October 22,
2004
Richmond Rockers take Series Crown
RICHMOND, VA
-- The Richmond Rockers,
led by manager Chris Tomlinson, defeated the Moon Raiders
four games to one in the first Thunder Bay Baseball League
World Series. The 2004 Rockers were built mainly on
starting pitching, but mixed in a few great hitters and a
top of the line closer acquired at the trade deadline to
become champions. An early season trade for Roy Halladay
paid dividends throughout the postseason, as Halladay won 2
games in his 3 postseason series'. Pedro Martinez, the
Rockers 1st round selection in the 2004 Draft, went 4-1 with
a 1.51 ERA during the playoffs as well. 3B Bill Mueller had
a great postseason also, smacking 3 homers, driving in 16
runs in 16 games, while batting .317. Congratulations to
the 2004 Thunder Bay Champion Richmond Rockers.
October 22,
2004
The News Feature Ready
THUNDER BAY, NJ -- The
long awaited news room is on the air. Check back frequently
for updates.
May 1, 2004
DUGOUT NEWS Volume 2
DUNKIRK, NB
-- Time to cash in the
chips, and collect on the bets? The Richmond Rockers lead
the division with the best record in the TBBL at 36-14, a
massive 9 games in front of their nearest rival after only 2
months. It's looking like a lock already. Pedro Martinez
leads the Rockers staff with a 7-1 record, closely followed
by Jamie Moyer (6-1) and Roy Halladay (6-3). Halladay owns
the best ERA of the bunch at a not exactly sparkling 3.51,
but it's still good enough for 4th in the AL ERA title race,
as offense has been king so far in the TBBL. Offensively,
the outlook is just as bleak for Richmond's opponents. Trot
Nixon and Jose Guillen are tied for second in the AL,
batting at a .340 clip, and Bill Mueller isn't too far
behind at .335. Jim Edmonds jointly leads the AL home run
race with 20, and Javy Lopez is second in ribbies with 54.
With this sort of quality across the board it's lights out
in the East. Not convinced? Consider this.... the gap
between 1st and 2nd (9 games) is larger than the gap between
2nd and 5th (8 1/2 games). Thank you and goodnight.
It seems we have something
of a race going on here! Kentucky lead Asgard (now where
have I heard that name before?) by only 3 games. It's going
to take a Herculean effort by Simi Valley to haul themselves
in to it, and Grayslake and Michigan's goose is looking
cooked. A quick look over the stats reveals that Kentucky,
who have the three game edge at the moment, are the
favorites to stay in that position. The run differentials of
the two teams provides the most telling statistic. Kentucky
have scored 300, and given up just 214, whilst Asgard have
scored 247, but given up 231. If we crunch these numbers
using Bill James Pythagorean formula, we see something
interesting. At the current rate of runs scored and allowed,
Kentucky 'should' be playing at a .662 clip, or, at this
stage of the season, they 'should' have 33 wins. They
currently have 32, so it can be said that they are playing
slightly below expectations. On the other hand, Asgard's
Pythagorean numbers, given their current rate of runs scored
and allowed 'should' be a .541 winning percentage, which
translates to 25 wins at this point. They currently have 27,
so are playing slightly above where they 'should' be.
Extrapolate this to a whole season, and Kentucky wins the
division by 20 games. This is all just speculation of
course, but fun nonetheless.
Does no one want to win this
division? Louisville lead the way with the worst record
amongst first place teams in the TBBL, 28-21. Only 1 game
back are Chemung at 27-22, followed closely by Doolie a
further game back at 26-23. This is the weakest division in
the TBBL, and is wide open for a team strong enough to make
a run at the title, but has anyone got the talent? Leaders
Louisville have no one in the top 10 of the Home Run or RBI
races, and only Travis Lee is making any sort of impact,
currently 3rd in batting with .337. Doolie players own the
2,3, and 4 spots in the Home run race with Chipper Jones
(14), Mike Lowell (12) and Carlos Delgado (12). They are
also making a decent showing on the pitching side with Kerry
Wood and Esteban Loaiza, but Victor Zambrano (2-6, 6.02) has
been disappointing. They have the talent to win it, but
don't seem to be able to put it all together just yet. Don't
bet against them though. What of the other contender,
Chemung? Well, Jeter is currently second in batting with a
.352 mark, and Jay Gibbons (.310/1/17) and Vernon Wells
(.306/8/43) have also made strong showings, but it's the
pitching that has been letting them down. Only Mark Prior
has pitched well, but he has suffered from a lack of run
support, with only 3.4 runs per game being scored when he
takes the hill. The race remains wide open.
