Week 15 - July 13, 2008

Streaking Ahead

The Vancouver Iron Fist are running away with the Morris Division lead; now they have their sights set on the Commissioner's Cup. For a second straight week, the Iron Fist posted the league's best record, winning seven out of eight. Over the last two weeks they've gone 13-2, and that span included an 11-game winning streak that came to an end Sunday. (More on that later.) That puts them a whopping 7 games up in the division, and just 4 games out of the league's best record behind the Newark Sugar Bears. The Crunch With Punch went 6-4 this week, which was good enough to gain a little ground on the suddenly slumping Las Vegas Rat Pack, who went 2-6. The Rats hadn't lost two games in a row since June 5-6 -- now they've lost seven out of their last nine. They're now tied with Vancouver for the league's second-best record... The Philadelphia Endzone Animals went 5-4 this week and appear to have settled into 4th place -- they're 7 behind Vancouver and 8½ ahead of the D.C. Bushslappers, who went 4-4 to hold onto 5th place.

The race for 6th place is starting to shake itself out, as the Hillsborough Hired Hitmen had another strong week, winning six out of nine. The Hitmen are now closer to 5th place (2 games) than to 7th (3)... The real battle is in the vast no man's land between playoff hopeful and last place. The Tampa Bay Plunkers continue to hang onto 8th place, going 5-3 to remain in 7th place, but the Carolina Mudcats are lurking just behind them. The Mudcats jumped up one spot in the standings to 8th place after winning 6 out of 8 this week, and are now 1½ games behind Tampa Bay and 4½ out of the post-season... The Sardine City Straphangers also moved up one spot in the standings, claiming 9th place after going 6-3 this week. They're 1½ games behind the 'Cats... The big loser in all this? The Blue Ridge Bombers, who went 3-6 to fall from 8th place to 10th, a half-game behind the Hangmen and 6½ games behind Hillsborough.

The Arkansas Golden Falcons hung onto 11th place after going 6-4. Is it time to start thinking about next year? They're last in the Morris Division and 8 games behind Hillsborough. But for the last couple years the Falcs have roared back into post-season contention with a furious effort over the last couple months... Despite going 2-7, the Hoboken Cutters are still in 12th place, a half-game ahead of New Jersey Team Buddah, who went 3-6. The Cutters are 12 games out of that final playoff berth, while New Jersey is 12½... Bringing up the rear again are Matthew's Mighty Men of Marietta, who lost all eight of their games this week and nine in a row overall. The Mites now have a four-game "lead" on the league's worst record.

The Week Ahead: World Series preview? The two division leaders battle it out with a three-game series, Vancouver at Newark. The week ends with the flipside as the two teams at the bottom of the divisions, Arkansas and Marietta, meet in Georgia. Meanwhile, Sardine City has a chance to get back into the wildcard race as they host the Hired Hitmen in the Cannery.

Freaks For Streaks

This year's longest winning streak to date came to an end in Game 1 of Sunday's doubleheader, and in a most unexpected way. The Vancouver Iron Fist came up short in their bid to win a 12th straight game -- which would have tied with two other teams for the fourth-longest in league history -- as they were stopped by the league's second-worst team. New Jersey Team Buddah beat the Iron Fist, in Vancouver, 4-2 in 10 innings. The Buddahs jumped out to a quick lead on a two-run triple by David DeJesus in the first inning, but the Fisters tied it up in the bottom of the second courtesy of back-to-back errors. Then New Jersey's Oliver Perez -- who came into the game with a 3-10 record and a 5.43 ERA -- held the powerful Iron Fist lineup silent for the next five innings. The bullpen held on and eventually the Buddah bats came through in the 10th, with solo home runs by Adam LaRoche and Jhonny Peralta. The Fisters got the winning run aboard in the bottom of the 10th, with the bases loaded and just one out, but then Michael Wuertz struck out Mike Lowell and Todd Helton to deny Vancouver its shot at the record books. Naturally, the Fisters went on to win Game 2 in easy fashion, 7-2.

