What a weird week this one was. The first forfeit in 3 years, a postponed game, 2 of the first 3 games of the week ending in ties and I thought we'd lose all three Thursday games to the thunder and lightening, but that didn't happen. It feels like a lite week of ball, but still the same amount of stats. Oh, and a new one for you - just because that's how I role (I know its spelled wrong).
Stats
Yeah, why not....lets start with the new one. Excel and I don't get along at the best of times, so it took a while to get this sorted out properly. What this does is measure your on base average as usual, but it only looks at your team's 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th games. I like this view because 6 games is still a big enough number for a reasonable sample size and unless your name is Scott it isn't easy to stay white hot for that long a stretch. So if you're on this list, you're pretty scorching hot in my books. Yeah Lou....I'm looking at you.
Well Donny Brasco lost his slim 1 AB lead this week and I think we're all surprised how that came about. But fear not, the Don will be back. Of that I'm sure. Clearly Frank has brought out the whip in Banshee-land (no relation to Grisslie-land) where Muirhead, Richards and Koolhaas are apparently to frightened to take a night off!
In this stat edition of the blog I try to stay pretty neutral, but I think I'll take a moment to pump the tires of one of our own. Grisslie Jeff Sagert is up to .828! And its a pretty strong .828, with maybe only 3 infield hits out of 24 times on. Way to go! As the season goes on and things spread out, these will likely be all be top 10 lists. I've cut some off at smaller numbers when there are large groups tied at the 9 or 10 spot. For this one though you can get at the league site, so feel free to browse there too.
Al still owns this by a pretty large margin. So to clarify this stat, when Al is in the batters box, before a pitch is thrown, there is an 68.6% chance that he'll score a run IN THAT AT BAT. Not on the night, but in that at bat! There's only a couple of handfuls of guys over 50% and he's pushing 70. Way to go Al!
And a slight variation on the same theme....Brad Young scores 88.5% of the time that he's standing on a base. Any base. The scary part is he went down this week and he's still got Al (DNP) by almost 100 points. Entering the stats week after week, I'll be honest, none of these names surprise me, but they do validate what I think is happening when entering the raw numbers. For example McCarron and Keogh got off to slow starts (for them, not for us mortals), but I could sense they were coming on strong before they started showing up on the top 25 etc.... Anyway, these guys are pretty damned good.
Ohhhh....now here's a story! This will teach Al to take a night off! Miss one game and that scoring machine Dan Routledge just knocks you to the side! There are a number of teams with games in hand yet so lots to sort out, but it is tightly bunched with 10 guys separated by a scant 4 runs. WOW. And the two that jump off the list to me are John Barlow and Eric Hipkin, two Red Dogs having fabulous years! Oh, 4 of the top 10 are Red Dogs too as McCarron and Candy are obviously following the inspired lead set by the other two.
Well Cliffy boy has yet to stub his toe. He's still leading the way and seems to go 3/4 every game so there's no variation in that +332. Lot's of good players to watch in this list.
I guess Farah's batting tips finally beat Stiff's batting tips. At list for now! Lahey still leads in total hits for a rookie, but Grisslie Jeff Sagert overtook him in average with his second consecutive 4/4 game. I think I've met most of the rookies or they've taken the time to introduce themselves to me and they are an impressive crop overall. Attitude + ability. We got lucky as a league.
Barton, Schrank, Lepa, Hipkin, Barlow, Kolsen, Routledge, Rouleau, Doyle. I know its tight, I know its early; but if those are the top 10 September 1st I won't be the least bit surprised.
Okay, I'm better with the whole tie thing, except for the fact that they suck and should be banned. Ties in baseball, geez. Last week the Grisslies were 4-5 and 4 games back of the Joints. We tied, Joints one and now we're 4.750 games back. That makes sense. The good news is that everyone has made the playoffs!!! YaY! But we keep standings, so there must be a reason for it. If you look from 7th place up, that's probably where your regular season winner will come from. Its tough to handicap though. That 2.5 game lead is massive. The Joints would have to lose 3 in a row and Red Dogs win 3 in a row for the Joints to be caught. Nothing is going to happen soon. Dodge and the Brew Jays both have a game in hand on the Red Dogs and could conceivably also be sitting at 7-4 once they get those games in. Enough lamenting, on with the review!
Review
Sadly this game ended before it started with a 7-0 forfeit due to lack of players.
The Game of the week had a number of spectators watching a spirited well pitched affair. The game was highlighted by a top of the 7th grand slam off the bat of Chuck Cragg. The Woody's had a balanced attack but no perfect nights at the plate. The Dog Catchers were led by Randy Hipkin (3/3, 1), Don Swabuk (3/3, 1) and Paul Hargreaves (3/3). You can read more about the game of the week ====> HERE
The Grisslies got off to a good start in this one but couldn't sustain their momentum. The Lucky Stiffs were the comeback cardiac kids on this night scoring 4 in the bottom of the 7th to earn the tie. The stiffs had perfect nights from Captain Clayton Campbell (4/4, 2) and Rookie Tom Ball (4/4, 1). Meanwhile the Grisslies had a perfect night from rookie sensation Jeff Sagert (4/4, 2). For more on this game, click ===> HERE.
