I think we're starting to get a sense of things. With 49 of 165 official games in the books, we have 3 'better than the pack' teams, 3 teams from the middle and bottom that could make noise (if these stats mean anything) one team that's emerging as a nice dark horse pick and we still have one team that is still searching for their first win.
Lots to go through.....but first, our sponsor and some news from the league.
SPONSOR AD:
Home Hardware
.
A complete summary of products and prices can be found at: http://www.homehardware.ca/en/dealer-microsites/1602-7/contact-information.htm
Tottenham Home Hardware
262 Queen Street North
Tottenham, ON
L0G 1W0
Phone: (905) 936 - 2566
Fax: (905) 936 - 5236
262 Queen Street North
Tottenham, ON
L0G 1W0
Phone: (905) 936 - 2566
Fax: (905) 936 - 5236
The World Cup
Lets just start with the obvious and get it out of the way. Soccer sucks. Oh, I know that we all get to pretend we're Italian or English or Cameroonian for the next 27 months until its over, but it still sucks.
The only redeeming quality I can see is that its a reminder every 4 years that there's something worse than the neverending hockey season. But couldn't they wait for one to end before Dante's next circle of hell begins? In fact, if you look at the famous painting of Botticelli's map of hell, you can clearly see a hockey stick and soccer ball embedded in it.
There's lots of reasons to hate soccer. Lets examine a few.
1. They count backward. They count up from 0 at the start of a half to 45 minutes at the end of the half? What the hell is that. Now I have do math to figure out how much time is left? That's appealing. So my team is up one or down one (because a 2 goal lead is near impossible) I want to know how much is left for them to score or hold the other team. Who walks into a room with a hockey game going on and says, "hey, how much time has gone by?" No one gives a damn. HOW MUCH TIME IS LEFT.
2. They continue to count backward. Instead of starting at 0 again for the second half, they start at minute 46. Fantastic.
3. Baseball, Basketball, Hockey and Football cover the seasons. There's never a time where one of them isn't being played. We don't need a 5th sport.
4. The schedule. Its friggin' impossible. Leagues in countries, leagues that cross over, mulit-layered playoffs and trophies between leagues and countries. And that doesn't count the friendlies, whatever the hell those are.
5. Ties are stupid. Baseball doesn't have them. Baseketball doesn't have them. Football has fixed them. Even the dinosaur sport of hockey has finally acknowledged that ties are stupid. Celebrating 'not winning' is not a sport.
6. Do you know the dimensions of a soccer net? 24 feet wide by 8 feet high. That's a flat surface area of 192 feet. A soccer ball is about 8.5 inches across. My math (please dispute) says that you could fit 363 soccer ball simultaneously in the net. So why the hell can't they score more often!!!! Aren't these supposed to be world class athletes? Oh, and another thing, John Olerud hit .363 when he won the batting title in 1992.
7. Probably the most important on is there's no stats to speak of. There's goals. That's about it. Even hockey has better stats.
Okay, onto a game that matters and has stats
The Week In Review
QUICK NOTES:
- We lost 10 people this week from the "hit in every game category" and we now have 71 of 180 players left.
- Meanwhile there are only 26 players who have scored a run in all games thus far. I think we'll be at 20 next week and reporting who's left.
- Kevin Cavalier and Matt Foerster finally decided to let others have a shot at the batting title. They both made their first outs of the year on Monday.
- League runs remain over 3 runs per game higher with and average of 28.51 runs being scored in each match.
- DeLand Vs. DeLand was pretty fun with Doug going 5/6 with 4 runs and Steve going 3/4 with a single run.
Dusty Cleats Vs. Rusty Rebels - The week opened with two 1-4 teams meeting up. Neither team has a roster that looks like they'd have only one win but here we are. The Cleats finally got Brian Richards back from injury and had Winston and Brian in the outfield at the same time. Their combined 7/8 with 4 runs wouldn't be enough. The Rebels seem to have found a nice little groove, winning 2 of 3 with Steve Ross stationed at short; and Peter Hollmann going 13 for his last 14. Make the final of this one 15 - 8 for the Rebels.
Sons Of Pitches Vs. Dog Catchers - After a 3-0 start, the SoP's would drop this one to fall back to .500 mark at 3 and 3. We don't know exactly who the SoP's are yet; but we're getting a sense of the Dog Catchers. After 6 games now, the average margin of victory in Dog Catchers games has been 13 1/2 runs. And they've now found themselves on the plus side of that margin 4 of 6 times. Expect a blow out with these mashers. Emeil Edwards was 5/5 with 2 runs, while Laurier Plante, Steve Lahey, Larry Turner and Bob Candy were all 4/4. The Sons Of Pitches best night at the plate was Dave Polny's 3/4 with 2 runs. The final here was 19-5 for the Dog Catchers.
