Sun Baseball League

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T16:40:00.000-08:00

(To be hummed to the tune of "Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer")

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There were Bombers and Bammers and Godfathers and Pontiffs, Zero's and Inmates and Badgers and Whiteskins. But do you recall the most famous roto league of them all?

SBL, the chili-fueled nightmare.
It has so many know-it-alls.
And if you ever played in it,
you would even say it blows.

Most of the other players,
used to laugh have sports journalism jobs.
But now they have more free time,
to hack at this infuriating game.

Then one foggy Spring Training Eve,
the Moaners came to say:
"You all think you're so bright,
but I'm still gonna kick your ass tonight."

Now all of the other players
aside from those that've made a plea,
they'll never even get a sniff off
making SBL history!

SBL Champions List

2011-10-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

ALL-TIME SBL CHAMPIONS
(5-Team League)
1983 - Gil Hulse
(6-team League)
1984 - Gil Hulse
1985 - Steve Dilbeck
(12-Team League, Division Play)
1986 - Mike Davis (defeated Gregg Patton)
1987 - Gregg Patton
1988 - Jeff Lane
1989 - Steve Dilbeck
1990 - Steve Dilbeck
1991 - Mike Davis (def. Steve Dilbeck, 14-12)
1992 - Vic West
1993 - Gregg Patton (def. Mike Davis, 18-8)
1994 - Dan Evans (def. Gregg Patton, 10-9; strike-shortened season)
1995 - Paul Oberjuerge (def. Steve Dilbeck, 14-9; strike-shortened season)
1996 - Mike Davis (def. Steve Dilbeck, 17-9)
1997 - Vic West d. Dan Evans, 13-13 (8-3 in tiebreaker)
1998 - Gregg Patton (def. Mike Davis, 14-12)
1999 - Mike Davis (def. Damian Secore, 16-10)
2000 - Brian Goff (def. Gregg Patton, 14-12)
2001 - Mike Davis (def. Gregg Patton, 17-9)
2002 - Brian Goff (def. Vic West, 14-12)
2003 - Dan Evans (def. Brian Goff, 15-11)
2004 - Vic West (def. Mike Davis, 14-12)
2005 - Brian Goff (def. Dan Evans, 17-9)
2006 - Brian Goff (def. Paul Oberjuerge, 17-9); Playoffs: Brian Goff d. Steve Dilbeck, 18-8; Paul Oberjuerge d. Vic West, 13-13 (7-4 in tiebreaker)
2007 - Mike Davis (def. Brian Goff, 15-11); Playoffs: Mike Davis d. Steve Dilbeck , 16-10; Brian Goff d. Dan Evans, 14-12
2008 - Mike Davis (def. Brian Goff, 18-8); Playoffs: Mike Davis d. Damian Secore, 20-6; Brian Goff d. Gregg Patton, 14-12
2009 - Paul Oberjuerge (def. Andy Baggerly, 14-12); Playoffs: Paul Oberjuerge d. JP Hoornstra, 20-6; Andy Baggerly d. Dan Evans, 15-11
2010 - Mike Davis (def. Damian Secore, 15-11); Playoffs: Mike Davis d. Gregg Patton, 17-9; Damian Secore d. Paul Oberjuerge, 13-13 (6-5 in tiebreaker)
2011 - Dan Evans (def. Paul Oberjuerge, 14-12); Playoffs: Dan Evans d. Mike Davis, 14-12; Paul Oberjuerge d. Derek Rich, 13-13 (7-4 in tiebreaker)

SBL Series 2011

2011-10-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

BOMBERS 14, ZERO'S 12
Week 1: Dan 8, Paul 3; Week 2: Paul 7, Dan 4; Week 3: Dan 7, Paul 4; Week 4: Paul 8, Dan 3; Week 5: Paul 8.5, Dan 2.5; Week 6: Dan 8, Paul 3; Week 7: Paul 9, Dan 2; Week 8: Dan 7, Paul 4; Week 9: Paul 9, Dan 2; Week 10: Dan 8, Paul 3; Week 11: Dan 6, Paul 5; Week 12: Paul 7, Dan 4; Week 13: Dan 6, Paul 5; Week 14: Paul 6, Dan 5; Week 15: Paul 6, Dan 5; Week 16: Paul 6, Dan 5; Week 17: Paul 6, Dan 5; Week 18: Paul 6.5, Dan 4.5; Week 19: Dan 7, Paul 4; Week 20: Dan 6, Paul 5; Week 21: Dan 7, Paul 4; Week 22: Dan 6.5, Paul 4.5; Week 23: Dan 6.5, Paul 4.5; Week 24: Dan 9, Paul 2; Week 25: Paul 9, Dan 2; Week 26: Dan 9, Paul 2.

SBL Playoffs

2011-10-04T19:24:00.000-07:00

BOMBERS 14, MOANERS 12
Week 1: Mike 6.5, Dan 4.5; Week 2: Mike 6.5, Dan 4.5; Week 3: Mike 8.5, Dan 2.5; Week 4: Dan 6, Mike 5; Week 5: Mike 8, Dan 3; Week 6: MIKE 5.5, Dan 5.5; Week 7: DAN 5.5, Mike 5.5; Week 8: Dan 7, Mike 4; Week 9: Dan 6, Mike 5; Week 10: Dan 7, Mike 4; Week 11: Mike 9.5, Dan 1.5; Week 12: Mike 8, Dan 3; Week 13: Dan 7.5, Mike 3.5; Week 14: Mike 8, Dan 3; Week 15: Dan 7, Mike 4; Week 16: Dan 8, Mike 3; Week 17: Mike 6.5, Dan 4.5; Week 18: Mike 6.5, Dan 4.5; Week 19: Mike 7.5, Dan 3.5; Week 20: Dan 8.5, Mike 2.5; Week 21: Dan 6, Mike 5; Week 22: Dan 8, Mike 3; Week 23: Mike 8, Dan 3; Week 24: Dan 9, Mike 2; Week 25: Dan 9, Mike 2; Week 26: Dan 7.5, Mike 3.5.

ZERO'S 13, DERELICTS 13 (Z's WIN TIEBREAKER, 7-4)
Week 1: Derek 8, Paul 3; Week 2: Paul 8, Derek 3; Week 3: Derek 8.5, Paul 2.5; Week 4: Paul 6.5, Derek 4.5; Week 5: Paul 8, Derek 3; Week 6: Derek 7, Paul 4; Week 7: Paul 8, Derek 3; Week 8: Derek 6, Paul 5; Week 9: Paul 6, Derek 5; Week 10: Derek 6, Paul 5; Week 11: Derek 6.5, Paul 4.5; Week 12: Paul 8, Derek 3; Week 13: Paul 6, Derek 5; Week 14: Paul 6.5, Derek 4.5; Week 15: Paul 7, Derek 4; Week 16: Paul 8, Derek 3; Week 17: Paul 7, Derek 4; Week 18: Paul 10, Derek 1; Week 19: Derek 6, Paul 5; Week 20: Derek 6, Paul 5; Week 21: Derek 7, Paul 4; Week 22: Derek 6.5, Paul 4.5; Week 23: Derek 6.5, Paul 4.5; Week 24: DEREK 5.5, Paul 5.5; Week 25: Paul 9.5, Derek 1.5; Week 26: Derek 7, Paul 4.

SBL Notebook, Final

2011-10-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

Corks are popping, the sparkling cider is flowing, and fireworks fill the air . . . Skyrockets in flight . . . afternoon delight . . . sorry, got sidetracked there for a moment. . . . As we were saying, the party is in full gallop at base camp below Mount San Gorgonio, where the Cherry Valley Bombers are celebrating their 2011 SBL championship. The fast-finishing Bombers rallied in the SBL Series to defeat the Zero's, 14-12 -- after first rallying in the wild-card playoff round to beat the Moaners by the same score -- to bring home their third league title, their first since 2003 . . . and, significantly, the first by a National division franchise since the Godfathers took the whole enchilada in 2004. The CVBs didn't set the world on fire in the early and middle innings of their postseason series, but then they closed like Mariano Rivera (or, to make this more appropriately Bomber-centric, John Axford), winning six of the last seven weeks in the wild-card round after trailing the M's 11-8, and then taking seven of the last eight weeks in the Series to wipe out an 11-7 deficit against the Z's. Thus did they complete one of the greatest single-season rags-to-riches sagas in SBL history. Six weeks into the campaign, the Bombers were dead in the water, and the National division race, sitting last in the standings with a 10-28 record, 16 games behind the division-leading Inmates. Then, beginning with the first week of interleague play, they got the wind in their sails, started winning and never really stopped, going 92-32 from weeks 7 through 26. And, typical of championship teams, they were at their very best when the games counted most, down the stretch -- going an incredible 40-4 over the last seven weeks to scramble from fifth place, eight games out, to first, six games ahead of runners-up Derek’s Derelicts at the finish line. Prodigious offense, a rare and precious commodity in baseball's nascent Era of the Pitcher, was what carried the CVBs during that crucial final stretch -- they averaged 12.6 HRs, 41.6 runs, 38.1 RBIs and 32.8 TBs per week in those frantic last seven weeks, with no OBP lower than .359 (and two that topped the magic .400 barrier). Their pitching was also stunningly good during that time, with five ERAs of 3.00 or lower and none higher than 3.44. No wonder they lost only four times in 44 games -- someday the owners of the Zero's, Moaners, Vic's Godfathers and the Batfaced Barristers will be able to tell their grandchildren about the year when they were the only SBL teams to register a victory against the Bombers during one of the most amazing closing runs ever seen. The rest of the NL hardly had a chance, though to their credit the Derelicts and Godfathers kept things close right to the end, delaying the CVBs' clinching until the final week in one of the more interesting races we've had in recent years. The Double-Ds and G-Daddies entered the final week tied for the NL wild-card lead, four games behind the Bombers, but the GDs blew a gasket in a 1-5 Week 26, while the 'Licts churned out a workmanlike 4-2 to capture the first playoff berth in franchise history.

The individual components that coalesced into championship fusion for the Bombers were, as these things often tend to be, quite impressive. Drafting out of the No. 10 spot, Dan nailed his first pick, Miguel Cabrera, who delivered a typical Miggy year (great OBP, boatloads of doubles and homers, triple-digits in runs and ribbies). Second-round pick Dan Uggla did what he was paid to do (hit home runs, 36 of them), and fourth-round selection Adrian Beltre exceeded expectations with, at age 32, the second-best year of his career -- 32 HRs, 105 BI, 33 doubles despite a six-week DL stint that limited him to 497 ABs. But, as also is often the case, it was the later picks, the sleepers, that put the CVBs over the top. Dan no doubt wishes he could’ve had do-overs on Jayson Werth (36th overall) and Alex Rios (63rd) – but did those minor drafting missteps even matter in the grand scheme? Jacoby Ellsbury (89th) did the work of two OFs, putting together a preposterously good six-category season (119 R, 105 BI, 32 HR, 46 2B, 39 SB, .376 OBP) that made him the Bombers' MVP and a serious contender for the real-world AL MVP. Alex Gordon had a breakthrough season (23 HR, 45 2Bs, 101 runs, 87 BI, 23 HR, 17 SBs) that far outstripped anything he’d done previously, and supplemental pickup Lance Berkman proved he had one more big year left in him at age 35 (31 HRs, 94 BI, 90 runs, .412 OBP in only 488 ABs) . . . and with an Ellsbury-Gordon-Berkman outfield, who the hell needed Jayson Werth, Alex Rios or Bobby Abreu (128th) anyway? Berkman wasn’t Dan’s only difference-making supplemental pick, either. Using the advantageous draft positions afforded by his team’s lackluster start, he added a 30-HR, 80-BI shortstop in J.J. Hardy, a solid fourth outfielder in Matt Joyce (19 HRs, 75 BI, 32 2Bs) and a serviceable DH in Carlos Pena, a Zero’s castoff who finished with 28 HRs and 80 BI. But perhaps the savviest pick Dan made -- the kind of pick that separates men from boys and champions from also-rans -- was his stealth selection of SP Javier Vazquez after Week 20. At the time of that draft the 35-year-old journeyman right-hander was 7-11 with a 4.67 ERA. But, as apparently no one but the Bombers GM noticed, Vazquez had strung together a month’s worth of solid outings; he’d just been pitching in hard luck. So Dan took a flier on him, and all Vazquez did in seven starts in CVB togs was go 6-0 with a 1.04 ERA, .71 BR and 1.02 K-rate – a significant statistical payoff that just happened to coincide with the Bombers’ season-ending hot streak. Vazquez’s excellent work rounded out a strong rotation anchored by NL Cy Young favorite Clayton Kershaw (21-5, 2.28 ERA, 1.06 K-rate, .98 WHIP) and AL rookie-of-the-year candidate Jeremy Hellickson (13-10, 2.95). The Bombers’ bullpen was more pedestrian, but the aforementioned Axford (46 saves, 1.95 ERA, 1.17 K-rate) kept them reasonably competitive in the RP-influenced stats. Put it all together and you have a complete, well-rounded team that was the SBL’s best . . . though, it should be said, not by all that much. The Zero’s nursed the league’s best record from Week 14 to season’s end (they finished with 105 wins, three more than the Bombers) -- they just couldn’t maintain that pace quite long enough, flattening out once they hit the “Heartbreak Hill” portion of the SBL marathon and going 28-22 the last seven weeks, giving the CVBs an opening they did not squander. And the Derelicts -- who also drafted very well and assembled a roster with many strengths and no glaring weaknesses -- were right there with both division champions, chasing the Bombers to the wire and then taking the Zero’s to overtime in the first round of the playoffs. Their series ended in a 13-13 tie, necessitating use of the old school mega-tiebreaker – one big ol’ game based on cumulative season totals in each of the 11 SBL stats . . . the method we used to determine the SBL champion before 1991. Paul won that 7-4 to advance to the Series.

The closely-contested postseason (two 14-12 series and one 13-13) was a fitting climax to one of the most competitively balanced seasons we’ve had in recent years, a season that saw seven teams remain in legitimate playoff contention into mid-September. And the fact that the National division pennant-winner emerged as champion . . . well, that seems somehow appropriate too. This was the season of the NL’s renaissance, when the senior circuit ended years of AL domination with a decisive 169-119 victory in the eight weeks of interleague play. Four NL teams – the Bombers, Derelicts, Godfathers and Inmates -- finished with winning records, and a fifth, DamianUnited, kept its nose above .500 until the final two weeks. Contrast this to the AL, where four of the six teams staggered home with losing records (when was the last time that happened . . . ever?) -- the Zero’s and Moaners combining for 203 victories, the rest of the division for 246. The level of competition was simply higher in the NL this year, meaning the Bombers and Derelicts probably survived a more intense crucible for their 102 and 96 wins, respectively, than the Z’s and M’s did for their 105 and 98. . . . Until last year, and DamU advanced to the championship round, the NL had not won a postseason series since we added the wild-card round before the 2006 season. But that worm, clearly, has turned. So, give it up for the NL.

Before we put the -30- on this season (for the whippersnappers in the audience, dash-30-dash is an archaic print-journalism term, dating from the days of hot type, meaning “end of story”), we offer our sincere thanks, as always, to statkeepers Paul Oberjuerge, Gregg Patton and Dan Evans for their dedicated, professional service, and to draftmeister Derek Rich, who orchestrated the 12 biweekly free-agent lotteries with the ease and assurance of a veteran (even if it was only his second year). And, of course, thanks to all for playing, and helping to maintain the spirit and tradition of one of the nation's oldest continuing fantasy baseball enterprises -- and (it can’t be said often enough), in our educated view the best game ever invented! Have a great off-season, and we'll see you, in person or via Skype, in March for the 2012 SBL draft.

Week 26 standings (Final)

2011-10-04T18:57:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Zero's (4-2)...............105...57....648....--
Moaners (4-2).............98...64....605.....7
Badgers (6-0).............78...84....481....27
Bammers (0-6)...........78...84....481....27
Barristers (1-5)...........52..110....321....53
Puny Pontiffs (3-3).......38..124....235....67
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Bombers (6-0)............102...60....630....--
Derelicts (4-2).............96...66....593.....6
Godfathers (1-5)..........93...69....574.....9
Inmates (3-3).............83...79....512....19
DamianUnited (0-6)......76...86....469....26
Whiteskins (4-2)..........73...89....451....29

SBL Notebook, Week 25

2011-09-22T23:48:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-22T23:40:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-16T23:13:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-15T22:55:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-08T23:58:00.000-07:00

"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

2011-09-08T23:56:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-03T23:53:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-03T23:42:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-03T23:37:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-03T23:28:00.000-07:00

From the Office of the Commissioner:

---

"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.

SBL Notebook: Week 21

2011-08-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

The National division race is tight enough to fry an egg on the sidewa . . . no wait, that should be "hot" enough. . . . Let's try, the National division race is tighter than a witch's . . . no, that should be "colder" . . . OK, the National division race is tighter than a piano wire. . . . sorry, it's best hackneyed, overused, unoriginal metaphor we could come up with on short notice. Suffice to say, the NL race couldn't be much closer if the four principals were quadruplets sharing the same womb -- the top three teams are separated by only one game, and the fourth-place entry is only four back. While the pacesetting Godfathers were dogpaddling to a 3-3 week, the surging Derelicts put together a second successive 6-0 to pull into a second-place tie with the Inmates (also 3-3), and the fourth-place Cherry Valley Bombers went 5-1 to pull within four games of the top. The Double-Ds have been an offensive force most of the season -- with big-ticket hitters like Adrian Gonzalez and Prince Fielder coming through as hoped, and less-heralded names like Jay Bruce, Hunter Pence, Mike Stanton and Jhonny Peralta exceeding expectations -- and of late their troublesome starting pitching has finally come around, led by the lefty likes of Ricky Romero and David Price. The 'Licts also have developed one of the SBL's strongest bullpens, anchored by the surprising Drew Storen and Brandon League and trade acquisition Jonathan Papelbon. Add it all up and you have a well-rounded team that appears to be in this for the long haul. The Derelicts' 2.13 ERA was the league's second-best this week (as was last week's 1.95), and they rang up the week's second-best HR (12) and RBI (43) totals, not to mention the No. 1 OBP (.385). The latter stat was fueled by what we believe to be a single-week league record of 40 walks . . . and THAT total was fueled by an outrageous 14 walks on Tuesday, which we're thinking has to be a one-day record as well. . . . The CVBs, meanwhile, continue to roll up big hitting numbers (43 runs, 12 HRs, 7 SBs, .381) behind the slugging likes of Miguel Cabrera, Dan Uggla, Jacoby Ellsbury, Lance Berkman, J.J. Hardy and Alex Gordon, complemented by a serviceable rotation anchored by Clayton Kershaw, Colby Lewis and Jeremy Hellickson. . . . There was also a detectable pulse in the American division race, for the first time in a while, as the Zero's -- still the Best Team In Ball by a comfortable margin at 86-44 -- remained stuck in neutral, posting a third consecutive 3-3 week -- and this time the runners-up Moaners were able to take a three-game bite out of the Z's formidable lead by churning out enough offense (13 HRs, 48 TB, 36 runs, 36 BI) to overcome their typically execrable pitching (4.54 ERA, 1.58 BR, .77 Ks). Still, the M's and the third-place Bammers (4-2) have a ways to go to make things truly exciting, trailing the Zero's by eight and 12 games, respectively, as we head into the home stretch, with 32 games left to play.

Week 21 standings

2011-08-27T21:35:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Zero's (3-3).................86...44....662....--
Moaners (6-0)..............78...52....600.....8
Bammers (4-2).............74...56....569....12
Badgers (1-5)..............54...76....415....32
Barristers (2-4)............40...90....308....46
Puny Pontiffs (0-6)........27..103....208....59
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Godfathers (3-3)..........77...53....592....--
Derelicts (6-0).............76...54....585.....1
Inmates (3-3)..............76...54....585.....1
Bombers (5-1).............73...57....562.....4
DamianUnited (1-5).......65...65....500....12
Whiteskins (2-4)..........54...76....415....23

PaulO's Notes: Week 21

2011-08-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

A fairly wretched week for these three. The Z's had a tragic week from their bullpen, which surrendered more ER (12) in 6.2 IP than did their SPs (10) in 34 IP. An 0-5 record in the pen, with 22 BR. Delightfully awful, as Leonard Pinth-Garnell would have put it. The Z's managed a bit of offense, led by the resurgent Ryan Braun, who was 10-for-30 with 10 runs, 7 BI, 3 doubles, 1 triple, 2 homers, 6 steals and 4 walks. ... Team Bat-Face scrounged up a bit of offense despite the continued absence of top pick Hanley "Fourth-Rounder in 2012" Ramirez and 2B Brian Roberts, who missed all but the first month. Sketchy pitching, however, including four hit batsmen. Maybe the Barrister hurlers are going all Carlos Zambrano, out of frustration. ... The Holy See was practicing non-violence toward the baseball, putting up one of the feeblest offenses of the season. Didn't help that the club got to the dish 61 fewer times than the Zs because the club has no active 1B; sees its starting 3B losing ABs to Sean Burroughs and is missing No. 1 SS SDrrew and top OF CBeltran. One homer this week, on a Tuesday sub-in by Duda, 2 steals, 13 RBI. ... The Vatican's revolutionary no-save bullpen did what it does, and all this resulted in the waste of some typically solid starting pitching.

