B.A.R.B. (Bullard Alternative Reality Baseball)

A MEMBER OF THE ONE PERCENT RATES THE BARB MINOR-LEAGUE SYSTEMS: PART 1

2012-02-12T08:01:00.000-08:00

Somewhere in the Cayman Islands----Hello, BARB fans! This is a FREE report from Ike Goodyear, here at the East Caribbean Unlimited, Ltd (ECU). We're an investment firm, and we want to let all of you BARB owners know that, since you probably didn't make a profit on league operations this year, we are happy to extend an opportunity to try out our investment services, here in the Caymans, for FREE.

Honesty compels me to say that not every investment will work out, but overall our rate of return is very good, plus by virtue of our location we can save those of you who are making more than $1,000,000 a year some substantial money, simply by virtue of the fact that you will pay NO TAXES on any profits from the funds invested with ECU. That's right, NO TAXES! Isn't this a great country, where we encourage "job creators" like you to create jobs (and untaxable income) outside North America?

Speaking of North America, and in the interest of full disclosure, we at ECU have to point out that your BARB league actually was on the verge of making a modest profit last season---- until a tragic incident in which thousands of items of merchandise with the Philadelphia franchise logo were illegally seized by members of the "Occupy movement" in such places as Arizona, San Diego, Arizona, Lexington, Texas, Arizona, Philadelphia and, of course, Arizona.

Now, monitoring the assets of rich people running for political office is an important job, but it's not really all that difficult. The money basically sits here at ECU, and once a month I send out an email telling the account owners how much they've made this month, tax-free, while working stiffs back on the mainland pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett's secretary. So, with all this free time, what's a fella to do? Answer: evaluate your BARB minor-league systems!

Keep in mind that this is just one person's analysis, and does not reflect the views of either the Commissioner's Office, or even other BARB owners. I'm just sitting out here with time on my hands in the Cayman Islands, and spouting off. You may have different ideas about which prospects are in the top 1 percent...or the bottom 1 percent. Feel free to disagree!

In the first part of my analysis, I will simply list what I feel are the top 50 prospects already sitting in BARB minor-league systems. This does not include unestablished players which have already qualified for league play, such as Alexei Ogando (Arizona) or Eric Hosmer (Los Angeles). Such players could, in principle, begin the year in their club's starting lineups---or spend indefinite time back in the minors, waiting for their opportunity.

TOP 50 PROSPECTS, BARB MINORS

1. OF Mike Trout, Frostbite Falls
2. LHP Matt Moore, Sin City
3. OF Bryce Harper, Frostbite Falls
4. RHP Shelby Miller, St. Francis
5. RHP Julio Teheran, Brooklyn
6. SS Jurickson Profar, Yuma
7. RHP Jameson Tallihan, Sin City
8. SS Manny Machado, Frostbite Falls
9. RHP Gerrit Cole, Yuma
10. LHP Manny Banuelos, Pottsylvania
11. OF Wil Myers, Yuma
12. C/DH Jesus Montero, St. Francis
13. RHP Jacob Turner, Frostbite Falls
14. RHP Carlos Martinez, Worcester
15. C Travis D'Arnaud, Yuma
16. OF Archie Bradley, Frostbite Falls
17. C Devin Mesoraco, Los Angeles
18. RHP Zach Wheeler, Los Angeles
19. 3B Miguel Sano, AC/BC
20. LHP Mike Montgomery, Philadelphia
21. RHP Jarrod Parker, Yuma
22. LHP Martin Perez, Sin City
23. 3B Anthony Rendon, Yuma
24. RHP Randall Delgado, St. Francis
25. LHP Drew Pomerantz, New England
26. OF Aaron Hicks, Casselton
27. RHP Casey Kelley, Brooklyn
28. SS Hak-Ju Lee, Los Angeles
29. 2B Billy Hamilton, Yuma
30. SS Nick Franklin, Pottsylvania
31. 3B Nick Castellanos, Brooklyn
32. C Gary Sanchez, Frostbite Falls
33. 1B Jonathan Singleton, Pottsylvania
34. RHP Jack Odorrizi, Yuma
35. IF Jean Segura, Los Angeles
36. RHP Zach Lee, Los Angeles
37. 3B Josh Bell, Casselton
38. OF Brett Jackson, AC/BC
39. RHP Chris Archer, Pottsylvania
40. C Yasmani Grandal, Yuma
41. C Wilin Rosario, Sin City
42. LHP James Paxton, Frostbite Falls
43. OF George Springer, Sin City
44. OF Grant Green, St. Francis
45. RHP Brody Colvin, Pottsylvania
46. RHP Sonny Gray, Yuma
47. RHP Jared Cosart, Los Angeles
48. RHP Tanner Scheppers, Pottsylvania
49. LHP Casey Crosby, St. Francis
50. IF Tim Beckham, Philadelphia

Anyway, that' s the top 50, as Ike sees him. Next time, I'll evaluate each BARB club's total system, based upon size, prospects like those given above, and players able to make a contribution in 2012. Until next time, please consider placing your assets, TAX-FREE, with ECU here in the Caymans!

DECISION TIME APPROACHES

2012-02-06T12:04:00.000-08:00

Now that the Commissioner has provided us with amended 2012 off-season rosters to check, owners face some difficult decisions.....and these decisions depend, no doubt, on whether or not (as discussed in email) the league will undergo expansion, and how expansion will take shape.

Some decisions, however, are easier to make. There are players you KNOW you don't want, and which are simply taking up space, and which are unlikely to be trade bait in the off-season, and (often) are a big hunk of your payroll. For players like that, there's no point holding on to them. Why "float" a player through the draft if you don't intend to retain them anyway, and their high salary makes it unlikely someone would draft them? Sure, you might get a draft pick, but chances are such players will be released and signed by other clubs as free agents anyway. There is really no penalty for releasing such players now....or at least that's the viewpoint of the St. Francis franchise:

ST. FRANCIS PRESS RELEASE

HAMELS-SABATHIA, ROUND TWO

2012-01-25T22:46:00.000-08:00

Game One of the 2011 BARBWorld Series was a matchup between two top lefties, Cole Hamels and C.C.Sabathia. Hamels, in possibly his best career start, stymied the Yuma Firebirdsthat day with a one-hit shutout on just 73 pitches. Sabathia, however, was hitaround and barely lasted six innings as the Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrelstook the opener. Now the two were back on the mound for Game Five, with all ofthe pressure on the visiting Firebirds: lose, and the Series is over.

Both teams had nearly the same lineups as the previousmatchup, the exception being the lack of the designated hitter and Yumastarting Jason Bartlett instead of Martin Prado at second base.

From the get-go, Yuma proved they weren’t going to go aseasily as before. With two out in the top of the first, Ryan Braun blooped asoft single to right. Joey Votto was next, and he pulled it just inside the first-base bag! JaysonWerth cut it off before the ball went into the corner and fired toward theinfield. Braun was building a head of steam approaching third base, but thecoach held up the stop sign! To his credit, the relay was good and would have madea close play at the plate. Better to play it safe in the first with a .300hitter coming up.

Ryan Zimmerman was hacking. He saw a ball and fouled a pitchoff. Watched ball two, fouled three more off. The count went full before thepesky third baseman sent ANOTHER threeofferings out of play. Finally, on the 11^th pitch of the at-bat,Zimmerman put one between the lines…but high above the infield dirt. RickieWeeks was the recipient, and Hamels had worked out of the jamb. But theFirebirds seemed intent on getting that vaunted offense going.

This time around, things seemed to be working for Sabathia.He threw five pitches in getting three groundouts in the bottom of the first.There was one hiccup: a two-out, five-pitch battle against Victor Martinez,which the longtime Squirrels backstop ended with a bomb over the center fieldwall.

FROSTBITE FALLS 1, YUMA 0

Something must have happened, though, while Sabathia was inthe dugout during the top of the second. When he was back on the bump in thebottom of the frame, he got hit around again. With one away, Drew Stubbs gotinto a full-count pitch and launched it to left. Next was Jeff Francouer, whodidn’t wait to jump on a 1-0 fastball and send it out to center. In the span ofthree pitches, the Squirrels had increased their lead by two runs. A scarymoment ensued one out later, as Hamels was beaned. The hushed crowd let out asigh of relief as he took his spot on first. Lead-off man Jose Reyes proceededto single, but Hamels was stranded as Evan Longoria grounded out.

FROSTBITE FALLS 3, YUMA 0

Another scoreless Yuma inning led to a bigger Frostbiteoutburst. Martinez beat out a dribbler down the line, and Sabathia, whose throwwas late, appeared hurt. He remained in the game, but Albert Pujols and JaysonWerth walked to load the bases. A wild pitch scored Martinez, but C.C. cameback and struck Stubbs out. Up stepped Francouer, though. The left fielderpulled the pitch down the line! Pujols walked home…Werth sped around andscored. Francouer stood on first and started dreaming of a ring!

FROSTBITE FALLS 6, YUMA 0

Clay Buchholz replaced Sabathia and finished the inning, butthe Firebirds were in such a hole they’d need to pick up the offense soon.

Alas, that wouldn’t be the case until after Frostbiteincreased its lead again. Werth doubled off Hong-Chih Kuo in the bottom of thefifth, and two batters later Francouer drove in his fourth run of the game.