Blues Brothers Vs. Gruesome Devils - As has become the custom, the Monday 9:30 game was a little crazy. The Blues Brothers scored 7 in the 1st inning without recording a single out. The Devils would get one back in the bottom of the inning. The Blues Brothers would score every inning and eventually had a safe 17-6 lead after the top of the 6th with the Gruesome Devils offense looking very sporadic. Then the Gruesome bats woke up counting 7 in the bottom of the 6th to get within 4 runs at 17-13. There was hope. Then the Blues Brothers batted in the 7th. And batted, and batted and batted. 8 batters hit twice in the inning. 7 batters had 2 hits in the inning. When it was all said and done, the Blues Brothers would have 13 men cross the plate to take a 30-13 lead and that's how this one ended. The Gruesome Devils only perfect night was provided by Scott Barton who was 5/5 with 2 runs. Bob McCullough (4 runs), Kevin Boston (5), Neil Pendlebury (3), Mike Douglas (3), Dennis Pendlebury (3) and Tom Ball(2) were all an amazing 6 for 6 at the plate in this one.
Hurtin' Units Vs. Brew Jays - Year 5 of the Hurtin' Units franchise history continues to be cruel. At the end of this game they were 14th in runs for and 15th in runs against. Tough combo. The Brew Jays seem to be trending upward and finished the game with a positive plus/minus for the first time this season. This game got ugly fast with the Brew Jays counting 7 in the 1st and 3rd innings and led 18-2 after three. The Units had some battle in them, and outscored the Jays 5-3 after the final 4 innings but it wasn't nearly enough to make a dent in the gap. The Brew Jays had Tim Sullivan, Bo Niederhuber, Jim Smith, Mark Doyle and Bill Sallustio go 4/4 and Al Hayward go 3/3 in the 20-7 win.
Dodge City Rounders Vs. Sliders - The final score of 25-13 in favour of the Rounders would have you thinking blowout. I suppose it was, but Dodge City only had slim 13-12 lead heading into the 7th. The 7th inning featured, 16 batters, 13 hits, 12 runs and a grand slam courtesy of Keith Dell. While the Rounders had six players who were 4/5, only rookie Bruce Kubinski was perfect on the night going 4/4 with 3 runs scored. The Sliders dream of a perfect season ended with this loss, but their 4-1 record still has them near the top of the standings. Dennis Short and Brad Moye were both 4/4 with Dennis chipping in a run and Brad scoring three times.
Blues Brothers Vs. Hot Tub Woody's - Those watching this game on C2 were treated to some great play. The Blues Brothers were hitting the ball and the Hot Tub Woody's were making the plays to keep them at zero through the first three innings. The Woody's were able to hang up 8 runs through 3 and seemed to be in control if not completely comfortable. Slow starts and strong finishes seem to be a bit of trend with the Blues Brothers this season and they battled back to a 9-9 score after five innings. After 6 the Blues Brothers had an 11-9 lead. The Score was the same when the Woody's came up for the final time in the bottom of the 7th. Jeff Sagert, Gord Robinson and Chris Rosss were the 1st three batters in the inning and all reached and scored as the Woody's fought back and escaped with a 12-11 win. The only perfect nights on either team were Kevin Boston and Neil Pendlebury's 4/4 with 3 runs.
Beer Bros. Vs. Tap Masters - The only problem with this game is it was played at the same time as the Blues Brothers; Hot Tub Woody's affair. Both were well worth watching. Shut out innings for both squads to start and 5-5 after 4 innings. 8-8 after 5 innings. 8-8 after 6 innings. The Beer Bros. came up to start the 7th and after a quick out, had Chris Nyers, Dave Fleming, John Barlow and Gord Dol all reach and score. 12-8, bottom of the 7th. The Tap Masters started the inning with Darrell Hager who reached and scored followed by Roger Gaudet who did likewise. After two quick outs, the next two batters reached, putting the tying run at 1st. It appeared that the Tap Masters were going to narrow the gap to 1 run when Brad Young came flying from short stop to get a ball in shallow left at the foul line on the dead run. Game. Paul Piellusch, Dave Fleming and Jon Hardy were all 4/4 in this match.
Sons Of Pitches Vs. Grisslies - The Sons Of Pitches opened the season 3-0. With this loss to the Grisslies (13-8) they fell to 0-4 since their strong start. As of the conclussion of this game, their 3 wins came against teams with a combined record of 10-7 (.588) and their 4 losses against teams with a 12-12 (.500). Odd. The good news is that I'd rather be figuring out a four game skid in June than August. The Sons of Pitches started well, but the Grisslies offense was consistent if not spectacular and battled back on the strength of perfect nights by Cal Russell and Cam Clark. The Grisslies were also sparked by Craig Escott's inside the park 2 run homer and Darren Fords 3 run fence clearer to left center. Doris Casullo was 4/4 with 2 runs in the loss.
