VOLUME:XLIX ... June 1, 2023
LATEST NEWS
COMMISSIONER NOTES:
The headline this month is Jim Kockler. He's still struggling with care for his hospitalized son and resigned from the league. He said he just lost any desire to focus on the league or even baseball. Obviously family is far more important that any kind of games. I told Jim that when an opening came around, he'd be the first contact. I hope Jim's son recovers and everything gets back to normal for him... Jeremy Fisher has taken over Jim's team. He's a CPA and a former member of our spin off league, TCWBA. He did a fine job in that league making his team quite competitive. The new name of the team is Philadelphia Quakers. He'll be jumping right into game play on June 1st. Welcome Jeremy. I hope you're here for many years.
HARWELL DIV: 
Knob Noster racked up a 16-11 (7-7h) last month and stayed on top. The K'heads have a 10-4-0 (4-3-0h) series record, -1 home v away wins and a +105 run differential. Kentucky holding at two games from 1st, posted a 16-11 (9-5h) May record. The Boppers are also -1 home v away wins with a series record of 9-3-2 (4-2-1h) and their run diff is +45. Still very much in the hunt and in third, just 5 out, is Albuquerque after a 16-11 (7-7h) record last month. The Horsemen are +26 in runs, -2 in home wins and their series record is 10-4-0 (4-3-0h). Fourth and a big 18 games out of first in Uniontown who were 13-14 (7-7h) in May. The Raiders series mark is 3-10-1 (1-6-0h), -11 in home wins and their run diff is -54. In the cellar is Havre de Grace, 22 from first. The Bucs May record was 7-20 (3-11h), a series record of 1-12-1 (0-7-0h) and a horrible -127 in runs... In on-line play last month, Knobbies 10-8, Albuquerque was also 10-8.
CARAY DIV: 
Syracuse in first extended their lead to 7 games after a 16-11 (8-5h) record last month. The Blue are +3 in home v away wins, a run differential of +109 and their series record is 12-2-0 (6-1-0h). Rochester still in second had a May record of 13-14 (5-8h). The Robins are -4 in home wins, a series record of 9-4-1 (4-3-0h) and the run diff is +33. Lincoln has third right now and 16 out of first. The Lightning were 11-16 (5-8h) last month, +1 at home, a +15 run diff along with a 4-6-4 (2-2-3h) series record. Just one game behind them in fourth is Laurel Highlands after their 15-12 (7-6h) May. The Mustangs have a series record of 5-8-1 (3-3-1h), -47 in runs and +2 in home wins. At the bottom is Iron City/Philadelphia now 21 out of first and 4 back from 4th and last month they were an awful 9-18 (3-10h). The Houserockers/Quakers run diff is -99, -2 in home wins along have a series record of 2-12-0 (1-6-0h)... On-line in May, it was Laurel Highlands 4-5, Rochester 7-11, Syracuse 4-5.
ALLEN DIV: 
Ottawa remains in first and now by 7 games after their 10-8 (6-3h) month. The Fat Cats have a series record of 9-2-1 (6-0-0h), +2 in home wins and their run differential is +70. Burnsville in second place now after a 9-9 (5-4h) May. The Blaze are +5 in home wins, +20 in run diff and a series record of 7-5-0 (5-1-0h). A game behind them in 3rd is Atlanta after they went 10-8 (5-4h) last month. The Black Crackers are -14 in runs, -2 in home wins and their series mark is 6-5-1 (3-2-1h). Etiwanda holds 4th, 12 games out of first after going 7-11 (5-4h) in May. The Anteaters series record is 5-7-0 (3-3-0), they're -24 in runs and +4 in home v away wins. It's Bennett Run in the basement and 15 out of first after a 12-6 (5-4h) month. The B'makers are -1 in home wins, -50 in runs and they have a series mark of 3-8-1 (1-4-1h)... On-line in May we had Atlanta 10-8, Ottawa 5-4.