I think it is safe to say
that either San Francisco (35-15) or Moon (33-16) is going
to win this division. The third place team, Cheyenne are
spluttering along at 24-25, and are already 10 1/2 games
back. Mike Mussina (7-1, 3.99) and Darrell May (6-2, 2.70)
have been a solid 1-2 punch. Albert Pujols leads the way
with the bat, and is threatening the triple crown with his
.333/22/52 showing sow far. After that? Well, Carlos Guillen
is surprising many with his gaudy .321 average, but sooner
or later he will return to type, and Juan Pierre has been a
rabbit on the base paths, leading the NL with 16 swipes.
This is a talented team, but whether or not they have the
depth to make it all the way remains to be seen. Moon have
had strong showings from Javier Vazquez (7-1, 2.44) and Ted
Lilly (8-0, 3.05), but with no one else making much of an
impact from the mound, these two are going to have to
continue in this vein to keep the Raiders in the race,
notwithstanding the so far good performances from Jorge
Posada (.310/9/31), Carlos Beltran (.304/11/29), Angel
Berroa (.279/10/28) and Carlos Lee (.282/9/39).
April 1, 2004
DUGOUT NEWS Volume 1
DUNKIRK, NJ -- Well, the
first month of the TBBL is in the bag and the divisions are
starting to shape up. In the AL East, perhaps
unsurprisingly, the Richmond Rockers head the division by 5
1/2 games with a record of 19-7. In a huge pre season trade
with my very own Knights, Richmond GM Chris Tomlinson made
clear his plans for the season by trading, not to put too
fine a point on it, his future to New Britain. The Knights
sent stud pitcher Roy Halladay to Richmond for prospects
Andy Marte, Jeff Francouer, Jason Lane, Rice University
pitching stud Jeff Niemann, and a slew of first round picks.
No one is complaining right now though. The Rockers have the
best record in the TBBL, and have a front four of Pedro
Martinez, Roy Halladay, Bartolo Colon and Jamie Moyer.
Clearly they are going to be very difficult to beat this
season, and hey, it's not like these guys are over the hill
veterans with one good year left in them (well, maybe Jamie
Moyer, but you get my point), this rotation is going to be
around for a while yet, and as long as they are, the Rockers
will be contending. Heck, this rotation could carry the '03
Tigers to the playoffs. Limping along in second place are
the (mostly) young Northwoods Lagers with a record of 13-12.
The Florida Devils occupy third place with a disappointing
12-14 mark. The Devils spent heavily on sluggers in the
initial draft, picking up Bret Boone, Jim Thome, Preston
Wilson, Miguel Tejada and Sammy Sosa. They then traded Sosa,
Randy Johnson, Shane Spencer and Trevor Hoffman to Asgard
for Dontrelle Willis, Kevin Millar, Jeromy Burnitz and Scott
Stewart. So, there is a lot of talent on this club, but I
cant help thinking that losing Randy Johnson denied them the
stopper that their rotation needs. It remains to be seen
whether or not the thunder in the middle of their line up
will be able to counteract having Kaz Ishii in the number 2
slot. Jersey lie in 4th at 9-13, and Dunkirk prop up the
division with a 7-17 record. Dunkirk drafted for the future,
but what's Jersey's excuse? They picked up Alfonso Soriano,
Nomar Garciaparra, Ichiro Suzuki, Jason Giambi, Rafael
Palmeiro, and many others, along with Kevin Brown, Odalis
Perez, Mike Hampton and John Smoltz. As with Florida, the
hitting is better than the pitching, so they too, it seems
are going to live or die by the Louisville Slugger. Over in
the AL West, we currently have a tie for first between the
Asgard Norsemen (15-9) and the Kentucky Wildcats (17-11).
