207 with a .659 OPS! (If you take him out of the equation, the Deductions hit just .175 with a .477 OPS.) Lee also won the BotW Award in the first week of the year, making him the first repeat winner of the 2006. On the season, Lee is hitting .354 (1.087 OPS) with 14 2B, 13 HR, 35 R and 38 RBI, but amazingly, had just one intentional walk before this week. We'll see what happens now that pitchers have figured out they don't have to fear anyone else in the Ducks' lineup.

The runner-up to Lee was Vancouver's Moises Alou (.517, 1.487 OPS, 3 HR, 10 R, 11 RBI), but strong weeks from the other Fisters split the Canadian vote: Eric Chavez (.450, 1.150 OPS, 5 2B, 5 R), David Ortiz (.400, 1.380 OPS, 4 HR, 7 RBI), Jeff Kent (.387, 1.102 OPS, 5 2B, 9 R) and Victor Martinez (.382, 1.005 OPS, 2 HR, 11 RBI) all helped lead Vancouver to a league-high 64 runs this week.

This week's other top performers: Arkansas's David Wright (.308, 1.245 OPS, 3 HR, 9 RBI); Carolina's Travis Hafner (.367, 1.254 OPS, 4 HR, 10 R); Honolulu's Jason Giambi (.417, 1.474 OPS, 4 HR, 8 RBI); Las Vegas's Mark Teixeira (.344, 1.294 OPS, 4 HR, 10 RBI); Philly's Albert Pujols (.364, 1.207 OPS, 4 HR, 10 RBI); Phoenix's Javy Lopez (.435, 1.197 OPS, 2 HR, 3 RBI) and South Boston's Hank Blank (.357, 1.026 OPS, 3 2B, 5 R).

Sweenily Ever After

Vetting Some Veterans

Many veteran players who sign minor league contracts have a clause stating if they're not with the big league club by May 1, they can demand their release. Apparently some general managers decided the week before the deadline was a good time for a pre-emptive strike. Released this week were Las Vegas's Chris Hammond, Newark's Frank Thomas and Philly's Carl Pavano and Dmitri Young. "We'd hoped that Big Hurt would be a part of our team in '06, but our doctors feel he's still a few months away with that ankle injury," Newark GM Craig "Butch" Garretson said. "We figured we'd release him now and give him a chance to catch on with some other club during the stretch drive."

Philly filled in its roster openings with pitcher Mike Maroth and first baseman Ben Broussard; Newark added Craig Counsell; and Las Vegas picked up Kyle Davies. Other additions this week were Abraham Nunez to Arkansas and Joaquin Benoit to Hoboken.