Week 24 - September 23, 2006

What a Finish!

For the third time in four years, 162 games was not enough to decide the post-season. But this year, for the first time in league history, three teams wound up in a tie for the sixth and final playoff berth! To come up with one winner, one team had to set a new record by playing a 164-game season. There also was plenty of drama for spots 3 through 5, as well as a battle at the bottom for who would have the most balls in the lottery for the top draft pick.

Taking it from the top, the Newark Sugar Bears roared into the post-season on the strength of a league-best 8-1 record, including a 13-game winning streak that finally came to an end Monday. The Brick City Bombers finished the year with 111 wins, matching their franchise high set in '03... The Vancouver Ironfist had already locked up the Morris Division and couldn't catch Newark for the best record, so they rested their regulars and cruised into the bye week with a 4-5 record. Their 96 wins are the most since 2000... The Carolina Mudcats went 6-3 -- including six straight wins to end the season -- to secure the top wildcard seed. Their 92 wins are the third-most in franchise history.

Matthew's Mighty Men of Marietta and the Las Vegas Rat Pack started the final week tied for 4th place, and just 1½ games out of 3rd. As it turns out, neither team would be able to catch the streaking Mudcats, but the Mighty Men made it close -- and easily won the battle for 4th -- after a 6-2 week. Meanwhile, the Rat Pack stumbled into the post-season as the No. 5 seed despite dropping 7 out of their last 10. The two teams will face each other in the first round, with the Mites holding home-field advantage.

And now for the main event! On the final day of the regular season, four teams had a shot at the sixth and final playoff spot: The Hillsborough Hired Hitmen, who began the week in 6th place; the Hoboken Cutters, who were a half-game behind them; the Arkansas Golden Falcons, who were a game behind the Cutters; and the Philadelphia Endzone Animals, who were a half-game behind the Falcs. The Animals had the best week of the bunch, keeping their playoff hopes alive by winning 6 out of 7 -- including winning two out of three in Hoboken to knock the Cutters out of the post-season -- to end their regular season at 84-78. The Falcs went 7-3, including wins in their last five games, to catch the Animals. But it all would have been for naught as the Hitmen could clinch by taking five out of their last eight games to reach 85 wins; instead, they had to pull out a come-from-behind win in their 162nd game of the season just to join the 6th-place tie at 84-78.

The three-way tie between the Hitmen, Animals and Falcons was resolved by way of two playoff games, with the teams seeded by head-to-head record. The third-seeded Falcons first upset the second-seeded Animals, then beat the top-seeded Hitmen to claim the league's final playoff spot in their league-record 164th game of the season. (Check out our special This Week in DMBL: Three-Team Playoff Edition for a closer look.) Arkansas's 86-78 season is actually the second-worst performance in their 15-year history; only the 2001 Falcons, who went 85-77, had a worse record. (The '91 Falcons, the only year in franchise history they didn't reach the post-season, were 81-69, but had a .540 winning percentage, 16 points higher than this year's team.) It's also the only year they ever reached the post-season as the No. 6 seed... The seventh-place Hitmen, at 84-79, tied for the fourth-most wins in their eight-year history... The eighth-place Animals' 84-79 performance was the second-best finish of their nine-year existence... The Cutters finish in 9th place despite an 82-80 record -- the second-best season in franchise history.

The South Boston Gang actually started the final week of the season still technically alive for the post-season, but eyeing a tragic number of 1, meaning they'd be eliminated with their next loss or the next win by the 6th place team. The latter happened on Monday afternoon, but the Gang nevertheless soldiered on, posting a respectable 5-2 record on the week for a 10th place finish. In their 12 seasons, Paul Barbosa teams have had five seasons of 77 wins or less, five seasons of 79 or more, and two with exactly 78... The Westwood Deductions closed out the season dropping six out of their last seven, but it made little difference as they started the week all but assured of an 11th place finish. Their 66-96 record this year was the second-worst in their history.

At the start of the week, any of the bottom three teams had a shot at the league's worst record -- and the best chance of landing the first pick in next year's draft. As it turned out, all had awful weeks. The D.C. Bushslappers and Phoenix Dragons held onto 12th and 13th place, respectively, after each went 2-6. Phoenix's 60-102 season is the second-worst in franchise history; as for D.C., as this is their inaugural season, their 61-101 record represents both their best and worst year. For comparison purposes, however, it would have been the third-worst season in the 14-year history of their predecessors, the Columbia Crusaders/Columbia Rattlesnakes... Despite the miserable finishes by the Slappers and the Dragons, the Honolulu Sharks managed to hang onto last place by out-stinking both of them. The Sharks went 2-7 to finish at 58-104, setting a new franchise record for futility.