But there is one streak still alive. The Marietta Mighty Men have now lost nine in a row, including both ends of Sunday's doubleheader to the sibling rival D.C. Bushslappers. The nine-game slide is tied for the second-longest losing streak of the year and is two games behind Sardine City's 11-game swoon in April. The Mites have a long way to go before reaching the 19-game record set in 1999 by the Columbia Crusaders, but four more losses by the Mighty Men would tie two other teams for the fourth-longest losing streak at 13 in a row.

2008's Longest Streaks
Team	Type	Games	Start	End
Vancouver	W	11	7/7	7/18
Sardine City	L	11	4/15	4/27
Las Vegas	W	10	3/23	4/3
Marietta	L	9+	7/11	?
Newark	W	9	6/27	7/5
Las Vegas	W	9	6/21	7/4
Philly	W	9	6/3	6/12
Vancouver	W	9	5/7	5/15
New Jersey	L	9	3/24	4/4

Five teams have had streaks this year of eight or more games. D.C. (4/9-4/16) and Hoboken (6/7-6/14) had eight straight losses, while Philly (4/1-4/9), Las Vegas (4/17-4/25) and Vancouver (4/21-4/28) had eight straight wins. There also have been five seven-game streaks, including a seven-game loss streak by Tampa Bay that ended last week.

Alexander the Great

How'd you like to do your job with your eventual replacement sitting next to you -- and his replacement sitting next to him? That's the situation in Arkansas, where Alex Rodriguez shares the roster with David Wright and Kevin Kouzmanoff, the franchise's next two third basemen. But the way A-Rod has been playing, they might be waiting a very long time. (And remember, Rodriguez is only 32 years old.) In nine games this week, A-Rod hit a ridiculous .630 -- 17 for 27 -- with a .714 OBP and a 1.333 SLG, for an astonishing 2.048 OPS. A-Rod's 17 hits included 4 doubles and 5 home runs, for 9 runs and 9 RBIs -- including three game-winning RBIs, in a week when the Falcs won six games. Rodriguez led the league in BA, OBP, SLG, OPS, total bases (36), runs created (23.8), RC/27 (49.4), isolated power (.704), total average (3.385) and AB/HR (5.4), and he tied for the league lead in HRs and extra base hits. The future DMBL Hall of Famer is having another brilliant season, hitting .294 (.414 OBP, .584 SLG) with 23 HR and 57 RBI. Wright -- who is occupying the DH slot -- is having a pretty god year himself, hitting .301 with a .363 OBP and .510 SLG (23 HR, 67 RBI). And what of the Kouz? He's getting at-bats where he can find them, and hitting .302 with a solid .338 OBP and .437 SLG in 126 ABs. So what to do with three third basemen? "It's a good problem to have," manager George Brett said. "I'd rather have too many than not enough!" We'll let the Falcons sort out the future of their third base situation, but for this week, our choice is A-Rod as the JRCigars.com Smokin' Batter of the Week.

It was a pretty good week for third basemen, as Carolina's Aramis Ramirez hit .433 (1.400 OPS) with 4 HR and 13 RBI and Hoboken's Miguel Cabrera hit .323 (1.115 OPS) with 4 HR and 8 RBI. Even Wright, A-Rod's understudy, got in on the act as a DH, hitting .366 with a 1.081 OPS, 4 HR and 6 RBI.

This week's top batters from the other positions: D.C.'s Carlos Beltran (.438, 1.361 OPS, 4 HR, 11 RBI); Tampa Bay's Torii Hunter (.387, 1.263 OPS, 4 HR, 6 RBI); Newark's Hideki Matsui (.333, 1.026 OPS, 4 2B, 8 R); Philly's Magglio Ordonez (.450, 1.290 OPS, 3 HR, 8 RBI); Sardine City's Raul Ibanez (.387, 1.026 OPS, 3 2B, 4 RBI); and Vancouver's David Ortiz (.440, 1.632 OPS, 4 HR, 10 RBI).

