INTRO
The STATS have been less that superior of late. But I think we're better now. I had a missing game sheet last week. It happens, they show up so I don't worry too much about and it did turn up this week. Then I found out (thanks to Cliff Joseph) that I was in possession of a game sheet that I had completely forgotten to enter.
Unfortunately, the missing and the non-entered game sheets impacted the same team, the Beer Bros., so their stats have been a little out of whack.
Alas, this stats gig isn't as simple as it looks. Or maybe I'm more simple than I look.
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THIS WEEK IN GRISSLIELAND
It was a quieter Grisslieland than normal this week, but it wasn't without its special moments.
- Darren Ford made his first Grisslieland appearance! Welcome to the club. Usually there's another 7 or 8 people hanging around but it was still a decent first showing.
- Dave Fleming and Tito Presenza had an intersting discussion on the state of bats.
- Al Bales is clearly still upset with me throwing him out at first the other night. And I even bought him a coffee to make up for it. This might come down to arm wrestling (I'll lose).
- Rob explained how to properly run a beer league. I made notes for the August tournament and hope to get it right this year!
- The best part however was Doris Casullo announcing that he was coming off the disabled list on Tuesday to face Tito and the Hot Tub Woody's. Then he bent down to get a beer out of his cooler and pulled his groin. He'll be out 2 to 3 weeks.
QUICK NOTES:
- No rain outs!!! AGAIN!!! Yeoman's work from Al Bales and Dave Fleming over the past two Tuesdays. Make no mistake folks, if not for their efforts we would have 8 games rescheduled to 9:30. Players that calmly showed up to play their games, don't necessarily know that these guys were ankle deep in water for the bulk of the afternoon to get the field playable. Well done guys!
- We only lost 3 players in the 'hit in every game' competition this week. There are still 33 players left over 14 teams. Bonus points if you can figure out the team with no representatives.
- And the run in every game list lost Jim Rouleau and Kevin Cavalier this week leaving us with the final five!
Lets try something different this week. Game reviews are tedious and time consuming so lets try a team by team review. I'll do this by who had a good week, a so-so week and a down week by following a thumbs up, thumbs sideways and thumbs down method. Don't get too bent fellas, its just my opinion as I try to entertain. "Try" being the operative word.
Sliders 2-0
The Sliders weren't only 2-0, they were +28 on the week with a 9 run win over the Cleats and a 25-6 thrashing of the Rebels. Dennis Short enjoyed his first career 5 hit game and Rick Cudnik was 9/10 on the week.
Dodge City Rounders 2-0
In the running for 'best week' are the Dodge City Rounders who were also 2-0 with a +27. Dodge beat the Woody's, who have been near the top of the standings all season, by 4 before having a ridiculous offensive explosion against the Beer Bros. There's really too much to report about these guys. The Keith's (Dell and Beechey) both hit grand slams and Dell was cool 9/10 on the week. Meanwhile Scott Mason's 7/7 stands out as the high water mark in the league this season.
Hurtin' Units 1-0
Yep. Also deserving consideration for 'best week' are the Hurtin' Units. They have shaken the monkey and finally got in the win column. It was no small accomplishment beating a feisty Cleats squad. Mike Olliffe and Kevin Clouthier led the way in this game with 4/4 and 5/5 nights respectively.
Draft Kings 1-0
Ho-Hum. The Draft Kings have survived two separate 3 game losing streaks and are starting to look like a valid contender. The defense has been there since day one but they've been struggling with the bats. But this week they beat the very tough Blues Brothers by a 17-15 count. This is in large part due to Chuck Cragg's 5/5 performance.
Grisslies 1-0-1
The Grisslies dropped two 1 run games last week but shook it off to get three out of a possible 4 points this week. While they remain at .500 for the season (6-6-1) they have a +19. Rookie Micah Williams had the hot bat to ride this week going 8/9 including a game tying bottom of the 7th home runs against the Dog Catchers. Darren Ford also enjoyed a 5/5 night.
Dog Catchers 1-0-1
I'm not so sure that the Dog Catchers are as happy about not losing this as the Grisslies are. Truthfully, they were down in the tie and fought back late to take their lead. Their win was yet another double digit victory; this time the victims were the Gruesome Devils. Mike Candy had 7/7 week in helping gather 3 points for the Catchers. And as usual Mr Lahey had 5 to 10 home runs on the week.
Blues Brothers 1-1
The win was against the Sons of Pitches and the loss to the Draft Kings. In their victory the Blues Brothers were down 8-0 after 2 innings and would go on to score 17 unanswered runs. WOW! That's a remarkable turn around. Neil Pendlbury was unfazed by the split going 8/8 on the week.