The Crunch With Punch

The Sugar Bears proved they're ready for the post-season, pounding their opponents to the tune of 7.9 runs per game over the final week of the season. To put it another way, the average Sugar Bear batter hit .363 with a 1.025 OPS in the last nine games of the year, numbers that usually would warrant consideration for the OmahaSteaks.com Batter of the Week Award. In fact, so many Sugar Bears had monster weeks -- three every-day players hit .500 or better, and four had four-digit OPSs -- that we just sent a case of beef to The Cereal Bowl and let the players decide for themselves who deserved the honor. They selected Hideki Matsui, a solid but often overlooked fixture in the league's best lineup. This week, the man they call Godzilla led the league in OPS (1.425), SLG (.889), runs created (17.2) and extra base hits (8), and finished in the top 5 in batting average (.500), OBP (.537), hits (18), runs (10), doubles (5), home runs (3),  total bases (32), RC/27 (23.2), isolated power (.389) and total average (1.895). He also ended the season tied for the longest active hitting streak, at 12 games. He'll undoubtedly be sharing some of that meat with Craig Counsell (.556, 1.414 OPS, 4 2B, 9 R), Carlos Guillen (.500, 1.317 OPS, 4 3B, 11 R) and Bobby Abreu (.433, 1.138 OPS, 1 HR, 12 RBI).

Arkansas's lineup also was hitting on all cylinders this week, scoring a league-high 81 runs in their 12 games (6.75 rpg). The Falcs got their best production from someone old and someone new: Lance Berkman, who hit .349 (1.148 OPS) with 3 HR, 10 R and 14 RBI, and David DeJesus, who hit .451 (1.147 OPS) with 4 2B, 12 R and 9 RBI. The Mighty Men also got a team effort from Brian Giles (.333, 1.011 OPS, 3 HR, 11 R, 2 SB), Jonny Gomes (.294, 1.030 OPS, 4 HR, 13 RBI) and Derek Jeter (.394, 1.019 OPS, 1 HR, 6 R).

This week's other top batters: D.C.'s Ivan Rodriguez (.375, 1.000 OPS, 2 HR, 7 RBI); Hillsborough's Adam Dunn (.344, 1.231 OPS, 4 HR, 10 RBI); Philly's Brian Roberts (.364, .976 OPS, 7 2B, 3 RBI); Phoenix's Luis Matos (.462, 1.115 OPS, 4 2B, 7 RBI); South Boston's Dave Roberts (.483, 1.224 OPS, 1 HR, 8 R); Vancouver's Chase Utley (.346, .990 OPS, 1 HR, 6 R) and Westwood's Orlando Cabrera (.462, 1.038 OPS, 3 2B, 3 RBI).

Buehrle Legal

The Ironfist won their first divisional title since 2001 despite a pitching staff that led the league in runs allowed (915). Now, while it is true that some of the Sugar Bear teams have pounded their way to the Hanover title despite some pretty mediocre pitching staffs, the truth is in the DMB Era, no team has ever won a division title while ranking last in runs allowed! Would an all-offense, no-defense team really have a chance in the post-season? The Ironfist hope they don't have to find out, as the pitching staff appears to be turning things around just in time for te post-season. Since Aug. 1, the Ironfist pitchers have posted a respectable 4.26 ERA, 11.2 R/9 -- not great, until you consider that over the first four months of the year, it was 5.58, 13.0. The turn-around started with the trade deadline acquisition of Mark Buehrle, who brought home the So You Think You Can Drive, Mel? Pitcher of the Week Award in the final week of the season. Buehrle posted a 2-0 record (2.93 ERA, 9.4 R/9) , didn't walk a batter and struck out 12 in 15.1 innings. Buehrle likely won't get much consideration for the Ben McDonald Award, as his overall numbers were good but not great (14-10, 3.91 ERA, 11.7 R/9), but he's certainly made some fans in Vancouver: After being acquired July 10th from the Bushslappers for a 3rd and a 6th round pick, the 26-year-old left-hander went 9-1 with a 3.56 ERA and 10.5 R/9 in 11 starts with the Fisters. It remains to be seen if Vancouver GM Yaro Zajac will be able to re-sign Buehrle before he hits the market as a free agent, but even if he walks at the end of the year, the trade will be worth it if he can keep up his recent success in the post-season.

