THE HISTORY
2013 was the year that saw the divide between the have’s and the have-not’s become very evident. Three clubs won over 100 games, with Worcester absolutely smashing the loop’s record for team wins with a 114-46 mark in the regular season. Even St. Francis, buoyed by the last hurrah of the great Mariano Rivera, clinched with more ten games left in the regular season.
Meanwhile, seven 2013 clubs would finish below .500. And, the rich seem to be getting richer while the poor get poorer: Surprisingly, Worcester’s record for wins (114) and winning percentage (.731) might not be safe, while most of the league (including three East clubs!) have…get this….sub-.500 records? Sounds hard to believe, but it’s true:
BARB CLUBS .500 OR BELOW through June 10th
NorCal 31-31
Frostbite Falls 32-33
Brooklyn 31-33
Riverside 27-37
New England 26-37
Oakland 25-38
Arizona 23-40
Pottsylvania 20-37
Brownsville 16-46
THE CONTENDERS
Three clubs (Carolina, Casselton and St. Francis) have been among the league’s highest scoring teams, and combined to wreak havoc on the traditionally-dominant Eastern Division, going a combined 22-6 on the road against the vaunted ‘Division of Death’, with the Kansans sweeping three straight series and Carolina OF Carlos Gonzalez popping his BARB-leading 16th round-tripper. And, while have actually been outscored by their foes by a narrow margin, Casselton was able to put together both a six and seven-game winning streak. In fact, three of the top five clubs are from the….CENTRAL? Really? Well, yes:
BARB CLUBS ABOVE .500 through June 10th
St. Francis 50-12
Yuma 45-20
Worcester 38-23
Casselton 38-26
Carolina 36-25
Obviously, something is very much going the Kansans’ way. After seeing a ten-game winning streak stopped, St. Francis split four games and then launched another streak: as this story went to press, they rode sweeps of Frostbite Falls, Brownsville and Arizona to a (current) 11-game winning streak. All told, the former Friars have won 23 of their last 25…and at 50-12 overall, their .806 team winning percentage blows any talk of parity out of the water.
“It’s very satisfying to see our club having this kind of outcome,” admitted GM Scott Hatfield. “But while we are certainly a very good club, we have also been lucky. I think the recent romp that some Central franchises had at the East’s expense was a case of us catching them when they are down. I mean, Frostbite Falls beat me in six games in the Series not so long ago, and they are below .500 a third of the way into next season? You have to believe that they are going to play better. You have to believe Brooklyn’s going to get better. And I don’t really believe that we are eleven games better than a club that set a BARB record for wins last year."
“So this will level out, without a doubt,” Hatfield admitted. “But am I surprised that the Kansans are leading the league in home runs and runs scored? Absolutely not. I predicted this back in April. I knew what we had this spring. Doesn’t mean anything in October, in a short series, but I am proud of what we are achieving right now.”
THE FLIP SIDE
But there is another side to the Central: the struggling Cutters, at 16-46, have been punished by injuries to Jose Fernandez and Matt Moore. Despite collecting an impressive collection of young arms, Brownsville is once again hawking its veterans for future picks. Hard not to, with three of your divisional foes more than twenty games in front of you. But as grim as that might sound, consider the plight of the Arizona D-Backs: after hovering around .500 through the end of May, Ron Melkonian’s youthful roster has hit the skids, losing twenty games in the standings, including a current 10-game losing streak.
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