Week 14 - June 24, 2007

Elster For President

Another impressive week for the Landsman brothers and another losing week for the commish in an all-new edition of This Week in the DMBL!

The Newark Sugar Bears remain on top of the standings after winning four straight games to go 4-2 this week. The Sugar Bears have had two straight four-game winning streaks sandwiched around back-to-back losses, giving them 8 wins in their last 10 games. The Brick City Bombers have not only opened up a double-digit lead in the division race, but now have a 9-game lead for the best record in baseball after a disastrous week from the . Philadelphia Endzone Animals, who dropped six out of seven games. They're still leading the Morris Division (and still have the second-best record in baseball), but now have just a 2-game lead over the relentless D.C. Bushslappers, who went 5-1. Jamie Landsman's team has won four straight and 13 out of their last 15 games... And just three games behind the Bushslappers for third-place overall are the team owned by his big brother, David Landsman. After going 4-2 this week, and winning 12 out of their last 15, Matthew's Mighty Men of Marietta moved up one rung in the standings, from 5th to 4th... Falling a game behind the Mighty Men are the Honolulu Sharks, who went 3-4 -- including three straight losses -- to fall into 5th place... Jumping up from a tie for 7th into sole possession of 6th place are the Hoboken Cutters, who matched the Bushslappers for the league's best record this week by going 5-1.

The Vancouver Iron Fist continue to struggle, going 2-3. The Fisters, who haven't had a winning week since May 21, have fallen from 5th to 7th in just two weeks; they were challenging Philly for the division lead just a month ago... The Hillsborough Hired Hitmen went 3-2 to finally reach .500 and are now just a game behind the Fisters for 7th, and 1½ games behind Hoboken for the final playoff berth...  The Arkansas Golden Falcons also have been hot recently, winning four out of their six games this week to crawl back to within one game of .500 and a half-game of Hillsborough... The Carolina Mudcats held onto 10th place after going 3-2... New Jersey Team Buddah went 4-2 to reclaim 11th place, swapping places with the South Boston Gang, who went 2-5... The Sardine City Straphangers and Las Vegas Rat Pack continue to "battle" for last place and the best chance at the first overall pick in next year's draft. Each team went 1-5 this week, preserving Las Vegas's 1½ game lead for the league's worst record.

Ain't Ian Amazing?

The Cutters have reached the post-season just once, in the second season of their existence, when the made the big dance as the No. 4 seed after going 86-76. They followed it up with two bottom five finishes in '03 and '04, but the last two seasons just narrowly missed the playoffs, finishing in 7th place in '05 and just missing a three-way tie for 6th in '06. This off-season, many questioned whether Hoboken would go for it, or rebuild. So far, they've tried to do both, mixing youngsters and veterans in an attempt to be competitive today without mortgaging the future for tomorrow. For example, the shortstop duties are split between 23-year-old rookie Hanley Ramirez and 40-year-old veteran Omar Vizquel; the rotation includes a fireballing southpaw in 23-year-old Scott Kazmir and a "crafty left-hander" in 32-year-old Jarrod Washburn; and the bullpen workhorses are 25-year-old Adam Wainwright and 36-year-old Darren Oliver. But one of the team's less extreme tandems is found at second base, where 25-year-old Ian Kinsler platoons with 30-year-old Mark Ellis. So far this season, the two have put up similar batting averages (.261 for Ellis, .257 for Kinsler) and slugging percentages (.380 and .388, respectively), but OBP tells the story -- .382 for the veteran, .327 for the kid. The difference is even more impressive if you look at the splits -- Ellis has a .273, .881 OPS vs LHP, while Kinsler is just .267, .735 vs RHP.  And considering Ellis last year hit .287 with 25 2B, 13 HR and 102 R, it's no surprise many callers to sports talk radio are wondering why Ellis isn't getting more PT, and Kinsler grabbing more bench -- or even playing in Triple-A. But the rookie silenced his critics this week by making the most of his limited ABs, hitting an even .500 (6-for-12) with 1 2B and 3 HR -- good for 4 R and 8 RBI in just 14 plate appearances! (Ellis, on the other hand, went 1-for-11.) Had Kinsler enough plate appearances to qualify, he would have led the league in BA, SLG (1.333), OPS (1.905), RC/27 (31.9), isolated power (.833), total average (2.571), secondary average (1.000) and AB/HR (4.0). Even as a part-timer, he tied for 6th in RBIs, tied for 2nd in 3Bs, tied for 4th in HRs and was 7th in runs created (8.3), earning him the JRCigars.com Smokin' Batter of the Week Award. Hoboken Owner/GM Mark Hrywna proved prescient in drafting Kinsler as an ineligible prospect in the 9th round (#120 overall) of last year's draft and protecting him this off-season. "Who? Kinsler? Whoa... to tell you the truth I thought we had drafted Ian Kenny," Hrywna admitted. "Keep an eye on him, he's going to be a good one!"