This week's other top pitching performances: Arkansas's Odalis Perez (3-0, 3.15 ERA, 10.8 R/9 in 20.0 IP); Carolina's Andy Pettitte (2-0, 3.29 ERA, 11.2 R/9 in 13.2 IP); Hillsborough's Feliz Hernandez (1-1, 0.69 ERA, 11.1 R/9, 13 K in 13.0 IP); Hoboken's Jae Seo (1-0, 1.80 ERA, 10.2 R/9 in 15.0 IP); Las Vegas's Rich Harden (1-0, 2.02 ERA, 11.5 R/9, 11 K in 13.1 IP); Marietta's A.J. Burnett (1-0, 1.38 ERA, 11.1 R/9, 13 K in 13.0 IP); Newark's Kevin Millwood (2-0, 1.29 ERA, 11.6 R/9 in 14.0 IP) and Randy Johnson (2.04 ERA, 5.6 R/9, 0 BB, 20 K in 17.2 IP); Philly's Mark Prior (2-0, 1.64 ERA, 13.1 R/9 in 11.0 IP) and Johan Santana (1-1, 1.72 ERA, 10.3 R/9, 3 BB, 18 K in 15.2 IP) and South Boston's Dontrelle Willis (2-0, 1.80 ERA, 11.4 R/9, 15 K in 15.0 IP).

Keeping Up With K-Rod

Philly's Francisco Rodriguez finished off the regular season with a flourish, saving four games in five chances to secure the Dennis Eckersley Award as the Rolaids Reliever of the Year as the pitcher with the most relief points. K-Rod had been leading the pack for most of the last two months of the season, but entered the final week just 3 relief points ahead of Hillsborough's Chad Cordero and Marietta's Mariano Rivera, 4 ahead of Las Vegas's Arthur Rhodes and 5 ahead of Hoboken's Jason Isringhausen. Of his four pursuers, Cordero had the best week, picking up 7 points (1 win, 3 saves, 1 loss, 0 blown saves) -- and in fact, Izzy actually went backward in the standings (0 W, 1 SV, 2 L, 2 BSV) for -3 points. But K-Rod had the most impressive week of all, allowing no runs, 1 hit and 1 walk, stranding all four runners he inherited, and striking out 9 of the 14 batters he faced. He also notched four saves, giving him 8 more on the season and an Eck-winning 66 on the season.

Final Relief Points Standings
Reliever	ERA	W	SV	L	BS	Pts
F.Rodriguez,PHI	3.38	4	34	5	5	66
C.Cordero,HIL	4.08	4	33	6	6	62
M.Rivera, MAR	2.35	7	28	5	6	59
Rhodes, LV	2.58	4	28	3	4	57
B.Wagner,VAN	2.66	2	29	3	4	55
Isringhausen,HBK	3.48	5	28	8	8	50
Shields,NWK	3.30	10	14	2	6	40
F.Cordero,CAR	3.55	2	25	9	6	39
Lidge, ARK	3.38	2	23	6	5	39
Street, SB	3.62	3	23	9	7	36
Turnbow, HON	2.85	4	19	7	3	36

Hoboken's Neal Cotts won the Jeff Zimmerman Vulture of the Year Award by leading the league in relief wins, with 11, followed by Newark's Scot Shields with 10. Carolina's Al Reyes and Arkansas's Aaron Heilman tied for third with 9.

You Sound Like A Broken Record!

A number of records were broken this year, including one of the league's best-known marks. Marietta's Morgan Ensberg hit safely in 38 straight games, a streak that was interrupted twice -- once by an injury, and a second time by the vendors strike. Ensberg's streak shattered the mark of 33 straight games, set just last year by Phoenix's Ichiro Suzuki. Before that, Jim Eisenreich's record of 32 games in a row with a hit had stood since 1997. However, that wasn't the only record that was broken this season! For a run down of the records that fell and those that came close, check out an all new edition of Did You Know? with Gregg Jefferies.

Comings and Goings

Once the post-season rolls around, every team seems to get back to full strength, or close to it. It must be all that celebratory champagne washing away the aches and pains of the long regular season! Arkansas's Coco Crisp and Roger Clemens returned from the D.L. just in time for the start of the post-season, while Marietta will once again be able to call on the services of Kerry Wood. Newark, with the benefit of a first-round bye as the Hanover Division champion, gets an extra week to rest Manny Ramirez, Nick Johnson and Chipper Jones. And Hoboken's Jon Garland and Chad Tracy have a whole off-season to recover from their season-ending injuries!