SBL Notebook, Week 25

Congratulations to the Zero's, whose long-expected coronation as American division champions becomes official as of today. They went 7-0 in Week 25, while the second-place Moaners went 3-4 to drop seven games back with six to play, and that, as they say in baseball, was that. Meanwhile, there's more "that" to be determined in the National division, where both races are coming down to the final week. the Cherry Valley Bombers are still looking like good bets for the division title, maintaining the four-game lead they enjoyed last week, but the wild-card race is now a dead heat between the Godfathers and the Derelicts. More on that in a bit; first, let us celebrate the mighty Z's. The Zero's have occupied first place in the AL and kept the Best Record In Ball under lock and key since Week 14, so nothing about their clinching comes as a surprise. Nonetheless, after their little 2-4 hiccup in Week 24 had allowed the Moaners to make a very brief threatening gesture, pulling to within three games, the Z's put pedal to metal and wrapped things up with a kill-'em-all-including-the-women-and-children performance that included two 11-0 shutouts, two 10.5-.5 wipeouts and two 9-2 blowouts. Pouring it on as if intent on eradicating any lingering doubt about just who was the bull-goose loony in the AL asylum (like there was any doubt to begin with), the Zero's racked up 43 runs, 41 RBIs, 11 HRs, a .389 OBP, 2.38 ERA, .82 BR stat, 1.13 K-rate and 6 saves. So comprehensive was their dominance that even the white-hot Bombers, 29-2 over the previous five weeks and quite possibly destined for a postseason showdown with the Z's, were humbled by the AL champs in a 9-2 interleague defeat. . . . This is hardly virgin territory for the Zero's, who've lived in the SBL's high-rent district for years. This is their second AL flag in three years and their third consecutive playoff berth -- in 2009 they won "the whole . . . f**kin' . . . thing," as Indians catcher Jake Taylor put it in "Major League" -- and they've finished lower than second place only twice since 2004. Now, it's on to the playoffs, where the Z's first-round opponent will be . . . who the f**k knows? The Godfathers had been scuffling since the end of interleague play, going 11-14 in Weeks 21-24 to fall from first place to third in the NL. But they put it all together in Week 25, bashing their way to a 7-0 run fueled by league-leading totals in RBIs (43), OBP (.391) and TB (39). The CVBs went 5-2 -- to repeat, that's as many losses as the Bombers had suffered in the previous five weeks combined -- and so did the Derelicts, whose two-game edge on the Godfathers dissolved into a second-place tie, and here we are. . . . We head into the final week with clear lines between haves and have-nots, a situation we'd largely avoided for most of a season marked by unusual competitive balance. With one week to go, however, we have something that looks closer to the customary SBL stratification -- one 101-win team (Zero's), four in the 90s (CVBs, M's, G-Daddies, DD's), and everyone else well below the top tier. A late-season fade by the Bammers (1-18 the last three weeks, an exact counterpoint to their 18-1 start back in April) has dragged them all the way down to .500, leaving the Zero's and Moaners as the only AL teams with winning records. In the NL, fifth-place DamianUnited, who'd been flirting with it for weeks, finally dipped below the break-even point (76-80) with an 0-7 accident, and the Inmates, in first place as recently as Week 19, went 2-5, continuing a prolonged slide (11-33 the last seven weeks) that has left them just four games above .500.

Week 25 standings

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Zero's (7-0)...............101...55....647....--
Moaners (3-4).............94...62....603.....7
Bammers (1-6)............78...78....500....23
Badgers (6-1).............72...84....462....29
Barristers (2-5)...........51..105....327....50
Puny Pontiffs (0-7).......35..121....224....66
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Bombers (5-2).............96...60....615....--
Godfathers (7-0)..........92...64....590.....4
Derelicts (5-2).............92...64....590.....4
Inmates (2-5).............80...76....513....16
DamianUnited (0-7)......76...80....487....20
Whiteskins (4-3)..........69...87....442....27