Tap Masters 1-1
The Tap Masters dropped a 12-10 decision to the Sons Of Pitches before finishing the week with a 13-5 win over the suddenly human Hot Tub Woody's. The biggest news this week for the Tap Masters was Darrell Hager's first career home run in the Tottenham Old Timers. Congrats Darrell!
Sons Of Pitches 1-1
The week started with a huge 12 - 10 win over the Hot Tub Woody's. It looked for a while like they were going to continue that momentum into the game against the Blues Brothers. However, their 8 run lead wouldn't hold up. Derryl Gaudet was the best batter this week going 7/8.
Rusty Rebels 1-1
1-1 with the second worst plus/minus of the week at -15. The Rebs beat the Brew Jays in a tight game Tuesday before the wheels fell off against the Sliders on Thursday. Despite the rough second outing, Peter Holmann managed to go 6/7.
Brew Jays 0-1
Fair to say the Jays haven't found their stride yet. An unusual (for them) number of subs has probably led to some inconsistency. They were in the game against the Rebels but fell short by 4 runs. Bo Neiderhuber, Chuck Vanya and Mark Doyle are all over .800 .... feels like a team that should be turning the corner soon.
Gruesome Devils 0-1
There's no shame in this week's 10 run loss to the Dog Catchers, after all, they became the 8th team this season to fall to them by 10 or more. What is troubling for the 4-8 Devils is that they are 1-6 since their 3-2 start to the season. Trends aren't looking good. Robin Dickson was smoking this week with a 5/5 + 5 run performance!
Hot Tub Woody's 0-2
The good news is the Woody's are having fun. The not so good news is they lost a little traction on the group of hot teams at the top of the standings. Art Sagert continues with his Art Sagertness going 7 for 8 in the two defeats, hitting to all fields, sliding and carrying on like a school kid playing ball at recess!
Dusty Cleats 0-2
Injury's continue to plague the Cleats. If its sorted out by the end of August I definitely see them as a playoff factor. But right now its tough sledding. Losing by 9 to the Sliders on Tueday left a bit of a sour taste because they were up early in the game. And dropping the second game to the Units, who were full value for the win, stung a bit. But there are good and optimistic ball players on this squad and they'll turn it around. Calvin Steeves and Brian Richards were both 8/9 on the week. It looks like Cal's bat is all the way back. Positionally, he's getting more range and strength. Won't be long unitl Jimmy Rouleau is back and Winston is healthy and the full team can finally play.
Beer Bros. 0-2
This is the real hard luck story this week. 0-2 with a -34. The only word I know for that is "OUCH". Not too much sugar coating for this one. Paul Piellusch's 6/7 in the two games is the biggest highlight. One encouraging thing is that the Beer Bros. have had all 12 players out to games 6 times. I believe the Dog Catchers and Grisslies are tied in having all their players out 3 times each. So, the Beer Bros. guys are into it. Their engaged. That's a big thing. That lends to the thinking that this is just a blip.
The Beer Cup
The Beer Cup is in its 2nd year. Last years champs, the Dodge City Rounders retained the Beer Cup to start the season and defended it twice by beating the Blues Brothers and the Brew Jays. The Sons Of Pitches then defeated Dodge to take it over before losing it to the Rusty Rebels. The Rebels were defeated by the Tap Masters. The Tap Masters, who waited for a year to play for the cup were only able to retain it for a single game as they fell to the Beer Bros. The resilient Beer Bros. beat the 1st place Hot Tub Woody's to become the second team to retain the cup. However, their ownership wouldn't last the week as they fell to the Blues Brothers. The Blues Brothers would then defend against the Tap Masters and most recently by beating the 1st place Dog Catchers! But it wouldn't last. They fell to last years champs the Draft Kings.
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 Draft Kings will try to defend against the Sliders on Monday. If they get by that game they'll have to face the Grisslies on Thursday. Good luck!!!
Teams that have held the Beer Cup (7)
- Dodge City Rounders
- Sons Of Pitches
- Rusty Rebels
- Tap Masters
- Beer Bros.
- Blues Brothers
- Draft Kings
Teams that have defended the Beer Cup (3)
- Dodge City Rounders (2)
- Beer Bros. (1)
- Blues Brothers (2)
Teams that have Played a Beer Cup Game (10)
- Dodge City Rounders (3)
- Blues Brothers (4)
- Brew Jays
- Sons Of Pitches (2)
- Rusty Rebels (2)
- Tap Masters (3)
- Beer Bros.
- Hot Tub Woody's
- Dog Catchers
- Draft Kings
Teams that have yet to play for the Cup(5)
- Gruesome Devils.
- Sliders
- Dusty Cleats
- Grisslies
- Hurtin' Units
STATS
Team
CLOSED: This is how all teams finished after their 1st 11 games. The Woody's and Tap Masters won the 1st half with 9 of our 15 team at .500 or better.
