Saxmania
04-14-02, 06:35 AM
Here we go again. More point this week, and one extremely close finish. Six teams are left undefeated, and the Ruth Division currently boasts the best record (6-3), with the DiMaggio Division trailing (3-7), and the Mantle Division separating them (5-4).
Results
Bambino’s Ghost defeated German Gold Gloves by 318-293 points
Bad News Bears lost to Junior’s Bashers by 214-303 points
Saxmania’s Swingers defeated Italian Ice by 254-251 points
FP Balloon Knots lost to Michigan Wolverines by 270-281 points
Babe’s Piano Playaz defeated Buckeye Bombers by 303-281 points
West Haven Yankees defeated Cunning Linguists by 403-251 points
YankeesRule2002 defeated YRMbombers2002 by 312-184 points
Standings
Ruth Division
West Haven Yankees (2-0; 614 points)
YankeesRule2002 (2-0; 574 points)
Lords of Flatbush (1-0; 235 points)
Cunning Linguists (1-1; 438 points)
YRMbombers2002 (0-2; 363 points)
DiMaggio Division
Michigan Wolverines (2-0; 577 points)
Junior's Bashers (1-1; 515 points)
German Gold Gloves (0-2; 489 points)
Buckeye Bombers (0-2; 461 points)
Italian Ice (0-2; 400 points)
Mantle Division
Bambino's Ghost (2-0; 590 points)
Babe's Piano Playaz (1-0; 303 points)
Saxmania's Swingers (1-1; 497 points)
Bad News Bears (1-1; 477 points)
FP Balloon Knots (0-2; 470 points)
Weekly Awards
Team of the Week - West Haven Yankees (403 points)
Luckiest Team of the Week - Saxmania's Swingers (won with 254 points)
Unluckiest Team of the Week - German Gold Gloves (lost with 293 points)
Matchup of the Week - Saxmania's Swingers v. Italian Ice (3 points' difference in the result)
Comments
The West Haven Yankees took the Michigan Wolverines' crown as the highest-scoring team this week, with a power explosion from Ben Grieve and some excellent base-hitting from A.J. Pierzynski major contributing factors. The on-base skills of Fernando Vina and Mike Lowell, plus 14 scoreless innings from Tom Glavine and a complete game from Livian Hernandez also were factors in a team that isn't superstar reliant at this stage. The Wolverines couldn't match last month's pace-setting performance, but still grabbed a second win, with Morris and Johnson once again powering the team to 4 wins and a side helping of 32 strikeouts on the week. The two aces look to be the "Johnson and Schilling" of this impressive roster. Both teams lead their respective divisions.
Bambino's Ghost continued to post consistent results, and are now the second-highest scoring team overall. More Derrek Lee hard hitting and Ray Durham on-base skills, with Derek Lowe's apparent emergence as a useful starter, are generating high points totals for the Ghosts, and a pen led by Bob Wickman appears to be reliable and profitable. They triumphed over an unfortunate Gold Gloves team that posted 2 wins from C.C. Sabathia and good all-around hitting, but suffered from Omar Daal's misfortunes and a DL populated by Griffey and Woody Williams.
The only other team with a 2-0 record, YankeesRule2002, enjoyed Gary Sheffield's bombardment regime, and will be celebrating Brad Penny's complete game performance this week. Rob Nen and Jose Mesa look like a scary 1-2 punch in the bullpen. The Rulers trail West Haven by just 40 points after two weeks, but must now kick their heels on the sidelines as their bye week comes up in Week 3. They currently occupy the Wild Card in the league.
In other news, a resurgent Italian Ice team just failed to beat the Swingers, coming up only 3 points short. Alfonso Soriano's 10-single week and Kenny Lofton's rehabilitation as a leadoff hitter has improved this team, and Kevin K. Brown's potential injury may be problematic in view of his fine pitching last week. Smoltz and Hoffman are an excellent pen, too. The Swingers lost both their closers early in the season, but power hitting from Jim Edmonds and the current success of the Kazuhisa Ishii gamble scraped them through.
The FP Balloon Knots were unlucky not to record an upset over the Wolverines, as they grabbed an impressive 270 points over the week, helped by 3 saves from Armando Benitez and J.D. Drew's all-round hitting. Junior's Bashers improved their team total by 91 points to even their record against the Bad News Bears, rising to second in the DiMaggio Division. Frank Thomas and Bartolo Colon were the principal players in the victory, with the Bears unlucky not to find any wins from their rotation during the week, despite good outings from Roy Halladay and Kevin Appier.
Finally, the Babe's Piano Playaz got off the starting blocks in a hurry, posting over 300 points for their first win against a good Buckeye Bombers team hurt by pitching injuries. A power-hitting lineup with 12 home runs recorded reflects well upon the name of the Babe, and Jim Thome's 3 HRs and 10 RBIs were not enough to carry his Bombers, even with 2 good wins from Tim Hudson. The Bombers have a tough task ahead when the visit the Ghosts next week, but the Playaz must try to slow down the Wolverines.
Fixtures
Two undefeated teams meet as the Playaz clash with the Wolverines, while one of the Ice and the Knots will break their winless streak. YankeesRule2002 now begin their bye week, as the Ruth Division starts its first intra-division fixtures.
German Gold Gloves v Bad News Bears
Junior’s Bashers v Saxmania’s Swingers
Italian Ice v FP Balloon Knots
Michigan Wolverines v Babe’s Piano Playaz
Buckeye Bombers v Bambino’s Ghost
YRMbombers2002 v West Haven Yankees
Cunning Linguists v Lords of Flatbush
Notes
I'm going to be in transit next week, so if someone else wants to handle the newsletter, I'd be grateful. My method is to visit the Yahoo site Sunday morning, and then save as web pages on my hard drive the front page and the "last week" pages for each team, so that I can work out which players did what during the match time. Let me know if you can cover for me.