FROSTBITE FALLS 7, YUMA 0

Finally something broke right for Yuma. Rafael Furcal ledoff the sixth with a walk. Nick Markakis hit the ball hard, but it was directlyat Stubbs in center. Braun stepped up, however, with a full-count double toright center. Votto grounded out to bring home Furcal, and Zimmerman singledjust short of where Braun’s ball went to score the left fielder.

FROSTBITE FALLS 7, YUMA 2

Hamels ended the inning after that and worked around a Pradosingle to get through the seventh with no further damage. Just six outsseparated the Flying Squirrels from a title. Their fans sensed it and becamelouder with every out.

Frostbite put two runners on base in the eighth but couldn’tplate either, and closer Andrew Bailey was brought on for the top of the ninth.He immediately walked Shane Victorino and allowed a Bartlett single, bringingup Pudge Rodriguez. A big fly would bring the Firebirds within two runs…butPudge hit a one-hopper to Longoria. Longo threw to Weeks…Weeks on to Pujols andtwo were out! Victorino scored from third on the play, which cleared the bases.Vladimir Guerrero reached on a Weeks fielding error, and Furcal stepped up.

The shortstop, an important catalyst for Yuma in the firstround (.353, 2 HR, 5 R), had disappeared in the World Series (2-for-17) but wasnow the team’s final hope. Bailey’s first pitch was a called strike. The secondwas swung through. Furcal got a piece of the third offering and took anothercut on the next pitch…..

AND MISSED!

As soon as the ball hit Wilson Ramos’ mitt, the crowd wentwild and the players stormed the field. The Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrelswere Bullard Alternative Reality Baseball champions for the first time since2008! The celebration was old hat for certain players, namely Pujols andMartinez, who had been with the team since its inception in 2003 (as the SantaBarbara Storm) and won four previous titles.

FINAL: FROSTBITE FALLS 7, YUMA 3

The Frostbite front office was ecstatic after this latestwin; they had been baffled by a sweep at the hands of the Worcester Eliminatorsin the 2010 Series, and with many tough salary and personnel decisions to make,the chances of returning to the top in the next few years were diminished.

“We have a good farm system, but it will take them a fewyears to establish themselves,” GM Andrew Friedman said. “We could be a littleweak on offense these next few years.”

During the celebration, the league office announced Cole Hamelshad been named World Series MVP. Hamels started the Series with a one-hitterand earned the win in the clincher. He finished 2-0, 1.10 and 14 K, 7 H and 1BB in 16.1 innings. Other Squirrels who made a big impact were Jason Heyward(.500, 2 2B, 4 RBI), Albert Pujols (.429, 2 2B) and Jeff Francouer (.583, 2 HR,6 RBI).

Yuma’s standouts were Ryan Zimmerman (.294, 2 2B), RodBarajas (.286, 1 HR, 3 RBI) and Joey Votto (.278, 2 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI).

BATS BUST OUT IN COLD WEATHER

2012-01-20T01:25:00.000-08:00

Frostbite Falls, Minnesota:The game time temperature was a chilly 43 degrees, but the hitters weren’tfrozen. Yuma hit two two-run homers—but was it enough to survive the Frostbitebarrage and tie the series?

Both teams were licking their chops at the thought of theopposing pitcher. Yuma hurler Matt Cain came in with a good reputation, but hislone first-round start was a dud: 3.2 innings, eight hits, five runs allowed ina Game Two loss. Frostbite Falls youngster Jhoulys Chacin fared worse in hisGame Four appearance against Philadelphia: 2.2 innings, two hits, five walksand eight runs given up.

So if the Firebirds could be patient and wait for Chacin’sbullets to miss their mark, they could score runs in bunches. Alternatively,the Flying Squirrels were hoping for Cain to be as hittable as his previousstart.

As the game started, the latter became the more likelyresult. Just six pitches into the bottom of the first, the Squirrels had platedtwo runs. Jason Heyward led off with a double into the left-field corner, andJayson Werth followed with a two-bagger of his own down the right field line.Albert Pujols was next with a soft single to center. Werth read the ballperfectly and scored ahead of Shane Victorino’s throw.

FROSTBITE FALLS 2, YUMA 0

Cain settled down and didn’t allow any more damage in thefirst, but Frostbite Falls was back at it right away in the second frame.Rickie Weeks singled up the middle and was moved to second by a Chacinsacrifice bunt. “J-Hey” was up for the second time in two innings, and heproved he had Cain figured out. The lithe, powerful outfielder roped a 2-2offering deep to right-center. It got down and rattled around, and by the timethe relay reached the infield, Heyward had third base and a run batted in. Hedidn’t stay long; Werth lifted a sacrifice fly to center just four pitcheslater.

FROSTBITE FALLS 4, YUMA 0

Chacin was perfect through the first three innings, but inthe fourth the Yuma hitters rattled him. Nick Markakis lined a one-out single.Chacin tried to pass a one-strike fastball by Ryan Braun, but the burlyoutfielder didn’t miss. With the silence of the stunned crowd in thebackground, the ball soared over the left-center field fence, and the Firebirdswere right back in the ballgame.

Chacin seemed to settle down, getting Joey Votto to fly outon the first pitch. But Ryan Zimmerman blooped a single to left and things gotrocky. Chacin unleashed a wild pitch and another ball before Victor Martinezcouldn’t handle ball three, moving Zimmerman to third. Martin Prado took ballfour, bringing up Victorino. He put the ball in play, but it was a grounder toEvan Longoria, who fired to second for the force to end the inning.

FROSTBITE FALLS 4, YUMA 2

Cain was removed for a pinch-hitter in the top of the fifth,so Clay Buchholz took over for the bottom of the inning. He set down the firsttwo with ease but then encountered trouble. Jose Reyes doubled and Weeks waswalked intentionally to set up the force with Chacin hitting. The strategy backfired,however, as the pitcher squibbed the ball just out of the reach of Zimmermanand into left field, scoring Reyes. Buchholz uncorked a wild pitch to advanceboth runners, and Heyward came through again with a bouncer up the middle toplate both runners.

FROSTBITE FALLS 7, YUMA 2

Frostbite was back at it the next inning, as Pujols andMartinez reached and advanced on another Buchholz wild pitch. Drew Stubbs beatout an infield single, but Reyes grounded into a double play to limit theSquirrels’ scoring.

FROSTBITE FALLS 8, YUMA 2

Yuma’s Rod Barajas doubled off Chacin in the seventh, but hewas stranded as Vladimir Guerrero and Rafael Furcal struck out.

Drew Storen was next on the hill for Yuma, and he didn’tfare much better than the previous two hurlers. After a strikeout, pinch-hitterAdam Lind pulled a double down the right field line. Heyward singled for hisfourth RBI, and an out later he scored for the third time on a Pujols single.

FROSTBITE FALLS 10, YUMA 2

Though the Firebirds scored again in the eighth with atwo-run Votto homer, the game was essentially over. The 10-4 final put theFlying Squirrels on the verge of their fifth World Championship, and with achance to clinch in front of the home fans the next night.

SERIES SHIFTS TO FROSTBITE

2012-01-19T01:41:00.000-08:00

Game Three: The first twogames of the 2011 BARB World Series were split, one each, by Frostbite Fallsand Yuma. Now the series shifts for three games to the frozen tundra ofnorthern Minnesota.

It didn’t take long for the scoring to start. After FelixHernandez set down the Firebird hitters with a groundout, walk and double playin the top of the first, Evan Longoria greeted David Price with a one-out bomb.

FROSTBITEFALLS 1, YUMA 0

The Squirrels scored again in the third. After Jose Reyeslined a one-out double to the gap, “Longo” drove him in by dumping the balldown the left-field line.

FROSTBITEFALLS 2, YUMA 0

After an uneventful top of the fourth, the Squirrels batsincreased their lead one more time. In quick succession, Rickie Weeks led offwith a single and Jeff Francouer launched one to left. Just like that, theFrostbite Falls lead had doubled. Price allowed one more single in the inning,but the damage had been done:

FROSTBITEFALLS 4, YUMA 0

In the meantime, “King Felix” was pitching well, but not hisbest. The only inning of the first five frames in which he didn’t allow arunner was the second, but in no inning was there more than one Firebirdtreading the basepaths.

That changed in the sixth. Vladimir Guerrero grounded out asa pinch hitter for Price (5 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 5 K), but Rafael Furcal walked andstole second base. One out later, Ryan Braun took a mighty cut but onlysquibbed the ball back to Hernandez, who didn’t have a play. With runners onfirst and third and two out, Joey Votto came up. Surely, this was the time forYuma to make a comeback, right?

Sadly, no. Votto reached for an outside pitch on a 1-0 countand grounded right to Reyes, who fed Weeks to put out Braun.

The failure of the middle of the lineup, however, had noeffect on the bottom of the order. With two out and the bases empty in theseventh, Shane Victorino drew a walk. That brought up the all-or-nothing stickof Rod Barajas. Finally, for the first time since the first round, the swinggave “all”. A soaring drive sailed out over the wall in left-center field, and Francouerand Drew Stubbs could only watch it go!