Welcome to the 2nd half. If you were one of the poor sisters in the first half its time to make hay! (Sorry Doug DeLand, I don't mean LITERALLY make hay, its just an expression). As you'd expect with no one having played more than 3 games its very tight as Adrian Barry would say. But already, there's only 5 teams that haven't seen the loss column.
Full baseball style standings. I know the Dog Catchers have more points, but they're tied with the Tap Masters. Trust me.
Hits per run scored by team. This supposedly high lights the quick strike offenses which seems to be all of them! Take it for what its worth which probably isn't much. In my mind the defensive stats are way more interesting. Last year the Grisslies were in last place in this category at 3.07 and lets face it, we were terrible in every category. But second worst was the Tap Masters at 2.45 and they made it to the finals and had the lead until the bottom of the 7th. Go figure.
And here are your regular league standings that you'll also find on the website. There isn't a heck of a lot to choose from between spots 1 and 5. 6 to 11 can still make a legit push but there are a LOT of teams to pass so first is unlikely. Top 6 is still wide open.
There's some big changes here. 1 & 2 remain the same. The Blues Brothers moved up a spot even though they split games this week. That's probably because the Woody's took 2 on the chin and dropped a couple spots. The Rounders have by yo-yo'ing between 3 and 6 and find themselves in 4th this week. The Sons of Pitches and Gruesome Devils dropped but the Beer Bros. had particularly tough week going down 5 spots. The Brew Jays were 0-1 this week and went up 2 spots. The Sliders and Grisslies both nudged up a bit a couple.
Call this what you like. Reverse standing, potential standings? It kind of helps explain the magic / tragic number. Look at the Hurtin' Units. They have a max potential of 26 points if they win out. the Dog Catchers current point total is 20. So even my remedial math says that if the Dog Catchers get 3 wins its over. But the same is true for 3 more Units losses.
Now the Hurtin' Units and Dog Catchers both play twice next week. If the total number of Catchers wins and Units losses equal 3 or more, that will eliminate the Units from finishing first.
The Dog Catchers are still leading but they took a huge average hit this week. Down from .741 to .719. Catching them might still be impossible. What's staggering to me is that they are hitting over .100 points better than the Beer Bros., Rusty Rebels, Sons Of Pitches and Hurtin' Units.
So, as stated above, there's the Units 3 game tragic number. Depending on what happens with the 6's and the Dog Catchers and Tap Masters this week, the Beer Bros., Cleats, Devils and Jays may become topics. I have a feeling, or maybe a hope, that there will still be 10 or more teams with a shot at 1st overall in mid August.
INDIVIDUAL
Yes sir. there's been a lot of talk about this one. Skippy has literally had one bad game and it took him from running away to 5th. This is now WIDE OPEN! Chuck Cragg has been coming on like gang busters. But really, everyone in this list has been dead on consistent. Except Lahey. Now one has the power average combination that this guys does.
CLOSED
The Sliders next game will close this category and baring someone having a 14 for 14 night, it looks like Rick Hjelhot will take the honors. Not congrats yet, I don't want to jinx you.
We're very early into Q3 but as usual there a lot of guys flying out of the gate.
Skip gave everyone a peak at the lead, but Chuck Vanya, Jeff Behan and John Mulgrew better pounce because I don't think the door is going to stay open long.
How's the Nyers Vs. Hager dead heat grab ya? And don't forget about Laurier there in the weeds. Great Numbers top to bottom boys.
This is the first season tracking 3rd year players. Think about this, these guys were all rookies together! What a haul we had in 2012.
Bobby V finally has enough ABs to qualify and he's playing great! Dancy and Candy are simply ridiculous. But the story EVERYONE in the league is following is DeLand Vs DeLand! # 4 and # 5 on the most improved list and both having stellar seasons. Chuck Cragg, Mark Doyle, Doris Casullo and Mike Candy being on the list just tells me they've been sandbagging for years.
Laurier Plante? Probably my early pick for leagues most improved player.
Not much to say. Teams that hit well get lots of at bats. Good hitters get more at bats than me. Keep it going guys!
Is anyone else noticing Laurier's name in these lists with great regularity? I think Peter's 79 hits will be beaten in a shortened season. Will 85 fall?
Pendlebury, Plante and Lahey are only 11 runs away from surpassing the standard set in 2012. That was the first year that we actually tracked runs so it is a 'record' of sorts. A record obliterated by Terry's 61 in 2013. The question is can anyone stay hot enough for long enough to give that number a run in 2 less games? Doubt it, but these guys haven't let up yet.
CLOSED
Again, unless McCarron or Moon score 7 runs next week, this looks done and justifiably shared between Plante and Lahey.
No kidding eh? Pendlebury? Candy? Lahey? Mason? Plante? Okay Adrian, take the ball and run with it! Win the quarter.
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