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VOLUME:XLVII ... May 1, 2021

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April has the most games and it was pretty interesting. Tons of on-line games played in the Harwell Division which was great to see. League statistician Count Dracula barely woke up which is also great. Everyone is doing well as far as I know. We have one really tight pennant race, another kinda close and what is sure looking like a blowout in the other.

 

HARWELL DIV: alb2

Anybody heard of the 1984 Detroit Tigers? Albuquerque has reminded us. While their opponents helplessly watched each dice roll on ROLZ, the Horsemn racked up a spectacular 28-2 on-line record en route to a 35-5 April record and a 12 games lead. At home the Horsemen made Starrcade Stadium a house of horrors for visitors, posting a 19-1 record! Second place and already a dozen out of first is Knob Noster. The K'heads had a good month once they didn't play the Horsemen, going 23-17 overall (12-8h) while splitting their on-line games at 15-15. Havre de Grace settled into third place, 18 back. The Bucs were 17-23 (10-10h) last month. In 4th place 22 out of first and back in the league for a 7th time is Uniontown after a 13-27 (8-12h) month. The Raiders struggled on-line going 9-21 and all month their pitching staff got posterized. In the basement is Kentucky but just a game out of fourth. The Bourbons were 8-22 on-line and 12-28 (7-13h) overall last month.

 

CARAY DIV: stars2

Terrific race going on here with two teams over 500. Western NY has a tiny early lead. The North Stars were 28-12 (14-6h) in April but it's only a one game lead. The other team over 500 and right behind them is Laurel Highlands. The Mustangs were 27-13 (11-9h) last month that included an impressive 9-1 on-line mark. Lincoln has third place but already 11 out of first. The Lightning were 17-23 (7-13h) last month. A game behind them and 12 out of first is Centralia. The Minefires were 16-24 (8-12h) last month. At the bottom we find a feeble Syracuse crew, already 16 out of first after going a sad 12-28 (6-14h) last month. The Blues got whooped in their only on-line series 1-9.

 

ALLEN DIV: fatcats2

Ottawa, our reigning champion, has grabbed the lead in a division with three teams over 500. The Fat Cats have a five game lead after posting a 29-11 (14-6h) April record. Bennett Run has second place five games out of first. The Boilermakers were 24-16 (11-9h) in April. Third place and also over 500 is Burnsville. The Blaze are eight out of first and they recorded a 21-19 (11-9h) mark last month. Etiwanda is in fourth place but it's getting late early as they are 15 out of first. The Anteaters had a 14-26 mark last month, including an embarrassing 4-16 home record. Fifth place, seventeen out of first and last is Sin City. The Knights horrible hittting led to an inaugural month that didn't go great as the 12-28 (5-15h) record shows.

 

TEAM STATS: A look at team stats doesn't take very long to understand why Albuquerque is off to a roaring start. They lead the league in runs by 40, hits by 20, homers by 24, extra base hits by 30, total bases by 90, ISO by 060 and runners on base by about 45. Add in that they are third in pitching and you get the idea. Looking in general at team stats you see Laurel Highlands hits a lot of doubles. Ottawa and the Horsemen draw a lot of walks. Knob Noster, Lincoln & Kentucky like to steal while Albuquerque, Burnsville & WNY not so much. Lincoln and Kentucky get hit by pitches quite a bit. Laurel Highlands hits into a ton of doubleplays. Havre de Grace is making more than an error per game. Sin City may not hit very well but goodness they must have a heck of a lot of gold gloves. Speaking of their hitting, if you doubled the Knights run total it still wouldn't match Albuquerque. The Knights have 20 hits less than any other team, the fewest doubles and put the fewest runners on base. Syracuse (AKA "Ping City") is the only team that hasn't reached 50 homers, nor 500 total bases and their ISO (SLG minus AVG) is dead last. Only Centralia's two more extra base hits kept the Blues from being worse in that stat too. We have five teams with ERA's in the threes. Bennett Run's ERA is the only one in the twos and at the other end Uniontown is almost six. Lincoln & Sin City are well on their way to challenging the all-time Complete Games record. Ben Run is only team with under 50 HR allowed but look at that Etiwanda homers allowed total. YIKES! The Anteaters aren't bad at handing out walks either... All of team stats including home stats are under player stats on STATS page.