SBL Notebook: Week 20

2011-08-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

Setting aside, just for a moment, the commissioner's hat and speaking as charter members of the American division, we can only tell the National division congratulations, well done . . . and enough, already! The NL completed an impressive interleague run with a 26-10 thrashing of the AL in Week 20, reaffirming the end of years of AL dominance in IL play. The Nationals finished the interleague portion of the schedule with a 169-119 advantage in games won, with the Americans having prevailed in only two of the eight IL weeks. This stands in stark contrast to trends of recent years -- particularly last season, when the AL went 183-105 in interleague play, the NL winning only one week (and by the slimmest of margins at that, 19-17 in Week 7) and, in Week 18, suffering one of the worst IL routs in SBL history, an almost all-American 34-2 blowout. This year AL teams were left wistfully longing for those halcyon days, after being steamrollered by the depth and strength of a National division with five legitimate pennant contenders. Week 20 was the cherry atop the NL sundae, as three of its representatives -- the Godfathers, the Derelicts and the Cherry Valley Bombers -- went 6-0, only one (DamianUnited) failed to at least break even, and no AL team posted a winning record. Those three unbeaten weeks, coupled with a stuck-in-neutral 3-3 by the Inmates, scrambled and tightened the NL race just a bit. The G-Daddies recaptured first place, a game ahead of the Mental Defectives, with the Double-Ds creeping to within four games of the top, the CVBs six back and DamU still within semi-striking distance, 10 games in arrears. The Bombers' recovery from a 1-12 start is an ongoing feel-good story in Cherry Valley; since those dark days of mid-April along the San Bernardino-Riverside county divide, the Bombers and the Godfathers have posted the best records in the division over the last 18 weeks, 67-44. But the G-Daddies were the most impressive story of this week -- they won all six games with relative ease thanks to league highs of 13 HRs and 7 SBS, plus 41 RBIs and 34 runs (damned efficient work, considering their .310 OBP), and, on the pitching side, the week's best ERA (1.40) and BR stat (.96). The Derelicts (42 runs, 11 HRs, .364, 1.95 ERA, six saves, 1.07 BR) were almost as strong in both disciplines, while the Bombers (12 HRs, 42 BIs, 6 SBs, .359) relied a little more on the offensive elements. . . . The AL race stayed static, with BTIB, the Zero's, going 3-3 for the second consecutive week (again, no AL team did better this week) and tearing another page off the calendar -- the Z's lead the Moaners by 11 games and the Bammers by 13, with only 38 to play.

Week 20 standings

2011-08-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Zero's (3-3)................83...41....669....--
Moaners (2-4).............72...52....581....11
Bammers (3-3)............70...54....565....13
Badgers (0-6).............53...71....427....30
Barristers (1-5)...........38...86....306....45
Pontiffs (1-5).............27...97....218....56
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Godfathers (6-0)..........74...50....597....--
Inmates (3-3)..............73...51....589.....1
Derelicts (6-0).............70...54....565.....4
Bombers (6-0).............68...56....548.....6
DamianUnited (2-4).......64...60....516....10
Whiteskins (3-3)..........52...72....419....22

Free agent draft No. 10

2011-08-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

Pre-draft DL moves:
Badgers activate 3B ARodriguez, drop Moustakas
Bammers activate C McCann, drop Hernandez
Derelicts activate SP Oswalt, drop Jimenez
Inmates activate OF Choo, drop Patterson
Zero's activate 1B Morneau, drop Kotchman

1. Popntiffs take OF Constanza, Beltran to DL
2. Barristers take OF Carp, drop Damon
3. Whiteskins take SP Niemann, drop Carmona;
........Taxi: Niemann up, Billingsley down
4. Badgers take OF Belt, Torres to DL
5. Bombers take SP J.Vazquez, drops Matsuzaka;
........Taxi: Vazquez up, G.Gonzalez down
6. DamianUnited take 2B Kipnis, Guillen to DL
7. Derelicts take C Hernandez, drop Posada;
........Taxi: Luebke up, Oswalt down
8. Bammers take OF En.Chavez, drop E.Thames;
........Taxi: Latos up, Zimmerman down
9. Godfathers pass;
........Taxi: Garza up, Hanson down
10. Inmates take 3B Paredes, drop Wigginton
11. Moaners take OF Pagan, drop Fuld;
........Taxi: Lohse up, Humber down
12. Zero's take 2B OCabrera, Uribe to DL

SBL Notebook, Week 19

2011-08-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

A contagion of bad pitching swept through the National division, opening a window of opportunity for the American division to actually win an interleague week, and for once the AL managed to scramble through it without breaking anything. Six of the seven worst Week 19 earned-run averages occurred in the NL, and that as much as anything explains the AL's 24-12 victory, its first in an interleague week since a 20-16 verdict way back in Week 7, the first of our eight IL weeks. It was just one of those odd weeks when even normally reliable starting pitchers like CC Sabathia, Johnny Cueto, Alexi Ogando, Ryan Vogelsong, Jeff Karstens and Tommy Hanson got knocked around -- and because all those and several other struggling moundsmen toil for National division clubs, the NL took the brunt of the damage, with five of its six teams posting ERAs of 4.20 or higher. (In a related development, six of the seven worst BR stats also were posted by NL teams.) The best ERA the division could put forward was a mediocre 3.76, and even that wasn't enough to help the second-place Godfathers avoid an 0-6 fate -- not that it cost them much in the standings, since the first-place Inmates could do no better than 1-5, keeping the G-Daddies within two games of the top. Meanwhile, the Derelicts (3-3), DamianUnited (5-1 -- the only winning week by an NL squad) and the Cherry Valley Bombers (3-3) all took advantage of the top two's struggles to bunch things up a bit in the standings, where none of the top five trails by more than eight games. There was also a modicum of movement in the AL race, where a 3-3 hiccup by the Zero's coincided with a 6-0 by the runners-up Moaners and a 5-1 by the third-place Bammers. That tightened the proceedings just a little . . . but not much, with the Moaners still trailing by 10 games and the Bammers 13 back. The Moaners parlayed solid-by-their-meager-standards pitching (3.40 ERA, 4-2, eight saves) and just enough offensive strength (10 HRs, 36 runs, .390 OBP, 7 SBs) into the only 6-0 mark of the week, while the Bammers' success was built on the week's best overall pitching (2.61 ERA, .97 BR, 1.10 K-rate, 4-1, 7 saves), the continuation of a season-long trend. . . . League-wide, offense continues to behave like the stock market, with last week's mega-high followed by this week's trough . . . although still nothing like the paltry numbers we've often seen this season. The league averages for HRs (7.75), runs (33.0) and RBIs (29.9) held in the "respectable" range, though TB (23.5) experienced a significant dip, and there was a smattering of shockingly low OBPs, including the Godfathers' .256 and the Inmates' .264.

Week 19 standings

2011-08-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Zero's (3-3)................80...38....678....--
Moaners (6-0).............70...48....593....10
Bammers (5-1)............67...51....568....13
Badgers (3-3)..............53...65....449....27
Barristers (4-2)............37...81....314....43
Pontiffs (3-3)..............26...92....220....54
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Inmates (1-5)..............70...48....593....--
Godfathers (0-6)..........68...50....576.....2
Derelicts (3-3).............64...54....542.....6
DamianUnited (5-1).......62...56....525.....8
Bombers (3-3).............62...56....525.....8
Whiteskins (0-6)..........49...69....415....21

SBL Notebook, Week 18

2011-08-05T20:57:00.000-07:00

Suddenly the league awoke, as if from a dream, to find itself in another time, another place . . . say, around 1998, or 2003, or any year in between. We were back in the chicks-dig-the-longball era, and while the experience is sure to be ephemeral, it certainly was a glorious week, wasn't it? Twelve teams combined to smash 112 home runs, an average of 9.3 per team . . . and six teams reached double figures, the first time all season that half the league has made it to that promised land. Leading the way were the Moaners, whose 15 HRs came within a whisker or two of equaling their total for the previous THREE weeks combined. Then there were the Godfathers, with 13 . . . The Inmates and the Cherry Bombers with 12 each . . . The Zero's and DamianUnited with 10 apiece. This truly was a first-in-flight week for the SBL, at least by this year's modest standards. It wasn't just home runs, either; offense spiked pretty much across the board. The league averages for RBIs and runs were 35 per team, with five totals in the 40s . . . nine of the 12 teams reached the 30s in TB . . . half the league had OBPs of .349 or better. If you weren't hittin' this week, you may as well have stayed home. . . . This was also -- and this surely wasn't a coincidence -- probably the worst pitching week in the SBL this season, with not a single team recording an ERA in the 2s. There were four in the 5s, however; a couple in the 4s, and two more in the high 3s. . . . When the smoke had cleared, the National division had recorded another interleague victory, but at least the American division made it respectable this time, losing only 20-16. That counts as a moral victory for the battered AL, which has won only one of the six interleague weeks contested so far, and just last week got shellacked 28-8. . . . There was also a change at the top of the NL race, where the Inmates rode their Big Fat O (12 HRs, 46 BI, 36 TB, 36 runs, .377) to a 6-0 week that moved them back into first place, a game ahead of the Godfathers, who went 4-2. And, for now at least, those two have separated themselves from the NL pack, with the Derelicts, the Bombers and DamianUnited having dropped back by eight, 10 and 12 games, respectively. . . . The AL race was just more of the same, with the Zero's continuing to roll along without a care in the world, their 5-1 record this week taking them to an remarkable 33-4 in the last six weeks, and to 77-35 overall, keeping them comfortably ensconced as the Best Team In Ball. The Moaners also went 5-1 and hopped over the Bammers into second place . . . but remained a very distant 13 games out of first, with 50 left to play.

Week 18 standings

2011-08-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW.................W....L....PCT....GB
Zero's (5-1)...............77...35....688....--
Moaners (5-1)............64...48....571....13
Bammers (1-5)...........62...50....554....15
Badgers (0-6).............50...62....446....27
Barristers (2-4)...........33...79....295....44
Pontiffs (3-3).............23...89....205....54
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW.................W....L....PCT....GB
Inmates (6-0).............69...43....616....--
Godfathers (4-2).........68...44....607.....1
Derelicts (2-4)............61...51....545.....8
Bombers (3-3)............59...53....527....10
DamianUnited (1-5)......57...55....509....12
Whiteskins (4-2).........49...63....438....20

Free agent draft No. 9

2011-08-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

Pre-draft DL moves:
Barristers: drop 3B Blake
Derelicts: activate OF Kubel, drop Snider

1. Pontiffs take OF Duda, drop Presley;
........Taxi: Danks up, Carrasco down
2. Barristers take OF D.Jennings, drop Pagan;
........Taxi: Myers up, Pineiro down
3. Whiteskins take SS Betancourt, Lowrie to DL
........Taxi: Colon up, Burnett down
4. Badgers take 1B Goldschmidt, drop Huff
........Taxi: Sanchez up, Britton down
5. Bombers take 3B Bonifacio, Rolen to DL
6. DamianUnited take OF MeCabrera, drop Brown
7. Moaners take RP Madson, drop Bastardo
8. Derelicts take 3B Lawrie, drop Alvarez
........Taxi: Marcum up, Luebke down
9. Bammers take C Hernandez, McCann to DL
........Taxi: Zimmerman up, Latos down
10. Inmates take OF Bourgeois, Choo to DL
11. Godfathers take 2B Keppinger, drop S.Rodriguez
12. Zero's take SP Strasburg, Strasburg to DL

Bams Take Desperate Measures

2011-08-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

Coming off the SBL ticker tape (We're f*ing old school around here):

"The Bammers send SP Haren and 2B Walker to Pontiffs for SP Latos and 2B Cano"

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The Pontiffs, the abyss of the league, heard the cries of the fast-approaching Bams and sent up its last surviver, Robinson Cano, to help right the Bams' beleagured mancraft.

It's a risky move for the Bams, who trade SP Dan Haren and 2B Neil Walker, two of the team's most consistent players. For the Pontiffs, strictly a cash dump. Cano wanted too much to re-sign.

Also, why hasn't this league considered "keeper" players? Or has it?

SBL Notebook, Week 17

2011-07-29T14:13:00.000-07:00

It's tempting to declare this a no-harm no-foul week, but the truth of the matter is, there was a LOT of harm inflicted in Week 17 -- almost all of it administered by the National division and absorbed by the American division, whose constituents were left in a mood most foul. The Nationals, who decisively won the first interleague interlude (Weeks 7-10), began the second four-week IL period with their most dominant performance yet, walloping the Americans by a 28-8 count. Leading the NL onslaught were the ever-mercurial Whiteskins, the division cellar dwellers who, oddly enough, posted the only 6-0 record for the week, riding some outsized offense (49 TB, 44 RBI, 7 SBs) and lights-out pitching (2.35 ERA, 1.27 K-ratio). The no-harm no-foul part of the equation applies to the NL race -- because no team in the division went worse than 4-2, there was very little change in the standings, with the Godfathers maintaining their one-game lead over the Inmates, and the Derelicts, DamianUnited and the Cherry Valley Bombers bunched in third through fifth places, separated by only three games. The other division race, however, grew only more one-sided, because the Zero's, Best Team In Ball for nearly a month now, were the lone AL entry to survive the week with their dignity fully intact, losing only to JP in a 5-1 run that inflated their lead to 11 games over the Bammers -- whose 2-4 mark represented the best the rest of the division could muster. Elsewhere it was total mass humiliation -- the other four AL teams getting their collective clocks cleaned to the tune of a combined 1-23. Sheesh. . . . The NL was just too good everywhere you looked, mashing 55 HRs (a robust 9.2 per team) to the AL's puny 35; averaging an impressive 37 RBIs (to the AL's 28) and 33 TBs (to 28) per team; and posting four ERAs of 3.35 or better, no BR stat higher than 1.25 and no K-rate lower than .85. No NL team was less than good, and if they had been playing amongst themselves, it might've been downright cannibalistic. But facing the overmatched AL, it was simply a bloodbath. Better luck next week, Junior Circuit.

Week 17 standings

2011-07-29T14:03:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW...................W....L....PCT....GB
Zero's (5-1)..................72...34....679....--
Bammers (2-4)..............61...45....575....11
Moaners (1-5)...............59...47....557....13
Badgers (0-6)................50...56....472....22
Barristers (0-6)..............31...75....292....41
Puny Pontiffs (0-6)..........20...86....189....52
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW...................W....L....PCT....GB
Godfathers (4-2)...........64...42....604....--
Inmates (4-2)...............63...43....594.....1
Derelicts (5-1)..............59...47....557.....5
DamianUnited (5-1)........56...50....528.....8
Bombers (4-2)...............56...50....528.....8
Whiteskins (6-0)............45...61....425....19

PaulO's Note: Week 17

2011-07-28T13:58:00.000-07:00

Some notes (somebody must be on vacation) ... Some quirks from the puny pod. All three clubs round off to a 1.17 BR pitching stat. Odds of that must be long. To be exact: For the Jurists, 1.1679; for the Vatican, 1.1707; for the Z's, 1.1748. ... For the second week (not) running, the Holy See stole zero bags. Taking seriously that Seventh Commandment in papal lands. ... Z's offense fell of steeply from recent weeks, but rallied to get to mediocrity in the Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday "weekend" of the new and loathed sked. ... The revivied Bristow offense, led by Dustin Ackley (who knew?) is not awful, aside from the two dingers. Valencia has helped at 3B, too. ... Not that the D-Popes have had some bad luck, but they drafted this Presley guy (from Tupelo, Miss?) on Thursday and by the next day he was on the DL. Also, SDrew broke something or other (those Drew boys must not have gotten enough iron in their diets), reducing the club to Alcides Escobar at SS (who hits in the 9 hole for the Royals for a reason), but he is losing time to the backup DPope 3B, MAviles, who is just back from Triple A and sucks pretty hard, too. Also, Kirk Gibson down in AZ apparently thinks a 3B with pop like Ryan Roberts isn't something he really needs, and Roberts played only five games. Mauer went dead again, till Wednesday, when he hit his first homer of the season! And it took the SBL draft's No. 15 pick only till July 27 to get it! ...The Z's were helped by Eric Hosmer (6 runs, 8 BI, 13-for-29 with 1 walk, 4 doubles, 1 big fly and 1 steal) and by Li'l Dustin Pedroia (8 runs, 3 BI, 14-for-27, 2 walks, 2 doubles, 1 triple, 1 dinger, 2 bags). ... Oh, and the papacy got their first "save" since Week 12 (hmm, Jonathan PAPEL-bon?), which seems like a pretty low save total for a worldwide religious organization. Thanks, Mitchell Boggs, for showing up, three months later.

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This from a man recently recouping in the United States after time abroad. The SBL Blog thanks him for making time while he lounges somewhere in the LBC, drinking caffiene-free soda (during the day).

Bammers Lookin' To Deal

2011-07-27T17:46:00.000-07:00

A (really) quick note from the owner of the Bammers:

"I have pitching, looking for bats.
Felix Hernandez, masterson, haren, norris, zimmerman can be had."

---

Looks like the Bams, two weeks removed from their place atop the American Division, are hitting panic button after going 0-7 last week. Crisis-management team assemble!

2011 SBL Rosters (Updated)

2011-07-25T22:43:00.000-07:00

BADGERS
C: Posey (27), Y.Molina (274)
1B: Pujols (1), Huff (170)
2B: Phillips (53), Barney (300)
SS: Reyes (40), Brignac (222)
3B: Moustakas (S), Betemit (S)
OF: B.Upton (118), Quentin (144), A.Torres (145), Wells (157), Morrison (209), A.Soriano (S)
SP: Cahill (92), J.Sanchez (105), J.Chacin (183), Shields (248), Bumgarner (taxi 1)
Taxi: B. Anderson (131), Britton (T-24)
RP: Feliz (66), M.Rivera (79), Melancon (S), D.Hernandez (S)
DL: 3B A.Rodriguez (14), OF Craig (S)

PONTIFFS
C: Mauer (15), Martin (171)
1B: Hafner (S), Wallace (S)
2B: Cano (2), Kennedy (S)
SS: S.Drew (106), Al.Escobar (289)
3B: Aviles (S), R.Roberts (T)
OF: Ethier (54), Markakis (133), G.Jones (210), Beltran (223), Morse (S), Presley (S)
SP: Verlander (41), Scherzer (93), Latos (119), E.Jackson (262), Carrasco (S)
Taxi: Danks (146), Porcello (T-23)
RP: R.Soriano (197), Clippard (236), Boggs (S), Lyon (T)
DL: OF G.Sizemore (132)

BARRISTERS
C: V.Martinez (55), Hundley (276)
1B: Loney (172), Helton (S)
2B: B.Roberts (147), Ackley (S)
SS: H.Ramirez (3), Theriot (250)
3B: Wright (16), Valencia (S)
OF: Hart (81), Hunter (120), Swisher (134), Pagan (185), Damon (S), Ludwick (S)
SP: Halladay (29), Cl.Lee (42), Greinke (121), Nolasco (198), Pineiro (T-22)
Taxi: Myers (224), T.Wood (T-3)
RP: B.Wilson (68), Nathan (94), Meek (277), Santos (S)
DL: 3B Blake (S)

GODFATHERS
C: Napoli (238), Lucroy (S)
1B: B.Butler (108), Lind (122)
2B: A.Hill (109), S.Rodriguez (265)
SS: Desmond (148), E.Aybar (212)
3B: Longoria (4), Headley (264)
OF: Hamilton (17), J.Upton (43), Heyward (56), Bourn (160), Francoeur (S), Cuddyer (S)
SP: Lincecum (30), Hanson (69), Cain (82), Beckett (225), Cueto (S)
Taxi: Garza (173), Peavy (T-4)
RP: C.Perez (95), Lidge (186), F.Francisco (199), Farnsworth (S)

DAMIANUNITED
C: Montero (187), Olivo (279)
1B: Dunn (31), D.Ortiz (123)
2B: K.Johnson (70), C.Guillen (S)
SS: Tulowitzki (5), Pennington (266)
3B: M.Reynolds (110), Figgins (213)
OF: Holliday (18), I.Suzuki (97), Prado (253), Boesch (S), D.Brown (S), N.Cruz (T)
SP: Weaver (57), D.Hudson (161), C.Wilson (239), Worley (S), Karstens (S)
Taxi: Dempster (T), Narveson (S)
RP: F.Cordero (96), Bailey (149), Capps (200), Adams (S)
DL: SP J.Johnson (44)

INMATES
C: Buck (175), Saltalamacchia (241)
1B: Konerko (58), G.Sanchez (214)
2B: R.Weeks (45), Utley (162)
SS: A.Gonzalez (111), Furcal (S)
3B: McGehee (98), Wigginton (S)
OF: C.Gonzalez (6), Kemp (19), Choo (32), Bourjos (280), Byrd (293), Patterson (S)
SP: Morrow (150), Stauffer (201), E.Santana (240), Ogando (S), Vogelsong (S)
Taxi: Buchholz (124), Pineda (T-6)
RP: Marmol (71), Street (84), F.Rodriguez (85), Parnell (S)