Be seeing you,
Saxmania
Results
Bambino’s Ghost defeated German Gold Gloves by 318-293 points
Bad News Bears lost to Junior’s Bashers by 214-303 points
Saxmania’s Swingers defeated Italian Ice by 254-251 points
FP Balloon Knots lost to Michigan Wolverines by 270-281 points
Babe’s Piano Playaz defeated Buckeye Bombers by 303-281 points
West Haven Yankees defeated Cunning Linguists by 403-251 points
YankeesRule2002 defeated YRMbombers2002 by 312-184 points
Standings
Ruth Division
West Haven Yankees (2-0; 614 points)
YankeesRule2002 (2-0; 574 points)
Lords of Flatbush (1-0; 235 points)
Cunning Linguists (1-1; 438 points)
YRMbombers2002 (0-2; 363 points)
DiMaggio Division
Michigan Wolverines (2-0; 577 points)
Junior's Bashers (1-1; 515 points)
German Gold Gloves (0-2; 489 points)
Buckeye Bombers (0-2; 461 points)
Italian Ice (0-2; 400 points)
Mantle Division
Bambino's Ghost (2-0; 590 points)
Babe's Piano Playaz (1-0; 303 points)
Saxmania's Swingers (1-1; 497 points)
Bad News Bears (1-1; 477 points)
FP Balloon Knots (0-2; 470 points)
Weekly Awards
Team of the Week - West Haven Yankees (403 points)
Luckiest Team of the Week - Saxmania's Swingers (won with 254 points)
Unluckiest Team of the Week - German Gold Gloves (lost with 293 points)
Matchup of the Week - Saxmania's Swingers v. Italian Ice (3 points' difference in the result)
Comments
The West Haven Yankees took the Michigan Wolverines' crown as the highest-scoring team this week, with a power explosion from Ben Grieve and some excellent base-hitting from A.J. Pierzynski major contributing factors. The on-base skills of Fernando Vina and Mike Lowell, plus 14 scoreless innings from Tom Glavine and a complete game from Livian Hernandez also were factors in a team that isn't superstar reliant at this stage. The Wolverines couldn't match last month's pace-setting performance, but still grabbed a second win, with Morris and Johnson once again powering the team to 4 wins and a side helping of 32 strikeouts on the week. The two aces look to be the "Johnson and Schilling" of this impressive roster. Both teams lead their respective divisions.
Bambino's Ghost continued to post consistent results, and are now the second-highest scoring team overall. More Derrek Lee hard hitting and Ray Durham on-base skills, with Derek Lowe's apparent emergence as a useful starter, are generating high points totals for the Ghosts, and a pen led by Bob Wickman appears to be reliable and profitable. They triumphed over an unfortunate Gold Gloves team that posted 2 wins from C.C. Sabathia and good all-around hitting, but suffered from Omar Daal's misfortunes and a DL populated by Griffey and Woody Williams.
The only other team with a 2-0 record, YankeesRule2002, enjoyed Gary Sheffield's bombardment regime, and will be celebrating Brad Penny's complete game performance this week. Rob Nen and Jose Mesa look like a scary 1-2 punch in the bullpen. The Rulers trail West Haven by just 40 points after two weeks, but must now kick their heels on the sidelines as their bye week comes up in Week 3. They currently occupy the Wild Card in the league.
In other news, a resurgent Italian Ice team just failed to beat the Swingers, coming up only 3 points short. Alfonso Soriano's 10-single week and Kenny Lofton's rehabilitation as a leadoff hitter has improved this team, and Kevin K. Brown's potential injury may be problematic in view of his fine pitching last week. Smoltz and Hoffman are an excellent pen, too. The Swingers lost both their closers early in the season, but power hitting from Jim Edmonds and the current success of the Kazuhisa Ishii gamble scraped them through.
The FP Balloon Knots were unlucky not to record an upset over the Wolverines, as they grabbed an impressive 270 points over the week, helped by 3 saves from Armando Benitez and J.D. Drew's all-round hitting. Junior's Bashers improved their team total by 91 points to even their record against the Bad News Bears, rising to second in the DiMaggio Division. Frank Thomas and Bartolo Colon were the principal players in the victory, with the Bears unlucky not to find any wins from their rotation during the week, despite good outings from Roy Halladay and Kevin Appier.
Finally, the Babe's Piano Playaz got off the starting blocks in a hurry, posting over 300 points for their first win against a good Buckeye Bombers team hurt by pitching injuries. A power-hitting lineup with 12 home runs recorded reflects well upon the name of the Babe, and Jim Thome's 3 HRs and 10 RBIs were not enough to carry his Bombers, even with 2 good wins from Tim Hudson. The Bombers have a tough task ahead when the visit the Ghosts next week, but the Playaz must try to slow down the Wolverines.
Fixtures
Two undefeated teams meet as the Playaz clash with the Wolverines, while one of the Ice and the Knots will break their winless streak. YankeesRule2002 now begin their bye week, as the Ruth Division starts its first intra-division fixtures.
German Gold Gloves v Bad News Bears
Junior’s Bashers v Saxmania’s Swingers
Italian Ice v FP Balloon Knots
Michigan Wolverines v Babe’s Piano Playaz
Buckeye Bombers v Bambino’s Ghost
YRMbombers2002 v West Haven Yankees
Cunning Linguists v Lords of Flatbush
Notes
I'm going to be in transit next week, so if someone else wants to handle the newsletter, I'd be grateful. My method is to visit the Yahoo site Sunday morning, and then save as web pages on my hard drive the front page and the "last week" pages for each team, so that I can work out which players did what during the match time. Let me know if you can cover for me.
Be seeing you,
Saxmania