 

PLAYER STATS: martemckenzie On the player hitting side of the stat board, it's a head scratcher to see Ketal Marte (Syr) leading the league in average. There are three players with 400+ OBP and Mike Conforto (WNY) is best. We have Jose Abreu (Kno) the best of the five with 600+ slugging. It's Fernando Tatis (Lin) leading three others with 1000+ OPS. Mike Trout (Sin) now with a brand new team & away from Starrcade Stadium, tops our dinger listing. Mookie Betts (Kno) is the best of three with 40+ RBI. Somebody has to be a the bottom of the stats and for now it's having no fun at all is Renato Nunez (Utw)..... Rookie Triston McKenzie (Bur) is off to a sensational start to his career as the only pitcher under two in ERA. He is beating usual leader deGrom by nearly a full run. He's also got a hideously low league leading WHIP and even tops the H/9 list. Jacob deGrom (WNY) does have the lead in wins and pretty high up on all the other listings. It's Charlie Morton (Sin) on top of the other big three pitching stats, whiffs. That said nobody has lost more games than Charlie. Liam Hendriks (WNY) is once again leading everyone in saves. How about that K/BB ratio of Marco Gonzales (Kno). He's walked 2 and whiffed 53 over 48.7ip. We have two pitchers with ERA's in the 7's and Antonio Senzatela (Eti) is the worst of all.

 

PAGE TWO: boburnes Garrett Hampson (Utw) is hitting 500 (2/4) and two others are 1 for 2 but look at Juan Soto (Lin) who in his 89 pa's is hitting 392 (29/74). There are seven players hitting 000 but the "just disgusting" is Kolten Wong (Utw) who is 0 for 21. Whew! Bo Bichette (Sin) has ZERO extra base hits in his 70 at bats. Brandon Belt (Alb) has scored 39 runs. Xander Bogaerts (Hav) is a perfect 10 for 10 stealing while Rafael Devers has been caught 3 of his four attempts. Kyle Seager (Hav) & Michael Conforto (WNY) have been drilled 10 times and Shohei Ohtani (Syr) has never been hit in 180 pa. Pedro Severino (Hav) has 4 sac flies and Mitch Garver (Syr) has 3 sacs. Syracuse bunting?! Oh my! Franchy Cordero (LHi) has hit into 11 doubleplays and Alex Verdugo (Utw) has never done that during 176 pa. Xander Bogaerts (Hav) and Jurickson Profar (Hav) have made 12 errors. There are 48 players who have yet to play..... We have nine pitchers with 0.00 ERA, Shawn Armstrong (Hav) did that over 11ip. Robbie Ray (Syr) has a 17.62 ERA in his 7+ip. YOWSER! There are 42 undefeated pitchers and the best is Corbin Burnes (Alb) 5-0. At the other end there are 36 winless pitchers with Kyle Freeland (Utw) the King of losing at 0-6. Tanner Rainey (Syr) & Tyler Duffey (Ott) have pitched in 22 games and there are 38 still in the minors. We have fifteen pitchers with one CG shutout. Antonio Senzatela (Eti) has given up 18 gopher balls in 45+ip. Luke Weaver (Lin) has walked 32 in his 67ip

 

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Odds and Ends

 

bumMadison Bumgarner pitched a 7 inning no-hitter on April 25th and I think correctly not classified as an official no-hitter. A no-hitter is defined in 1991 by MLB: "A no-hitter is a game in which a pitcher or pitchers complete a game of nine innings or more without allowing a hit.". You could say that he couldn't pitch more than 7 innings because of the MLB dumb rule of seven inning doubleheaders. True but this one will go into the bin with the other games where a pitcher couldn't pitch 9 innings because of darkness, rain and the like. Walter Johnson tossed a 7 inning no-hit game that was called because of rain. It wasn't his fault he couldn't pitch 9 innings. Howie Camnitz lost a one in 1907 called early because of darkness. Not his fault the teams agreed to end it. Also two pitchers tossed losing no-hitters where they no-hit the winning home team. Not an official no-hitter because the home team didn't bat in 9th to make it a complete nine innings. All those used to be no-no's are considered "a notable achievment"... If you’re wondering if a pitcher can throw a perfect game with an automatic (ghost) runner on base, such as in extra innings, the answer is yes. According to Elias, "A perfect game is a game of at least nine innings where no batter reaches base safely. In the case of a runner on second to start the inning he is not a batter to reach safely. Therefore it is a perfect game.” He could actually lose the game but still pitch a perfect game. How disgusting is that? Sigh.

 

Minor league baseball is back. The Rocket City Trash Pandas (AA) along with Fredericksburg Nationals (low A), Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (low-A), Wichita Wind Surge (AA), Worcester Red Sox (AAA), Beloit Snappers (high A), Ft Myers Mighty Mussels (low A), Jersey Shore Blue Claws (high A), St Paul Saints (AAA), Somerset Patriots (AA) and the Sugar Land Skeeters (AAA) all are brand new Minor League teams finally getting to play their first ever games.

 

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