BAMMERS
C. McCann (59), Torrealba (281)
1B: Votto (7), Freeman (215)
2B: N.Walker (151), Espinosa (242)
SS: A.Ramirez (112), M.Izturis (S)
3B: R.Zimmerman (20), Polanco (255)
OF: McCutchen (46), Stubbs (73), Rasmus (138), Ad.Jones (176), Thames (S), Reddick (S)
SP: F.Hernandez (33), Hamels (72), Haren (86), J.Garcia (163), Masterson (S)
Taxi: J.Zimmerman (189), Norris (S)
RP: Kimbrel (99), Putz (125), Sale (228), Bard (S)

MOANERS
C: K.Suzuki (100), Avila (S)
1B: Teixeira (8), Trumbo (S)
2B: Kinsler (34), Infante (217)
SS: Rollins (47), Scutaro (177)
3B: Youkilis (21), Freese (282)
OF: C.Young (60), V.Guerrero (126), Victorino (152), S.Smith (256),Fuld (S), Brantley (S)
SP: Carpenter (74), Liriano (113), W.Rodriguez (139), Jurrjens (T-17), Humber (S)
Taxi: Zambrano (243), Lohse (S)
RP: Soria (61), Valverde (87), Walden (S), Bastardo (S)
DL: RP Aardsma (216)

DERELICTS
C: Wieters (127), Posada (205)
1B: Ad.Gonzalez (9), Fielder (22)
2B: Kendrick (140), Turner (S)
SS: S.Castro (155), Peralta (231)
3B: M.Young (114), P.Alvarez (T)
OF: Bruce (35), Pence (48), Stanton (62), Ibanez (218), Willingham (270), Snider (S)
SP: Jimenez (49), Price (75), Romero (191), Collmenter (S), Luebke (S)
Taxi: Marcum (153), Tomlin (S)
RP: Storen (101), League (204), Rauch (244), Papelbon (T)
DL: OF Kubel (257), SP Oswalt (88)

BOMBERS
C: Pierzynski (297), C. Santana (T)
1B: M.Cabrera (10), C.Pena (S)
2B: Uggla (23), O.Hudson (232)
SS: Jeter (115), Hardy (S)
3B: Beltre (50), Rolen (192)
OF: Werth (36), Ellsbury (89), B.Abreu (128), A.Gordon (258), Berkman (S), Joyce (S)
SP: Kershaw (37), C.Lewis (141), Hellickson (154), G.Gonzalez (179), Baker (S)
Taxi: McClellan (10), Matsuzaka (15)
RP: Axford (76), Thornton (102), McGee (192), Isringhausen (S)
DL: 1B I.Davis (219)

WHITESKINS
C: Arencibia (233), Ruiz (Tr)
1B: Howard (24), Moreland (220)
2B: Beckham (155), J.Weeks (S)
SS: Andrus (64), Lowrie (S)
3B: Sandoval (116), C.Jones (259)
OF: Crawford (11), Granderson (142), Zobrist (167), Ca.Lee (180), Del.Young (T), Da.Murphy (S)
SP: Sabathia (51), Billingsley (129), Kuroda (181), A.Burnett (T-14), T.Hudson (T)
Taxi: Carmona (285), Colon (S)
RP: Bell (38), Fuentes (246), Salas (S), Guerra (S)
DL: RP Broxton (90)

ZERO'S
C: Iannetta (182), Soto (S)
1B: Morneau (65), Hosmer (S)
2B: Pedroia (26), Uribe (273)
SS: Y.Escobar (78), As.Cabrera (247)
3B: A.Ramirez (78), Encarnacion (221)
OF: Braun (12), J.Bautista (13), Gardner (91), A.Jackson (143), R. Davis (S), C.Ross (S)
SP: Lester (39), Gallardo (52), Kennedy (234), An.Sanchez (T-12), Beachy (S)
Taxi: Bedard (169), Hughes (156)
RP: Nunez (104), Uehara (117), Hanrahan (168), Gregg (195)

SBL Notebook, Week 16

2011-07-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

What just happened? Here we had this nice little race going in the American division, we looked away for just a few seconds, and the Zero's turned around and hijacked the damn thing. The Z's kept on partying like it was 1999 on the offensive side of things, the Bammers were betrayed by their normally resolute pitching, and just like that, we saw a 7-0/0-7 swing that inflated the Zero's lead over the second-place Bammers from one game to eight. The Z's, almost alone among SBL teams, seemingly did not get the memo about this being the Era of the Pitcher, as they continue to mash like McGwire and Sosa and Bonds at their roid-ragin' peak. The Zero's slugged 11 home runs this week, to go with the 13 they launched last week and the 16 they pounded the week before that. They've also averaged 38 RBIs, 37 runs and, for good measure, 8 SBs in that three-week stretch. This isn't supposed to be happening in this diminished day and age, so we can only speculate that perhaps there is no PED testing in the United Arab Emirates, current home base for the Z's. Or maybe the UAE has been sucked into some giant time-warp vortex thing, causing the Z's hitters -- most notably Jose Bautista, Ryan Braun, Aramis Ramirez and Dustin Pedroia -- to believe and behave as though it’s 2001, not 2011. It took the Z's a little while to get going -- they were 7-12 after three weeks, at which point they already trailed the Bammers by 11 games -- but there's been no stopping them since during a 60-21 roll over the last 13 weeks that has carried them to the best record in ball (67-33), by an ever-widening margin. They’re 13-0 the last two weeks and 28-4 over the last five, during which time they’ve turned a nine-game deficit into an eight-game lead over the Bams . . . While the rise of the Zero's from near-worst to first in the AL (and the corresponding slide of the Bammers, who started 18-1) serves as a bracing reminder to avoid putting too much stock in early-season results, it is not the only rags-to-riches tale at work in the SBL this year. The National division has witnessed a similar recovery by the Cherry Valley Bombers, who broke last out of the gate at 3-16 through three weeks, but have steadily risen from the depths of despair to legit contention in the NL race. A league-high 15 HRs and league-low 1.14 ERA did the trick for them this week in a 6-1 performance (only the bad luck of having to face the Zero's prevented them from going 7-0) that lifted them above .500 for the first time all season, and to within eight games of the new NL front-runners, the Godfathers. (Side note: That makes 56 home runs in the last four weeks for the power-mad Bombers.) The G-Daddies also went 6-1 (losing only to the CVBs) and evicted the Inmates from the penthouse, where the Mental Defectives had resided since Week 11. The ’Mates trail by one game, then it’s five more back to the Derelicts and another two to the Bombers, who jumped over DamianUnited into fourth place. . . . And while we're on the subject of the CVBs’ rise to respectability, take a snapshot of this week's standings. The Bombers' ascension to 52-48 means that only three of our 12 teams currently sport losing records, and that's something you rarely see this far into the season, or at any point in any season. Speaks well for competitive balance, particularly in the NL, where any of five teams could win the division crown. Well done, everyone!

Week 16 standings

2011-07-23T17:29:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Zero's (7-0).................67...33....670....--
Bammers (0-7).............59...41....590.....8
Moaners (5-2)..............58...42....580.....9
Badgers (1-6)..............50...50....500....17
Barristers (2-5)............31...69....310....36
Pontiffs (5-2)..............20...80....200....47
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Godfathers (6-1)..........60...40....600....--
Inmates (3-4)..............59...41....590.....1
Derelicts (2-5).............54...46....540.....6
Bombers (6-1).............52...48....520.....8
DamianUnited (2-5).......51...49....510.....9
Whiteskins (3-4)..........39...61....390....21

Free agent draft No. 8

2011-07-21T23:21:00.000-07:00

Pre-draft DL moves:
Pontiffs: drop 1B LaPorta
Whitekins: drop RP Sanchez
Badgers: drop RP Chapman
Godfathers: activate RP Lidge, drop RPs Alburquerque and Pestano
Zero's: drop C Barajas

1. Pontiffs take OF A.Presley, Sizemore to DL
2. Barristers take 1B Helton, drop LaRoche
........Taxi: Pineiro up, T.Wood down
3. Whitekins take RP Guerra, Broxton to DL
........Taxi: A.Burnett up, Colon down
4. Bombers take RP Isringhausen, drop S.Burnett
5. DamianUnited take 2B C.Guillen, drops J.Lopez;
........Taxi: Worley up, Dempster down
6. Badgers take 3B Betemit, Rodriguez to DL
7. Derelicts take OF Snider, drop Blackmon;
........Taxi: Collmenter up, Tomlin down
8. Moaners take 1B Trumbo, drop Smoak
9. Godfathers pass
10. Inmates take RP Parnell, drop Madson;
........Taxi: Morrow up, Pineda down
11. Bammers take OF Reddick, drop Me.Cabrera;
........Taxi: Masterson up, J.Zimmerman down
12. Zero's take OF C.Ross, drop J.Drew

Schedule Change!

2011-07-12T22:23:00.000-07:00

From the Office of the Commish:

"As we agreed to do before the season, this coming week is when we switch over to a Thursday-to-Wednesday schedule to bring ourselves into line with MLB, whose season began on a Thursday and will end on a Wednesday. The last 11 weeks of our season will begin Thursday and end the following Wednesday. As abhorrent as this is to all us balding graybeard traditionalists, it was forced on us by MLB’s unconscionable break from tradition in deciding the season would end midweek instead of on a Sunday. . . . Our schedule change also means that the last five supplemental drafts will be conducted on Thursdays, beginning with draft No. 8, on the docket for next Thursday July 21."

SBL Notebook, Week 15

2011-07-12T22:17:00.000-07:00

We’ve reached the All-Star break, a nice little three-day cooling-off period offering us the collective opportunity to catch our breath, or simply take one, as the case may be. Not that our pennant races show any signs of cooling, but they can stand to wait a few days too . . . we know they’ll still be there when we get back. What we’ll find when play resumes Thursday is a hot and heavy American division race, featuring the two best teams in ball at the moment, separated by only one game . . . and a National division chase with the second-, third-and fourth-place teams only two, four and seven games out of first, and even the fifth-place entry a manageable 10 games back. AL leaders the Zero’s continued their recent power surge with 13 homers (that makes 29 in the last two weeks), 41 runs and 35 RBIs, and rode that, plus some presentable pitching, to a 5-1 record. They were trumped, however, by the Bammers, who snapped out of their recent funk with a 6-0 week built on the sturdy foundation that has propped up the House of Bam all season—lights-out pitching, to the tune of a 6-0 WL and 1.67 ERA. The remarkable thing here is that those numbers really aren’t all that remarkable for the Bammers this year; they’ve actually had lower ERAs . . . several of them. Honest. So, the Z’s lead was shaved to one game over the BBs, then it’s another six back to the Moaners, and four more after that to the Badgers, who’ve been bitten by the same injury bug that afflicted the Godfathers earlier in the season. No sooner did the Badgers welcome back No. 1 overall draft pick Albert Pujols from his much-shorter-than-expected DL stint, then his second- and fourth-round picks, Alex Rodriguez and Jose Reyes, were shelved by disabling injuries . . . joining his third-rounder, Buster Posey, who’s out for the year. If it wasn’t for bad luck, Andy wouldn’t have any luck at all. . . . The Inmates maintained their grip on first place in the NL despite a second consecutive 2-4 week, as the teams below them continued to jockey for position. The Godfathers also went 2-4 to stay two games back, while the Derelicts rediscovered their prolific hitting to go 5-1 and jump into third place over DamianUnited, who suffered their second 0-6 boo-boo in the last three weeks. Meanwhile, the Cherry Valley Bombers continued their slow, steady recovery from a 1-12 start, going 4-2 (17 HRs and 40 helped a lot) to climb within a game of .500 – and within 10 of first place.

Week 15 standings

2011-07-12T21:57:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Zero's (5-1)................60...33....645....--
Bammers (6-0)............59...34....634.....1
Moaners (2-4).............53...40....570.....7
Badgers (2-4).............49...44....529....11
Barristers (3-3)...........29...64....312....31
Puny Pontiffs (0-6).......15...78....161....45
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Inmates (2-4)..............56...37....602....--
Godfathers (2-4)..........54...39....581.....2
Derelicts (5-1).............52...41....569.....4
DamianUnited (0-6).......49...44....529.....7
Bombers (4-2).............46...47....495....10
Whiteskins (5-1)..........36...57....387....20

Sun-sational Six (Week 14)

2011-07-11T18:10:00.000-07:00

Now on the downside of the SBL season, it looks like anyone's game unless you're a judge or a pontiff. But clearly the high-and-mighty are the old, old guard, especially as it relates to the SS-list. Here's the Sun-Sational for this week:

1. Zeroes (last week's ranking: 2): We don't like to brag, but early on in this game, the list touted Paulo's squad because of its balance between offense and pitching. While the Zeroes' offense has been Abu Dubai hot of late, the pitching still looks fierce, making the Zeroes the team to beat during the second half. Praise Allah.

2. Bammers (last week's ranking: 4): The list has been pretty tough on the BGoffs' proclivity for Pirates and Nationals, but there's no disputing the dominant pitching he has enjoyed all season. The Bammers may have to change their nickname to reflect the best rotation in ball -- we're thinking the Slingers. No matter what you call 'em, they can hurl.

3. Inmates (last week's ranking: 1): We're thinking the GrandPattons have just hit a little midseason swoon, but for an old guy, there's no doubt this squad has something left in the tank. He'll need it as every team in the Nationals is a threat in the second half, but there's no reason for the Inmates to get nervous -- yet.

4. Godfathers (last week's ranking: 3): The swooning seems to be a little contagious at the top of the National Division, but again, this team looks like it's built for the long haul. No worries, Vic. Pay no attention to those Derelicts or Damians growing closer in your rearview mirror. Keep those eyes on the road, grandpa.

5. Moaners (last week's ranking: 6): We can do all the moaning for Mikee's boys in their uphill battle to catch the Slingers and Zeroes. Certainly, it won't be easy to become a playoff team in this division, but we've seen the magic of the Moaners in the past. Sounds like a bad Cinemax late-nighter for sure. Stay tuned.

6. Derelicts (last week's ranking: 5): Definitely has some momentum going into the second half to become a playoff contender. The Way-Up-There-Northerners have tons of talent at the dish and off the rubber. They have 12 more weeks to put it all together against some very experienced frontrunners.

SBL Notebook, Week 14

2011-07-05T21:36:00.000-07:00

Pardon the overwrought patriotic allusion, but what more appropriate way to mark Independence Day than with revolutionary upheaval . . . and bombs bursting in air . . . in the American division? Loosely translated, the SBL experienced an overthrow at the top of the AL standings, fueled by home run fireworks. It was a very happy ID4, indeed, for the Zero's -- ironically the only SBL team whose owner resides on distant shores outside the borders of this great nation of ours. The Z's rode the homer-happiest offense in a relatively homer-happy week to a 6-0 performance and supplanted longtime residents the Bammers from the AL penthouse. The Bams had been in first place from Day 1 through Week 13, the entire first half of the season, but their lead, 11 games as recently as Week 10, dwindled steadily in June, and they were felled from their pedestal as July dawned, a 2-4 stumble landing them in second place, two games behind the new front-runners. The mighty Zero's' prodigious offense smashed and dashed its way to 16 HRs, 40 RBIs, 33 runs, 31 TB, 8 SBs and a .371 OBP -- across-the-board strength sufficient to overcome some of the week's most incendiary pitching (league-worst 5.32 ERA, 1-4 WL, 1.29 BR) without breaking a sweat. Also acquired as a result of their big week was the exalted Best Team In Ball status -- at 55-32, the Zero's are one game better than the NL-leading Inmates . . . which makes them the third BTIB we've had in the last three weeks. . . . The Inmates stumbled a bit in a 2-4 week but, because one of their wins was over the second-place Godfathers, the Mental Defectives actually doubled their division lead, to two games. The G-Daddies, who went 1-5, can't get too comfortable in the runner-up spot, either, with resurgent DamianUnited staging a rear-guard action that resulted in their leapfrogging the Derelicts into third place, five games behind the Inmates and three back of the G's. DamU, rebounding nicely from last week's 0-6 pratfall, went 5-1 on the strength of 15 HRs, 33 BIs and some outstanding pitching (2.20 ERA, 6 saves, .94 BR). The only team to beat them was the cellar-dwelling Whiteskins, whose pitching was even better (microscopic 1.27 ERA, 5-1, .95 BR), and who would've gone 6-0 themselves if not for the misfortune of having to play the Zero's, the only AL team that could've beaten them, in their interleague matchup. . . . Both pennant races remained quite competitive, with the top three teams in each division separated by only four games (AL) and five (NL). However, two season-long contenders, the Badgers and the Derelicts, suffered simultaneous 0-6 mini-meltdowns that dropped them into fourth place, eight and seven games, respectively, out of first. . . . As mentioned above, there was a detectable dinger uptick, the 12 teams combining to hit 102 homers, an average of 8.6 per team, and 20 more than the league managed last week. Doing the most to skew the stat northward were the Zero's, DamU and the Cherry Valley Bombers, who combined for 41 circuit clouts, 40% of the total.

Week 14 standings

2011-07-05T21:24:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Zero's (6-0)................55...32....632....--
Bammers (2-4)............53...34....609.....2
Moaners (5-1).............51...36....586.....4
Badgers (0-6).............47...40....540.....8
Barristers (4-2)...........26...61....299....29
Pontiffs (2-4).............15...72....208....40
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Inmates (2-4)..............54...33....621....--
Godfathers (1-5)..........52...35....598.....2
DamianUnited (5-1).......49...38....563.....5
Derelicts (0-6).............47...40....540.....7
Bombers (4-2).............42...45....483....12
Whiteskins (5-1)..........31...56....356....23

Free agent draft No. 7

2011-07-04T20:55:00.000-07:00

Pre-draft DL moves:
Barristers: 3B Blake to DL
Derelicts: SP Oswalt to DL
Badgers: RP Chapman to DL
Zero's: 1B Morneau to DL, activate SP Hughes
Godfathers: RP Albuquerque to DL

1. Pontiffs take SP Carrasco, drop Santana;
........Taxi: Carrasco up, Danks down
2. Barristers take 3B Valencia
3. Whiteskins take OF Dan.Murphy, drop Bloomquist;
........Taxi: Hudson up, Burnett down
4. Bombers take SP Baker, drop Lilly
5. DamianUnited take SP Worley, drop Happ;
6. Moaners take RP Bastardo, drop Venters
7. Derelicts take SP Luebke;
........Taxi: Luebke & Jimenez up, Collmenter & Marcum down
8. Badgers take RP Da.Hernandez
9. Zero's take 1B Kotchman; drop SP DeLaRosa;
........Taxi: Beachy up, Bedard down
10. Bammers take OF E.Thames, drop Crisp
11. Godfathers take RP Pestano;
........Taxi: Hanson up, Garza down
12. Inmates take SS Furcal, drop Betancourt;
........Taxi: Santana up, Buchholz down

Sun-sational Six (Week 13)

2011-07-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

When we last left you in Week Whatever, the coronation of the BGoffs was pretty much a certainty, and everyone else was pretty well playing for second place.

How times change when the S-list goes away for months at a time. Surprise, surprise.

Without further do-do, here's this week's top half-dozen:

1. Patton Inmates (Last ranking: partly crabby): Hate to go with the easy simile, but the Inmates have simply gone crazy since the last update. Their record is something like something good and something pretty small. I know, impressive. Got to give the PI's credit for pitching and hitting, but not so much defense. The details are in the stats, people.

2. Zeroes (Last ranking: fairly foreign): Told you guys this team would be pretty good, which was after it had faltered, gotten good, did OK and then did just all right. Paulo's squad looks primed to knock off the BGoffs from their top perch in Week 14, but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We'll just revel in the Zeroe's greatness for the time being.

3. Godfathers (Last ranking: Texan through and through): Still not sure how the G-daddies do it, but they are just damn good week after week. Not sure they will have enough names to overtake the Inmates in the second half, but the G-papas sure have the look of a playoff team, unless the Pontiffs give the Derelicts more great players for nothing.

4. BGoffs (Last ranking: Perfectly Pittsburgh-ian): Somebody forgot to tell Brian this sport has nothing to do with the Steelers, but he's done pretty well for himself having two Pittsburgh players in his lineup all season. Actually, the impressive part of the Bammers have been their pitchers, and that might just carry them to a playoff spot in the second half.

5. Derelicts (Last ranking: Northern lit): We raise our Bics to the Derelicts, who not only are in the mix for a playoff spot in the best division in baseball (hey, one-out-of-two ain't bad), but also have shored up a pretty stout club with some incredible trades. Now, if we could just get him to quit cheering for those loser Mariners. Oh well.

6. Moaners (Last ranking: Positively moan-a-rific): No doubt this distresses, Mikee, getting named to the best of the best. "But I'm sneaking up on everyone and working my way to the top of the division," Mike moans. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We see you comin', Commish, and you're right. It ain't pretty. Thanks for the visual.