Kinsler's vote totals were helped by two things -- Hoboken winning five-out-of-six games this week, and also the fact that several 1B/DH's had monster weeks, splitting the votes and allowing the middle infield rookie to sneak in and get a chance to puff on some cigars. The big bats were swung by Arkansas's Justin Morneau (.423, 1.329 OPS, 4 HR, 11 RBI), D.C.'s Frank Thomas (.350, 1.450 OPS, 4 HR, 8 RBI), Newark's Nick Johnson (.450, 1.393 OPS, 4 2B, 8 R) and Vancouver's David Ortiz (.389, 1.222 OPS, 2 HR, 4 RBI).

Master Nate

For the second straight week, the Bushslappers lost just one game, and for the second straight week, the Pitcher of the Week Award is being mailed to D.C. In fact, we noted last week that D.C.'s two-headed monster of Joe Nathan and Jonathan Papelbon has given the Slappers an unbelievable advantage at the end of games, and that point was made again this week as the two combined for a win and three saves this week. While Papelbon was very good -- 0 runs, 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4 in 4.2 innings -- Nathan was flat-out amazing, giving up just 2 hits (0 R, 0 BB) while striking out 11 in 6.1 innings, a 15.6 K/9 ratio! In fact, the whole D.C. bullpen was terrific this week, combining to give up just 1 earned run in 20.2 innings. By splitting the closer duties (each has 12 saves), it appears that neither Nathan nor Papelbon will factor into the Dennis Eckersley Rolaids Reliever of the Year race. But if D.C. can continue turning every game into a 7-inning contest, who cares? The Bushslappers would be just as happy with a post-season berth -- if not the Morris Division crown -- and the Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest Pitcher of the Week Award.

Nathan's toughest competition among starting pitchers may have come from his own team. This week's only two-game winner was D.C.'s Anibal Sanchez, who gave up just 4 earned runs on 14 hits and 6 walks while striking out 10 in 13.2 IP (2.63 ERA, 13.8 R/9). But it wouldn't have seemed fair to give the award to Sanchez when Nathan bailed him out in his biggest win of the week. In the 7th inning of a 3-1 game against division-leading Philly, Sanchez gave up a two-out walk to Reed Johnson, bringing the tying run to the plate in the person of Jimmy Rollins. But Nathan came on in relief, got Rollins to bounce out to second to end the inning, and blanked the Animals over the next two frames to pick up the save and preserve the win.

Feeling Better

Between the off days around the All-Star Break and some good luck, almost every team is back to full strength. The only player on the injury report now is Philly third baseman Scott Rolen, who is expected to return later this week. Honolulu manager Gary Carter said he's never seen anything like it. "There's only one guy hurt? In the whole league? That's crazy! I definitely have some nominations. Maybe I can take a bat to Ryan Freel (.218 BA, .600 OPS in 252 AB)? Or how about Tom Gordon (6.00 ERA, 16.1 R/9, 8 BS)?"

Comings and Goings

There's less than a month before the Trade Deadline (July 15 at midnight) -- which also is the deadline for picking up free agents who are eligible to be protected this off-season. So it's no surprise lots of teams are already hard at work, looking to tuck away some potential keepers before the deadline.

First, there were several waiver wire claims. Las Vegas dropped Randy Wolf, who quickly found a new lair as he signed with Arkansas. Arkansas later dropped Aaron Hill, but he too soon found work, with the Endzone Animals. And to fit him on the roster, Philly dropped Casey Blake -- who was promptly claimed by the Sugar Bears.

Next came the players dropped because of D.L. activations. Vancouver got back Brian Sweeney and dumped Kevin Correia; Sardine City welcomed back Cole Hamels and dropped Jon Lieber.

Now for the run-of-the-mill transactions. Arkansas cut Jose Cruz Jr. and Jorge Julio signed veterans Craig Biggio and Bernie Williams. Carolina swapped out Mark Grudzielanek and replaced him with David Eckstein. Hoboken gave up on prospect Jacoby Ellsbury and signed David Riske. Hillsborough dumped Bartolo Colon for Matt Guerrier. Las Vegas dropped Shawn Green and brought aboard Damaso Marte and Derrick Turnbow; but then they almost immediately got rid of Marte for Carlos Marmol. And Philly released Todd Walker and signed Jeff DaVanon.

TWIB may have Ozzie Smith, but we have the better Smith! Zane Smith, former pitcher for the San Antonio Slingers and Sacramento Seahawks, now writes this column exclusively for the Diamond Mind Baseball League. Click Here for past articles.