FROSTBITE FALLS 4, YUMA 2

The Firebird hitters (mostly the vaunted middle of theorder) were back at it in the eighth. Votto came up with a two-out single offof Eric O’Flaherty. Chris Perez was wild out of the bullpen and walked RyanZimmerman. Up came Martin Prado with a chance to bring Yuma within one or eventie the game. The scrappy keystoner battled Perez and drove the count full.Perez was forced to come in with a challenge fastball or risk loading the basesfor Victorino. Prado took a cut the opposite way and lined it…RIGHT AT Weeks. Thecatch was made, the side retired, and the Firebirds still trailed by two withjust three outs to go.

Closer Andrew Bailey worked the Squirrel ninth and struckout Victorino (though the “Flyin’ Hawaiian” fouled off four straight offeringsto prolong the at-bat) before pinch hitters Jason Bartlett and Ivan Rodriguezflew and grounded out, respectively, to end the game.

The Flying Squirrels had taken a two-games-to-one lead andhad the advantage of two more contests at home before having to travel back tothe desert, if necessary. Chris Melkonian, however, had to be comforted withhow his team’s bats began battling back in the late innings. If they could keephitting and start getting clutch knocks, the Series would surely turn around.

FIREBIRDS STRIKE BACK

2012-01-16T20:49:00.000-08:00

Game Two: After stroking just one hit in Game One, the Yuma Firebird bats began to wake up against Tim Lincecum.

The visiting Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrels started their diminutive ace in hopes of capitalizing on Cole Hamels’ Game One success and taking a two-games-to-none lead in the 2011 BARB World Series. Lincecum, in his fourth BARB season,completed his best year with a 15-6, 2.72 campaign.

Youngster Mat Latos (13-8, 4.13) was Yuma’s starter, and he was the first to crack. Rickie Weeks led off the third inning and turned on a ball, sending it down the left field line and over the fence!

FROSTBITE FALLS 1, YUMA 0

That, apparently, was the wake-up call the Firebirds needed.Shane Victorino led off the bottom of the third with a four-pitch walk and stole second on the first pitch to Rod Barajas. The second offering to the burly backstop was smoked in the five hole to easily plate Victorino and tie the contest. Lead-off man Rafael Furcal continued the rally by lining a single over Weeks to move Barajas to third. Nick Markakis stroked the third single ina row, this a bloop to center, and Yuma took the lead.

But the Firebirds weren’t done there. Furcal and Markakis executed a double-steal against the Lincecum/Victor Martinez tandem, which enabled Ryan Braun’s groundout to be of the run-scoring variety rather than a tailor-made double play. With the runner on second base and just one out, Lincecum was instructed to intentionally walk Joey Votto. Ryan Zimmerman was next, and he loaded the bases with another single, which brought up Vladimir Guerrero.

The aging DH hit a slow chopper. Weeks flipped to Jose Reyes, who fired to first…

NOT IN TIME!

Somehow, Guerrero summoned his long-gone speed to beat out a double play and increase the Yuma lead. Martin Prado’s grounder forced Guerrero at second, but as the middle of the game approached, Yuma had taken the lead in a big way:

YUMA 4, FROSTBITE FALLS 1

Neither squad threatened in the next few innings. Latos allowed three hits and three walks through six, but after he allowed one more of each to begin the seventh (Drew Stubbs doubled and Reyes walked), Yuma management inserted Tyler Clippard to face Weeks. The second-sacker, batting eighth in the lineup, made his case for a higher spot. The 1-1 Clippard pitch was launched to left, ending up 10 rows back in the bleachers. With one swing of the bat, the game was tied.

FROSTBITE FALLS 4, YUMA 4

Lincecum also lasted into the seventh, but he was pulledwhen Barajas singled to lead off. Chris Perez, however, didn’t quite have aClippard moment: a double play and groundout sandwiched around a double endedthe inning.

Perez came back out for the eighth and experienced trouble. He K’d Votto on a full count and got a can of corn from Zimmerman. But his control left him, and the next four bullets (to pinch-hitter Denard Span) were wide. Joel Hanrahan was brought on, and up came Prado. The Yuma second baseman was clutch, doubling over Jason Heyward’s head in left to easily score the speedy Span.

YUMA 5, FROSTBITE FALLS 4!

The home crowd was going wild, and they celebrated even more when closer Rafael Soriano (a former Squirrel) came on and shut down the top of the Squirrels’ order to close out the victory. The Series headed to Frostbite Falls for three games in a one-all tie.

HAMELS DOMINATES YUMA

2011-12-31T20:33:00.000-08:00

The 2011 BARB World Series began in Yuma, Arizona, with theexpectation of many well-played contests between the top two teams in runmargin. Both squads were stacked with pitching and bats, but Game One saw thevisitors’ #3 hurler stymie the best offense in the league.

The Yuma Firebirds, having advanced from the first round infour games against St. Francis, had a fully rested staff and the advantage offamiliar territory. Chris Melkonian’s starting pitcher was, naturally, big C.C.Sabathia (19-4, 2.50 in the regular season).

Andrew Haynes’ Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrels, however,had to play five to vanquish the Philadelphia Rebels. Game Five was just twodays before the start of the World Series, and having started Felix Hernandezand brought Tim Lincecum on in relief, manager Mike Noakes had to open withlefty Cole Hamels (14-9, 3.68).

Both starters pitched well in their only appearances in the firstround; Sabathia gave up two runs on six hits over six innings in a 13-2 GameOne win and Hamels allowed the same over seven frames with 10 strikeouts butwas failed by his defense in a one-run, Game Three loss.

After the typical pomp and circumstance, Sabathia took hisplace on the slab and hurled the first pitch of the ninth Bullard AlternativeReality Baseball league World Series, a called strike to Jose Reyes. Reyes andthe number two hitter, Evan Longoria, grounded weakly to second base beforeVictor Martinez struck out on a 94-mph inside fastball.

Hamels was just as good, throwing just six pitches to erasethe dangerous Rafael Furcal on a fly out and both Nick Markakis and Ryan Braun ongroundouts in the bottom of the first.

Sabathia came back out in the second, and leading off wasAlbert Pujols, who took a good cut on a 1-0 pitch but flew harmlessly to left. Thenext hitter was Jayson Werth, who became the first base runner of the game witha solid single up the middle. Sabathia was on the verge of easily ending theinning after striking out free-swinger Drew Stubbs, but Michael Young had otherthoughts. The DH liked the first pitch he saw and pulled it into the left fieldcorner. Werth’s long legs got moving and took him across the plate, and Youngended up at second.

Jeff Francouer followed with a two-strike single to left,and it appeared Young would have to stop at third, but the ball skipped offBraun’s glove and rolled away as Young scored!

FROSTBITE FALLS 2, YUMA 0

The top of the Frostbite Falls lineup stepped up and did itsjob to increase the lead in the third. “Longo” led off with a two-bagger tojust about the same spot Young’s double had gone, and Martinez crushed a gapperto left-center to allow Longoria to trot home. Pujols reached as his topper wastoo slow for Furcal to fire to first in time, and the Squirrels had runners onfirst and third with no one out. Werth was next, and Sabathia finally caught abreak: a double-play grounder to third. Ryan Zimmerman-to-Martin Prado-to-JoeyVotto was the play, but the defense had played back and conceded the run, andMartinez scored.

FROSTBITE FALLS 4, YUMA 0

With the visitors holding an early advantage, the home crowdstarted clamoring for offense. But Hamels wouldn’t have it—Yuma went downsilently in each of the first four innings, and when Votto struck out on threepitches to open the fifth, the Firebirds had failed to put any of their first13 batters on base.

Zimmerman, though, finally gave the spectators something tocheer about. Stepping up after Votto, the third baseman also fell behind 0-2before squaring up a cutter and lining it to left field. After a hop, it took awild bounce and went off Francouer’s glove, and Zimmerman stood at second witha double. The cheering ended quickly, however. Vladimir Guerrero grounded outand Shane Victorino lined out, both on the second pitches they saw.

The scored remained 4-0 into the top of the seventh.Sabathia, still in the game, allowed his ninth hit of the contest, but thebiggest one to this point. Rickie Weeks lashed a ball to deep right-center andturned on the jets, not stopping until he was standing on third base. Weeks wasquickly knocked in by a Reyes single to center.

That was it for Sabathia. Clay Buchholz entered and facedLongoria, whose double down the first-base line moved Reyes to third. Martinezgrounded out, but Reyes came home to score.

FROSTBITE FALLS 6, YUMA 0

Yuma avoided further damage when Longoria was thrown out athome trying to score on Werth’s two-out single, but the air had been left outof the ballpark and any momentum still in the home dugout disappeared.

Of course, much of that had to do with Hamels’ electrifyingperformance. Other than Zimmerman’s double, the only Firebird to reach base wasVictorino on an error in the eighth. Hamels hurled a perfect ninth and theSquirrels had a surprising 6-0 win and the early advantage in the series.

The final line of quite possibly the best pitchingperformance in BARB playoff history: nine innings pitched, one hit, no walks andno runs allowed, seven strikeouts and, maybe the most astonishing number, just73 pitches thrown. Hamels had completely shut down the most potent offense inthe league and given more hope to the Frostbite faithful dreading the day the Yuma offense would wake up.