SBL Notebook, Week 13

2011-06-28T22:51:00.000-07:00

We've reached the halfway point in the season, numerically if not chronologically (MLB's new midweek start ensured that the real-world season won't reach its midpoint until the middle of this week), and 81 games in, it's almost anybody's ballgame. The division races are a beautiful mess, with eight teams solidly in the picture, fortunes ebbing and flowing depending on who's hot and who’s not at a particular moment in time, last week's Cinderella turning into this week's pumpkin, and then back again. The two hottest teams in Weeks 11-12, DamianUnited and the Moaners, tripped on a crack in the sidewalk this week, and now it's the Godfathers and the Zero's who are on the ascension after going 6-0 and 5-1, respectively, to tighten the division races like braces on a middle schooler's teeth. Blessed with a talented and versatile roster but cursed by injuries much of the season, the now-fully-functional G-Daddies got it all together and scorched the earth with perhaps the most dominant 6-0 week we've seen all year. A big hitting week in which they ranked first or second in the league in five categories (40 RBI, 36 runs, .387 OBP, 37 TB, 9 HR) was complemented by lights-out pitching (1.40 ERA, .98 BR, 1.09 Ks, 5-1), resulting in a Sherman-through-Georgia march that left body parts hanging from tree limbs -- three 10-1 blowouts and no other game closer than 8-3. The 6-0 surge lifted the GFs to within one game of the National division-leading Inmates, who held their own with a 4-2 mark grounded in some pretty impressive pitching of their own (2.25 ERA, 6 saves, 1.03 BR). Meanwhile, the Derelicts (2-4) and DamU (0-6) fell back to five and eight games out, respectively. . . . Good pitching was a recurring theme this week, with eight sub-3.00 ERAs and, even more remarkably, four under 2.00. The best of them all, and in fact the best ERA seen in the SBL all season, was the 1.18 posted by the Zero's, who also had six saves, a 1.09 BR and .98 K-rate and rode it all to within two games of the first-place Bammers -- the closest to the top the Z's have been all season, and the closest any American division team has been to the Bams since Week 5. The Bammers, who started 13-0 and 18-1 and have occupied the AL catbird seat from the get-go, had their own sterling ERA (1.45) to brag about, but all it got them was a hard-luck 2-4 week that included two 6-5 losses and a 6.5-4.5. The four defeats also cost them the Best Team In Ball status they'd clung to all season; the Mental Defectives took possession of the coveted yellow jersey at 52-29, with the Bammers and Godfathers sharing the runner-up spot at 51-30. . . . Another team on the rise, albeit intermittently, has been the Cherry Valley Bombers, whose best-o’-week 14 HRs, not to mention 37 RBI, 35 runs and 1.98 ERA, were the key ingredients in a 5-1 week. The Bombers had a disastrous start -- 1-12 and 3-16 -- but since Week 3 they've gone a respectable 35-27, moved to within five games of .500 and become, more often than not, a Team You Don't Want To Play. At 14 games behind the Inmates and 13 back of the second-place Godfathers, the CVBs face a long hard climb to get into playoff contention, but stranger things have happened.

Week 13 standings

2011-06-28T22:36:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Bammers (2-4)............51...30....630....--
Zero's (5-1)................49...32....605.....2
Badgers (4-2).............47...34....580.....4
Moaners (2-4).............46...35....568.....5
Barristers (5-1)...........22...59....272....29
Puny Pontiffs (0-6).......13...68....160....38
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Inmates (4-2)..............52...29....642....--
Godfathers (6-0)..........51...30....630.....1
Derelicts (2-4).............47...34....580.....5
DamianUnited (0-6).......44...37....543.....8
Bombers (5-1).............38...43....469....14
Whiteskins (1-5)..........26...55....321....26

Trade, Pre-Draft DL Rules

2011-06-21T21:02:00.000-07:00

From the Office of the Commish...

"We have a reminder to pass along on the subject of trades –- they are not permitted on draft days. Any trades made leading into a supplemental draft must be completed, and the commissioner’s office notified, by the Sunday night before the draft. . . . And what the heck, as long as we’re sending out notices, here’s another, on the subject of DL moves: When an SBL owner activates a player from his DL, necessitating that he drop someone to create a roster spot at that player’s position, that move must be made no later than Sunday evening before a supplemental draft. That way, the rest of the league can be notified in advance of the draft that the player being dropped will be available in the draft pool."

SBL Notebook, Week 12

2011-06-21T20:56:00.000-07:00

DamianUnited and the Moaners, division champions last season but fourth-place also-rans and fifth wheels in the NL/AL chases for most of this one, have rather suddenly elbowed their way into contention in what is turning into a compelling pair of come-one, come-all divisional races. Employing diametrically opposite methods, DamU and the M’s both arrived at the same 7-0 Week 12 destination, leaving us with the following unusual but highly desirable situation: Eight quasi-contending teams (four in each division), all at least 11 games over .500, none more than six games out of first place. While the Damned United remain in fourth place -- despite going 13-0 the last two weeks, 18-1 the last three and 22-3 the last four -- they now are 44-31 and only four games behind the National division-leading the Inmates (seven games closer to the top than DamU was just three weeks earlier), and only one game back of the runners-up Godfathers and the Derelicts. The Moaners, who as recently as Week 8 were treading water at .500 (25-25) and trailed the American division-leading Bammers by 16 games, have ridden a 12-1 surge the last two weeks to gain a whopping nine games on the suddenly struggling Bams, who went 1-6 this week after last week’s 1-5 toe-stub. That has vaulted the M’s into a second-place tie with the Zero’s at 44-31, with the Badgers right on their heels at 43-32. And the Bammers’ once unassailable division lead, 11 games over the Z’s and Badgers after Week 10 and nine games over the same pair a week ago, is down to five over the M’s and Z’s. The Bam-Bams, an eye-popping 41-9 through eight weeks, are 8-17 since. . . . DamiamUnited, coming off last week’s franchise record-smashing offensive display (19 HRs, 62 RBIs), laid down the lumber and let the pitchers pick up the slack this week, to the tune of a 1.64 ERA, 1.07 BR stat and a stunning nine saves, also believed to be a franchise record. That, plus significant spikes in a couple hitting stats (46 TB, .369 OBP), led DamU on a largely unchallenged romp, with none of their seven wins closer than 7-4. . . . The Moaners went in another direction, relying on big offense, as in days of yore. In a week when the spectacular hitting numbers seen earlier this month went into full retreat for the rest of the league, the M’s posted league bests for the week in RBI (45), runs (40), HRs (11) and OBP (.398), plus 44 TB, second only to DamU’s 46. Those numbers weren’t just better than the competition’s, they were conspicuously better -- in those five stats the M’s beat the next-best team in their division by 17 RBIs, 19 TB, seven runs, four homers and .037 in OBP. And league-wide, no one (other than DamU in TB) really came close to them in any of those five stats, either. They stuck out like a sore thumb. How out of character was this? Last Wednesday, Moaners hitters bashed six homers and drove in 18 runs, exceeding in one night the team’s totals in those categories for the entirety of Week 10 (five and 16, respectively).

Week 12 standings

2011-06-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Bammers (1-6)............49...26....653....--
Moaners (7-0).............44...31....587.....5
Zero's (5-2)................44...31....587.....5
Badgers (4-3).............43...32....573.....6
Barristers (0-7)...........17...58....227....32
Pontiffs (5-2).............13...62....173....36
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Inmates (4-3)..............48...27....640....--
Godfathers (5-2)..........45...30....600.....3
Derelicts (1-6).............45...30....600.....3
DamianUnited (7-0).......44...31....587.....4
Bombers (3-4).............33...42....440....15
Whiteskins (0-7)..........25...50....333....23

Free agent draft No. 6

2011-06-20T16:39:00.000-07:00

Pre-draft moves:
Pontiffs: activate 1B Hafner, LaPorta to DL
Whiteskins: activate RP Broxton; RP Sanchez to DL
DamianUnited: SP Johnson to DL
Zero's: activate 2B Uribe, drop O.Cabrera; C Barajas to DL
Badgers: activate OF Wells, Craig to DL
Derelicts: OF Kubel to DL

1. Pontiffs take OF Morse, drop Tabata
2. Barristers take 2B Ackley, drop Sanchez
3. Whiteskins take 2B J.Weeks, drop Hall
4. Bombers take SS Hardy, drop Tejada
5. Moaners take SP Humber, drops Drabek
........Taxi: Humber, Liriano up, Zambrano, Lohse down
6. DamianUnited take SP Karstens
........Taxi: Karstens up, Happ down
7. Zero's take C Soto
........Taxi: Kennedy up, DeLaRosa down
8. Badgers take 3B Moustakas, drop Callaspo
........Taxi: Anderson down, Bumgarner up
9. Godfathers take OF Cuddyer, drop Span
........Taxi: Cueto up, Hanson down
10. Derelicts takes OF Blackmon
........Taxi: Romero up, Oswalt down
11. Inmates take 3B Wigginton, drop Valencia
........Taxi: Stauffer up, Morrow down
12. Bammers take SP Norris, drops F.Garcia

Derelicts, 'Tiffs Make Deal

2011-06-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

From the Office of the Commish...

"For those who missed it, there was a trade over the weekend between the Derelicts and the Puny Pontiffs:

RP Papelbon and 3B Alvarez to the Double D's; RP Lyon and 3B Roberts to the Poontiffs."

---

The trade was a fairly even swap. The 'Licts bolster their already stout bullpen with a Papelbon-er, and the 'Tiffs get a warm body at third base.

SBL Notebook, Week 11

2011-06-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

It was another week, the third in a (hopefully) continuing series, when the SBL was converted into a MASH unit -- and no team induced pitching-staff triage quite like DamianUnited. The club that draws its name from the lowest-scoring sport on the planet produced some most un-soccer-like offense, highlighted by a preposterous 19 HRs and 62 RBIs, both all-time franchise highs and within hailing distance of the SBL records in those categories (believed to be 21 and 68 respectively; if anyone can confirm or disprove these figures, please notify the commissioner’s office). That, plus 42 runs, 33 TB and not-too-shabby pitching (3.19 ERA, 1.13 BR, 4-1 WL) carried DamU to its first 6-0 week this season, and lifted the National division’s fourth-place entry to within seven games of co-leaders the Inmates and the Derelicts. Just about everyone in DamU’s lineup contributed to the onslaught, but leading the way in this voyage of the Dam were 1B David Ortiz (four HRs, 13 BIs) and SS Troy Tulowitzki (2 HRs, 2 2Bs, 13 BIs). Their efforts were augmented by a dab of when-you’re-hot-you’re-hot sub-in luck: backup catcher Miguel Olivo produced a combined 3 HRs, 6 RBIs and 4 runs on two days when starter Miguel Montero happened to sit out. Something magical about catchers named Miguel, apparently. Every team that had the misfortune to encounter DamianUnited on the schedule ended up shaking his fist and shouting “Damn you, DamU!” Leading that chorus were the Moaners, who managed to take Da United to a tiebreaker in the teams’ interleague matchup but were blown away by what might have been the highest tiebreak number in SBL history -- a 212.1 figure fueled by those 19 HRs, which translated to 76 points in the top-secret tiebreaker formula. That loss was the only blemish in a 5-1 week that left the M’s two games out of second place in the American division, still shared by the Badgers and the Zero’s. Both of those teams went 3-3, failing to take full advantage of a rare 1-5 stumble by the pacesetting Bammers, who still enjoy a comfy nine-game lead. The NL race remains where the action is, with the Inmates going 5-1 to pull back into a tie with the Double-Ds (4-2) atop the heap, the Godfathers hanging tough at four games out and DamU now very much in the picture, too. The NL, still feeling frisky after its interleague triumph in weeks 7-10, won five of six cross-divisional tilts this week. And small wonder, when you look at some of the prodigious offense around the division, notably for the Derelicts (47 BI, 44 runs, 12 HRs) and the Inmates (39 runs, 13 HR, 42 TB). The Cherry Valley Bombers (44 runs, 33 TB, .362 OBP) and the Whiteskins (10 HR, 35 BI, 32 TB) also did their share of damage, but were undone by horrendous pitching (7.09 and 6.30 ERAs, respectively). . . . Congrats to the Batfaced Barristers, who posted their first winning record of the season (4-2), one of only two the AL could manage this week.

Week 11 standings

2011-06-14T20:54:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Bammers (1-5)............48...20....706....--
Badgers (3-3)..............39...29....574.....9
Zero's (3-3)................39...29....574.....9
Moaners (5-1).............37...31....544....11
Barristers (4-2)...........17...51....250....31
Puny Pontiffs (0-6)........8...60....118....40
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Inmates (5-1)..............44...24....647....--
Derelicts (4-2).............44...24....647....--
Godfathers (3-3)..........40...28....588.....4
DamianUnited (6-0).......37...31....544.....7
Bombers (1-5).............30...38....441....14
Whiteskins (1-5)..........25...43....368....19

DamU, 'Skins Make Deal

2011-06-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

From the of Office of the Commish...

"DamianUnited and the Whiteskins consummated a trade Monday:

OF N.Cruz and SP Dempster to DamU, OF Del.Young and SP T.Hudson to the 'Skins.

For those following along at home, Hudson takes Dempster’s place on the Whiteskins' taxi squad, and Dempster goes directly into DamU’s rotation in the spot previously occupied by Hudson. The 'Skins can move Hudson into their rotation on the next draft day."

---

For the time being, it looks like DamU got the better of this deal, trading for one of the premier power bats in ball. Cruz's 15 HRs currently ranks him just outside the Top 10 in the MLB.

2011 SBL Rosters (Updated)

2011-06-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

BADGERS
C: Posey (27), Y.Molina (274)
1B: Pujols (1), Huff (170)
2B: Phillips (53), Barney (300)
SS: Reyes (40), Brignac (222)
3B: A.Rodriguez (14), Callaspo (S)
OF: B.Upton (118), Quentin (144), A.Torres (145), Morrison (209), A.Soriano (S), Craig (S)
SP: Cahill (92), J.Sanchez (105), B.Anderson (131), J.Chacin (183), Shields (248)
Taxi: Bumgarner (1), Britton (24)
RP: Feliz (66), M.Rivera (79), Chapman (196), Melancon (S)
DL: OF Wells (157)

PUNY PONTIFFS
C: Mauer (15), Martin (171)
1B: LaPorta (275), Wallace (S)
2B: Cano (2), Kennedy (S)
SS: S.Drew (106), Al.Escobar (289)
3B: P.Alvarez (80), Aviles (S)
OF: Ethier (54), Sizemore (132), Markakis (133), G.Jones (210), Beltran (223), Tabata (249)
SP: Verlander (41), Scherzer (93), Latos (119), Danks (146), E.Jackson (262)
Taxi: J.Santana (2), Porcello (23)
RP: Papelbon (67), R.Soriano (197), Clippard (236), Boggs (S)
DL: 1B Hafner (S)

BARRISTERS
C: V.Martinez (55), Hundley (276)
1B: Ad.LaRoche (107), Loney (172)
2B: Roberts (147), F.Sanchez (263)
SS: H.Ramirez (3), Theriot (250)
3B: Wright (16), Blake (S)
OF: Hart (81), Hunter (120), Swisher (134), Pagan (185), Damon (S), Ludwick (S)
SP: Halladay (29), Cl.Lee (42), Greinke (121), Nolasco (198), T.Wood (T-3)
Taxi: Myers (224), Pineiro (22)
RP: B.Wilson (68), Nathan (94), Meek (277), Santos (S)

GODFATHERS
C: Napoli (238), Lucroy (S)
1B: B.Butler (108), Lind (122)
2B: A.Hill (109), S.Rodriguez (265)
SS: Desmond (148), E.Aybar (212)
3B: Longoria (4), Headley (264)
OF: Hamilton (17), J.Upton (43), Heyward (56), Bourn (160), Span (278), Francoeur (S)
SP: Lincecum (30), Hanson (69), Cain (82), Garza (173), Beckett (225)
Taxi: Peavy (4), Cueto (S)
RP: C.Perez (95), F.Francisco (199), Farnsworth (S), Alburquerque (S)
DL: RP Lidge (186)

DAMIANUNITED
C: Montero (187), Olivo (279)
1B: Dunn (31), D.Ortiz (123)
2B: K.Johnson (70), J.Lopez (292)
SS: Tulowitzki (5), Pennington (266)
3B: M.Reynolds (110), Figgins (213)
OF: Holliday (18), D.Young (83), I.Suzuki (97), Prado (253), Boesch (S), D.Brown (S)
SP: J.Johnson (44), Weaver (57), T.Hudson (136), D.Hudson (161), C.Wilson (239)
Taxi: Happ (20), Narveson (S)
RP: F.Cordero (96), Bailey (149), Capps (200), Adams (S)

INMATES
C: Buck (175), Saltalamacchia (241)
1B: Konerko (58), G.Sanchez (214)
2B: Weeks (45), Utley (162)
SS: A.Gonzalez (111), Y.Betancourt (267)
3B: McGehee (98), Valencia (227)
OF: C.Gonzalez (6), Kemp (19), Choo (32), Bourjos (280), Byrd (293), Patterson (S)
SP: Buchholz (124), Morrow (150), Pineda (T-6), Ogando (S), Vogelsong (S)
Taxi: Stauffer (201), E. Santana (240)
RP: Marmol (71), Street (84), F.Rodriguez (85), Madson (137)

BAMMERS
C. McCann (59), Torrealba (281)
1B: Votto (7), Freeman (215)
2B: N.Walker (151), Espinosa (242)
SS: A.Ramirez (112), M.Izturis (S)
3B: R.Zimmerman (20), Polanco (255)
OF: McCutcheon (46), Stubbs (73), Rasmus (138), Ad.Jones (176), Crisp (229), Me.Cabrera (S)
SP: F.Hernandez (33), Hamels (72), Haren (86), J.Garcia (163), Masterson (S)
Taxi: F.Garcia (18), J.Zimmerman (189)
RP: Kimbrel (99), Putz (125), Sale (228), Bard (S)

MOANERS
C: K.Suzuki (100), Avila (S)
1B: Teixeira (8), Smoak (269)
2B: Kinsler (34), Infante (217)
SS: Rollins (47), Scutaro (177)
3B: Youkilis (21), Freese (282)
OF: C.Young (60), V.Guerrero (126), Victorino (152), S.Smith (256),Fuld (S), Brantley (S)
SP: Carpenter (74), W.Rodriguez (139), Zambrano (243), Jurrjens (T-17), Lohse (S)
Taxi: Drabek (8), Liriano (113)
RP: Soria (61), Valverde (87), Venters (190), Walden (S)
DL: RP Aardsma (216)

DERELICTS
C: Wieters (127), Posada (205)
1B: Ad.Gonzalez (9), Fielder (22)
2B: Kendrick (140), Turner (S)
SS: S.Castro (155), Peralta (231)
3B: M.Young (114), Roberts (S)
OF: Bruce (35), Pence (48), Stanton (62), Ibanez (218), Kubel (257), Willingham (270)
SP: Price (75), Oswalt (88), Marcum (153), Tomlin (S), Collmenter (S)
Taxi: Jimenez (49), Romero (191)
RP: Storen (101), Lyon (178), League (204), Rauch (244)

CHERRY BOMBERS
C: C.Santana (Tr), Pierzynski (297)
1B: M.Cabrera (10), C.Pena (S)
2B: Uggla (23), O.Hudson (232)
SS: Jeter (115), Tejada (271)
3B: Beltre (50), Rolen (192)
OF: Werth (36), Ellsbury (89), B.Abreu (128), A.Gordon (258), Berkman (S), Joyce (S)
SP: Kershaw (37), C.Lewis (141), Hellickson (154), Lilly (166), G.Gonzalez (179)
Taxi: McClellan (10), Matsuzaka (15)
RP: Axford (76), Thornton (102), McGee (192), S.Burnett (S)
DL: 1B I.Davis (219)

WHITESKINS
C: Arencibia (233), Ruiz (Tr)
1B: Howard (24), Moreland (220)
2B: Beckham (155), Hall (272)
SS: Andrus (64), Lowrie (S)
3B: Sandoval (116), C.Jones (259)
OF: Crawford (11), N.Cruz (25), Granderson (142), Zobrist (167), Ca.Lee (180), Bloomquist (S)
SP: Sabathia (51), Billingsley (129), Kuroda (181), A.Burnett (T-14), Colon (S)
Taxi: Dempster (194), Carmona (285)
RP: Bell (38), Fuentes (246), Sanchez (S), Salas (S)
DL: RP Broxton (90)

ZERO'S
C: Iannetta (182), Barajas (260)
1B: Morneau (65), Hosmer (S)
2B: Pedroia (26), O.Cabrera (S)
SS: Y.Escobar (78), As.Cabrera (247)
3B: A.Ramirez (78), Encarnacion (221)
OF: Braun (12), J.Bautista (13), Gardner (91), A.Jackson (143), J.Drew (299), R. Davis (S)
SP: Lester (39), Gallardo (52), Bedard (169), An.Sanchez (T-12), De La Rosa (T-13)
Taxi: I Kennedy (234), Beachy (S)
RP: Nunez (104), Uehara (117), Hanrahan (168), Gregg (195)
DL: 2B Uribe (273), SP Hughes (156)

SBL Notebook, Week 10

2011-06-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

Up was down and down was up in the final week of interleague play, though the end result was essentially the same as the previous week -- the National division pushing the American division right through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole. Following up on last week’s 24-12 shellacking of the junior circuit, the NL administered a 25-11 beat-down in Week 10. Boy, is the AL glad that’s over. And the cherry on top of the National sundae was a decisive 83-61 victory for this four-week interleague period -- the first such triumph for the senior circuit in, well, who knows how long . . . most of us old farts can’t remember back that far. The odd aspect of this week’s outcome was that the primary damage was done by the bottom half of the division. While the three leaders -- the Derelicts, the Inmates and the Godfathers -- each went 3-3, the fourth-place DamianUnited, the fifth-place Bombers and the cellar-dwelling Whiteskins combined to go 16-2, led by the 'Skins 6-0 rampage. The ’Skins blasted 11 HRs, drove in 48 runs (league best this season), scored 39, pilfered eight sacks and posted a 2.83 ERA and 6-2 WL, and how was anybody gonna beat that? If the ’Skins could just generate a little consistency, they might yet be a factor in the race. So far, though, they’ve been all over the map -- 6-0 this week, 4-2 last week, 6-0 in Week 1 . . . and 8-36 in the seven weeks in between. . . . While the NL race remained tight -- the Double-Ds remained one game ahead of the Mental Defectives and three up on the G-Daddies -- the AL race blew wide open again, with the Bammers going 5-1 and inflating their lead from six games to 11. Three AL teams went 0-6, and one of those was the mercurial Zero’s, alone in second after going 6-0 last week, but now tied there with the Badgers and staring at a double-digit deficit. (Also going 0-6 were the Batfaced Barristers and the Puny Pontiffs, two luckless franchises that, incredibly, have combined for only 21 wins -- fewer than any other single team.). . . . The offensive revival hinted at last week seemed to pick up steam this week -- the league averaged a respectable 8.75 HRs per team (five reached double figures, the most in a week all season), an impressive 34.9 RBIs (three teams in the 40s, also for the first time this year) and 32.4 runs. It was almost like a time warp had taken us back to 1999. And think what those averages would’ve been if the Moaners hadn’t dragged them down by contributing only five HRs, 16 RBIs and 30 runs to the aggregate!