These are two evenly matched teams. Kentucky have Curt
Schilling, Asgard have Randy Johnson, Kentucky have Eric
Gagne, Asgard have Mariano Rivera, Kentucky have Barry
Bonds, Asgard have, well, Sammy Sosa. Could Bonds be the
difference between the teams when push comes to shove down
the stretch? No player in the modern day game changes games
like Barry Bonds. The best that pitchers can do with him is
to give him a free pass to first, hardly a solution. Watch
this race as the season progresses, it should be
fascinating, but I have a hunch that Bonds will lead the
Wildcats to the title because he's, well, Bonds. Grayslake
(10-11), Michigan (11-13) and Simi Valley (10-16) round out
the division. As with the AL East, Grayslake and Michigan
are, to some degree built for future success, but Simi
Valley, with players such as Todd Helton, Garret Anderson,
Andy Pettitte, Steve Trachsel, John Burkett and Edgar
Martinez are looking win at some point within the next few
years. A 10 and 16 start isn't disastrous just yet, but
management and fans expected a lot more from these guys when
they were drafted.
In the Senior Circuit, the Doolie Superbas (14-9) head the
Eastern Division by half a game from the Louisville Colonels
(15-11), with the Chemung Crawdads (13-11) only a further
game behind. This looks like it's going to shape up to be
the tightest division of them all. Forget Stone Mountain
(10-11) and New Britain (9-16), the future is their domain,
but there is precious little separating the top three sides.
This division will go the team that beats up on New Britain
the best. At the moment, Doolie split eight games with them,
Louisville have split four, but the prize for the best
record against the league whipping boys so far goes to the
Chemung Crawdads and their comprehensive 4-1 thrashing of
the Canadian outfit. Bookmakers have installed the Crawdads
as division favorites on the strength of this. New Britain,
for their part, are amazed not be the worst team in the TBBL
so far. Both Omaha and Dunkirk have worse records than the
Knights. We spoke to Knights GM Shaun Gratton, after the
final game of the month, which turned out to be their second
win in a row against the powerhouse Superbas.....
"So, Shaun Gratton, you must be pretty pleased with the way
your boys have played so far. Everyone predicted not just
the NL East cellar, but TBBL cellar numbers too". "Hell no!
We put these guys together to lose this season dammit. You
never seen 'Major League'? We wont be relocating, and I sure
as shit ain't an ex Vegas showgirl, but losing is our
'Raison D'Etre'". "Sorry, your raisin what"?
"Raisins, who the hell said anything about raisins? They're
just little dried Grapes man"
"You did, just now"
"That was French, numbnuts"
With that, Gratton stormed into the clubhouse, and started
shouting at his hapless players about how he was going to
introduce a series of fines for good play, and offered
$30,000 of his own money to any man voted NL Least Valuable
Player this season.
We left him to it, as he is clearly unhinged.
In the slightly saner atmosphere of the NL West, It's
looking at the moment like a two horse race between the Moon
Raiders (17-8), and the San Francisco Seals (16-8). Both
these teams tried to tread the thin line between drafting
for now, or the future during the initial signings, and for
now at least, the plan seems to have worked. They both have
a solid core of young players who are at the point where
they can perform at the major league level. They could be
slugging it out at the top of the division for many years to
come, but perhaps a World Series title this season is too
much to expect given the quality of teams such as Richmond,
Asgard and Kentucky, who would ultimately stand in their
way. Cheyenne (11-13), Beartooth (7-15), and to a lesser
extent Omaha (7-17) all built their teams for future success
(although Omaha have veterans such as Luis Gonzalez, Moises
Alou and Andres Galarraga, which may cause problems down the
line).
Will New Britain continue to win games they shouldn't? Will
Barry Bonds find the BALCO affair distraction enough to
affect his game? Will I be allowed to write another monthly
article after this rambling nonsense? Check in at the end of
May to get answers to all these questions and more!
|