SEE-SAW BATTLE DECIDES SERIES ENTRANT

2011-12-21T00:53:00.000-08:00

With their first-round series tied, 2-2, the Philadelphia Rebels andFrostbite Falls Flying Squirrels met in a final hard-fought contest todetermine who would face Yuma in the 2011 BARB World Series.

The first four games of the series between the East andCentral division champions were all won by the home team. With the fifth gameback in Frostbite Falls, Andrew Haynes was thinking he had a good chance towin. But Ronald Melkonian’s squad was coming off a 10-4 bashing of theSquirrels, seemingly giving the Rebels the momentum.

“King” Felix Hernandez was the choice to start for managerMike Noakes and the host Flying Squirrels. Hernandez earned the start in GameOne of the series and, despite allowing five runs in the second inning, earnedthe win with 6.1 six-hit, six strikeout innings. His opposite was Max Scherzer,who gave up just two runs while striking out eight in seven innings in aone-run Game Two loss. Not surprisingly, Rebels owner Melkonian inquiredwhether ace Cliff Lee was available—but alas, the lefty had started two nightsbefore and thrown 79 pitches after also pitching in two of the previous threegames, so the coaching staff decided not to push him.

Philly went easily against King Felix in the top of thefirst, but the Flying Squirrels’ bats struck quickly in the bottom of theinning. Jayson Werth, who was almost dropped to sixth in the lineup before thegame, led off with a single. One out later, Albert Pujols drove a gapper toright-center field. Werth flew around the bases and scored just ahead of therelay!

FROSTBITE FALLS 1, PHILADELPHIA 0

Each club had a runner reach in the second inning, butnothing came to fruition. But in the top of the third, Philadelphia threatened.Matt Wieters, one of the heroes of Game Four, lined the fourth pitch of theinning down the right field line but decided not to test Werth’s arm to second.Scherzer had a good at-bat but flied out to center, and then Ichiro Suzukidumped a ball into left-center to push Wieters to third.

Mike Aviles, the other big bat from the 10-run Rebeloutburst two days prior, stepped up with one out and runners on the corners. Heskied a ball to right, and Werth backed up a few steps to get his momentumgoing toward the plate. The ball hit the pocket and was fired in towardhome…but WIETERS STAYED PUT! The big backstop is normally a fair runner, butafter the long season it appeared his legs just didn’t have the willingness togo, and he held at third base.

With one chance missed, Philadelphia turned to door #2:Adrian Gonzalez. The slugging first baseman hoped to match his counterpart’sfirst-inning RBI and tie the game—at the very least. Gonzalez worked the countfull, but he chased a bad ball and grounded weakly to Jose Reyes at shortstop!

Philadelphia had squandered a golden scoring opportunity,and they fell further behind in the bottom of the third.

Werth led off again and again reached base, this time on aseeing-eye single over second base. Reyes laid down a sacrifice bunt, bringPujols to the plate. “Prince Albert” was clutch once again, lining a 1-2 pitchover Gonzalez’ head and bring Werth around.

FROSTBITE FALLS 2, PHILADELPHIA 0

Hernandez retired six of the next seven, and Frostbite Fallsentered the sixth inning with the two-run lead intact. The rabid fans werebeginning to sense a sixth BARB World Series trip for the home town team. Oneswing of the bat, however, silenced the cheers.

Aviles led off the sixth and worked a walk. With Hernandezapproaching 100 pitches, Tim Lincecum got up in the bullpen to prepare for arare relief appearance. Gonzalez also reached, lining a single to right field.That brought up Torii Hunter. After taking a called strike, the center fieldersaw a pitch he liked.

GOODBYE!

A shot to the left field bleachers! Adam Lind took a fewsteps before realizing the futility. In the blink of an eye, Philadelphia hadgrabbed the advantage!

PHILADELPHIA3, FROSTBITE FALLS 2

For the second straight game, Noakes was left to wonder whatwould have happened had he made the pitching change one batter earlier. Nonetheless,Lincecum entered and retired the next three hitters to close out the sixth. He alsoset down the side in order in the seventh and eighth innings, which kept theSquirrels within one run.

Lincecum’s spot came up to lead off the bottom of theeighth, and Noakes made the choice to send up Jason Heyward as a pinch hitter.The Rebels also made a change, replacing Scherzer (96 pitches) with TakashiSaito. Scherzer finished the night with a better line than his Game Two start,allowing two runs on four hits and a walk and striking out nine over seveninnings.

The pitching change immediately caused second-guessing amongPhilly faithful. Saito walked Heyward on five pitches, bringing up Werth. Thelead-off man smashed a ball to the right of third baseman Rodriguez, who cameup with it on a dive! The throw to second retired Heyward, but Dustin Ackley’sthrow to first was just late. Werth’sslightly above-average speed kept the Squirrels out of a double play.

Reyes was next up, and he grounded the ball through themiddle to advance Werth to third and bring up Pujols, which also brought inRebels closer J.J. Putz.

Putz and Pujols engaged in a spirited battle, with the countrunning full. Finally, Pujols came through by taking an outside pitch theopposite way, just out of Ackley’s reach! For the third time in the game,Pujols knocked in Werth, and this time it tied the contest.

PHILADELPHIA 3, FROSTBITE FALLS 3

Reyes moved to third on the hit, creating anotherfirst-and-third, one-out situation. Evan Longoria, though, popped up harmlesslyon the infield. If the tie was to be broken, it would have to be done by VictorMartinez.

“V-Mart” was up to the challenge. After seven pitches andtwo throws to first, Martinez lined a ball to the right-center field gap. Reyestrotted home. Pujols motored around third and slid across the plate! Martinez wasthrown out trying to stretch the double into a triple, but the damage had beendone:

FROSTBITE FALLS 5, PHILADELPHIA 3

Rocky Top was rocking (pun intended)! Just three outsseparated the Squirrels from a return trip to the World Series, where they hadbeen unceremoniously swept by the Worcester Eliminators in 2010.

Still, the powerful Rebel lineup had one more shot. On cameFlying Squirrels closer Andrew Bailey (acquired before the season fromPhiladelphia) to face Ethier, Rodriguez and Ackley. Bailey induced a can ofcorn from Ethier, but Rodriguez singled and was replaced by pinch runner AdamJones. Ackley also singled, this a bloop to center barely over Reyes’outstretched glove.

Wieters stepped up with runners on first and second and oneaway. Bailey recovered, though, and froze the catcher three straight times forout number two. Elvis Andrus pinch hit for Putz and kept the season alive witha base knock to center, though it was hit too hard for Jones to score.

Bases loaded, two out, top of the ninth in the decisive GameFive. Who would you trust to put the ball in play more than…

ICHIROSUZUKI

The aging superstar adjusted his sleeve as he stared out atBailey and licked his chops. The scene was (almost) straight out of ErnestLawrence Thayer’s classic, “Casey at the Bat”. The only difference was that themajority of the crowd was clamoring for Ichiro to strike out, not strike thewinning hit.

In the fashion of the poem, Ichiro took the first twopitches as called strikes. Bailey wound and threw again. Ichiro took his smoothcut. “But”, to paraphrase the final line of the poem, “there is no joy inPhiladelphia—mighty Ichiro has struck out.”

The stadium erupted! Frostbite Falls was on the way to itssixth World Series in eight years! The Squirrels’ front office pumped theirfists and shook hands in excitement. The players, led by career SquirrelPujols, crashed the mound and piled on top of Bailey.

In the visitors’ suite, Melkonian, who was overcome withdisappointment with his team and somewhat confused, exclaimed, “That’s it!Ichiro will never again wear an Arizo…I mean, Philadelphia uniform!”

The Squirrels had little time to celebrate. In just twodays, they would be in Arizona beginning the 2011 BARB World Series against theYuma Firebirds. It would be the first World Series meeting between the twoteams since 2006, when the Squirrels prevailed in seven games.

REBELS SMASH TRADITION

2011-12-17T00:41:00.000-08:00

On the same night younger brother Chris advanced to the WorldSeries, big bro Ronald Melkonian’s Philadelphia Rebels broke a franchise trendto stay alive in the quest for their first title.

Game Four of the 2011 BARB first-round playoff seriesbetween Philadelphia and Frostbite Falls was the seventh playoff game in RonaldMelkonian’s well-traveled franchise’s history. The first three came in 2008,when the then-Lexington Rebels were swept in three games by the FlyingSquirrels. In that playoff series, Melkonian used Dan Haren in relief in allthree games, but Lexington lost two games by one run apiece and the other bytwo runs.

The close games continued as the new Philly Rebels made the2011 playoffs. Each of the first three games was decided by one run. Melkonian,after landing on the losing end of the first two, finally turned the tables inwinning Game Three.

And that’s when the string broke. Frostbite Falls, up a gamein the series, decided to start talented but wild rookie Jhoulys Chacin,thinking he’d pitch well as long as he had control.

Chacin didn’t have control for long.

After a perfect first inning, Chacin walked Alex Rodriguezto open the second. Torii Hunter was hit by a pitch one out later, and after afly out Mike Aviles stepped up and went long.

PHILADELPHIA3, FROSTBITE FALLS 0

Citizens Bank Park went wild! Cliff Lee was on the mound(what’s with Melkonian riding his outstanding pitchers?), and handing athree-run lead to the crafty lefty was like hitting a three-run bomb off him with Tim Lincecum and BrianWilson to back it up…

But I digress. Frostbite Falls owner Andrew Haynes wascringing in the press box after the inning, but he hoped his youngster couldsettle down and give the offense a chance to swing the team into the WorldSeries.