Week 10 standings

2011-06-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Bammers (5-1)............47...15....758....--
Badgers (3-3)..............36...26....581....11
Zero's (0-6)................36...26....581....11
Moaners (3-3).............32...30....516....15
Barristers (0-6)............13...49....210....34
Puny Pontiffs (0-6).........8...54....129....39
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Derelicts (3-3).............40...22....645....--
Inmates (3-3)..............39...23....629.....1
Godfathers (3-3)..........37...25....597.....3
DamianUnited (5-1).......31...31....500.....9
Cherry Bombers (5-1).....29...33....468....11
Whiteskins (6-0)..........24...38....387....16

Free agent draft No. 5

2011-06-06T20:56:00.000-07:00

Pre-draft moves:
Barristers: activate OF Pagan, drop Pierre
Whiteskins: activate 3B Sandoval, drop Betemit
Bombers: 1B I.Davis to DL
Moaners: activate OF Victorino, drop Gomes
Badgers: OF Wells to DL
Godfathers: drop C Soto
Bammers activate 3B Zimmerman, drop CJohnson

1. Puny Pontiffs take 2B Kennedy, drop Nishioka
2. Barristers take 3B Blake, drop Stewart
3. Whiteskins take SP Colon, drop Braden
........Taxi: Colon up, Dempster down
4. Bombers take 1B Pena
........Taxi: Lilly up, McClellan down
5. DamianUnited take OF D.Brown, drop Murphy
6. Moaners take SP Lohse, drop Volquez
7. Badgers take OF Craig
8. Godfathers take RP Alburquerque, drop Kuo
9. Inmates take OF Patterson, drop Snider
10. Zero's take OF R.Davis, drop Francisco
........Taxi: Gallardo up, Kennedy down
11. Derelicts take SP Collmenter, drop Lowe
12. Bammers take RP Bard, drop Contreras
........Taxi: Zimmerman up, Masterson down

Badgers Propose Trade

2011-06-04T23:47:00.001-07:00

Crossing the SBL wire...

---

Hello SBL land,

I have a few injuries and could use an extra draft pick on Monday. Anyone short on starting pitchers?

With a slight tweak to the deal (maybe swapping Reid Brignac for your backup shortstop, who almost assuredly is better), I can offer you Zach Britton off my taxi squad for your draft pick. He is pitching well.

Thanks,

=badge=

---

Looks like the Badgers are going to push hard for a second consecutive playoff spot. Which team is looking for starting pitching and/or a slightly better backup SS? Anyone?

SBL Notebook, Week 9

2011-05-31T20:14:00.000-07:00

As Clint Eastwood, portraying the cold-blooded killer William Munny, said in “Unforgiven” -- “We’ve all got it coming, kid.” And it’s safe to say the American division has had this coming for a while now. Long dominant in interleague play, the AL got a taste of its own medicine this week as the National division dished out a 24-12 whuppin’, giving the senior circuit a 58-50 overall edge with one week to go in this four-week cycle. Every NL team posted a winning record except the Inmates, whose 2-4 stumble cost them their grip on first place, now occupied by the Derelicts (4-2), though by only one game over the Mental Defectives and three over the Godfathers (5-1). On the other side of the standings, the Zero’s and the Moaners were the only teams to carry the AL banner high this week; while they were going a combined 12-2, the other four clubs were conspiring to go 2-22. The Zero’s’ 6-0 week, combined with twin 1-5s by the pace-setting Bammers and the (former) runners-up Badgers, catapulted the 2009 champions into second place, six back of the Bams and three up on the Badgers. The Z’s did it with some better-than-fair offense (10 HRs, 33 RBI, 9 SBs, .351 OBP) with a pitching week that can best be described as pristine -- a 1.37 ERA, a league-best this season, built on the back of a rotation that in five starts surrendered only 3 ER in 31.2 innings. . . . There was a noticeable uptick in offense this week, and we’re wondering whether there’s a correlation between that and an apparent decrease in strikeouts. Much has been made of the soaring strikeout rate among major league hitters the last two years, as the balance of power has shifted toward pitchers. But Week 9 in the SBL was the worst all season for K-rates, with no team getting to 1.00 (only the second time all season that’s happened), and seven checking in with rates of .80 or lower. Perhaps not coincidentally, increased contact translated into better hitting numbers. Still nothing like we saw in, say, the late ’90s, but a lot better than last week. The average HR total was 7, almost two more than in Week 8, and the average RBI count was 31, a damn sight better than last week’s 25. Leading the way were the revived Godfathers, who finally have their team back together with the return from the DL of sluggers Josh Hamilton, Evan Longoria and Aaron Hill, and this week put up some crooked numbers that reflected the infusion of hitting talent –- 39 RBIs, 38 runs and 38 TBs. Kudos, too, to the Derelicts for their 47 RBIs; it’s the first time all season any team has even gotten into the 40s in that stat, believe it or not. And condolences to the pitching staffs of the Bammers and the Puny Pontiffs, which seemed to absorb the lion’s share of the damage, combining to give up a staggering 73 earned runs, resulting in ERAs of 5.75 and 6.89, respectively.

Week 9 standings

2011-05-31T20:06:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Bammers (1-5)............42...14....750....--
Zero's (6-0)................36...20....643.....6
Badgers (1-5)..............33...23....589.....9
Moaners (4-2).............29...27....518....13
Barristers (0-6)............13...43....232....31
Puny Pontiffs (0-6).........8...48....143....36
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Derelicts (4-2).............37...19....661....--
Inmates (2-4)..............36...20....643.....1
Godfathers (5-1)..........34...22....607.....3
DamianUnited (4-2).......26...30....464....11
Cherry Bombers (5-1).....24...32....429....13
Whiteskins (4-2)..........18...38....321....19

SBL Notebook, Week 8

2011-05-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

It’s still a little early to be worrying about this, but it really is getting kind of serious for the pursuers in the American division, where the Bammers and their untouchable pitching staff reeled off another 6-0 week to improve to 41-9 and increase their division lead to nine games over Andy’s Badgers and 11 over the defending champion Zero’s. It’s getting so it’s a surprise when the Bammers DON’T post an ERA under 2.50 and a BR stat under 1.00, and try as they might, the Badgers -- whose own pitching ain’t too shabby either -- haven’t been able to quite keep up. Things are much more competitive in the National division, where the Inmates’ lead was reduced to one game over the Derelicts, with the Godfathers five back. Seems like both division races have been reduced to three-team affairs, with the other six clubs at or below .500. . . . It was another week of itty-bitty offense -- the itty-bittiest yet, we’re thinking. And that’s not a complaint, just an observation. The average HR figure this week was a mere 5.4; the 65 total homers were only seven more than we had in Week 1, which was only three days-and-change long. In fact, the league high in stolen bases (9, by the Zero’s and G-Daddies) was greater than the league high in homers (8 by the Z’s), and the total SBs (53) weren’t too far off the HR total. The Badgers managed only 14 RBIs, and still went 4-2. The Godfathers had three homers, 11 RBI and a .297 OBP, and still went 3-3. The Bombers had four HRs, and went 5-1. Amazing. But this is the world we’re living in, people. Six SBL teams posted ERAs under 3.00 this week, and those teams went a combined 26-10. It’s the new world order -- pitching is (almost) everything. . . . BTW, the interleague skirmish this week ended in an 18-18 tie. Which is good, right? Nothing approaching the old blowout days when the AL dominated; after two weeks the tally reads AL 38, NL 34. It’s anybody’s ballgame!

Week 8 standings

2011-05-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW.................W....L....PCT....GB
Bammers (6-0)............41....9....820....--
Badgers (4-2).............32...18....640.....9
Zero's (4-2)................30...20....600....11
Moaners (2-4).............25...25....500....16
Barristers (1-5)...........13...37....260....28
Pontiffs (1-5)...............8...42....160....33
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Inmates (3-3)..............34...16....680....--
Derelicts (5-1).............33...17....660.....1
Godfathers (3-3)..........29...21....580.....5
DamianUnited (2-4).......22...28....440....12
Bombers (5-1).............19...31....380....15
Whiteskins (0-6)..........14...36....280....20

Free agent draft No. 4

2011-05-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

Pre-draft moves:
Puny Pontiffs: 1B Hafner to DL
Batfaced Barristers: OF Pagan to DL
Moaners: OF Victorino to DL
Godfathers: C Soto to DL
Zero's: 2B Uribe to DL
Derelicts: activate SP Oswalt, drop Harrison
Inmates: activate 2B Utley, drop Herrera
Bammers: 3B Zimmerman to DL

1. Puny Pontiffs take 1B Wallace, drop KMorales
2. Batfaced Barristers take OF Ludwick
........Taxi: TWood up, Myers down
3. Whiteskins take RP Salas, drop Franklin
4. Cherry Bombers take OF Joyce, drop Rios
5. DamianUnited take RP Adams, drop Rodney
6. Moaners take OF Brantley
7. Godfathers take C Lucroy
8. Zero's take 2B OCabrera
........Taxi: Bedard up, Beachy down
9. Derelicts take 2B Turner, drop Wigginton
........Taxi: Oswalt up, Jimenez down
10. Badgers take 3B Callaspo, drop Kouzmanoff
11. Inmates take SP Vogelsong, drops CYoung
........Taxi: Ogando up, Stauffer down
12. Bammers take 3B CJohnson

SBL Notebook, Week 7

2011-05-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

The first week of interleague play was . . . oh, let's say inconclusive. The commissioner's office was kinda sorta halfway semi-expecting the NL to gain the early upper hand in the lid-lifter to four weeks of cross-divisional squabbling, based on six weeks' worth of anecdotal evidence that suggested the senior circuit, after years of second-fiddle status, really did appear to be the stronger division this season, with more good teams than the AL, including two or three that look like legit contenders to win it all. But when the dust cleared in Week 7, it looked like something closer to business as usual, with the AL winning the week, 20-16. Although only two American teams posted winning records, those two, the Zero's and the Bammers, combined to go 11-1, more than offsetting the 9-15 mediocrity of the other four. Another factor that swung things the AL's way: its Bottom Two, the Batfaced Barristers and the Puny Pontiffs, who had combined for only 15 wins in the first six weeks, managed four victories between them this week, while one of the NL's more consistent clubs, DamianUnited, saw six weeks of mostly solid results unravel in an uncharacteristic 0-6 crash that pushed them below .500 for the first time. . . . The mercurial Zero's -- 13-0 in Weeks 4-5, followed by an 0-6 Week 6 -- reverted to take-no-prisoners mode this week, and the turnaround could essentially be summed up in three words: Jose F***ing Bautista. The late-blooming Toronto slugger, who led the majors by a mile with 54 homers last year in helping the Moaners cop the SBL crown, was conspicuously absent during the Z's winless Week 6 due to some sort of neck issue that sidelined him for all but one game. But he was back with a vengeance this week -- six homers, nine RBIs, eight runs and a .516 OBP (11 hits, five walks in 31 PAs) -- and not coincidentally so were the Z's. Think one measly player can't make a major difference for an SBL team? Try to imagine where the Zero's might be without Bautista, who, by himself, beat or tied five entire SBL teams in the HR category this week. Actually, you don't have to imagine it -- just take a look at those Week 6 results. . . . The Bammers were a bit off their game, particularly on the pitching side (4.12 ERA, 1.55 BR) -- but, typical of good, well-rounded SBL teams, they proved tough to beat, finding enough ways to win to go 5-1, improve the Best Record In Ball to 35-9 and stretch their AL lead to seven games over the Badgers, who continue to tread water (10-9 the last three weeks) while dropping further behind. . . . Another balanced, weakness-free aggregation, the Inmates, also introduced some distance between themselves and their many pursuers, with the Derelicts, the Godfathers and DamU combining to go 5-13 while the Mental Defectives were going 5-1, including the NL's only win over the Bammers. That opened things up a bit in a division where the top three teams had been separated by only two games; the 'Mates now lead the Double-Ds by three, the G-Daddies by five and DamU by 11.

Week 7 standings

2011-05-17T12:37:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Bammers (5-1)............35....9....795....--
Badgers (3-3)..............28...16....636.....7
Zero's (6-0)................26...18....591.....9
Moaners (2-4).............23...21....523....12
Barristers (3-3)...........12...32....273....23
Puny Pontiffs (1-5)........7...37....182....27
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Inmates (5-1)..............31...13....705....--
Derelicts (3-3).............28...16....614.....3
Godfathers (2-4)..........26...18....519.....5
DamianUnited (0-6).......20...24....455....11
Cherry Bombers (4-2).....14...30....318....17
Whiteskins (2-4)..........14...30....318....17

Sun-sational Six (Week 6)

2011-05-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

So maybe it wasn't such a good idea to diss the Bammers. It's been nary impossible to predict the twists and turns during this year's campaign, but one thing seems like a surety -- the Bammers are the team to beat. Now, the SS-list knows it (until next week).

1. Bammers (Last week: 2): Take away Bammers' frontline pitching with Hamels, Haren, Hernandez, Garcia and Masterson, maybe then, it would be a fair fight with the rest of the league. But the Bammers are bringing it every week from 60-6, and that's why they are No. 1 again after a short-sighted effort from the SS-list. Not that there needs to be an apology for imperfection.

2. Inmates (Last week: 3): No old jokes this week, especially after the Pattons continue to kick a little Cherry Bomber ass week after friggin' week. OK, we get it old-timer. You got game. After beating up on the weaker division, we'll see how you do against the real division for the next four weeks. Now, let's see what you got, ol' bitch.

3. Badgers (Last week: 1): Not that the SS-list ever overreacts, but the Fruitopias probably aren't a No. 3 team. Sure, the SS-list went out on a limb last week and gave the Badgers some premature props. It's not like we would hold it against the Badges after going a so-so 3-3, but remember Badge: It's not nice to mess with SS-list.

4. Derelicts (Last week: 6): The list is thinking about changing the team's nicknames to the yo-yos, since they've been up-and-down more than a Cinemax late-night feature. Hey-yo, D-rich. Hate to think of where you might be heading next week, but just to be safe, you might want to get a shot for that.

5. Godfathers (Last week: 5): While the list has been fairly inconsistent about nearly everyone else, the Vicsters have held serve of late. Can't believe we're using tennis analogies, and we haven't even made it to the French Open yet, but the list can't be limited by mere sports calendars. Fight on, Nadal-lovers.

6. Moaners (Last week: not ranked): Can't remember if this was the team that was here last week or the Zeros, but they seem to be just about the same, you know, except for one playing its home games halfway around the world. Oh well. Can't win 'em all, except maybe this week when it's against those patsie Nationals.

SBL Notebook, Week 6

2011-05-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

In honor of the Mother’s Day we just celebrated, all we can say is “WOW.” Which is MOM, upside-down, and also succinctly conveys our astonishment at the continued shriveling of offense in baseball and, by extension, the SBL. Acknowledging right from the top that we’re starting to sound like a broken record on this topic . . . we’re seriously starting to wonder if this season is going to end up breaking records for offensive futility. You can’t spell “puny” without “P.U.,” and hitting numbers don’t get much tinier, or stinkier, than what we saw this week. There was a time not long ago – even as recently as last year – when, if you went into battle with 26 runs, 26 RBI, 6 HR and 24 TB, you held little hope of success. This week, those were the league averages—26.2, 26.2, 5.75 and 23.9, to be exact. The average on-base percentage in MLB is down to .319, and many of our SBL “all-star” teams are struggling to reach even that benchmark -- five teams failed to get there this week, and three couldn’t even make it to .300, the OBP version of the Mendoza Line. Only one team reached double figures in homers -- the Derelicts, with a mighty 10. The trio whose stats are compiled by Paul Oberjuerge was monumentally feeble -- the Zero's, the Puny Pontiffs and the Batfaced Barristers combining to average 19 runs, 20 BI and 3.6 HRs. Elsewhere in the American division, the Moaners raked to the tune of 29 runs, 23 RBIs and 6 HRs -- and went 5-1. Good times! . . . We’ve speculated ad nauseam about the causes of the Incredible Disappearing Offense. But it can’t just be post-steroids shrinkage (both anatomical and statistical), can it? If, let’s say, 30% of MLB players were juicing and are now off the stuff, why is it that the malaise seems industry-wide, affecting even the 70% presumed to have been clean in the first place? Plus, weren’t some pitchers on the needle too, and wouldn’t those pitchers be more hittable now? Yet it seems like nobody’s hitting much of anything, or anyone. The ever astute Mr. Oberjuerge suggests that the massively underperforming Red Sox lineup, in which numerous SBL teams are invested, is a meaningful factor in this; the Bosox were expected to be a run-producing machine after adding Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford to an already potent lineup, yet here they are in the bottom 10 in MLB scoring six weeks in. Another owner, Gregg Patton, theorizes that the primary culprit is simply better pitching—bigger, stronger athletes with harder, nastier stuff—and more specialized pitching roles, with one strong, fresh arm after another marching in from the bullpen from the sixth inning on . . . and all of these guys throwing to less-disciplined free-swinging hackers. If that’s true, then perhaps we’re in the early stages of a new, pitching-dominant era. Are we heading back to where the game was in 1968, the year of Drysdale’s 58 straight scoreless innings, McLain’s 31 wins and Gibson’s 1.12 ERA? Baseball lowered the mound after that season, to reduce pitchers’ advantage. Will this season be remembered as the one that compelled MLB to do away with the mound entirely and have them pitch off flat ground, like in softball? . . . OK, enough of our complaining about crappy offense, for, like, the rest of the season. On to the races: The Inmates put together a HUGE week by new-era standards (34 runs, 34 BI, 38 TB, .372 . . . fuggetaboutit), combined that with the week’s finest pitching (1.96 ERA) and cruised to a 6-0 week that left them alone atop the National division—though by only one game over the Double-Ds and two over the Godfathers, with whom the ’Mates were locked in a three-way tie a week ago. In the AL, the Bammers rebounded from last week’s 2-5 blip to also go 6-0 and inflate their lead from two games to five over the second-place Badgers. . . . The Bombers and the Whiteskins announced a trade Monday: C Santana to the Bombers in exchange for C Ruiz and the No. 3 pick in that day’s supplemental draft. . . . Four weeks of interleague play commence this coming week. Is the NL really, finally the stronger of the two divisions this year, as early-season indicators hint? We’ll find out what’s what.