TEAM STATS:
On the hitting side Syracuse tops everyone in OPS, SLG, OBP, homers, total bases, extra base hits, runs and runners on base. Kentucky has the best batting average, most hits, getting hit by pitches and the only team with 50+ steals. Lincoln the best in drawing walks and legging out doubles. It's not all pretty stuff visible on the list. Two teams, Uniontown and Havre de Grace are hitting under 200 in average. Etiwanda and Iron City/Philadelphia homer totals are almost funny. Stealing isn't a thing in Uniontown. Helping pitchers by hitting into DP's is an IC/Philadelphia specialty. Laurel Highlands & Havre de Grace are brutal in committing errors..... On the pitching side of team stats Burnsville has quite a pitching staff and is the only team in the two for ERA. Rarely walking anyone helps that. The Horsemen and Robins best in shutouts. IC/Philly, Kentucky & Albuquerque all with 100+ homers allowed. Really horrific ERA for IC/Philadelphia at over 5 and giving up 600+ hits helps do that. Laurel Highlands pitchers are horrible at finding out the plate don't move, walking a staggering 260+ batters.
PLAYER STATS: 
Aaron Judge (Syr) is putting on a power show. He's miles in front for the homer & RBI crowns. He's the only guy with 700 slg pct (almost 800) and nearly a 1200 OPS with only his teammate near 1000. Steven Kwan (Iro/Phi) still hitting 300+ and top man in average but Freddie Freeman (Syr) is just a hair behind him and Judge is the only other one hitting 300. Freeman has the most hits. Garrett Cooper (Eti) leading the league in doubles while it's Ahmed Rosario (Utw) holding the triples lead. No one is remotely close to Juan Soto (Lin) in drawing walks. If you like steals, Jake McCarthy (Ben) is your top dog. Digging around near the bottom of the barrel we find Isaac Paredes (Alb) sporting a near Ozone 103 batting average is the leagues worst hitter of 105 who qualified. You wonder how he gets to play. The cool breeze you feel is coming from Javier Baez (Hav) who has whiffed 87 times..... On the hill Zac Gallen (Ken) still baffling everyone with a spectacular 1.66 ERA. No one else is even in the ones. Zac is also one of five with league leading 8 wins. Gerrit Cole (Syr) has the final third of the pitchers triple crown with 105 k's just a touch better than Justin Verlander (Alb) with 103. Edwin Diaz (Roc) trying to keep the eight year run of Saves titles with Reagan, is deadlocked with Connor Brogdon (Ott) at 24. Statheads see Zac Gallen (Ken) on top the WHIP board a comical 0.66 WHIP and also leading the H/9 list with a tiny 3.9 average. Gerrit Cole (Syr) has 12.2 K/9 rate, Triston McKenzie (Alb) best in K/BB ratio. Only Pablo Sandoval (Utw) has double digit loses and Adam Wainwright (Iro/Phi) the worst ERA pitcher of 52 qualified.
PAGE TWO: 
Hitting: Elvis Andrus (Kno) may be 1 for 2 (500) but impressive numbers by Jonathan India (LHi) who 7 for 16 (438) and then there is Shea Langeliers (Ott) who is 0 for 18... Reese "Ping" McGuire (Alb) still looking for an extra base hit after 65 at bats! No he's not a pitcher... Freddie Freeman has scored 55 runs... Trea Turner (Kno) has been nailed 6 of 22 steal attempts while Jorge Mateo (Ott) & Kolten Wong (Lin) are perfect at 14 for 14... Shohei Ohtani (Syr) has never been hit on 274 PA's and Andres Gimenez (Ken) been drilled 14 times... Not many care but Matt Chapman (Ott) has 5 sac flies and Harrison Bader (Syr) has 2 bunt hits... Joey Meneses (Kno) and Kyle Schwarber (Ken) have hit into 9 doubleplays and at the other end Marcus Semien (Roc) has never done it on 271 PA's... Trea Turner (Kno) has already made 20 errors & Albuquerque pitchers have botched 6 plays.
Pitching: Joe Musgrove (Kno) has an 8-0 WL record and Michael Wacha (Ben) is 0-7... Griffin Jax (Atl) after 25.0ip has a 0.00 ERA while Corey Knebel (Ben) after his 12.7ip checks in at 11.37!!... Aaron Nola (Syr) has tossed 4 complete games... Seventeen pitchers have 1 shutout... Zack Greinke (Hav) has given up 18 dingers in 67.7ip while no one has taken Alex Cobb (Kno) deep in 31.0ip... Edward Cabrera (LHi) has walked 44 in 66.0ip & Richard Bleier (Ott) just one in 22.0ip... Brock Burke (Bur) has been in 53 of their 58 games.