Draft Kings Vs. Rusty Rebels - There have only been 3 games this season where both teams scored less than 10 runs. Interesting that the Draft Kings were involved in 2 of those games and won them both with identical 7-6 scores. The Rebels had 5 runs over two innings in this one, but they could only manage another run over the final 5 innings and stranded 2 runners in 3 of those innings. Meanwhile the Draft Kings, who never scored more than 2 runs in an inning, managed to score in 5 of 7 innings to keep the pressure up. Bob Vienneau had the only perfect night for the Kings going 3 for 3. Stephen Booth and Dave Miller both scored two runs for the Rebels.
Brew Jays Vs. Hot Tub Woody's - The Woody's sprang (sprung?), lets go with 'vaulted' into first place over all with a 6th consecutive win. A convincing 18-8 decision over the Brew Jays. Despite the 18 runs, the Brew Jays remain among the league's elite defensively and are waiting for their bats to show the customary Jays swagger. The Hot Tub Woody's had captains Dancey and Hopkins enjoying perfect nights and were joined by John Mulgrew and Jeff Sagert. For the Brew Jays, rookie Chris Snyder joined captain Rod Duggan with a perfect batting line. I think I've figured out how the Woody's have gotten off to this terrific start! There will be a full report Wednesday morning at 6am.
Hurtin' Units Vs. Dog Catchers - The Dog Catchers are a stunning team. 5 Current or former captains, an unproven rookie and a disproportionate amount of veteran know-how coupled with a fine blend of 30-40 somethings who know how to play the game. And its working. Its working fabulously! This team is on fire offensively and continues to win games by beating opponents into submission. Their latest victim was the now 0-7 Hurtin' Units who fell 26-6 in this one. Only Esau Lewin, Art Lord-Stafford and Dave McGovern managed to get on base twice for the Units. The Dog Catchers, as seemes to be the case every night, had 6 players go 4 for 4. Captain Larry Turner was joined by Bob Candy, Laurier Plante, Mike Candy, Rick Hjelholt and Steve Lahey. Good luck to the Sliders trying to stop these guys next week.
Dusty Cleats Vs. Gruesome Devils - Thursday's night of lop sided games ended with the Dusty Cleats defeat of the Gruesome Devils by the score of 26-15. The Cleats batted around in the 1st inning, the 2nd inning and came within a batter of doing it again in the 3rd. The Devils started slow, but they (like the Tap Masters and Beer Bros.) have that important knack of not quiting. They were down a lot early but kept coming back. They can score. When their defense comes around they'll be formidable. The Cleats were led by the Jim's on this night, though everyone hit pretty well. Rouleau and MacDonald were both 5/5. The best lines for the Devils were Kevin Cavalier, Mark Kolsen and Scott Barton's 4/4 nights. Steve Porter also went 3/3. It was enjoyable to watch the head to head competition between Cavalier and Matt Foerster who are one and two in the early batting race. Two very different hitters who both produce. Matty was 4/5 on the night.
The Beer Cup
The holders of the Beer Cup at the end of the season receive both the cup and 12 beer tickets at the banquet.
Next week the Beer Bros will try to become the second team to defend the Beer Cup this season when they face the Grisslies.
Teams that have held the Beer Cup (5)
- Dodge City Rounders
- Sons Of Pitches
- Rusty Rebels
- Tap Masters
- Beer Bros.
Teams that have defended the Beer Cup (1)
- Dodge City Rounders (2)
Teams that have Played a Beer Cup Game (7)
- Dodge City Rounders (3)
- Blues Brothers
- Brew Jays
- Sons Of Pitches (2)
- Rusty Rebels (2)
- Tap Masters (2)
- Beer Bros.
Teams that have yet to play for the Cup(8)
- Draft Kings.
- Gruesome Devils
- Dog Catchers
- Hot Tub Woody's
- Sliders
- Dusty Cleats
- Grisslies
- Hurtin' Units
Subs
We seem to be getting more and more varied subs! This is great for everyone. Remember to contact Rob at Robert.Farah@sympatico.ca and let him know days you're available to play. That will get you to the top of the list on any given day.
Also, let your captains know when you can't make it to a game. Captains are getting caught short with no shows with higher regularity this year (it seems to me). Not only is it not fair to your team mates and captain but its not fair to the people who've asked to sub. When there's no notice captains have scoop players from previous games in order to field a team. That leaves subs who have followed the rules and registered properly without an opportunity to play.