Week 6 standings

2011-05-11T13:12:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Bammers (6-0)............30....8....789....--
Badgers (3-3)..............25...13....658.....5
Moaners (5-1).............21...17....553.....9
Zero's (0-6)................20...18....526....10
Barristers (2-4).............9...29....237....21
Pontiffs (1-5)...............6...32....158....24
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..................W....L....PCT....GB
Inmates (6-0)..............26...12....684....--
Derelicts (5-1).............25...13....658.....1
Godfathers (4-2)..........24...14....632.....2
DamianUnited (2-4).......20...18....526.....6
Whiteskins (0-6)..........12...26....316....14
Bombers (2-4).............10...28....263....16

Free agent draft No. 3

2011-05-11T12:58:00.000-07:00

Pre-draft moves:
Bombers: taxi Lewis up, Matsuzaka down
Whiteskins: RP Broxton to DL; 3B P.Sandoval to DL
Derelicts: SP Oswalt to DL
Badgers: activate RP Feliz, drop Rhodes

1. Pontiffs take 3B Aviles, drop Morel
2. Barristers take RP Santos, drop Boyer
........Taxi: Greinke up, Wood down
3. Whiteskins (from Bombers) take RP E.Sanchez
4. Whitekins take 3B Betemit
5. Moaners take C Avila, drop Jaso
........Taxi: W.Rodriguez up, Drabek down
6. DamianUnited take OF D.Murphy, drop Cuddyer
7. Derelicts take SP Tomlin
........Taxi: Jimenez up, Harrison down
8. Inmates take SP Ogando, drop Matusz
9. Godfathers take SP Cueto, drop Westbrook
10. Zero's take 1B Hosmer, drop C.Pena
11. Badgers take RP Melancon, drop Lindstrom
12. Bammers take OF Me.Cabrera, drop Raburn

Last-minute trade proposal

2011-05-09T10:42:00.000-07:00

Hi gang,

I'm taking to the blogosphere (because my telegraph gets poor reception here) to send out a trade proposal. I'm eager, though not desperate, to acquire an additional draft pick this week. Pablo Sandoval and Jonathan Broxton decided to get injured at the same time (possibly while fighting over a drumstick at HomeTown Buffet).

Here's my roster:

C: Arencibia, Santana
1B: Howard, Moreland
2B: Beckham, Hall
SS: Andrus, Lowrie
3B: Sandoval (injured), Jones
OF: Granderson, Zobrist, Bloomquist (injured), Cruz (injured) Lee, Crawford
SP: Sabathia, Burnett, Kuroda, Dempster, Billingsley
RP: Bell, Broxton (injured), Franklin, Fuentes
Taxi: Carmona, Braden (injured)

Eager, but not desperate.

Sun-sational Six (Week 5)

2011-05-08T20:27:00.000-07:00

There's a new sheriff in town, and surprisingly enough it has nothing to do with the Inmates. The Badgers, fresh off a 4-3 week and still trailing the Bammers in their division race by a couple games, look to be the new team to beat. That's our story, and we'll stick to it as long as Andy doesn't pull an 0-6 answer to their new seeding.

1. Badgers (Last week: 2): This group has been slowly closing the gap on the Bammers. Kind of looks like they have to momentum to finally slingshot into the lead this week, at least that's what our psychic tells us. Might have something to do with the Cards, especially that Pujols joker.

2. Bammers (Last week: 1): OK, so technically the BGoffs are still the best team in ball and had a nice three week run at the top spot. Hey, even the Lakers used to be good. In our what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world, the Bammers get no instant gratification from the SS-list.

3. Inmates (Last week: 3): Here's another club that hasn't been getting its just desserts. Like a stealth geriatric in a wheelchair, the Pattons have glided to the front of the pack among the Nationals. Not sure whether this team should be dropped over the Middle East or even Pakistan, but we seem to be droning on.

4. Zeroes (Last week: unranked): Had a feeling we might be seeing the mighty O's again, and they didn't disappoint in one of the most dominant weeks in the SBL so far this season. These wily Abu Dubai-ies are a finicky bunch, though. Don't mess with the mighty SS-list, oh fickle foreigner.

5. Godfathers (Last week: 6): Another old fart on the rise. We won't be trite enough to say that the Godfather hurlers throw gas or maybe we just don't have the intestinal fortitude to stomach that analogy. Whatever, the Godfathers have withstood some wicked shots to the gut with early season injuries, and now everyone is coming out smelling of roses. Yum.

6. Derelicts (Last week: 3). Not sure that a 3-4 week should drop the Northwesterners down this low, but life can be cruel, eh, Derek? Doesn't take much to convince the SS-list that this team is better than this, but convince us nonetheless.

SBL Notebook, Week 5

2011-05-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

One of our veteran owners (who shall remain nameless, but whose initials are P.O., and who lives in Abu freakin’ Dhabi), dredged up a couple of interesting stats the other day—the cumulative MLB batting average for April was only .250, the OBP a meager .319. Which seems like a reasonable jumping-off point for our annual at-around-this-time-of-year musing about the continued shrinkage of offense in the majors. It’s certainly being felt in the SBL, which after a hot (three-day) start in Week 1 has witnessed steady downward pressure on hitting numbers. The league averages this week: 7.6 HRs, 28.6 RBIs, 28.5 runs, 25.6 TB (the latter skewed by two teams that combined for 81 TB; take them out of the mix and the other 10 teams averaged 22.7). Plus, there were only two OBPs above the .340. threshold. And, oddly enough, there was some pretty terrible pitching going around this week, with five SBL ERAs above 4.5, four of those above 5.40--including one hideous 6.69. Apparently those SBL pitchers didn’t get to face enough SBL hitters. . . . For years now, it hasn’t been unusual to see these kind of pedestrian numbers on offense for a week or two in April, but now it seems like we see them all month, and it bleeds over into May and when will it ever stop and are we going to HAVE TO ENDURE THIS TRAVESTY ALL SEASON???!! . . . OK, take a breath . . . and we now return you to our regular SBL programming. Quite suddenly, we have the makings of actual competition in the American division. For the first three weeks, the Bammers were well-nigh unbeatable, starting 18-1 and conjuring memories (fears?) of 2006, when the Bams started 19-0 and 37-1, were 77-10 at the All-Star break and generally made a mockery of the AL race, coasting to the pennant by 19 games before winning the SBL Series 17-9. But the last two weeks they’ve come back to the pack a bit, and their hard-luck 2-5 performance this week left them only two games ahead of the rock-steady Badgers, who have posted five straight winning weeks en route to a 22-10 record. Oh, and a third team has entered the picture -- the Zero’s, 7-0 this week, 13-0 the last two weeks and only four games out despite their unsightly 7-12 start. (As an example of how little offense it takes to win these days, the Z’s went unbeaten and almost unchallenged with 28 runs, 22 TB, 32 RBI and a .336 OBP -- though nine saves, a 1.07 BR stat, 4-1 WL and 3.04 ERA certainly didn’t hurt their cause.) And, even the struggling defending champion Moaners dragged their sorry butts back to .500 with a 6-1 effort, their first winning week since W 1. . . . The frenzied scramble in the National division showed no signs of abating, with three teams now tied for the top spot and a fourth, DamianUnited, only two games back. Special citation to the Godfathers, who continue to weather an injury wave that claimed top picks Evan Longoria and Josh Hamilton and slugging 2B Aaron Hill among others. After a 6-1 week, the G-Daddies share first place with the Inmates and the Derelicts, and a couple of their missing stars are due back any day now. . . . Kudos, too, to the Whiteskins, who just last week inserted the Rays’ Ben Zobrist into their starting outfield, then sat back and watched him produce one of the greatest single-player boxscore bonanzas in SBL history -- 7 for 10, 5 runs, 10 RBIs, 2 homers, 3 doubles and a stolen base in a Thursday double dip against the Twins. Hope you enjoyed that; miracle stat lines like that are why we play this game, and are also as rare as dodo birds. BTW, the Z-propelled ’Skins went 5-2, arresting a 1-18 slide the previous three weeks.

Week 5 standings

2011-05-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW...............W....L....PCT....GB
Bammers (2-5)..........24....8....750...--
Badgers (4-3)...........22...10....688....2
Zero's (7-0)..............20...12....625....4
Moaners (6-1)...........16...16....500....8
Barristers (1-6)...........7...25....219...17
Pontiffs (0-7).............5...27....156...19
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW...............W....L....PCT....GB
Inmates (3-4)............20...12....625...--
Derelicts (3-4)...........20...12....625...--
Godfathers (6-1)........20...12....625...--
DamianUnited (4-3).....18...14....563....3
Whiteskins (5-2)........12...20....375....9
Bombers (1-6)............8...24....250...13

Sun-sational Six (Week 4)

2011-05-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

Yawn. Not much to report in Week 4, which is to say that nothing has changed from Week 3. While the powers-that-be were hardly overwhelming, there's plenty of scrubs having a tough time challenging now that we're through the first month of action. Here's the same ol', same ol'.

1. Bammers (Last week's rank: 1): Kind of looks like the Goffs have the corner on this market. While his offense has cooled in the past couple weeks, the Bammers can bring it from the hill with a bunch of H-hurlers: Hernandez, Hamels, Haren, Harcia and Har-har-har. Hut-ever.

2. Badgers (Last week's rank: 2): While the Badge hates playing second fiddle, well, it's not like he's going to be named conductor anytime soon to change the seating arrangement. He just have to face the music for awhile or use all these cliches to sing a different tune. Blech.

3. Derelicts (Last week's rank: 3): DRich was so overwhelmed at getting onto the SS-list last week that he called from Seattle to genuflect. Brown-nosing keeps you high on the list, and yes, blubbering is good to get you in the top 3. Wah.

4. Inmates (Last week's rank: 4): The Pattons did make a little move last week, tying the Derelicts for the top spot in the division. But it was a small move, and it's not as if anyone is going to win this division anytime soon. Settle down, old-timer.

5. Damian U (Last week's rank: 5): No doubt D-dog would trade a couple of his wins for a couple weeks more from his precious Lakers, but this isn't "Deal or No Deal." Concentrate DU before you let this team go stale.

6. Godfathers (Last week's rank: 6): The Vicsters probably are a shade better than the No. 5 team, but it's so difficult to cut and paste to move one team ahead of another, especially when their tied. Show us one more time, Uncle Vic. We want to believe.

SBL Notebook, Week 4

2011-04-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

That most egalitarian of divisions, the National, welcomed yet another new face at the top of its leaderboard, making it four different NL No. 1s in four weeks. Week 1 was the Whiteskins’ moment in the sun, to be followed by DamianUnited (Week 2 numero uno), the Derelicts (Week 3 head honchos) and, this week, the Inmates, sharing the catbird seat with the Double-Ds, but listed first because they had a better week (5-1 to Derek’s 4-2). This actually is the Mental Defectives’ second appearance in first place; they shared it with DamU in Week 2, with Damian listed first because of his superior 6-1 performance that week. The ’Mates’ owner has lamented the slow starts by a couple of key early draft picks, Carlos Gonzalez and Shin-Soo Choo, but the team has hummed along anyway, yet to put up a losing week -- thanks in part to a spectacular start by Matt Kemp, solid work by a semi-anonymous rotation (Michael Pineda? Tim Stauffer?) and a productive bullpen, always an Inmates staple. The only NL teams that haven’t sniffed the heady air of first place are the Godfathers and the Cherry Valley Bombers -- and the G-Daddies have been close, within one game of the top a week ago and three back now. If their injury luck ever turns around, they just might earn their own turn at the top. This week, though, they lost another key player, 2B Aaron Hill, who joined first- and second-round picks Evan Longoria and Josh Hamilton on the DL. . . . Meanwhile, what happened to the Whiteskins? After a scorching 6-0 start, they’ve gone 1-18 to plummet into a last-place tie with the Bombers. . . . The top of the American division treaded water, with the Bammers (now 21-3) and the Badgers (18-7) each going 4-2 to remain the top two teams in ball. There was a rumbling among the AL also-rans, though, as Paulo’s Zero’s rose up to go 6-0 and get their noses above .500 (at 13-12) for the first time this season. Their end-of-first-round double picks, Jose Bautista and Ryan Braun, propelled the Z’s to league highs in runs (40), HRs (13) and OBP (.377), in what was otherwise another tepid hitting weak. Meanwhile, the bottom three in the stratified division have dropped almost out of sight, already 12, 16 and 17 games, respectively, behind the Bammers. Is it possible to be out of a baseball divisional race after only four weeks? Maybe not, technically, but hope is hard to come by just now for the AL’s poor and huddled masses.

Week 4 standings

2011-04-26T20:29:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW..............W....L....PCT....GB
Bammers (4-2).........22...3....880....--
Badgers (4-2)...........18...7....720.....4
Zero's (6-0).............13..12....520.....9
Moaners (2-4)..........10..15....400....12
Barristers (0-6)..........6..19....240....16
Pontiffs (2-4)............5..20....200....17
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..............W....L....PCT....GB
Inmates (5-1)..........17...8....680....--
Derelicts (4-2).........17...8....680....--
DamianUnited (3-3)...14..11....560.....3
Godfathers (2-4)......14..11....560.....3
Bombers (4-2)..........7..18....280....10
Whiteskins (0-6).......7..18....280....10

Free agent draft No. 2

2011-04-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

Pre-draft moves:
Zero's: SP Hughes to DL
Inmates: 2B Utley to DL
Derelicts: activate SP Jimenez, drop Vargas
Badgers: RP Feliz to DL

1. Madmen take RP Boggs, drop Bard
2. Bombers take OF Berkman, drop M.Ramirez;
........Taxi: Matsuzaka up, C.Lewis down
3. Barristers take OF Damon, drop R.Davis
4. Whiteskins take SS Lowrie, drop Furcal
........Taxi: Billingsley up, Carmona down
5. Zero's take SP Beachy
........Taxi: ASanchez up, Bedard down
6. Moaners take OF Fuld, drop Bay
........Taxi: Zambrano up, Liriano down
7. DamianUnited take OF Boesch, drop Scott
8. Inmates take 2B J.Herrera
........Taxi: Morrow up, ESantana down
9. Godfathers take OF Francoeur, drop Gutierrez
10. Derelicts take 3B Roberts, drop Aviles
........Taxi: Marcum up, Romero down
11. Badgers take RP Rhodes
12. Bammers take SP Masterson, drop J.Vazquez
........Taxi: Masterson up, J.Zimmerman down

Sun-sational Six (Week 3)

2011-04-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

Can't remember if it was Carl Sagan or Ray Kroc, but one of those guys had some kind of saying about billions and billions. That would seemed to be the odds of some owner -- say like a guy living in the Northwest who follows the Mariners and Seahawks -- of ever cracking the SS list. Hard to believe, but it's finally happened in this week's Sun-sational list. Here they are -- late, but not absent.

1. Bammers (Last week ranking: 1): OK, Good Goff. We believe. He suffered the indignity of his first loss last week, but 18 out of 19 ain't bad, chief. This team has a lethal combination of offense and pitching. The American race might be over by the All-Star Game, especially if the No. 2 guy keeps pace with the Bammers.

2. Badgers (Last week ranking: 2): Clearly the Bay City Rollers look like the only thing standing between BGoff and a divisional title. Yeah, you win a lot of these things in April, huh Badge. Anyway, the Badgers have been worthy of their No. 1 selection status since the draft, going a perfect 6-0 to close the gap -- gasp! -- on the Bammers. As Kobe Bryant would say, oh, never mind.

3. Derelicts (Last week ranking: none): At the sake of losing all credibility with this list, we bring you the Derelicts. Apparently, no one told the bottom-feeders they were supposed to stay in the cellar. Hey, DRich, it's better than coming out of the closet. The SS-list begrudgingly thinks this team just might do some damage. Just hope it's not self-inflicted.

4. Inmates (Last week ranking: 5): Representing the Old Guard, this criminally insane group brings a little normalcy to the proceedings. OK, so 3-3 last week is nothing special, but the Inmates know a thing or two about surviving the marathon season. Like a Kenyan flying home from Heartbreak Hill, Patton just may have a frontrunner here, folks.

5. Damian-U (Last week ranking: 3): D-dog is starting to go a little Tressel on us -- not sure we're believing what we're seeing, but we think it may involve some tats. Anyway, the gamers need to start producing, instead of these 2-4 weeks, but have a feeling that there just may be some jostling in the ol' National Div over the course of the season. Hang tough, DU.

6. Godfathers (Last week ranking: none): There's probably too much love here for the Nationals, but it's tough to ignore a guy's second-place team, even if it's coming from Belo in Dallas. Now, if it was Bevo ... whatever. Got to give some cred to the Michaelangelo of the SBL. We don't have a chapel worth painting on the SS-list, but a statue or two outside the ballpark would be real classy. Get to chisseling, WicVest.

SBL Notebook, Week 3

2011-04-20T08:50:00.000-07:00

There’s something happening here (in the National division) . . . What it is ain’t exactly clear (because, while it’s way too early to draw any conclusions, the NL race is looking like a four-team free-for-all) . . . So, let’s throw it out there (for what it’s worth)—could this finally be the year when the SBL balance of power shifts toward the senior circuit? We posed essentially the same question around this time last season, and the answer turned out to be no – the NL would finish with only one winning team, and an AL team won the championship for the sixth straight year. So take this with however many grains of salt you choose, but at the moment the NL, although it may not have the best team, certainly appears to have more good ones. The division has already had four different leaders in three weeks, with the Derelicts taking their turn atop the heap this week thanks to a nice 6-0 run. The top four teams are separated by only two games (though again, it’s way early), with records of 13-6, 12-7, 12-7 and 11-8, and all have virtues any SBL team would covet, assets that should hold them in good stead for the long term. (For details, consult your rosters.) Contrast this with the American division, which appears to have quickly devolved into a two-team affair -- the Bammers, off to a blistering 18-1 start, and the Badgers, hanging tough at four games back on the strength of the most dominant week the league has seen so far this young season. The rest of the division is made up of four losing teams already staring at double-digit deficits. . . . The Badgers simply were not going to be beaten this week, posting league bests in six categories—runs (39), TB (42), HR (12), RBI (39) WL (4-0) and saves (6), plus the second-best ERA (2.32) and SB total (8). The closest game in their 6-0 onslaught was an 8-3 win over the Bammers. Speaking of the Bams, they were nothing special, at least by the standards they established the first two weeks, but still eased to a 5-1 mark mainly because no one among the Bottom Four in the division appears capable giving them a game right now. . . . The Derelicts’ 6-0 week was considerably more dicey than the Badgers, featuring two 6-5 wins and another by 6.5-4.5. But a league-leading ERA (2.27) and BR stat (1.07) combined with just enough offense (38 BI, 37 TB) carried them through. Also worthy of mention are the Godfathers, who have soldiered on impressively despite devastating injuries to their top two draft picks (Evan Longoria, Josh Hamilton, both on the DL). Deprived of their primary power sources, the G-Daddies managed only 4 HRs and 21 RBI this week. But, ever resourceful, they found other ways to win, going 5-1 by getting on base (league-best .386 OBP), taking the extra base (33 TB), stealing any bag not nailed down (15 SBs!) and, not coincidentally, scoring lots of runs (37). They also pitched pretty well—2.98 ERA, 1.13 BR, league-leading .99 K-rate. The ’Daddies are 12-7, tied with the Patton Inmates, one game behind the ’Licts, one ahead of DamianUnited -- and who knows what the NL standings will look like next week? With four good-looking teams, this could go on all season. Or not.(How’s that for hedging our bets?). . . . Tough-luck award of the week goes to DamU, losers of what had to be the closest tiebreaker in SBL history—155.4 to 155.3, against the Batfaced Barristers.

Week 3 standings

2011-04-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW...............W....L....PCT....GB
Bammers (5-1)..........18....1....947....--
Badgers (6-0)............14....5....737.....4
Moaners (3-3).............8...11....421....10
Zero's (1-5)................7...12....368....11
Barristers (3-3)...........6...13....316....12
Puny Pontiffs (0-6).......3...16....158....15
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW...............W....L....PCT....GB
Derelicts (6-0)..........13....6....684....--
Godfathers (5-1).......12....7....632.....1
Inmates (3-3)...........12....7....632.....1
DamianUnited (2-4)....11....8....579.....2
Whiteskins (0-6).........7...12....368.....6
Bombers (2-4)............3...16....158....10

Sun-sational Six (Week 2 Edition)

2011-04-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

Starting to shape up as another season of the haves and the have-nots, as the traditional powers in the Big Boy Division are starting to assert themselves. The Have-nots Division is starting to look like a D-dog, Inmate and Godfather kind of season. Here's how SS stack up so far:

1. Bammers (Last week: 3): You go undefeated, the SS-list gives you love. Kind of hard not to notice a 13-0 start with incredible pitching and hitting. We're still not sold that Stubbs and Walker are the next coming of Ruth and Gehrig, but they sure look kick-ass for April. SS loves the Bammer's rotation and bullpen -- and he even has a White Sox reliever!

2. Badgers (Last week: 2): We're still waiting to Pujols to show up and then we'll see if the Badges can rise to the pinnacle of the SS. There were news story out of the Bay Area that Badge had a book signing this past week. The list isn't happy that it didn't get an invitation. Might be why Badge hasn't shown up on the NY Times Bestselller List. Shame, shame.

3. D-United (Last week: 4): The Gamers are looking solid on offense and the mound. Definitely the team to beat in the Lesser Division. D-dog probably will have to assert his alpha-ness against the Inmates and Godfathers, but the SS is pretty confident this is going to be a playoff team that will challenge for its first Sun title. Whoopee.

4. Moaners (Last week: 1): Still not panicking because the Yankees-light had a bad outing last week, but this team may have to draft a Bautista or two this year to get really serious with the Big Boy Division. We're pretty confident that will happen over the next couple supplemental drafts. Please school us, Commish. We're watching.

