Jim’s Corner
August 19, 2003
Both
drafts went off without a hitch. In
fact, they were both done in a total time of less than 2 hours. Great job by everyone. Full results are on the web page.
Periods 2 and 3 have just flown by and we have now hit the beginning of the intradivisional scrimmages.
Both division races are air tight, but for a different reason. The final 84 games should be bloody, to say the least.
In period 3, the big move in the Northern Division was made by Don Maxwell’s Andrew’s Team. In the DM played .800 ball to move into 3rd place a mere 3 ½ games behind the Wild Weasels. The Men of Willie stood on top of the Division with the best record in the league by far. That is by far unless you are in their division. Tom Kackley’s Beach City Dukes are only 3 games back paced by Jim Wilson. Wilson has won 17 times in the Dukes first 70 games! With all this winning going on, Doug Zuchowski’s Rainier Rowdies are only 6 back.
The Eastern Division knotted up, literally, as the New York Woodchoppers had the Division’s only .500 month and moved into a first place tie with Scott Lagace’s Mudville Bandits. Before anyone gets excited, both the Bandits and Woodchoppers are setting the pace playing .486 (34-36) ball. As close as the Northern Division is, the East is even closer all 7 teams enter divisional play within 6 games of the lead.
Player of the 3rd period in 1953 went to Al Rosen of Andrew’s Team. Rosen hit .431, slugged .931 and had a 1.438 OPS while creating 25 and driving in 29 runs in 25 games. Runners up were Gil Hodges of Troy (.431 BA, 1.337 OPS 7 homers, 20 RBI’s) and Duke Snider of Savannah (1.234 OPS, 11 homers 25 RBI, 27 RC).
Pitcher of the 3rd period was a tough choice. Jim Wilson won 5 more times with a 2.70 ERA, but co-winners this period were Bob Lemon of Wild (4-1 1.67 ERA) and Bob Friend of Auburn (5-0, 2.16 ERA)
Big match up in period 4 (deadline September 7) is the home and home series between Wild and Beach City. Beach City has its collective hands full this period as they also play 4th place Rainier home and home. In a schedule quirk, Andrew’s team only plays 1 home series this period (3 next) so they will be resting up for their upcoming showdowns with both teams in front of them. Mudville likewise gets a scheduled rest as they are only at home once this period (along with Troy).
Full stat leaders and standings are on the Web Site.
Things started to sort themselves out in 3 of the divisions but the Mays remains the one race to keep your eye on.
Commack and New York both played .700 ball in period 4 to put a lot of space between them and the rest of the division. New York holds a 6 game lead on the Pink Flamingos but Troy has dropped 20 behind Commack. Mudville, likewise, was the only team over .500 in period 4 and has extended its lead over Death Valley to 22 games reducing the magic number to 21. Kentucky won 24 times to push Tarpin Ridge 6 games further back in the Aaron. Magic number for the War Dogs is 29.
On the other hand Gotham City played .767 ball and broke the tie with Zaca to move to a 4 game lead over both Zaca and Rainier in the Mays. Not that it was easy as 5 of the 6 teams in the Mays won at least 17 games in the period. Wild is only 5 back and Beach City only 8.
This division has the potential to have the best finish since the 1990 3-way tie in the Mantle division.
Hands down winner of Player of the Period was Wild’s Jim Edmonds. Edmonds hit .388, slugged .859, hit 11 homers, created 18 runs to a 1.344 OPS to far outpace runner-up, teammate Troy Glaus. Also earning runner up honors was Ellis Burks of Tarpin Ridge who hit 12 homers and drove in 34.
Pitching honors goes to the starting staff of Kentucky. The 4 starters (Bartolo Colon, Tim Wakefield, Woody Williams and Derek Lowe) went a collective 20-0 and I didn’t want to choose among them. Colon and Randy Johnson both won 6 times during the period. Also of note was Trevor Hoffman’s lights out 10 saves in 10 tries for Mudville.
Barry Bonds has drawn 151 walks (31 intentional) in 118 games thus far this season. Do the math! Randy Johnson won his 20th game for the 5th time in the last 6 years (19 wins last year broke the streak). Bartolo Colon of Kentucky also entered the 20-win club. Full stat leaders and standings are on the Web Site.
Big matchups this period are any series in the Mays! Period 5 starts on August 24th and will end the season on October 1st.
If the season ended today, the playoff matchups would be:
KY vs. RR/ZR, NY vs. RR/ZR, MV vs. TR, GC vs. CS
Of course, all that will change as 5 teams are vying for the last 2 wild card spots.
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
8/19/03