Harang 'Em High

Blue Ridge and Tampa Bay aren't supposed to be thinking about the playoffs this year. First-year franchises, for the most part, get stomped into the ground until their rebuilding efforts bear fruit. But for the first couple months of the season, these two inaugural franchises appeared to be impatient as they battled for wildcard spots. A June swoon sent both into the cellar, but recently they've each been making a little noise -- and considering it may take just a .500 record to claim the 6th seed, it's still in reach for either team. Blue Ridge's Aaron Harang took the team a step forward as he reached the .500 mark himself on the season by winning two starts this week against last year's newbie teams. First Harang went into New Jersey and went the distance against the Buddahs, allowing just 4 hits and no walks (1 ER) while striking out 8. In his next start, he held the Straphangers scoreless for seven innings, allowing just 4 H and 2 BB while fanning 9. Add it up and he went 2-0 with an 0.56 ERA and 6.2 R/9 (2 BB, 17 K) in 16.0 IP... Hillsborough's John Lackey also had a great week, going 2-0 with an 0.64 ERA and 9.6 R/9 (3 BB, 12 K in 14.0 IP).had a dominant week, allowing just 1 ER in 14.0 IP to win both his starts -- though to be fair, he faced the league's two weakest teams. First Lackey faced the Mighty Men, and over 7 innings he allowed just 1 ER on 8 H and 2 BB while striking out 6. Later, he took on New Jersey and again went 7, allowing no runs and just 3 hits and 1 walk while striking out 6. It adds up to an 0.64 ERA and 9.6 R/9 -- impressive numbers no matter what the competition, and it earned Harang our Scared of Santa Pitcher of the Week Award.

This week's other top starters: Arkansas's Curt Schilling (2-0, 3.65 ERA, 10.2 R/9, 2 BB, 9 K in 12.1 IP); Newark's Javier Vazquez (2-0, 3.38 ERA, 11.5 R/9, 3 BB, 15 K in 13.1 IP); and Sardine City's Fausto Carmona (2-0, 2.93 ERA, 8.8 R/9, 3 BB, 5 K in 15.1 IP).

It may not rank up there with Deion Sanders's 62 triples, Greg Maddux's 20 complete games or Rob Deer's 357 strikeouts when it comes to the league's most unassailable single-season records, but it has stood the test of time: Jeff Zimmerman's 16 relief wins for Vancouver in 2000. The following year, Stanhope's Ray King had 15 relief wins, but since then no one has come close. This week, Matt Herges came out of nowhere to move halfway to the record by picking up 3 wins in 4 appearances for the Iron Fist. Herges didn't allow a run as he scattered 5 hits and 2 walks with 6 Ks over 9.0 IP. The 3 wins gives him the league lead with 8 on the season -- not bad considering he has yet to pick up a loss or a blown save. He also has 5 holds. Another couple weeks like this one and Herges will be as well known as Zimmerman... Carolina's Chris Schroder also picked up 3 wins this week, giving up just 1 ER on 6 H and 2 BB (with 6 Ks) in 6.0 IP. Teammate Ryan Franklin also was impressive, earning 2 wins and 1 save (2 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 1 K in 6.1 IP). Those two relievers accounted for all but one of the Mudcats' wins this week... This week's other top relievers: D.C.'s Jonathan Papelbon (2 SV, 0 R, 2 H, 2 BB, 4 K in 3.2 IP); Las Vegas's Carlos Marmol (1 W, 1 SV, 0 R, 2 H, 3 BB, 6 K in 7.0 IP); Newark's Jared Burton (2 W, 0 R, 3 H, 2 BB, 3 K in 5.1 IP); Philly's J.J. Putz (1 SV, 0 R, 4 H, 3 BB, 8 K in 6.2 IP); and Sardine City's Matt Capps (4 SV, 0 R, 5 H, 2 BB, 5 K in 6.0 IP).

Starting Trouble In Newark

Newark may have the league's best record at the moment, but that may change over the next few weeks as two-fifths of their starting rotation is on the D.L. Last week, the Sugar Bears lost young right-hander James Shields for at least two weeks; now there's word that veteran left-hander Randy Johnson will miss up to a month. Oddly enough, both players went down with severe food poisoning, although team docs think it's a coincidence. The Sugar Bears, as usual, turned to their recent franchise history and quickly signed former phenom Dave Bush to take Johnson's spot. Bush will likely only get one or two starts at most until Shields comes back, so the bigger beneficiary here is Joe Saunders, another member of the Sugar Bears' frequent flier program. Saunders had been signed earlier this year to provide depth in Triple-A, but now he's likely to see six or seven more starts in the bigs. "When you're the 'sixth man', there's really nothing you can do but wait and watch and maybe put something in someone's coffee when they're not looking. What?"