The Banshees played with the lead for this entire game. The Dusty Cleats got with a run on a number of occasions but couldn't quite get over the hump in this one. The Banshees were led by Brian Richards (4/4, 3), Dan Chiasson (4/4) and Craig Beatty (4/4, 1). The Dusty Cleats had perfect nights from Troy Hope (3/3, 1), Mark Doyle (3/3, 1) and Fraser Barratt (3/3).
However; I'm sorry to report that the real story here is that Scott Barton's streak is now over. He came into this game 29/29 and got on the first 3 times he came up to drive it up to 32/32. Then the inevitable finally happened. Scott grounded out. Fantastic run Scotty!
The Hurtin' Units scored 7 in the 6th inning of this to get themselves back into the game, but they couldn't push anything across in the 7th to finish the comeback. The Units had two players with huge nights in Anicete Goncalves (5/5, 2) and Gord Robinson (5/5, 4). The Red Dogs, who dominated this one throughout surprisingly had no perfect nights at the plate despite their 19 run outburst. However they did have 3 run performances from Eric Hipkin, Rob McCaron and Jon Hardy.
In a battle of expansion cousins, the Tap Masters took the upper hand in the season series. The Gruesome Devils had a perfect night from Mike Douglas who was 4/4 with a run scored. The Tap Masters were led by Geoff Keogh (4/4, 3) and Captain Jason Bowers (4/4, 3). More on this game can be found ====> HERE
I typically don't do a lot of write up in this spot mostly because my fingers get sore from a full week of typing...but sometimes a little blurb is needed. It seems that the Brew Jays were absent their starting pitcher for this one and had to press P2 Billy Clouthier into duty. Bill had a good game as Bill usually does. Gave up a couple in the 1st. Had a 3 up 3 down second and got knocked around for 4 in the 3rd. By that time the game was looking and safe and he cruised through the rest of the game giving up only 2 more runs. But its not enough for Bill to get the win. No that would be common place. He needs to win with pizazz! So with two and two on in the 7th and a batter who will remain unnamed at the plate with two strikes on him......Mr Clouthier uncorked a behind the back pitch that froze the (unnamed) batter and landed on the board for a called 3rd strike.
Game over. Footage is below. I love Bills reaction! Sorry for the dubbed in play by play call.
Click on the picture above to see Bill's amazing game ending pitch!!!
Meanwhile, Bill's pitching prevented any perfect nights out of the Dog Catchers, but Brew Jays had flawless plate performances from Lynn Foerster (4/4, 3), Matt Foerster (4/4, 3) and Dave Polny (4/4, 1).
If there is a surprise team to jump up and win this thing, its the Cleats. And not like the "awww, I feel sorry for them" Cleats of 2 years ago. Its because this team makes no sense. Their defense is among the best in the league. The have great hitters, power hitters, good hitters, average hitters, speed and smarts. And they can't score runs. However, all these guys have in the past and they will again. When it happens, look out! The Beer Bros. needed this win to pull into the lofty position of a tie for 8th with the Grisslies. Congratulations! Shockingly, the only perfect performance on the night was Steve Ross' 2/2 with a run scored. The Cleats had their usual from Mr. Consistency Scott Barton who was 4/4 with a run.
The Stiffs never got to see a lead in this one as the Banshees scored 6 in the 1st and another 3 in the second. Despite the Banshees outburst, they only had one perfect hitter on the night and that was John Coopman who was 4/4 with 4 runs scored. The Stiffs didn't have any perfect nights in this one, but they had lot of fun and looked fabulous!
A lot of people were looking forward to this one. A win for Dodge would have served notice to the Joints. However, for all the Dodge City base runners, and there were plenty, they couldn't get those crusial run scoring hits to drive them in. The game was missing two all stars in Al Fry and Doris Casullo as well. Dodge's Ed McDowell (3/3, 2), Adrian Barry (3/3, 1), Mark Bickford (4/4) and Luc Schryer (4/4) were all perfect on the evening. The Joints were led by Paul Gyori (4/4, 1) and Terry Ducet (4/4, 1). You can read more about this game ===> HERE
Things to check out:
Check out the Donini Three Stars of the game here ==> STARS
Check out the Dislocated Joints game notes from DTBB & Terry Doucet ==> JOINTS
Check out the Tap Master's game notes from Jason Bowers ==> Tapped Out
Check out the Hurtin' Units BLOG from Jimmer ==> Hannibal Lecter
The League's Official Website ==> League
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