SBL Notebook, Week 24

Strange, sometimes, the way things go in the SBL. One week the National division race is as hot and heavy as Brangelina and the American division race is looking as dry and lifeless as a lunar landscape, and the next week everything is turned upside down. Now it's the NL pennant chase that's starting to look a little more like a foregone conclusion, and the AL race that has suddenly taken on a more up-for-grabs appearance. Could it really have been only two weeks ago that the NL standings featured a three-way deadlock at the top, with a fourth team only three games back? That's a true story . . . but as the Cherry Valley Bombers continue their late-summer rampage, and their pursuers struggle to keep up, the distance between hunted and hunters keeps growing. A second consecutive 6-0 week by the CVBs, combined with a 3-3 by the Derelicts and a 2-4 by the Godfathers, left the Bombers with a four-game bulge on the Double-Ds and six up on the G-Daddies, with only 13 games to play. Meanwhile, an AL race that stagnated for months as the Zero's maintained a death grip on the best record in ball has grown unexpectedly uncomfortable for the Z's, who went 2-4 while the runners-up Moaners cobbled together a second successive 6-0 week and crept to within three games of the top. The good news for the Zero's: They clinched a playoff berth (as did the Moaners), because the third-place Bammers went 0-6 for the second straight week and were eliminated from the postseason picture -- 17 games behind the Z's and 14 out of the wild-card spot occupied by the M's. The bad news for the Zero's: Their sustained period of mediocrity -- 17-20 over the last six weeks -- allowed the Moaners to hang around, staying close enough for their 12-0 mini-surge the last two weeks to make things interesting. The Zed's have been the BTIB since Week 14, enjoyed a season-best 13-game lead at the Week 18 milepost, were cruising with a nine-game advantage as recently as Week 22 and never led by fewer than seven in the nine weeks preceding this one. Now they may need to shake out of their doldrums fast or risk being overtaken at the wire. That, or hope that the Moaners experience a week in which their win-loss totals are more commensurate with their stat line. The M's, who took the scorched-earth route to their Week 23 perfecto, this week went 6-0 with what looked more like 2-4ish numbers. Not the first time that's happened this year, either. The M's were lights-out in two stats -- SBs and saves (8 of each) -- and pedestrian pretty much everywhere else. Nevertheless, 32 runs, 28 RBIs, 29 TB, a .308 OBP, 8 HRs, a 3.48 ERA, 1.23 BR ratio and 2-1 WL added up to two 6-5 wins, three 7-4 victories and another unblemished ledger, taking them past the 90-win threshold. All the earth-scorching in Week 24 was done by the Bombers, who've been doing a lot of that lately -- going 29-2 over the last five weeks to surge from eight games behind to four ahead. This week they once again made like the tripods in "War of the Worlds," vaporizing everything in their path with 53 TB, 43 runs, 43 BI, 12 HRs, a .397 OBP . . . and, as if that wasn't enough, a 1.49 ERA, .83 BR rate, 6-0 WL and five saves. That's league highs in seven stats and second-best totals in two others. No wonder they won four games by 10-1 scores and the other two by 9-2. If the CVBs had played the Moaners this week -- a game that might actually become reality in the playoffs -- it would have been Bombers 9, M's 2. As it was, both teams got to celebrate the same outcome, a 6-0 run. . . . In the bad news department, the Batfaced Barristers suffered their 100th defeat, joining the Puny Pontiffs in the Triple Digit Loss Club (the "good" news there -- no other team will be earning that dubious distinction this year). . . . Hard-luck award for the week goes to the Godfathers, whose numbers suggested something better than 2-4, but who were undone by two close (one of them excruciatingly so) tiebreaker losses. Still, the 'Daddies are only two games out of the NL wild card -- the closest race we've got going at the moment.

Week 24 standings

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Zero's (2-4)................94...55....631....--
Moaners (6-0).............91...58....611.....3
Bammers (0-6)............77...72....517....17
Badgers (4-2).............66...83....443....28
Barristers (1-5)...........49..100....329....45
Pontiffs (3-3).............35..114....235....59
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Bombers (6-0).............91...58....611....--
Derelicts (3-3).............87...62....584.....4
Godfathers (2-4)..........85...64....570.....6
Inmates (1-5).............78...71....523....13
DamianUnited (3-3)......76...73....510....15
Whiteskins (5-1)..........65...84....436....26

Free agent draft No. 12

Pre-draft DL moves:
DamianUnited activate and drop 2B Guillen; activate OF N.Cruz, drop Boesch
Pontiffs activate and drop OF Sizemore