It was a tough week for infielders as three went down: Tampa Bay's Jack Wilson, Vancouver's Chase Utley, and Marietta's Edwin Encarnacion. Of the three, Double-E has the least serious injury -- he reportedly bit the inside of his cheek while chewing gum. It may sound minor, but Encarnacion may wind up on the D.L. anyway. "It really hurts," he whined.

Reliever Swap Meet!

There's just one week to go before the trading deadline (Sunday, July 20). Two more trades were made this week, both involving exchanges of relievers.

First up, on Monday, the Pucci Brothers pulled off a trade. In a classic rebuilding trade, the 8th place Mudcats shipped relievers Bobby Seay and Justin Speier, plus a 10th rounder, to 4th place Philly for reliever David Weathers, outfielder Xavier Nady and an 11th round pick. The Mudcats are just 4½ games out of the post-season but are clearly thinking about next year as they shipped off their best reliever in Speier (3.15 ERA, 8.4 R/9, 16 BB, 60 K in 65.2 IP) plus a useful lefty in Seay (3.78 ERA, 13.5 R/9). The new arms will bolster the Animals bullpen and they didn't give up much -- the 38-year-old Weathers is just a roster filler (5.76 ERA, 13.3 R/9) and Nady has been just about useless to the Endzone Animals this season as a bench player (.227 BA, 620 OPS in 66 AB). But that's just for this season. Next year, the 29-year-old Nady could be a big part of the Mudcats' plans (.321 BA, .902 OPS in 305 MLB AB), while Seay and Speier likely will be available in the draft again. It was this year's third "Pucci to Pucci" trade, following two off-season swaps -- an all-picks deal (Carolina's 2nd, 4th and 5th in exchange for Philly's 1st and 4th) on Feb. 1, and on March 22, Carolina gave up an 8th round pick for Mike Pelfrey.

A bigger deal was struck Friday when D.C. sent Joe Nathan to Las Vegas for two-time Eck Award winner Francisco Rodriguez. Both teams are in the thick of the playoff hunt, and both relievers are among the league's best. But by almost any standard, Las Vegas got the better end of the deal: Nathan has better numbers this year (3.22 ERA, 10.9 R/9, .333 IR% for the Bushslappers, compared to a 4.67 ERA and 14.0 R/9 for Rodriguez). And while Nathan is seven years older, at age 33, he appears to be a more valuable commodity next year (1.13 ERA, 0.93 WHIP) compared to the 26-year-old K-Rod (2.36 ERA, 1.26 WHIP). One could argue that the Bushslappers didn't need to keep Nathan around as they have the 27-year-old Jonathan Papelbon as their closer for the next decade -- but then why trade for K-Rod? We'll see if Jamie Landsman has a larger plan in the works as we head toward the deadline.

One More Week!

Remember, it's not just the deadline for trades: Sunday, July 20 also is the last day you can pick up a guy and protect him for next season. If there's a free agent you think might be worth protecting this winter, better grab him now! Some owners went looking at last year's rosters to find next year's potential keepers. Newark brought back former Sugar Bear Dave Bush, who has looked sharp of late in independent league action, while Vancouver re-signed hurler Paul Maholm, who picked up a win for the Iron Fist in his only career start last year. Each team made room with a D.L. move -- James Shields for Newark and Chase Utley for Vancouver.

Other moves: Carolina signed Carlos Delgado and released Norris Hopper; Hillsborough dropped Santiago Casilla and signed J.P. Howell; Hoboken picked up Ryan Madson and released Aaron Hill; Las Vegas activated Jeff Keppinger and released David Eckstein; Marietta activated Derek Jeter and released Julio Lugo; New Jersey activated Alfonso Soriano and released Garret Anderson; Philly signed Renyel Pinto and dumped Kason Gabbard; and Sardine City claimed Casilla off waivers from Hillsborough and dropped Ehren Wassermann.