REMINDERS:
- At the end of each month, there are three days rest
- Per MLB rules - Active roster cannot have more than 13 pitchers. It goes to 14 in September when we expand to 30 active players.
- Per MLB rules - The "ghost" or "Manfred Man" runner is placed on 2nd base in each extra inning
... IMPORTANT DATES ...
- Jul 29-31 (Sat-Mon): the mid-season trade window
- Oct 1 (Sun): Playoffs
THE SHOW
First checkpoint in the MLB season and it looks a little different. Is it the ball? The pitch clock? The balanced schedule?
The average game time is 2:37 which is 30 minutes quicker than last year. There have been 162 auto called strikes on batters and 362 auto called balls on pitchers. League stats vs Memorial Day stats, the league batting average 248 (240 in 2022), Homers are at 1853 (1478 in 2022), stolen bases are 1129 (738 in 2022), runs are 7330 (6276 in 2022). Impressive jump in homers and steals... The AL team averages are ERA at 4.23 and hitting average is 245. In the NL it's 251 hitting and 4.37 for ERA.
Tampa has a 270 team batting average and already over 100 homers. The Athletics have a chance at being the worst teams in MLB history. They're on pace for a 29-133 record. Their team ERA is well over 6 and team hitting is barely over 220. The have hardly any talent, nobody shows up and after one more year of playing in the RingCentral Coliseum toilet, they're moving to Vegas in 2024. Nice history isn't it? Philadelphia to Kansas City to Oakland and next it's Las Vegas. I wonder how the Oakland team memorabilia shop is doing.
ALE: Tampa Bay, surprising all those who felt they'd do well staying out of last place, is a beast! The only reason they don't have a huge lead is the Baltimore Orioles, yeah really the Orioles, are just as hot and only four back. The Yankees? Barely holding onto 3rd place with half a lineup and half a rotation. They suck. Boston and Toronto are fighting to see who is worse.
ALC: Not a big shock that Minnesota is on top but one game behind them is Detroit. The Detroit Tigers!? Joe Skovran would've been so happy. Cleveland with hardly any offense is struggling to stay near those two and sport an AL team batting average almost dead last and is dead last AL slugging. Chicago & getting close to Cleveland with not much hitting. KC is once again a doormat.
ALW: Texas! I guess all that money tossed around this off season is working. The Rangers are two up on Houston but the Astros are closing on them pretty quickly and despite all the rotation injuries a league best 3.61 team ERA. Seattle is pitching great but wondering if anyone can hit. The Angels with two of the best players in the world, continue just barely playing 500 ball. Speaking of doormats, sewars and AAA baseball, here sits Oakland dead last.
NLE: As expected Atlanta on top but 2nd is Miami?! Whew, the Marlins ahead of the Mets. It seems the Scherzer/Verlander show isn't something special with a team ERA 13th of the 15 teams. Money isn't everything, is it? The Phillies playing possum again are 4th, barely ahead of the AAA Nationals.
NLC: Not big surprise to find Milwaukee leading but breathing down their neck is Pittsburgh!!! The 2022 one hundred loss, Pittsburgh Pirates folks! Cinci, St Louis and the Cubs kind of hanging around but it's not pretty. Not much hitting, seldom good pitching.
NLW: You didn't really think anyone but the Dodgers would win this one did you? It took them a while but Arizona's bubble burst and the D'backs have fallen to one back in loss column and headed down. San Fran playing 500 ball is ahead of the hot shot Padres. Soto, Tatis, Machado, Darvish etc. All that money equals fourth place right now and barely ahead of the no names Rockies.
Tip of the cap to Liam Hendriks after beating cancer. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma put him on the Injured list in October of 2022 and on Memorial Day 2023 he returned to the mound in the 8th inning against the Angels. “Yeah, it was great being back out there,” said Hendriks during his postgame press conference. “Getting back, putting cleats on, running out, doing all that. I felt good, I felt strong, I felt comfortable out there."
Welcome back mate!