5. Inmates (Last week: not ranked): Yes, old dogs can learn new tricks. The SS was distressed to find out at the draft that Gregg was being taken off the market by Shelly. Still waiting for our invitation to the nuptials, but we digress. Pattons traditionally are a power in the SBL, and this looks like one of his typical power teams. Probably in the SS for the duration.

6. Zeroes (Last week: 6): Kind of threatened this club last week, and it didn't disappoint. This definitely looks like a team that will contend for the playoffs, but there's going to be competition. We like the Zeroes' chances.

SBL Notebook, Week 2

2011-04-12T11:46:00.000-07:00

The sleeping giant of 2010 is fully awake and roaming the (scorched) SBL earth in 2011. The Bammers, four-time league champions who last season simply had One Of Those Years, tumbling into the American division cellar and staying there, are back in their more familiar position atop the AL heap, kicking butt and taking names . . . and no prisoners. OK, yeah, it’s only two weeks, but the Bammers seem so far ahead of the field that the rest of the AL, in recent seasons the SBL’s power division, simply looks powerless at their feet. It’s not just that the Bammers have roared to a 13-0 start after this week’s 7-0 cakewalk. It isn’t just that they already have sprinted out to a five-game division lead. It’s that no one else even appears close to them at the moment. Their six Week 1 wins were by 10-1, 9-2, 9-2, 9-2, 9-2 and 7.5-3.5. This week, apart from a 6-5 semi-squeaker against NL co-leaders DamianUnited, their other six Ws were by an average score of 8.5-2.5. Two words: Un . . . touchable. The Bams seem to have everything you could ask for in a baseball team – power (8 HRs, a league high in this rather tepid hitting week), speed (8 SBs, tied for second), strike-zone selectivity (.377 OBP, third), quality starting pitching (ERAs of 1.26 and 3.11 this season), a lights-out bullpen (7 saves this week) and power arms across the board (league-best 1.08 K-rate). What are their division rivals to do but bide their time and hope the Bammers punch themselves out in the early rounds? The Badgers’ respectable 8-5 record has earned them nothing better than a five-game hill to climb, and two AL teams, the Puny Pontiffs and the Batfaced Barristers, already are staring at double-digit deficits. . . . Things are more competitive just now in the National division, where DamU and the Inmates share first place, and three other teams are tied for third, two games back. In fact, take a picture of this week’s standings—the AL, cradle of champions and contenders, currently has only two winning teams and FOUR ABJECT LOSERS, while the NL, which more than occasionally struggles to get more than a couple squads above .500, has five teams on the winning side of the ledger. . . . Speaking of the NL race, a statkeeping snafu deprived the Patton Inmates of two Week 1 saves to which they were entitled; adding those two saves changed the Mental Defectives’ result against DamU from a loss to a win.

Week 2 standings

2011-04-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
TEAM, LW..............W....L....PCT....GB
Bammers (7-0).........13....0..1.000...--
Badgers (4-3)............8....5....615....5
Zero's (5-2)..............6....7....462....7
Moaners (1-6)...........5....8....385....8
Pontiffs (3-4)...........3...10....231...10
Barristers (1-6).........3...10....231...10
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW..............W....L....PCT....GB
DamianUnited (6-1)....9....4....692...--
Inmates (4-3)...........9....4....692...--
Godfathers (6-1).......7....6....538....2
Derelicts (3-4)..........7....6....538....2
Whiteskins (1-6).......7....6....538....2
Bombers (1-6)..........1...12....077....8

Free agent draft No. 1

2011-04-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

Pre-draft moves:
Madmen: 1B Morales to DL
Moaners: RP Aardsma to DL
Derelicts: SP UJimenez to DL
Godfathers: RP Lidge to DL

1. Bombers take RP S.Burnett, drops Lopez
........Taxi: McClellan up, Lilly down
2. Barristers take RP Boyer, drops Romo
3. Madmen take 1B Hafner
........Taxi: Latos up, Porcello down
4. Moaners take RP Walden
........Taxi: Drabek up, Rodriguez down; Jurrjens up (provisional), Zambrano down
5. Zero's take OF BFrancisco, drops Coghlan
........Taxi: De La Rosa up, Hughes down
6. Whiteskins take OF Bloomquist, drops Morse
........Taxi: A.Burnett up, Billingsley down
7. Derelicts take SP Harrison
........Taxi: Lowe up, Marcum down
8. Godfathers take RP Farnsworth
9. Badgers take OF Soriano, drops Fowler
10. Inmates take SP CYoung, drops WDavis
11. DamianUnited take SP Narveson, drops Lackey
12. Bammers takes SS Izturis, drops Bartlett

Sun-sational Six (Week 1 Edition)

2011-04-09T17:48:00.000-07:00

Like the catcher who hits .500 the first week with three of his four HR he's going to hit for the season, the Sun-sational Six isn't fooled by fast starts. Impressed as hell, but fools? Nah.

Here's the SS-hit list after Week 1.

1. Moaners (Last week's ranking: 1): Get your blemishes while you can on the Moaners. Oh my god, the Moaners dropped two games in the first week. The world is coming to an end. Riggggghhhhht. We'll buy that right after we see it for another 25 weeks.

2. Badgers (Last week's ranking: 4): Any team with Albert Pujols batting a buck-something and still wins four games deserves a little respect. Since it's Andy, we hedge a bit. Still, there's no shortage of first-pick talent on this team, and over the long haul (as long as the Badges don't panic and sell Pujols low for say Manny PED-mirez), this group is going to contend.

3. Bammers (Last week's ranking: None): Probably dropped the ball on not including the Bammers on the preseason list. What? You thought this was science? Anyway, we're not completely sold with any team loaded with Pirates is going to be there when it counts, but the BGoffs do know a thing or two about powering to an SBL title or four. Welcome to the SS list.

4. Damian U (Last week's ranking: 2). The Sun-sational list is treating the Laker-lovers a little harsh, but man up, D-dog. This team definitely is built to repeat in the weaker division, but probably will have issues competing with the big dogs on the other side (or in this case, see those ranked 1-2-3 here). Anyway, the U's are no sheep.

5. Whiteskins (Last week's ranking: None). JP is probably looking around the room, saying, 'Who? Me?'" Yeah, what the hell, JP, you go 6-0 and you make a list. We're certainly not sold after four friggin' games of play, but crazier things have happened. You sure look a lot better than those pathetic CV Bombers or VW Godfathers. Just don't disappoint us.

6. Zeroes (Last week's ranking: 3): The Sun-sational list isn't fooled by the 1-5 start. There's way too much talent on this squad to be fooled by one week of competition. That means, get your act together this week or start looking for another list to get on, Paulo.

-- Dan Evans, owner of the Cherry Valley Bombers

SBL Notebook, Week 1

2011-04-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

Our newly truncated opening week produced a veritable trunkload of offense (proportional to the diminished sample size of course), but nothing of lasting value. What worthwhile conclusions are there to be drawn, after all, from what amounts to three measly days of major league baseball games? The unexpectedly explosive, bats-out-of-hell start by MLB hitters on opening weekend could possibly suggest that they are adjusting to the new world order and reclaiming some of the ground lost during a 2010 season rightly dubbed the Year of the Pitcher; then again, maybe it was all just a product of unseasonably mild weather nationwide. Big-picture analysis is fruitless at this early juncture; best to just forget about this week and move on—the good news being that, thanks to MLB’s decision to start and end the season midweek so as to condense the schedule and get the World Series over with before November, the heinous SBL “short week” is out of the way right from the jump, leaving us with 25 full and uncompromised weeks of competition to determine our 2011 champion. . . . One conclusion we CAN safely draw, based at least as much on roster inspection as on Week 1 results, is that the Bammers appear to be Back-with-a-capital-B, after a year in cellar-dwelling purgatory. Team management performed quite well on draft night and the four-time SBL champs reaped immediate dividends, posting numbers that ranked among the league’s top three in six stats (runs, RBI, ERA, BR, TB, WL). Of particular note were a microscopic, league-leading 1.26 ERA and .78 baserunner stat. Needless to say, the Bams went 6-0. . . . Much stranger, but no less successful, was the performance of the Whiteskins, who also went 6-0 despite throwing up a truly hideous 7.75 ERA (thank you, Fausto Carmona). A league-best four saves took a little of the sting out, but the real difference-maker for the Skins was that they simply killed it on the hitting side, mashing nine HRs (in three-plus days??!!), driving in 26 runs and scoring 24.

Week 1 standings

2011-04-04T18:38:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN DIVISION
Team, LW........W....L....PCT....GB
Bammers..........6....0...1.000...--
Moaners...........4....2.....667....2
Badgers...........4....2.....667....2
Barristers.........2....4.....333....4
Zero's..............1....5.....167....5
Madmen...........0....6.....000....6
NATIONAL DIVISION
Team, LW........W....L....PCT....GB
Whiteskins.......6....0...1.000...--
Derelicts..........4....2.....667....2
DamianUnited....4....2.....667....2
Inmates...........4....2.....667....2
Godfathers.......1....5.....167....5
Bombers..........0....6.....000....6

PaulO's Note: Week 1

2011-04-03T17:06:00.000-07:00

That "splat" you heard was the Tiny Trio flopping out of the gate. The Z's had some memorably wretched pitching, including a K-ratio of 0.56, which has to be a franchise low. The Jurists put up a "what's-that-smell?" .292 OBP and seven TB (a problem for everyone in this pitiful pod), but salvaged things with five circuit clouts (a big number in this universe) and on the pitching side with five nice outings from the SPs. The Holy See, playing without on-the-DL starters KMorales, SDrew and GSizemore, was so puny in so many places that it contrived to lose to the Z's in what undoubtedly will be their only victory of the week. Really nice K-rat of 1.26, though, to keep the Vatican warm. On to Week 2. Can't get worse. Can it?

Sun-sational Six (Preseason Edition)

2011-04-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

While the standings will tell us one thing about how our teams our doing, we'll attempt to keep a more subjective eye on the power in the Sun Baseball League with the Sun-sational Six, a weekly tab on who's the biggest and baddest among the SBL.

Since no one has played any games yet, this really is The Barometer of the best and brightest among this season's teams. So without further ado, here's the Sun-sational Six after Tuesday's draft (no brownie points to the Inmates for hosting the draft).

1. The Moaners (who else?). Not exactly an upset here. Seeing as how they have been even more dominant than the real Yankees, I'm thinking maybe we should rename them the Bronx Moaners. That might have a different meaning in NYC, but for the SBL, the Moaners are BFD. Or as my 13-year-old daughter would say, "OMG!"

2. Damian United. We give a tip of the cap to some real gamers, who celebrated their second championship series run in 2010, but still seek their first title. Hey, it's tough to win a baseball title with a soccer nickname. Suck it, DU.

3. Abu Dubai Zeroes. Good thing this league ain't in Arizona or I doubt we'd even let these foreigners play, but there's little doubt that the Zeroes are an institutional power worthy of the upper-echelon of the SBL. They're kind of like the Moaners Light, both in substance and receding hair line.

4. Badgers. Hurts to give any credit to this Bay Area franchise, because let's face it: Andy ain't afraid to pluck some low-lying fruit on his team. The Badgers, despite a propensity to draft all that he sees from the A's and Giants, still manages to pound most of the SBL. Plus, now Andy is an author. That's got to get him a pass onto the Sun-sational list.

5. Godfather. You gotta give some props to the inventor of this glorious game. Plus, it's the spring. We can all hope Vic has a chance just like the Cubs. Chances are the Godfathers will flame off this list in a week or two, but it never hurts tug at our furlocks, as Ed Mauel would have said. Vic's probably starting to look like that guy, too. Hope he never talks like him, though.

6. Pope's Pontiffs. Not sure where this Vatican Madmen shit came from, but there's no denying anyone who can take Kendrys Morales with the 28th pick of the draft deserves to be on some list (probably not this one anymore at the beginning of next week.) But you have to give the guy credit. He was the only one in the draft room who could count to 300 and right on the button. Sweet.

-- Dan Evans, owner of the Cherry Valley Bombers

2011 SBL Rosters

2011-03-30T16:54:00.000-07:00

ANDY
C: Posey (27), Y.Molina (274)
1B: Pujols (1), Huff (170)
2B: Phillips (53), Barney (300)
SS: Reyes (40), Brignac (222)
3B: A.Rodriguez (14), Kouzmanoff (261)
OF: B.Upton (118), Quentin (144), A.Torres (145), V.Wells (157), Morrison (209), Fowler (287)
SP: Cahill (92), J.Sanchez (105), B.Anderson (131), J.Chacin (183), Shields (248)
Taxi: Bumgarner (1), Britton (24)
RP: Feliz (66), M.Rivera (79), Chapman (196), Lindstrom (235)

DENNIS
C: Mauer (15), Martin (171)
1B: KMorales (28), LaPorta (275)
2B: Cano (2), Nishioka (184)
SS: S.Drew (106), Al.Escobar (289)
3B: P.Alvarez (80), Morel (288)
OF: Ethier (54), Sizemore (132), Markakis (133), G.Jones (210), Beltran (223), Tabata (249)
SP: Verlander (41), Scherzer (93), Latos (119), Danks (146), E.Jackson (262)
Taxi: J.Santana (2), Porcello (23)
RP: Papelbon (67), Bard (158), R.Soriano (197), Clippard (236)

DAVID
C: V.Martinez (55), Hundley (276)
1B: Ad.LaRoche (107), Loney (172)
2B: Roberts (147), F.Sanchez (263)
SS: H.Ramirez (3), Theriot (250)
3B: Wright (16), Stewart (211)
OF: Hart (81), Hunter (120), Swisher (134), Pierre (159), Pagan (185), R.Davis (237)
SP: Halladay (29), Cl.Lee (42), Greinke (121), Nolasco (198), Myers (224)
Taxi: T.Wood (3), Pineiro (22)
RP: B.Wilson (68), Nathan (94), Meek (277), Romo (290)

VIC
C: Soto (135), Napoli (238)
1B: B.Butler (108), Lind (122)
2B: A.Hill (109), S.Rodriguez (265)
SS: Desmond (148), E.Aybar (212)
3B: Longoria (4), Headley (264)
OF: Hamilton (17), J.Upton (43), Heyward (56), Bourn (160), Span (278), F.Gutierrez (291)
SP: Lincecum (30), Hanson (69), Cain (82), Garza (173), Beckett (225)
Taxi: Peavy (4), Westbrook (21)
RP: C.Perez (95), Lidge (186), F.Francisco (199), Kuo (251)

DAMIAN
C: Montero (187), Olivo (279)
1B: Dunn (31), D.Ortiz (123)
2B: K.Johnson (70), J.Lopez (292)
SS: Tulowitzki (5), Pennington (266)
3B: M.Reynolds (110), Figgins (213)
OF: Holliday (18), D.Young (83), I.Suzuki (97), Scott (226), Cuddyer (252), Prado (253)
SP: J.Johnson (44), Weaver (57), T.Hudson (136), D.Hudson (161), C.Wilson (239)
Taxi: Lackey (5), Happ (20)
RP: F.Cordero (96), Bailey (149), Rodney (174), Capps (200)

GREGG
C: Buck (175), Saltalamacchia (241)
1B: Konerko (58), G.Sanchez (214)
2B: Weeks (45), Utley (162)
SS: A.Gonzalez (111), Y.Betancourt (267)
3B: McGehee (98), Valencia (227)
OF: C.Gonzalez (6), Kemp (19), Choo (32), Snider (254), Bourjos (280), Byrd (293)
SP: Buchholz (124), Morrow (150), Matusz (188), Stauffer (201), E.Santana (240)
Taxi: Pineda (6), W.Davis (19)
RP: Marmol (71), Street (84), F.Rodriguez (85), Madson (137)

BRIAN
C. McCann (59), Torrealba (281)
1B: Votto (7), Freeman (215)
2B: N.Walker (151), Espinosa (242)
SS: A.Ramirez (112), Bartlett (268)
3B: R.Zimmerman (20), Polanco (255)
OF: McCutcheon (46), Stubbs (73), Rasmus (138), Ad.Jones (176), Crisp (229), Raburn (294)
SP: F.Hernandez (33), Hamels (72), Haren (86), J.Garcia (163), J.Zimmerman (243)
Taxi: J.Vazquez (7), F.Garcia (18)
RP: Kimbrel (99), Putz (125), Contreras (202), Sale (228)

MIKE
C: K.Suzuki (100), Jaso (295)
1B: Teixeira (8), Smoak (269)
2B: Kinsler (34), Infante (217)
SS: Rollins (47), Scutaro (177)
3B: Youkilis (21), Freese (282)
OF: C.Young (60), V.Guerrero (126), Victorino (152), Gomes (203), Bay (230), S.Smith (256)
SP: Carpenter (74), Liriano (113), W.Rodriguez (139), Volquez (164), Zambrano (243)
Taxi: Drabek (8), Jurrjens (17)
RP: Soria (61), Valverde (87), Venters (190), Aardsma (216)

DEREK
C: Wieters (127), Posada (205)
1B: Ad.Gonzalez (9), Fielder (22)
2B: Kendrick (140), Wigginton (283)
SS: S.Castro (155), Peralta (231)
3B: M.Young (114), Aviles (296)
OF: Bruce (35), Pence (48), Stanton (62), Ibanez (218), Kubel (257), Willingham (270)
SP: U.Jimenez (49), Price (75), Oswalt (88), Marcum (153), Romero (191)
Taxi: J.Vargas (9), Lowe (16)
RP: Storen (101), Lyon (178), League (204), Rauch (244)

DAN
C: C.Ruiz (245), Pierzynski (297)
1B: M.Cabrera (10), I.Davis (219)
2B: Uggla (23), O.Hudson (232)
SS: Jeter (115), Tejada (271)
3B: Beltre (50), Rolen (192)
OF: Werth (36), Rios (63), Ellsbury (89), B.Abreu (128), M.Ramirez (206), A.Gordon (258)
SP: Kershaw (37), C.Lewis (141), Hellickson (154), Lilly (166), G.Gonzalez (179)
Taxi: McClellan (10), Matsuzaka (15)
RP: Axford (76), Thornton (102), McGee (192), W.Lopez (284)

JP
C: C.Santana (77), Arencibia (233)
1B: Howard (24), Moreland (220)
2B: Beckham (155), Hall (272)
SS: Andrus (64), Furcal (207)
3B: Sandoval (116), C.Jones (259)
OF: Crawford (11), N.Cruz (25), Granderson (142), Zobrist (167), Ca.Lee (180), Morse (298)
SP: Sabathia (51), Billingsley (129), Kuroda (181), Dempster (194), Carmona (285)
Taxi: Braden (11), A.Burnett (14)
RP: Bell (38), Broxton (90), Franklin (103), Fuentes (246)

PAUL
C: Iannetta (182), Barajas (260)
1B: Morneau (65), C.Pena (130)
2B: Pedroia (26), J.Uribe (273)
SS: Y.Escobar (78), As.Cabrera (247)
3B: A.Ramirez (78), Encarnacion (221)
OF: Braun (12), J.Bautista (13), Gardner (91), A.Jackson (143), Coghlan (286), J.Drew (299)
SP: Lester (39), Gallardo (52), Hughes (156), Bedard (169), I.Kennedy (234)
Taxi: An.Sanchez (12), De La Rosa (13)
RP: Nunez (104), Uehara (117), Hanrahan (168), Gregg (195)