Things looked up in the bottom of the third, as Chacininduced two fly outs among the first three hitters. The batter in the middledrew a walk, and after the second can of corn, A-Rod stepped to the plate. The resultwas the same as the second inning, and Rodriguez trotted to first.

With runners on first and second and two out, Mike Noakesdecided to start warming up a reliever. He couldn’t get him into the game soonenough. Adrian Gonzalez drew a walk on a full count, loading the bases. Hunterstepped up and didn’t take the bat off his shoulder either, and Ackley crossedthe plate to make it 4-0.

Noakes got the word from pitching coach Dave Righetti thatFausto Carmona was ready. Carmona was only on the roster to be a long reliever,so Noakes was hesitant to bring him in. Certain Chacin wouldn’t walk a fourthstraight hitter, Noakes left the righty on the bump in an increasingly hostilesituation to face Matt Wieters.

The decision turned out to be a rare mistake from themasterful Noakes. Wieters pushed the count to 2-2, and Chacin, hoping to makethe catcher put one in play, laid a fat one at the belt.

GONE.

Unbelievable. After seven hitters in the third inning,Philadelphia had put three balls in play for two outs and one hit, but theresult was five runs. Carmona came on and induced a groundout, but the damagewas done.

PHILADELPHIA8, FROSTBITE FALLS 0

The Flying Squirrel offense finally showed signs of life inthe fourth, when Jose Reyes doubled, Evan Longoria singled and Jeff Francouerdoubled for two runs. Another Squirrel crossed the plate on a Rickie Weekshomer in the fifth, and Frostbite drew within “slam range” on a Jayson Werthrun-scoring, sixth-inning two-bagger.

PHILADELPHIA 8, FROSTBITE FALLS 4

The Rebels went on to add single runs in the sixth andseventh innings. Lee came out after six innings, having given up four runs oneight hits with six strikeouts in his third appearance in four games in theseries. Jose Valverde and Takashi Saito finished the game.

PHILADELPHIA10, FROSTBITE FALLS 4

Ronald Melkonian was ecstatic, finally seeing his team win aplayoff no-doubter. Despite being out-hit 10-6, Philly showed patience (sevenwalks) and pop (two homers and a double) to gain momentum going into thedeciding Game Five, which would be played in Frostbite Falls two days later.

FIREBIRDS ADVANCE TO RIVALRY MATCHUP

2011-12-10T19:40:00.000-08:00

Whether it’s the Philadelphia Rebels of older brother Ronald or the Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrels, run by long-time nemesis Andrew Haynes, Chris Melkonian’s Yuma Firebirds will play for the BARB title in a highly-contested series.

The first three contests of the Yuma-St. Francis first-round playoff series saw a cumulative 34 runs scored. Yuma’s Game One victory plated 15 (13-2 final) before St. Francis countered by leading a 13-run Game Two with eight (8-5). The pitching staffs, however, began taking over in a 5-1 Yuma Game Three victory.

No one knew what Game Four had in store. Both pitchers had talent but could disappear at times. The Friar starter, Brett Myers, fit the team’s nickname: a wily veteran, Myers was a steady 10-11, 4.26 during the regular season. And for the Firebirds, a fiery, brash youngster: Mat Latos (13-8, 4.13)

Rafael Furcal, the catalyst of the Yuma offense, led off the game with a walk. The Firebirds played small ball to get him around the bases: after a Nick Markakis strikeout, Furcal was sent on a hit-and-run as Ryan Braun grounded out to short. Without sending the runner, the inning would have ended on a tailor-made double play. That brought up the dangerous Joey Votto, whom Scott Hatfield had already decided would not get a chance to do damage (three intentional walks in Game Three). So yet another four-fingered pass was issued, setting up a force at any base.

Ryan Zimmerman, though, picked up where Votto didn’t get the chance: a line drive over shortstop Alexei Ramirez (on a 3-2 pitch) easily plated Furcal.

YUMA 1, ST. FRANCIS 0

The Friars went quietly in the bottom of the first, and Myers trotted out for the second frame hoping to get his ballclub quickly back in the dugout.

But it wasn’t to be.

Shane Victorino led off and was quickly in an 0-2 hole after a called strike and two fouls. But Myers couldn’t find the strike zone on the next three offerings and the count went full. Three more pitches came to the Flyin’ Hawaiian, and all three were sliced or dribbled outside the foul lines. Finally the 10^th pitch of the at-bat was put in play, and it was smoked on the ground down the first-base line past a diving Paul Konerko. Victorino eased into second base with a double!

Due up were two rather weak hitters: Rod Barajas (usually either a homer or an easy out) and Mat Latos (a pitcher—‘nuf said). A pop-up and ground-out came quickly.

But there was that man again: Furcal. The aging shortstop bounced a full-count pitch through the box, and it sneaked into center field. Victorino rounded third and crossed the plate, and the Firebirds continued gaining momentum.

YUMA 2, ST. FRANCIS 0

Myers did settle down after the second: no runners reached until an error with two out in the sixth, after which Joe Saunders was brought on to try to preserve the two-run deficit. Saunders finished the sixth, and Ricky Nolasco and Joaquin Benoit escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the seventh.

Latos, meanwhile, carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning and avoided trouble until two out in the sixth. That’s when Johnny Damon drew a walk, Ramirez reached on an infield single and Konerko smashed one too hard for Furcal to handle, which resulted in an error.

The bases were loaded. Latos had to make sure his emotions didn’t get the best of him, especially with the BARB home-run leader, Jose Bautista, approaching the plate.

This was just the situation Hatfield had drafted Bautista for. With 55 homers and 149 RBI in the regular season, the slugger could be counted on to change a game in a hurry. But this time, a harmless grounder to second baseman Martin Prado ended the inning.

St. Francis, frantically searching for any offense to keep their season alive, sent up Neil Walker to pinch-hit in the bottom of the seventh. Walker had sandwiched two 0-for-4s around a 3-for-6 Game Two and was put on the bench in Game Four. He needed to do something to get back in the organization’s good graces.

Finally Latos showed signs of tiring: Walker got a hold of the 1-1 pitch and launched a no-doubter to right field! The home crowd had a reason to cheer, and they did. The lead was cut in half, and their Friars had a chance to salvage momentum to extend the series.

YUMA 2, ST. FRANCIS 1

Yuma, however, quickly gained the run back. Rafael Betancourt went to the mound to start the eighth, and he allowed a Prado double and Barajas two-out single. Just like that, Chris Melkonian’s squad again had breathing room with a trip to the World Series close at hand.

YUMA 3, ST. FRANCIS 1

Bottom of the eighth: Aaron Cunningham is hit by a Johnny Venters pitch. Tyler Clippard comes in and strikes out Jesus Montero, Ramirez and Konerko.

THREE OUTS TO GO

Yuma closer Rafael Soriano on to pitch in the bottom of the ninth. The last chance for St. Francis to keep a once-promising season going. Of course they wouldn’t make it easy for Soriano, with Bautista, Mark Reynolds and Kelly Johnson due up.

Bautista pushed the count to 3-1, and then Soriano lost his control and Bautista took one in the hip and trotted to first. That meant each successive hitter would represent the tying run.

Soriano settled down and struck Reynolds out, but Johnson walked to bring up powerful Chris Young as the potential tying run. Soriano, however, went up the ladder for his second K of the inning!

Now a dilemma for St. Francis: Heath Bell, who had been brought on to pitch in the seventh, was the due-up hitter. Of course you can’t have a relief pitcher hit when you’re down to the final out of your season. But the Friars didn’t have another position player on the bench, so they had to choose their best-hitting unused starting pitcher: Bronson Arroyo.

Arroyo was able to take balls and foul pitches off to push the count to 2-2, but finally Soriano had enough. A 97-mph fastball seared the zone. Arroyo’s swing was late.

YUMA RUSHES THE FIELD!!!

Chris Melkonian, winner of two BARB World Series titles (2007, 2009), was all smiles as he dreamed of holding a third championship trophy. In the way, though, would be one of two adversaries: his own brother, Ronald, whose Rebels got hot at the right time, or Andrew Haynes, who had already triumphed over the Firebirds in two previous World Series. Who will it be? How will the BARB World Series turn out?

STAY TUNED!

ROOKIE REVIVES REBELS

2011-12-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

Rookie Alexei Ogando, lightning in a bottle, followed an improbable rookie season with a gutty effort that allowed host Philadelphia, down 2-0 in the playoffs, to avoid a sweep to Eastern champion Frostbite Falls!

Ogando didn't begin the year on Phillie's staff, and in spring training there had been speculation that the 28-year old former Cuban phenom would get a chance to work in the Rebels bullpen. Instead, the former subject of scandal became (along with Cliff Lee) the second-half pitcher of GM Ronald Melkonian's dreams, posting a 9-0 record in 10 starts along with a sub-2.00 ERA.