STATS
Team
We'll change the order this week. Starting with the baseball standings, you'll see some variances from the regular league standings. Most notably is the first place tie between the Sliders and Tap Masters.
Week 5's baseball standings shows the Woody's not only in 1st place but with a full game lead on the 4 teams tied for second.
Our regular league standings show the Woody's still in 1st place, but a different view of 2nd through 8th place. You're starting to see now how the baseball standings are a more accurate reflection of what you have to do to catch a team.
The Power Rankings!!!! This is probably my fav....lets take a look. The Dog Catchers, with a two win week and Gruesome Devils, Hurtin' Units and Sons Of Pitches, with two lost weeks had understandable swings. The top 3 teams Dog Catchers, Hot Tub Woodys and Tap Masters all have totals under 10. Although the Rounders are on the cusp, you'd have to agree that the top 3 are dominant right now with no one even scoring a "4th place" in any single category.
So, if there's a challenge to the top 3, where does it come from? My watch list might be unpopular, but my view is to watch out for the Brew Jays, Draft Kings, Grisslies and Beer Bros. All teams have defences that can play with the top 3, the question is whether or not they can generate enough offense.
Runs are up and so is the pace of production. There are 10 teams scoring quicker that last years league average. And for the first time in 2 years no team is over 3.00 hits per run scored.
Team batting. This is a new one. The AVG column has the team's current average, the unlabeled column has the teams average from the previous week. The "change" column is obviously the difference. This is sorted by best average. The Dog Catchers were the only team over .700 last week and they actually lifted their average by .025 points. Unreal.
Individual
Not surprising at all to see 3 Dog Catchers on this list with their prolific offense. With a 22 game season it seemed unlikely that anyone could top the 100 at bat mark, but both Laurier and Harley are on pace. Keep it going guys!
There's no question that Skip and Matt are off to amazing starts. But the hottest hitter in the league right now is Steve Lahey. Steve was 2 for 5 in his first game and since then hasn't made an out, reaching base safely 27 consecutive times!!! WoW. This is pretty wide open right now with a single out making for big swings.
The 1st quarter of the season isn't quite closed yet with the Sliders and Rounders having yet to play their 6th game. But next week we'll crown our Q1 best average.
And for the 7 teams that have started on the second quarter, we have 12 players that have begun with 1.000 averages. For some players, their fine seasons continue. For others, its an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start anew.
Its been a 3 years since the hits leader was the average leader. There is a real chance of that this season with the top 5 (at least) being viable candidates. However, with these guys being so tightly packed, it might be even harder to achieve.
Well Mr Candy, you are positively on fire! And he's only getting better, batting .923 in his last 3 games. Hard to say at this point of Lou Conforti's record .220 improvement will fall or not, but with 4 people at or ahead of that pace, there's a chance for sure.
Your look at rookies over the .500 mark. Kevin Cavalier continues to run away with this category, but Jeff Behan, Chuck Vanya and Ryan Feehely who are all over .700 continue to impress. NOTE: Tom Wright resigned this week, I'll make the changes for next week's stats.
There are some great hitters in this list and leading the way is the Tap Masters, Darrell Hagar (who's name I have to fix the spelling of). Nyers and Plante will provide good competition in this category while Wolfe's limited at bats make him a wild card.
Eight 3rd year players over .700! As Phil Rizzuto would say, "holy cow"! Goodin, The Beechey and Edwards are grooving right now, but its going to take quite a streak to catch Mr. Lahey.
Skip is widening his lead for the season standings, being the first to hit the 20 mark.
Again, Q1 isn't quite closed, but it'll take Beechey scoring 4 runs against the Brew Jays on Monday or Kevin Moon getting 4 against the Hurtin' Units on Tuesday to top Skip's 17 first quarter runs.
And now we can start tracking Q2. Lahey seems to have thing for the 2nd quarter and the Foerster brothers and Tom Hollmann are with him with terrific 4 run efforts in their 1st games.
Key Match ups Week 6
These are some of the games that have caught my eye.
- Gruesome Devils Vs. Sons Of Pitches. The Devils have lost 2 in a row and SOP's have dropped 4 in a row. One skid will end and one of these squads will climb back to .500 at 4 and 4.
- Tap Masters Vs. Hot Tub Woodys. This should be a challenge for both squads as both are looking like early contenders for first overall. The teams are 2 and 3 in the power rankings and boast the leagues best and second best defenses, in addition to being 1 and 2 in points and 2 and 3 in plus minus. This is a must see game.
- Sliders Vs. Dog Catchers. Can the Dog Catchers keep hitting at this ridiculous pace? Will the Sliders rebound from their first lost of the season and re-establish themselves as contenders?
No comments:
Post a Comment