2011 SBL Draft

2011-03-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

1. Albert Pujols, 1B, St. Louis (Badgers)
2. Robinson Cano, 2B, N.Y. Yankees (Madmen)
3. Hanley Ramirez, SS, Florida (Barristers)
4. Evan Longoria, 3B, Tampa Bay (Godfathers)
5. Troy Tulowitzki, SS, Colorado (DamU)
6. Carlos Gonzalez, OF, Colorado (Inmates)
7. Joey Votto, 1B, Cincinnati (Bammers)
8. Mark Teixeira, 1B, N.Y. Yankees (Moaners)
9. Adrian Gonzalez, 1B, Boston (Derelicts)
10. Miguel Cabrera, 1B, Detroit (Bombers)
11. Carl Crawford, OF, Boston (Whiteskins)
12. Ryan Braun, OF, Milwaukee (Zero's)
13. Jose Bautista, OF, Toronto (Zero's)
14. Alex Rodriguez, 3B, N.Y. Yankees (Badgers)
15. Joe Mauer, C, Minnesota (Madmen)
16. David Wright, 3B, N.Y. Mets (Barristers)
17. Josh Hamilton, OF, Texas (Godfathers)
18. Matt Holliday, OF, St. Louis (DamU)
19. Matt Kemp, OF, L.A. Dodgers (Inmates)
20. Ryan Zimmerman, 3B, Washinton (Bammers)
21. Kevin Youkilis, 3B, Boston (Moaners)
22. Prince Fielder, 1B, Milwaukee (Derelicts)
23. Dan Uggla, 2B, Atlanta (Bombers)
24. Ryan Howard, 1B, Philadelphia (Whiteskins)
25. Nelson Cruz, OF, Texas (Whiteskins)
26. Dustin Pedroia, 2B, Boston (Zero's)
27. Buster Posey, C, S.F. Giants (Badgers)
28. Kendry Morales, 1B, L.A. Angels (Madmen)
29. Roy Halladay, SP, Philadelphia (Barristers)
30. Tim Lincecum, SP, S.F. Giants (Godfathers)
31. Adam Dunn, OF, Chicago White Sox (DamU)
32. Shin-Soo Choo, OF, Cleveland (Inmates)
33. Felix Hernandez, SP, Seattle (Bammers)
34. Ian Kinsler, 2B, Texas (Moaners)
35. Jay Bruce, OF, Cincinnati (Derelicts)
36. Jason Werth, OF, Washington (Bombers)
37. Clayton Kershaw, SP, L.A. Dodgers (Bombers)
38. Heath Bell, RP, San Diego (Whiteskins)
39. Jon Lester, SP, Boston (Zero's)
40. Jose Reyes, SS, N.Y. Mets (Badgers)
41. Justin Verlander, SP, Detroit (Madmen)
42. Cliff Lee, SP, Philadelphia (Barristers)
43. Justin Upton, OF, Arizona (Godfathers)
44. Josh Johnson, SP, Florida (DamU)
45. Rickie Weeks, 2B, Milwaukee (Inmates)
46. Andrew McCutcheon, OF, Pittsburgh (Bammers)
47. Jimmy Rollins, 2B, Philadelphia (Moaners)
48. Hunter Pence, OF, Houston (Derelicts)
49. Ubaldo Jiminez, SP, Colorado (Derelicts)
50. Adrian Beltre, 3B, Texas (Bombers)
51. C.C. Sabathia, SP, N.Y. Yankees (Whiteskins)
52. Yovani Gallardo, SP, Milwaukee (Zero's)
53. Brandon Phillips, 2B, Cincinnati (Badgers)
54. Andre Ethier, OF, L.A. Dodgers (Madmen)
55. Victor Martinez, C, Detroit (Barristers)
56. Jason Heyward, OF, Atlanta (Godfathers)
57. Jered Weaver, SP, L.A. Angels (DamU)
58. Paul Konerko, 1B, Chicago White Sox (Inmates)
59. Brian McCann, C, Atlanta (Bammers)
60. Chris Young, OF, Arizona (Moaners)
61. Joakim Soria, RP, Kansas City (Moaners)
62. Mike Stanton, OF, Florida (Derelicts)
63. Alex Rios, OF, Chicago White Sox (Bombers)
64. Elvis Andrus, SS, Texas (Whiteskins)
65. Justin Morneau, 1B, Minnesota (Zero's)
66. Neftali Feliz, RP, Texas (Badgers)
67. Jonathan Papelbon, RP, Boston (Madmen)
68. Brian Wilson, RP, S.F. Giants (Barristers)
69. Tommy Hanson, SP, Atlanta (Godfathers)
70. Kelly Johnson, 2B, Arizona (DamU)
71. Carlos Marmol, RP, Chicago Cubs (Inmates)
72. Cole Hamels, SP, Philadelphia (Bammers)
73. Drew Stubbs, OF, Cincinnati (Bammers)
74. Chris Carpenter, SP, St. Louis (Moaners)
75. David Price, SP, Tampa Bay (Derelicts)
76. John Axford, RP, Milwaukee (Bombers)
77. Carlos Santana, C, Cleveland (Whiteskins)
78. Aramis Ramirez, 3B, Chicago Cubs (Zero's)
79. Mariano Rivera, RP, N.Y. Yankees (Badgers)
80. Pedro Alvarez, 3B, Pittsburgh (Madmen)
81. Corey Hart, OF, Milwaukee (Barristers)
82. Matt Cain, SP, S.F. Giants (Godfathers)
83. Delmon Young, OF, Minnesota (DamU)
84. Huston Street, RP, Colorado (Inmates)
85. Frankie Rodriguez, RP, N.Y. Mets (Inmates)
86. Dan Haren, SP, L.A. Angels (Bammers)
87. Jose Valverde, RP, Detroit (Moaners)
88. Roy Oswalt, SP, Philadelphia (Derelicts)
89. Jacoby Ellsbury, OF, Boston (Bombers)
90. Jonathan Broxton, RP, L.A. Dodgers (Whiteskins)
91. Brett Gardner, OF, N.Y. Yankees (Zero's)
92. Trevor Cahill, SP, Oakland (Badgers)
93. Max Scherzer, SP, Detroit (Madmen)
94. Joe Nathan, RP, Minnesota (Barristers)
95. Chris Perez, RP, Cleveland (Godfathers)
96. Francisco Cordero, RP, Cincinnati (DamU)
97. Ichiro Suzuki, OF, Seattle (DamU)
98. Casey McGehee, 3B, Milwaukee (Inmates)
99. Craig Kimbrel, RP, Atlanta (Bammers)
100. Kurt Suzuki, C, Oakland (Moaners)
101. Drew Storen, RP, Washington (Derelicts)
102. Matt Thornton, RP, Chicago White Sox (Bombers)
103. Ryan Franklin, RP, St. Louis (Whiteskins)
104. Leo Nunez, RP, Florida (Zero's)
105. Jonathan Sanchez, SP, S.F. Giants (Badgers)
106. Stephen Drew, SS, Arizona (Madmen)
107. Adam LaRoche, 1B, Washington (Barristers)
108. Billy Butler, 1B, Kansas City (Godfathers)
109. Aaron Hill, 2B, Toronto (Godfathers)
110. Mark Reynolds, 3B, Baltimore (DamU)
111. Alex Gonzalez, SS, Atlanta (Inmates)
112. Alexei Ramirez, SS, Chicago White Sox (Bammers)
113. Francisco Liriano, SP, Minnesota (Moaners)
114. Michael Young, 3B, Texas (Derelicts)
115. Derek Jeter, SS, N.Y. Yankees (Bombers)
116. Pablo Sandoval, 3B, S.F. Giants (Whiteskins)
117. Koji Uehera, RP, Baltimore (Zero's)
118. B.J. Upton, OF, Tampa Bay (Badgers)
119. Mat Latos, SP, San Diego (Madmen)
120. Torii Hunter, OF, L.A. Angels (Barristers)
121. Zach Grienke, SP, Milwaukee (Barristers)
122. Adam Lind, 1B, Toronto (Godfathers)
123. David Ortiz, 1B, Boston (DamU)
124. Clay Bucholz, SP, Boston (Inmates)
125. J.J. Putz, RP, Arizona (Bammers)
126. Vladimir Guerrero, OF, Baltimore (Moaners)
127. Matt Wieters, C, Baltimore (Derelicts)
128. Bobby Abreu, OF, L.A. Angels (Bombers)
129. Chad Billingsley, SP, L.A. Dodgers (Whiteskins)
130. Carlos Pena, 1B, Chicago Cubs (Zero's)
131. Brett Anderson, SP, Oakland (Badgers)
132. Grady Sizemore, OF, Cleveland (Madmen)
133. Nick Markakis, OF, Baltimore (Madmen)
134. Nick Swisher, OF, N.Y. Yankees (Barristers)
135. Geovanny Soto, C, Chicago Cubs (Godfathers)
136. Tim Hudson, SP, Atlanta (DamU)
137. Ryan Madsen, RP, Philadelphia (Inmates)
138. Colby Rasmus, OF, St. Louis (Bammers)
139. Wandy Rodriguez, SP, Houston (Moaners)
140. Howie Kendrick, 2B, L.A. Angels (Derelicts)
141. Colby Lewis, SP, Texas (Bombers)
142. Curtis Granderson, OF, N.Y. Yankees (Whiteskins)
143. Austin Jackson, OF, Detroit (Zero's)
144. Carlos Quentin, OF, Chicago White Sox (Badgers)
145. Andres Torres, OF, S.F. Giants (Badgers)
146. John Danks, SP, Chicago White Sox (Madmen)
147. Brian Roberts, 2B, Baltimore (Barristers)
148. Ian Desmond, SS, Washington (Godfathers)
149. Andrew Bailey, RP, Oakland (DamU)
150. Brendan Morrow, SP, Toronto (Inmates)
151. Neil Walker, 2B, Pittsburgh (Bammers)
152. Shane Victorino, OF, Philadelphia (Moaners)
153. Shawn Marcum, SP, Milwaukee (Derelicts)
154. Jeremy Hellickson, SP, Tampa Bay (Bombers)
155. Gordon Beckham, 2B, Chicago White Sox (Whiteskins)
156. Phil Hughes, SP, N.Y. Yankees (Zero's)
157. Vernon Wells, OF, L.A. Angels (Badgers)
158. Daniel Bard, RP, Boston (Madmen)
159. Juan Pierre, OF, Chicago White Sox (Barristers)
160. Michael Bourn, OF, Houston (Godfathers)
161. Daniel Hudson, SP, Arizona (DamU)
162. Chase Utley, 2B, Philadelphia (Inmates)
163. Jaime Garcia, SP, St. Louis (Bammers)
164. Edinson Volquez, SP, Cincinnati (Moaners)
165. Starlin Castro, SS, Chicago Cubs (Derelicts)
166. Ted Lilly, SP, L.A. Dodgers (Bombers)
167. Ben Zobrist, OF, Tampa Bay (Whiteskins)
168. Joel Hanrahan, RP, Pittsburgh (Zero's)
169. Erik Bedard, SP, Seattle (Zero's)
170. Aubrey Huff, 1B, S.F. Giants (Badgers)
171. Russell Martin, C, N.Y. Yankees (Madmen)
172. James Loney, 1B, L.A. Dodgers (Barristers)
173. Matt Garza, SP, Chicago Cubs (Godfathers)
174. Fernando Rodney, RP, L.A. Angels (DamU)
175. John Buck, C, Florida (Inmates)
176. Adam Jones, OF, Baltimore (Bammers)
177. Marco Scutero, SS, Boston (Moaners)
178. Brandon Lyon, RP, Houston (Derelicts)
179. Gio Gonzalez, SP, Oakland (Bombers)
180. Carlos Lee, OF, Houston (Whiteskins)
181. Hiroki Kuroda, SP, L.A. Dodgers (Whiteskins)
182. Chris Iannetta, C, Colorado (Zero's)
183. Jhoulys Chacin, SP, Colorado (Badgers)
184. Tsuyoshi Nishioka, 2B, Minnesota (Madmen)
185. Angel Pagan, OF, N.Y. Mets (Barristers)
186. Brad Lidge, RP, Philadelphia (Godfathers)
187. Miguel Montero, C, Arizona (DamU)
188. Brian Matusz, SP, Baltimore (Inmates)
189. Jordan Zimmerman, SP, Washington (Bammers)
190. Jonny Venters, RP, Atlanta (Moaners)
191. Ricky Romero, SP, Toronto (Derelicts)
192. Scott Rolen, 3B, Cincinnati (Bombers)
193. Jake McGee, RP, Tampa Bay (Bombers)
194. Ryan Dempster, SP, Chicago Cubs (Whiteskins)
195. Kevin Gregg, RP, Baltimore (Zero's)
196. Aroldis Chapman, RP, Cincinnati (Badgers)
197. Rafael Soriano, RP, N.Y. Yankees (Madmen)
198. Ricky Nolasco, SP, Florida (Barristers)
199. Frank Francisco, RP, Toronto (Godfathers)
200. Matt Capps, RP, Minnesota (DamU)
201. Matt Stauffer, SP, San Diego (Inmates)
202. Jose Contreras, RP, Philadelphia (Bammers)
203. Johnny Gomes, OF, Cincinnati (Moaners)
204. Brandon League, RP, Seattle (Derelicts)
205. Jorge Posada, C, N.Y. Yankees (Derelicts)
206. Manny Ramirez, OF, Tampa Bay (Bombers)
207. Rafael Furcal, SS, L.A. Dodgers (Whiteskins)
208. Yunel Escobar, SS, Toronto (Zero's)
209. Logan Morrison, OF, Florida (Badgers)
210. Garrett Jones, OF, Pittsburgh (Madmen)
211. Ian Stewart, 3B, Colorado (Barristers)
212. Erick Aybar, SS, L.A. Angels (Godfathers)
213. Chone Figgins, 3B, Seattle (DamU)
214. Gabby Sanchez, 1B, Florida (Inmates)
215. Freddie Freeman, 1B, Atlanta (Bammers)
216. David Aardsma, RP, Seattle (Moaners)
217. Omar Infante, 2B, Florida (Moaners)
218. Raul Ibanez, OF, Philadelphia (Derelicts)
219. Ike Davis, 1B, N.Y. Mets (Bombers)
220. Mitch Moreland, 1B, Texas (Whiteskins)
221. Edwin Encarnacion, 3B, Toronto (Zero's)
222. Reid Brignac, SS, Tampa Bay (Badgers)
223. Carlos Beltran, OF, N.Y. Mets (Madmen)
224. Brett Myers, SP, Houston (Barristers)
225. Josh Beckett, SP, Boston (Godfathers)
226. Luke Scott, OF, Baltimore (DamU)
227. Danny Valencia, 3B, Minnesota (Inmates)
228. Chris Sale, RP, Chicago White Sox (Bammers)
229. Coco Crisp, OF, Oakland (Bammers)
230. Jason Bay, OF, N.Y. Mets (Moaners)
231. Jhonny Peralta, SS, Detroit (Derelicts)
232. Orlando Hudson, 2B, San Diego (Bombers)
233. J.P. Arencibia, C, Toronto (Whiteskins)
234. Ian Kennedy, SP, Arizona (Zero's)
235. Matt Lindstrom, RP, Colorado (Badgers)
236. Tyler Clippard, RP, Washington (Madmen)
237. Rajai Davis, OF, Oakland (Barristers)
238. Mike Napoli, C, Texas (Godfathers)
239. C.J. Wilson, SP, Texas (DamU)
240. Ervin Santana, SP, L.A. Angels (Inmates)
241. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C, Boston (Inmates)
242. Daniel Espinoza, 2B, Washington (Bammers)
243. Carlos Zambrano, SP, Chicago Cubs (Moaners)
244. Jon Rauch, RP, Toronto (Derelicts)
245. Carlos Ruiz, C, Philadelphia (Bombers)
246. Brian Fuentes, RP, Oakland (Whiteskins)
247. Asdrubal Cabrera, SS, Cleveland (Zero's)
248. James Shields, SP, Tampa Bay (Badgers)
249. Jose Tabata, OF, Pittsburgh (Madmen)
250. Ryan Theriot, SS, St. Louis (Barristers)
251. Hong-Chih Kuo, RP, L.A. Dodgers (Godfathers)
252. Michael Cuddyer, OF, Minnesota (DamU)
253. Martin Prado, OF, Atlanta (DamU)
254. Travis Snider, OF, Toronto (Inmates)
255. Placido Polanco, 3B, Philadelphia (Bammers)
256. Seth Smith, OF, Colorado (Moaners)
257. Jason Kubel, OF, Minnesota (Derelicts)
258. Alex Gordon, OF, Kansas City (Bombers)
259. Chipper Jones, 3B, Atlanta (Whiteskins)
260. Rod Barajas, C, L.A. Dodgers (Zero's)
261. Kevin Kouzmanoff, 3B, Oakland (Badgers)
262. Edwin Jackson, SP, Chicago White Sox (Madmen)
263. Freddy Sanchez, 2B, S.F. Giants (Barristers)
264. Chase Headley, 3B, San Diego (Godfathers)
265. Sean Rodriguez, 2B, Tampa Bay (Godfathers)
266. Cliff Pennington, SS, Oakland (DamU)
267. Yuniesky Betancourt, SS, Milwaukee (Inmates)
268. Jason Bartlett, SS, San Diego (Bammers)
269. Justin Smoak, 1B, Seattle (Moaners)
270. Josh Willingham, OF, Oakland (Derelicts)
271. Miguel Tejada, SS, S.F. Giants (Bombers)
272. Bill Hall, 2B, Houston (Whiteskins)
273. Juan Uribe, 2B, L.A. Dodgers (Zero's)
274. Yadier Molina, C, St. Louis (Badgers)
275. Matt LaPorta, 1B, Cleveland (Madmen)
276. Nick Hundley, C, San Diego (Barristers)
277. Evan Meek, RP, Pittsburgh (Barristers)
278. Denard Span, OF, Minnesota (Godfathers)
279. Miguel Olivo, C, Seattle (DamU)
280. Peter Bourjos, OF, L.A. Angels (Inmates)
281. Yorvit Torrealba, C, Texas (Bammers)
282. David Freese, 3B, St. Louis (Moaners)
283. Ty Wigginton, 2B, Colorado (Derelicts)
284. Wilton Lopez, RP, Houston (Bombers)
285. Fausto Carmona, SP, Cleveland (Whiteskins)
286. Chris Coughlan, OF, Florida (Zero's)
287. Dexter Fowler, OF, Colorado (Badgers)
288. Brent Morel, 3B, Chicago White Sox (Madmen)
289. Alcides Escobar, SS, Kansas City (Madmen)
290. Sergio Romo, RP, S.F. Giants (Barristers)
291. Franklin Gutierrez, OF, Seattle (Godfathers)
292. Jose Lopez, 2B, Colorado (DamU)
293. Marlon Byrd, OF, Chicago Cubs (Inmates)
294. Ryan Raburn, OF, Detroit (Bammers)
295. John Jaso, C, Tampa (Moaners)
296. Mike Aviles, 3B, Kansas City (Derelicts)
297. A.J. Pierzynski, C, Chicago White Sox (Bombers)
298. Michael Morse, OF, Washington (Whiteskins)
299. J.D. Drew, OF, Boston (Zero's)
300. Darwin Barney, 2B, Chicago Cubs (Badgers)

TAXI SQUAD:
Madison Baumgarner, S.F. Giants (Badgers)
Johan Santana, N.Y. Mets (Madmen)
Travis Wood, Cincinnati (Barristers)
Jake Peavy, Chicago White Sox (Godfathers)
John Lackey, Boston (DamU)
Michael Pineda, Seattle (Inmates)
Javier Vasquez, Florida (Bammers)
Kyle Drabek, Toronto (Moaners)
Jason Vargas, Seattle (Derelicts)
Kyle McClellan, St. Louis (Bombers)
Dallas Braden, Oakland (Whiteskins)
Anibel Sanchez, Florida (Zero's)
Jorge De La Rosa, Colorado (Zero's)
A.J. Burnett, N.Y. Yankees (Whiteskins)
Diasuke Matsusake, Boston (Bombers)
Derek Lowe, Atlanta (Derelicts)
Jair Jurrgens, Atlanta (Moaners)
Freddy Garcia, N.Y. Yankees (Bammers)
Wade Davis, Tampa Bay (Inmates)
J.A. Happ, Houston (DamU)
Jake Westbrook, St. Louis (Godfathers)
Joel Piniero, L.A. Angels (Barristers)
Rick Porcello, Detroit (Madmen)
Zach Britton, Baltimore (Badgers)

Draft Order

2011-03-29T18:41:00.000-07:00

1. Badgers
2. Vatican City Madmen
3. Barristers
4. Godfathers
5. DamianUnited
6. Inmates
7. Bammers
8. Moaners
9. Derelicts
10. Bombers
11. Whiteskins
12. Zero's

Picking Draft Order

2011-03-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

Everyone's pulling from a hat!

Draft Night 2011 In Chino Hills!

2011-03-29T18:11:00.000-07:00

That one day a year is here! The Sun Baseball League's 29th annual draft night.

Owners for the Inmates, the Bammers, DamianUnited, the Vatican City Madmen, and the Moaners, the 2010 SBL champions, are already here.

We're still waiting for owners from the Bombers, the Badgers and the Whiteskins.

The Zero's will be drafting from Abu Dhabi, UAE, the Godfathers from Dallas and the Derelicts from Seattle, Wash.

Draft selection is pending. Stay tuned.

Two Days To D-Day

2011-03-27T16:34:00.000-07:00

From the office of the Commish:

"That’s D is “Draft.” Consider this your final official reminder that the 2011 SBL draft is on for Tuesday, a mere 50 hours away, at Gregg’s domicile in Chino Hills. Start time is 6 p.m. PDT. We anticipate nine of our 12 owners to attend in person, with Derek, Paul and Vic participating via phone or Skype."

Does this mean Andy Baggerly, owner of the Badgers, will be in the house for the first time in more than nine years?

Check back Tuesday night, when we'll be live-blogging the draft.

2011 Draft Day Set (Update)

2011-03-10T10:19:00.000-08:00

From the office of the Commish:

"We are all systems go for the 2011 SBL draft on Tuesday March 29. Start time will be 6 p.m. PDT (not 5 p.m. as previously suggested) at Gregg's hacienda. See you there, except for our three absentees drafting from afar."

The three teams whose owners will not be present? The Zero's, The Badgers and The Derelicts. Does this mean that Dallas-based The Godfathers will be in da' hacienda on Draft Night??? Crazier things have never happened.

2011 Draft Day Set

2011-03-01T12:21:00.000-08:00

From the office of the Commish:

"We’re tentatively looking at Tuesday March 29 as an optimal day for this year’s draft. Probably a late-afternoon start, shall we say 5 p.m. PDT for sake of discussion? Please let me know at your earliest convenience whether this day works for you. Looking forward to seeing you all … well as many of you as can make it … at Gregg’s pad for the draft."

It will be the 29th installment of the Sun Baseball League Draft.

SBL Champions List

2010-10-08T11:39:00.000-07:00