Ogando (1-0, 1.29) would pitch into the seventh in this outing, matched with lefty Cole Hamels, always a handful for opposing teams. Hamels was, in fact, brilliant. With two out in the first, Hamels would allow a two-out triple to Rebels rookie Dustin Ackley...but then he would strike out Adrian Gonzalez to end the threat. Torri Hunter singled to lead off the Rebels 2nd, but Hamels.....STRUCK OUT the next seven hitters in a row! In fact, Hamels would allow only three baserunners and fan a total of 10 Rebels through the first six frames.

The Frostbite lefty would also be helping himself to a lead. After Jose Reyes and Ricky Weeks opened the third with singles, Hamels sacrificed the pair over, where the Squirrels cashed in a run courtesy of a slowly-hit out to second by Jason Heyward. A 1-0 lead for the Squirrels with a dominant lefty on the hill, and their club up 2-0 in the Series...yet still there was a sense that a base hit could've broken things open. Ogando escaped further damage, and would require the next ten hitters after Heyward.

The Squirrels had their next big chance in the top of the seventh, when they bunched two hits in the inning against Ogando. But this was bookended by a double play from Longoria and a sharp lineout to a diving A-Rod at third for Drew Stubbs and, despite allowing some hard-hit balls, Ogando had kept things to a one-run contest.....which proved key. For, in the bottom of the seventh, the Rebels finally got to the dominant Hamels.

Adrian Gonzalez had a great at-bat, fouling off a pair of 2-2 pitches to draw a walk. Hunter singled sharply to put a pair of runners on, and fate intervened. With A-Rod at the plate, a sharp liner was hit into the hole to SS Jose Reyes. Reyes's flip to Rickie Weeks was on target to force Hunter, but Weeks' throw to first was wide of Albert Pujols: Gonzalez scored as the ball rolled around, and A-Rod ended up on second. With one down, the game was tied!

Andre Ethier, bad knee and all, then singled to send A-Rod to third with the winning run. With Matt Wieters at the plate, the infield played in a bit to deal with tying run. Wieters slapped one in the hole between first and second, but Pujols CUT OFF the ball with A-Rod scampering to the plate rather than let Weeks field it. The result? Pujols' only play was to force Ethier at second for the second out, A-Rod scoring the go-ahead run. Pinch-hitter Adam Jones flew out to end the inning, but the Rebels had put enough pressure on the Squirrels defense to take the lead:

......PHILADELPHIA 2, FROSTBITE FALLS 1!

Ogando had departed for the pinch-hitter, and the Squirrels would keep things close, with Chris Perez dominating in relief, fanning three in the bottom of the eighth. But the unheralded Rebels pen was up to the task of preserving the lead: Takashi Saito fanned pinch-hitter Michael Young to end the eighth, and J.J. Putz (the goat in Game 1) got both Pujols and Victor Martinez by way of the strikeout to finish things off, earning the save and keeping the surprising Central champs alive in the 2011 postseason.

A disenchanted spectator (and clearly in no way objective) was heard complaining to the baseball gods. "Ogando? 9-and-oh? Ethier, on a bad knee? Pujols, not coming through? Call Hollywood, I think I've got a script here!"

PRICE MASTERFUL AS FIREBIRDS CLOSE IN ON SERIES

2011-12-03T00:33:00.000-08:00

Somehow, BARB’s winning percentage leader was just the third pitcher for his team in the playoffs. But David Price, an astonishing 17-2 in the regular season (to go along with a 2.84 ERA), was masterful once again, dominating the Friars on the road in St. Francis, and pushing Yuma to the brink of the World Series.

After a tough game two (0-for-4), Rafael Furcal immediately got the squad in gray uniforms started with a single and stolen base off St. Francis starter Shawn Marcum. The Firebirds continued excellent small ball, as Nick Markakis moved the speedy Furcal over on a groundout and Ryan Braun plated him on a sacrifice fly.

YUMA 1, ST. FRANCIS 0!

Runners continued reaching for both sides in the next few innings, but none came across. Yuma posed the greatest threat in the fourth, loading the bases with one out, but Price stepped up and grounded into a double play.

Yuma held the lead into the sixth. Martin Prado led off and singled, and he came home as Shane Victorino tripled to the right-center gap. That was enough for Marcum, as Rafael Betancourt entered and immediately got Rod Barajas to pop out and bring up Price. This time, Price put one through the left side of the infield to easily score Victorino. Price advanced on a wild pitch and came around to help his own cause on a Furcal single.

YUMA 4, ST. FRANCIS 0!

From his box, Scott Hatfield cringed at the latest turn of events, though just an inning later Martin Prado stuck another dagger in the heart of the Friars with a bomb to left-center. Aaron Cunningham (AARON CUNNINGHAM????) pulled St. Francis back within “slam range” with a solo shot of his own in a pinch-hitting appearance in the bottom of the seventh, but it was the only run of the game for the hosts. Yuma took the 5-1 win and, in the process, inched closer to another taste of the World Series.

David Price’s final line: 7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 4 K and an uncharacteristic five walks.

FRIARS, DOWN EARLY, STAGE BIG COMEBACK TO TIE SERIES

2011-12-02T02:17:00.000-08:00

In Game One of the first-round playoff series between the St. Francis Friars and the Yuma Firebirds, Chris Melkonian’s team rapped out 17 hits and 13 runs in a rout. They began Game Two much the same way, with five first-inning runs—but the Friars were up to the challenge this time around.

Roy Oswalt, 9-5 with a 3.09 ERA in the regular season, walked on the mound in the bottom of the first after his offense failed to score a run despite putting runners on first and third with two out, and he nearly walked off without finishing the inning.

Rafael Furcal, who had homered twice in game one, struck out to lead off, but Nick Markakis and Ryan Braun both walked. Oswalt got lucky when Joey Votto smoked a liner right at new third baseman Mark Reynolds (taking over for Neil Walker, who botched the job in game one) for the second out. Ryan Zimmerman, however, put one past Reynolds down the line to score two. Vladimir Guerrero walked on a full count, and Martin Prado lofted a ball that kicked up chalk down the right field line to plate Zimmerman.

Shane Victorino reached when Alexei Ramirez couldn’t handle a grounder, and the error scored Guerrero for a 4-run lead. The barrage was nearly over, but Rod Barajas added an exclamation point with a run-scoring single. The St. Francis brain trust left Oswalt in to face Furcal for the second time, and it the short righty induced a groundout. But by all appearances, the Firebirds were going to run away with another playoff win.

YUMA 5, ST. FRANCIS 0!

Oswalt settled down and kept the deficit at five runs for the next two innings, which allowed the Friar sticks to finally break out in the fourth.

Matt Cain had a mostly easy time through the first three innings, but he allowed a Kelly Johnson double with one out in the top of the fourth, which was the first base runner with less than two out for the Friars in the game. Outfielder Chris Young stepped up next and, with one swing, brought the Friars to within three runs. Young’s majestic shot arced just inside the left-field foul pole and silenced the home crowd for a moment.

Cain, back to the windup, had a chance to put an end to the rally, but A.J. Pierzynski lined a single to right-center. Reynolds and Ramirez also singled to load the bases and bring up Walker, who was given the opportunity to make up for his first-game troubles. Cain stepped up, though, dropping the hammer and sending Walker back to the bench.

Jose Bautista, however, wasn’t fooled. The first Cain offering to BARB’s leading home run and RBI man was at the belt as it approached the plate, but just a few seconds later it was rolling to the wall in left-center field! Pierzynski scored easily. Reynolds came across. The Firebirds got the relay home, but Ramirez scored standing up to tie the game!

That was all for Cain, and Clay Buchholz got Paul Konerko to pop out on the second pitch and end the inning.

ST. FRANCIS 5, YUMA 5

From that point until the eighth, only one runner from either side reached base. Oswalt, in fact, finished six innings and threw 113 pitches. Amazingly, Oswalt was perfect for his final five frames, retiring 15 straight. Buchholz went 3.1 scoreless and handed it off to Tyler Clippard for the top of the eighth.

Young led off with a single but was erased when Pierzynski hit into a force play (somehow beating out the return throw). Reynolds singled, however, and Ramirez walked to load the bases with the same triumvirate. Walker came through this time, singling to right to give the Friars a one-run lead. Luke Gregerson entered and struck out Bautista on three pitches, but Konerko drew a walk for force in another run.

ST. FRANCIS 7, YUMA 5

Yuma finally gave the home crowd something to cheer about when Markakis walked in the bottom of the inning (their first runner since the first inning), but nothing came of it. Ramirez continued his good day at the plate with a run-scoring single in the top of the ninth. Heath Bell came on and shut down the Yuma batters, and the series was tied.

ST. FRANCIS 8, YUMA 5

With the series tied, the action shifted to St. Francis for games three and four. Stay tuned for more action in the BARB playoffs!

REBELS "STUBBS" TOE IN OPENER

2011-11-19T16:59:00.000-08:00

The Central-winning Rebels took a tough loss in the opening game of their playoff series with the Eastern champion Squirrels, watching all-but-untouchable ace Cliff Lee give up a pair of shocking long bombs!

It was all the more shocking due to the fact that the Rebels had been the hottest team down the stretch, and none hotter than Lee, who had rattled off seven straight wins in as many starts to emerge as the only 20-game winner in BARB.

The madness began in the bottom of the second. Albert Pujols led off with a sharp single, and RF Jeff Francouer (getting a start against the lefty in the postseason!) followed with a ground ball up the middle for a second safety. Victor Martinez then walked to load the bases, but with two free-swingers and the pitcher to follow, Rebels fans could've been forgiven for thinking that their crafty southpaw could work his way out of the mess.

