Free agent draft No. 12

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

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

SBL Notebook: Week 23

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

Week 23 standings

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

SBL Notebook: Week 22

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

Week 22 standings

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

Free agent draft No. 11

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

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

Zero's Acquire 1B Loney From BatFaces

From the Office of the Commissioner:

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

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