1. Pontiffs take OF De Aza; Ethier to DL
2. Barristers take 1B Evans, drop Morneau
3. Whiteskins take OF Fowler, drop Murphy
4. Badgers take RP Moore, drop D.Hernandez
5. DamianUnited take 1B Smoak, drop Dunn;
........Taxi: Dempster up, Karstens down
6. Inmates take RP Acosta, drop Street
7. Bammers take SP Pomeranz, drop Zimmerman;
........Taxi: Pomeranz up, Norris down
8. Godfathers pass
9. Derelicts take SP Nova, drop Luebke;
........Taxi: Romero up, Marcum down
10. Moaners take OF E.Thames, drop Brantley
11. Bombers take SP Harang, drop Baker;
........Taxi: Harang up, G.Gonzalez down
12. Zero's take RP J.Johnson, drop Gregg

SBL Notebook: Week 23

"And then there were three." Besides being the title of perhaps the weakest album Genesis released in the 1970s (for those keeping score at home, their third LP after the departure of Peter Gabriel, and their first after lead guitarist Steve Hackett left the band, leaving only keyboardist Tony Banks, singer/drummer Phil Collins and bassist/rhythm guitarist Michael Rutherford to carry on . . . with a feeling-their-way transitional record before they bounced back a couple years later with the stronger "Duke" . . . ah, but we digress), that phrase more or less describes the current state of the riveting National division race -- which also appears to have been reduced from a quartet to a trio. The Cherry Valley Bombers continued their scorching-hot late-summer surge with a 6-0 week that took their record for the last four weeks to 23-2 and left them alone in first place. The Derelicts and the Godfathers each went 4-2 and are tied for second, two games back. But the Inmates -- who've spent more time (11 weeks) in first place than any other NL club this season -- suffered a second consecutive reversal of fortune, a 1-5 nose-dive piled atop last week's 0-7 crash-and-burn, and find themselves eight games out of first place and six out of the wild card. With only 19 left to play, that looks a lot more like a mountain than a molehill for the Mental Defectives to climb. . . . Meanwhile, the American division, which a week earlier had an ultra-tight wild-card affair going on -- a dead heat between the Moaners and the Bammers -- was reintroduced to the concept of wide-open spaces. The Moaners put together perhaps the most dominating week in the SBL this year, and although it moved them only two games closer to BTIB Zero's (who still lead by seven), it coincided with an unexpected 0-6 tailspin by the Bammers, who tumbled all-but-mathematically out of the division race, and six games behind the M's in the wild-card hunt. . . . The week was mostly about offense, and the Moaners certainly had their share of that -- league-leading totals of 51 RBIs and 12 HRs, plus 39 runs and 39 TB. But what really set them apart from the crowd, and turned all six of their games into blowouts, was some uncharacteristically strong pitching, from a team more accustomed to detonating stink bombs on the mound. For the first time all season they posted the week's lowest ERA, and though it was a fairly modest 2.66, in Moaner World it was something close to Shangri-La and Xanadu rolled into one -- only the team's fifth sub-3.00 ERA all season . . . as opposed to their 14 of 4.00 or higher. They also led the pack with 10 saves (second-highest total in the league in 2011) and posted the week's second-best BR stat (1.07) and K-rate (1.09). The result of all this: Two 11-0 whitewashes, three 10-1 victories and one 8.5-2.5 squeaker -- the latter coming against the Godfathers, the unlucky NL team that drew the short straw and had to play the M's in their best week of the season. . . . The CV Bombers were no slouches themselves in compiling Week 23's other unblemished ledger, combining massive offense (49 runs, 45 RBI, 10 HRs, .413 OBP) with decent pitching (3.00 ERA -- best in their division) to win six games without breaking a sweat (closest verdict: 7.5-3.5). . . . In general, it was a go-big-or-go-home week on the hitting side, with 12 teams combining to average 37 RBIs, 35.2 runs, 8.8 HRs and 29.4 TB -- perhaps the most productive week, top to bottom, we've seen in the league this year.

Week 23 standings

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Zero's (4-2)................92...51....643....--
Moaners (6-0).............85...58....594.....7
Bammers (0-6)............79...64....552....13
Badgers (3-3)..............62...81....434....30
Barristers (1-5)............48...95....343....44
Pontiffs (3-3)..............32..111....224....60
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Bombers (6-0).............85...58....594....--
Derelicts (4-2).............83...60....580.....2
Godfathers (4-2)..........83...60....580.....2
Inmates (1-5)..............77...66....538.....8
DamianUnited (3-3).......72...71....503....12
Whiteskins (1-5)..........60...83....420....25