Lee did get Jayson Werth to pop up on a 1-0 pitch for the first out, but then fell behind CF Drew Stubbs. A 3-1 fastball was driven DEEP by Stubbs, who had hit just .232 in the regular season, but had also flashed occasional power. In the biggest hit of his BARB career, Stubbs' big fly stayed inside the left-field foul pole, a GRAND SLAM to give the Squirrels (92-64 in the regular season) the first lead of this playoff series:

FROSTBITE FALLS 4, PHILADELPHIA 0!

But the Rebels (91-65, and the Central champs) were not going to lie down and die with their ace still on the mound...and at the plate? Yes, indeed. For, Lee settled in to finish the frame, and in the top of the third, worked a walk on a 3-1 pitch from Felix Hernandez, who (with Matt Wieters already on first) committed the cardinal sin of walking the pitcher to put a runner into scoring position. Ichiro Suzuki flew out, but Mike Aviles singled to score Wieters. Adrian Gonzalez hit a slow roller to second that scored Lee, but with two out the table was clear for Hernandez to get out of the mess. But "King Felix" was anything but royal: "A-Rod" punched a single through to left, Andre Ethier walked and Torri Hunter followed with a bases-clearing, throat-catching, mind -numbing double:

PHILADELPHIA 5, FROSTBITE FALLS 4!

Shockingly, back-to-back explosions had seen the lead sea-saw in spectacular fashion, and the Squirrels now found themselves down by one after blowing a four-run lead. A lesser team would've been demoralized by this turn of events, but the four-time champions escaped without further damage, and Hernandez, walking off the mound, shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, "We got you, you got us....now we go on."

And so it was that both Hernandez and Lee settled down, and neither team would smell any offense in the next inning. Lee came out to start the top of the fifth having thrown 63 pitches, a bit high but hardly ominous. Ricky Weeks singled on a 1-1 pitch, but Jose Reyes popped out on a bunt attempt for the first out. Just 66 pitches in the books, but now Lee had to get Squirrels 3B Evan Longoria, who had struggled through a disappointing (.236, 14 HR, 76 RBI) regular season marred by injuries.

Lee left a 1-0 breaking ball UP for Longoria, who.....MASHED it, deep to left, and GONE!

Also gone: Cliff Lee, who was lifted after allowing six runs on 70 offerings in favor of reliever Scott Linebrink. Linebrink would get the next two outs, and over the rest of the ballgame his bullpen mates would continue that trend, but for the moment, that still left this score:

FROSTBITE FALLS 6, PHILADELPHIA 5!

That left a one-run lead to defend for the better part of three innings, and the Squirrels were up to the task: Joel Hanrahan allowed a scratch single to Mike Aviles, and Chris Perez walked "A-Rod" leading off the seventh, but other than that, the relief corps was flawless. Andrew Bailey, the fourth reliever of the game, earned the save in the ninth by quietly retiring Wieters, Logan Morrison and (with a strikeout to punctuate things), Ichiro Suzuki to end the ballgame. The Squirrels had gotten the better of Lee and the Rebels, and now led their playoff series 1-0!

That left a one-run lead to defend for the better part of three innings, and the Squirrels were up to the task: Joel Hanrahan allowed a scratch single to Mike Aviles, and Chris Perez walked "A-Rod" leading off the seventh, but other than that, the relief corps was flawless. Andrew Bailey, the fourth reliever of the game, earned the save in the ninth by quietly retiring Wieters, Logan Morrison and (with a strikeout to punctuate things), Ichiro Suzuki to end the ballgame. The Squirrels had gotten the better of Lee and the Rebels, and now led their playoff series 1-0!

Lee (0-1, 12.46) had taken the loss, allowing seven hits, two of them big flies, while not making it out of the seventh. Felix Hernandez, despite a horrible third inning, would get the win (1-0, 7.11), by working into the seventh on 110 pitches.

FIREBIRDS, FURCAL FLATTEN FRIARS: SQUIRRELS SHOCK LEE AGAIN

2011-11-19T16:53:00.001-08:00

He was an insurance policy in the 2011 off-season for the Firebirds, but in the opening game of their playoff series with the St. Francis Friars, Rafael Furcal was the man of the moment, as the Yuma shortstop clubbed a pair of big home runs to knock out surprise starter Bronson Arroyo, part of a 17-hit attack and a 13-2 triumph for the home team.

Yuma, the defending West champs, also exploited the poor defense of IF Neil Walker, who was getting a start at the hot corner to get an extra bat in the lineup against Sabathia (1-0, 3.00). Sabathia's only two runs allowed, in fact, came right off the bat. Fourth OF Aaron Cunningham, a surprise starter with Shin Soo-Choo on the shelf, lead off with a double, and scored two batters later when Jose Bautista lined a two-bagger to the RF gap. Walker then scored Kelly Johnson from third on a slow-hit grounder to Furcal, and the Friars led, 2-0.

Um. Not for long. Furcal led off the bottom of the first with a solo shot to make the score 2-1, and in the fourth, the Firebirds exploited Arroyom and Walker's defense. With two down, and Ryan Zimmerman at first by way of a walk, Vladimir Guerrero and Martin Prado both doubled past the dives of Walker to plate the first run. Shane Victorino then grounded a single between Walker and Ramirez, with two runs scoring. Rod Barajas, a perennial double play candidate, then hit a pop fly single just over Walker's head into (extremely) short right field to extend the inning.

That brought up Furcal, who.....SMASHED the first offering from Arroyo, DEEP the other way to right, up...and OUT! A two-out, three-run bomb, to cap a six-run, back-breaking inning:

YUMA 6, ST. FRANCIS 2!

Fans of the Friars could only wince as this game unfolded. While Walker had not been called for an error, the many hits bunched in his direction, and of many types, provided mute evidence that the rookie was no substitute for injured Kevin Youkilis at the hot corner.

Arroyo (0-1, 15.75), from this point of view, had not so much pitched badly as he had run into a buzzsaw of hot hitting, exploiting his defense.

The slugging Firebirds would go to hang a run on Zach Britton, and then (for good measure), hit back-to-back (Markasis, Braun) bombs in the sixth off Ricky Nolasco, who would end up absorbing another five runs on the reeling St. Francis pitching staff. Luke Gregorson, handed a 9-2 lead after six, worked the final three frames for the "save", and the Firebirds, the league's top team in 2011 in the regular season, were off to a tremendous start:

YUMA 13, ST. FRANCIS 2!

A disappointed Scott Hatfield could only lament the loss of Youkilis and Choo down the stretch. "To see our club without Youk," said one club official, "while Philadelphia has the services of Andre Ethier, is tough to swallow."

Down a game in their playoff series with the Squirrels, the Rebels turned to Max Scherzer in a pitcher's duel to start, and back to Game 1 starter Cliff Lee in the ninth for a possible save, before disaster struck....!

As in Game 1, the Squirrels struck first, scoring a pair of runs off Scherzer in the bottom of the second. Perennial MVP candidate Albert Pujols (52 HR, 139 RBI) singled, and that brought up Longoria, who had hit the go-ahead (and game-winning) HR in Game 1. Longoria bombed away AGAIN, a two-run shot to give Frostbite Falls a 2-0 lead. Jose Reyes walked, and when Game 1 hero Drew Stubbs doubled into the LF gap with nobody out, it looked to be a short outing for Scherzer. But Andre Ethier (bad knee and all) threw to Mike Aviles, whose relay throw to Wieters at the plate cut down the speedy Reyes attempting to score.

Given an out and a chance to get oriented, Scherzer got out of the rest of the inning with no damage....and just as in Game 1, the Rebels came right in the top of the frame to tie the game, this time against Tim Lincecum and the Squirrels defense. Ichiro Suzuki led off with a half-liner that Jayson Werth let clank off his glove going to the line for an error. Rookie 2B Dustin Ackley and 1B Adrian Gonzalez both singled to score the first run, and with two down LF Andre Ethier (the Rebels toughest out down the stretch) got the tieing run in from third with one down, hitting a slow roller to Longoria. Thus after two-and-a-half, the score remained:

FROSTBITE FALLS 2, PHILADELPHIA 2!

And so things stood for...well...quite awhile. Scherzer fanned eight Squirrels over the next five-plus frames, including a pair of fan jobs against Longoria. Less spectacular, but equally effective, was Squirrels starter Tim Lincecum. "The Freak" had given up a pair of unearned runs in the third, but then retired 13 of the next 15 hitters, issuing just a pair of walks, the second with one down in the top of the eighth to Gonzalez. This last free pass, on Tim's 113th pitch, led to the stringy-haired righty's exist, but LHP Eric O'Flaherty restored order in relief, fanning both "A-Rod" and Ethier.

The visitors broke through in the top of the ninth against Flaherty, however, when the southpaw walked Torri Hunter. Chris Perez relieved Flaherty with Aviles at the plate, but Hunter stole second on a busted hit-and-run, reaching scoring position while Aviles struck out. Wieters hit a slow roller to first to move the go-ahead run to third, and pinch-hitter Logan Morrison delivered a solid single to left to score Hunter:

PHILADELPHIA 3, FROSTBITE FALLS 2!

