Jim’s Corner
July 8, 2003
The unlimited ERA for TML
1930 will be 5.01. Anyone at 5.01 and over is
limited to 40 starts and 90 appearances. The unlimited ERA for TML 1940 will be
4.31. Anyone at 4.31 and over is limited to 40 starts and 90
appearances.
Drafts for both of these leagues will be held on Saturday, July 19. 1930 will start at 10 AM eastern. 1940 will follow at Noon, eastern. Each draft will take 5 rounds and, frankly, should not take that long.
We will use Instant Messenger again for the draft.
The season kicked off very smoothly. Bill Jelks has led his Wild Weasels to a narrow one game lead over both Doug Zuchowski's Rainier Rowdies and Don Maxwell's Andrew's Team in the Northern Division. The East lead is held by Pat Barry's Albany Avalanche (TML best 15-5) by 2 over Larry Alber's Troy Haymakers.
Period 2 will consist of 30 games and inch us towards intradivisional play.
The Duke of Flatbush, Wild's Duke Snider, copped player of the period honors out of the gate. Duke had a 1.170 OPS and was near the top in nearly every offensive category. He was closely followed by teammate Roy Campanella (8 homers, 27 rbi's in 20 games) and young Eddie Mathews of Beach City. Mathews launched 10 Ballantine blasts in the 20 games to set a murderous pace.
Pitcher of the period went to Jim Hearn of Andrew's Team. Hearn posted a microscopic 0.59 ERA in winning 3 times during the first period. Paul Minner of Albany and Jim Wilson of Beach City both earned runner up honors by both going 4-0. Hoyt Wilhelm of Albany notched 8 saves in 8 opportunities.
Deadline for period 2 is July 26th.
Mudville City!!! Scott Lagace led the Bandits to 26 wins in Period 3 to stretch their lead to a TML best 16 games. Arod swung the big bat for Mudville with 11 homers while teammate Jeff Kent had 42 rbis in the 34 games. Lefties Ted Lilly and Barry Zito each earned 4 wins to pace the MV pitchers.
In the other divisions, Gotham City won 21 times to pick up 3 games on Rainier and to move into a second place tie with Zaca's, 2 back of Doug's Rowdies. Kentucky won 24 times to move out to a 8 1/2 game lead over Tarpin Ridge. (TR is missing a road series against Millenium), while New York won 22 times to stake themselves to a 6 game cushion over Commack.
If the season ended today, the playoff matchups would be:
KY vs GC/ZR, NY vs MF, MV vs CS, RR vs TR
Of course, all that will change!
Player of the period goes to Adam Dunn of Wild. Dunn hit .368 with a 1.121 OPS, creating 41 runs. Right behind him was John Olerud of North Adams and Robert Fick of Albany who both hit .390.
Pitcher of the series honors go to Derek Lowe of Kentucky who posted a 1.07 ERA while winning 5 of 6 decisions. Lowe nudged out his teammate Tim Wakefield (6-1) and Randy Johnson of NY, Damian Moss of Ashland and Jeff Weaver of Commack who all went 5-1.
Barry Bonds has drawn 122 walks (25 intentional) in 88 games thus far this season. Do the math!
Period 4 is now underway and the reporting deadline is August 16. Don't let me have to come looking for you!!!
The standard TML series naming convention is HHRRYY (Home team initial, Road team initial, TML Year) when reporting a series.
That's it for now.
Jim Pertierra
7/8/03