SBL Notebook: Week 22

Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, nuclear bombs . . . and, it turns out, the SBL, where the closer the races get, the better they look. With four weeks and 25 games to play, in fact, the National division race is so hotly contested, you have to avert your eyes to avoid having your retinas singed. The smoke from Week 22 cleared to reveal a three-way tie for first place among the Cherry Valley Bombers, the Derelicts and the Godfathers, all at 79-58, with the Inmates relegated to fourth place, three games back. And, while the American division pennant chase remained fairly one-sided, with the Zero's still nine games up despite a 2-5 week, the wild-card battle is now a dead heat between the Bammers and the Moaners -- also at 79-58. So, to recap: Four races, seven teams, five of them with the exact same record. Competitive balance, thy name is Sun Baseball League. . . . The Bombers' slow and steady ascension to the top spot (their 6-1 week earned them a first-among-equals listing in the NL standings), 20 weeks after their much-discussed-to-the-verge of excess 1-12 start, represents some kind of competitive-balance apotheosis: It means that each of the six NL teams has spent at least one week in first place this season. While the CVBs have been particularly warm of late (17-2 the last three weeks), consistency has been their true metier -- they haven't experienced a losing week since June (3-4 in Week 12), and have had only three of them since reaching their low point in relation to .500, 10-28 after Week 6. With the Derelicts (3-4), Godfathers (2-5) and Inmates (0-7) stumbling this week, the Bombers are the NL entry with the momentum, both short- and long-term -- they've been gaining ground steadily, damn near every week in fact, since Week 7 when they were at their low point in relation for first place, 17 games out. . . . In the AL, the Bammers returned to their season-long strength – unassailably hellacious pitching -- to go 5-2 and pull into a second-place tie with the Moaners, who revisited their season-long weakness – unambiguously horrendous pitching -- to go 1-6. . . . Elsewhere, the fifth-place team in each division made some noise. The Batfaced Barristers, 50 games under .500 when the week began, enjoyed a cleansing moment in the sun, combining solid offense (10 HRs, 37 RBIs, 35 runs, .428 OBP) with sensational pitching (1.84 ERA, .89 BR, 1.00 K-rate) to go 7-0, the week's only unblemished ledger. And ever-mercurial DamianUnited had another of those weeks, when just about everyone in the lineup started hitting and didn't stop. Eleven weeks after posting SBL season highs of 19 HRs and 62 RBIs -- and just one week after plunging to epic lows of 3 HRs, 15 BI and 17 runs, DamU monster-mashed to the tune of 18 HRs, 51 runs, 48 BI, 45 TB and a .393 OBP. Unfortunately for them, a dearth of speed (0 SBs) and quality pitching (4.98 ERA, .67 K-rate, 1 save) resulted in three losses despite all that offense.

Week 22 standings

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Zero's (2-5)................88...49....642....--
Bammers (5-2)............79...58....577.....9
Moaners (1-6).............79...58....577.....9
Badgers (5-2)..............59...78....431....29
Barristers (7-0)............47...90....343....41
Pontiffs (2-5)..............29..108....212....59
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Bombers (6-1).............79...58....577....--
Derelicts (3-4).............79...58....577....--
Godfathers (2-5)..........79...58....577....--
Inmates (0-7)..............76...61....555.....3
DamianUnited (4-3).......69...68....504....10
Whiteskins (5-2)..........59...78....431....20

Free agent draft No. 11

DL move:
Zero's activate SP Strasburg, drop Wood

1. Pontiffs take 1B Guzman, drop Wallace
2. Barristers take SS Bartlett, drop Theriot;
........Taxi: Bedard up, Myers down
3. Badgers take SP Miley, drop Sanchez
4. Whiteskins pass
5. DamianUnited take OF Trout, Cruz to DL
6. Bombers take RP Motte, drop Thornton
7. Bombers take 3B Acevedo, drop Polanco;
........Taxi: Norris up, Garcia down
8. Inmates take RP Betancourt, drop Rodriguez;
........Taxi: Pineda, Morrow down
9. Derelicts take SP Fister, Tomlin to DL;
........Taxi: Fister up, Romero down
10. Godfathers take 3B Hannahan, Headley to DL
11. Moaners take SP Harden, drop Zambrano
12. Zero's take RP Cishek, drop RP Uehara

Zero's Acquire 1B Loney From BatFaces

From the Office of the Commissioner:

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"The Zero’s and Batfaced Barristers announced the following trade: 1B Loney and SP T.Wood to the Z’s, 1B Morneau and SP Bedard to the BB’s."

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The Zero's taking on 1B Loney is surprising. At least they got him for dead weight.