Andrew Bailey got Suzuki for the last out, but the damage was done. Frostbite Falls would need to rally in the bottom of the ninth in order to avoid allowing the Rebels to tie the series, 1-1. And here, frankly, is where the series became bizarre. J.J. Putz entered the ballgame, bidding for the save. Longoria, the hero of the Game 1, beat out a soft single. As the tying run, the home team played "small ball" and sacrificed the 3B to second.

One down, and that brought up left-handed hitting Adam Lind as a pinch-hitter, who delivered a solid single to right. The Squirrels sent Longoria, and RF Ichiro Suzuki's peg home was off-line, allowing Lind to reach second on the throw! Mark Ellis pinch-ran for Lind, and with one down and the winning run at second, the Rebels elected to intentionally walk Rickie Weeks.

So it was that Michael Young, long-time starting IF for the Squirrels, came up to bat. The Rebels had lost faith in Putz, and pulled him in favor of.....journeyman Matt Belisle? With a glaring Ronald Melkonian in the box seats making hand gestures, it seemed that the club's mercurial owner had taken a personal interest in the moves his squad would make. No matter: Belisle singled to load the bases with nobody out for the left-handed hitting Jason Heyward.

Just one problem with that, though....the only southpaw on Philadelphia's unlikely playoff roster was...Cliff Lee, the starter who had not made it through the fifth inning in Game 1. Again, no matter: the Rebels called on Lee to pitch to Heyward with one down, and to his credit, Lee got Heyward to swing at an 0-2 pitch. And miss. Grab some pine, meat, and with two down....

...the right-handed hitting Jayson Werth, and yesterday's starter. Werth, shortening his stroke, went after the first pitch, punching a soft single to right....easily SCORING the speedy Stubbs with the winning run, a walkoff win in the worst way for Rebels fans:

FROSTBITE FALLS 4, PHILADELPHIA 3!

PLAYOFFS SET AS SEASON ENDS

2011-10-31T18:55:00.000-07:00

Yuma made it to 100 wins (101, actually). Frostbite Falls secured the #2 seed with a final-day shutout of Philadelphia, which becomes #3. And, finally, on the second-to-last day of the season, the St. Francis Friars clinched the wild card.

The Friars carried a two-game lead on the surprising New England Yankee Stompers with two games to play. St. Francis was in an even better position, with Roy Oswalt pitching at home against the Sin City Cowboys.

Oswalt was on a short leash, though. The short righty was throwing on three days’ rest. He pitched well for three innings, allowing no runs on two hits and five strikeouts, but in the fourth Oswalt was touched for a double and a walk and was pulled from the game with the Friars holding a 3-0 lead. One of those runners scored, but it would be the only one of the day for the gambling Cowboys. Six relievers shut down the final five innings and the St. Francis offense picked up two more runs for the clinching victory, a 5-1 win.

Just a few weeks ago, Scott Hatfield was looking at the #2 seed in the playoffs. Now he gets to face the powerful Yuma Firebirds, winners of four straight and eight of their last 10, for a trip to the BARB World Series.

SQUIRRELS ALTER PITCHING MATCHUP TO SECURE HOME FIELD

When Frostbite Falls clinched the Eastern Division with a few weeks to play, they didn’t expect the Philadelphia Rebels to contend for a playoff spot, let alone the #2 seed. But the Rebels got hot and won nine straight, including two at home against Frostbite, to go into the final day of the season tied for a first-round home field.

Squirrels manager Mike Noakes realized the Rebels were iffy on offense against left-handed pitching, so he decided to start lefty Cole Hamels on the final day. Noakes was hoping his charges would take one of the final three games with Fausto Carmona, Jhoulys Chacin and Anibal Sanchez on the mound to set up his top three for the playoffs, but Carmona and Chacin both struggled. Noakes also realized the Flying Squirrels had struggled against the Rebels during the season, so he considered it imperative that they gained home field advantage.

Hamels stepped up in a big way. The southpaw threw exactly 100 pitches over eight innings, allowing four hits, two walks and no runs while striking out eight. Evan Longoria and Jose Reyes, meanwhile, both homered to help lead Frostbite to a 6-0 win.

The Squirrels had lined up their rotation to start Felix Hernandez #1, Hamels second and Tim Lincecum third, but now its likely Lincecum and Hamels will be swapped.

In other BARB action from the final day:

BROOKLYN 4, LOS ANGELES 3

WP: Jon Lester (11-5, 4.18)

LP: Homer Bailey (5-5, 3.67)

SV: Feliz (16)

Jon Lester struck out seven over 5.1 innings and Ryan Howard homered before injuring his Achilles tendon while striking out in his final at-bat. Ian Stewart showed a pulse, with two RBI from the DH slot, and three different players drove in runs for the host Wolverines.

CASSELTON 5, WORCESTER 4

WP: Darren O’Day (2-1, 2.35)

LP: Kenley Jansen (2-1, 2.98)

SV: Rodriguez (15)

Two run-scoring singles extended the Eliminator lead to 4-1 in the fifth, but Kenley Jansen walked three straight hitters before allowing a two-run Jim Thome single as part of a four-run Horned Toad seventh in Casselton. Thome finished the day, possibly his final game in the majors, with four hits and a home run.

NEW ENGLAND 9, AC/BC 3

WP: Derek Lowe (6-5, 3.71)

LP: Ervin Santana (4-11, 4.92)

Adam Dunn hit a two-run shot and Austin Jackson launched a three-run bomb to pace the Yankee Stompers in their only “meaningless” game of the season. Dunn’s 2-for-4 day raised his season average over the Mendoza Line (to .203). Placido Polanco also drove in two.

YUMA 5, CENTRAL CA 4

WP: Mat Latos (13-8, 4.13)

LP: Jered Weaver (14-11, 3.78)

SV: Soriano (23)

Mat Latos, with seven shutout innings, outdueled Jered Weaver (eight innings, two runs) to give the Firebirds their 101^st win of the season. Yuma very well could have lost if they didn’t score three times in the ninth off Dan Wheeler: the surprise-contender .45s put up a four-spot before Rafael Soriano closed it out in the bottom of the ninth.

THE PLAYOFFS

Yuma hosts St. Francis and Frostbite Falls hosts Philadelphia in best-of-five series. The best-of-seven World Series will be played between the winners.

I’d like to play these playoff games with the owners themselves on hand (and the home team playing the game). I want to get it started with a league get-together sometime this week or next week, so let me know what days work for you. The World Sports Café idea from a few weeks ago might be a possibility for this gathering.

THE UNBELIEVABLE HAS HAPPENED

2011-10-30T16:10:00.001-07:00

If a major league announcer can steal and use an epic line in the World Series, I can use a less-memorable one here. On October 4, the Philadelphia Rebels completed a stunning in-season turnaround to claim the Central Division flag with a 10-0 whitewashing of 2010 Central champ Casselton and a 7-3 St. Francis loss to defending BARB champion Worcester.

On the road in Casselton, Philadelphia completed a three-game sweep and extended their win streak to seven. The Rebels sent one across the plate in each of the first two innings, but they broke it wide open in the fourth.

Matt Wieters, Ichiro Suzuki and Mike Aviles all reached to begin the frame before big Adrian Gonzalez smashed a line drive to the right-center field gap to plate two. Alex Rodriguez’s RBI groundout brought up Andre Ethier, who continued his recent hot streak with a two-run shot to right field.

Just like that is was 7-0.

Philly later extended their lead on Ethier’s second home run and one from Wieters.

The Rebel pitching staff, meanwhile, had a strangle hold on the Horned Toad offense. Max Scherzer started and allowed one hit (while walking four) over five innings with six strikeouts. Matt Belisle and Jose Valverde each pitched one inning and allowed just one hit, and Edward Mujica finished it out with two strong frames.

With their magic number at 1, the Rebels retired to the clubhouse to watch Brandon Morrow and the Eliminators host St. Francis and rookie starter Randall Delgado.

The Elims went up with a sacrifice fly in the first and held that lead until the top of the fifth, when Chris Young hit a no-doubter to left field to tie it up. In the bottom of the fifth, however, Delgado’s inexperience showed as both Nick Swisher and Mike Morse sent solo homers to give Worcester a 3-1 lead.

The Friars weren’t able to touch Morrow. Four times the visitors went 1-2-3 against the hard-throwing righty. Morrow finally went to the showers with one out in the eighth after hitting his second batter of the game, but by that time he’d struck out 13, given up three hits and walked none.

The score stayed 3-1 until a disastrous bottom of the eighth for Hatfield’s hopefuls. Scott Downs came in to start the inning and allowed a single and double for a run sandwiched around a strikeout. Heath Bell entered and was immediately touched up for two more singles. Carl Crawford laced another base hit off of Joaquin Benoit. Bronson Arroyo walked Swisher, and Mark Teixeira knocked in the fourth run of the inning with a groundout.

St. Francis scored twice in the ninth, but it was too little, too late.

UNBELIEVABLE, PART 2

The fans were still in the stands and watching the video board, and a roar went up when Johnny Damon lined right back to Tony Sipp to end the Worcester-St. Francis contest. As the players were celebrating, Ronald Melkonian gave interviews with an obviously prepared speech:

"I'm very proud of what my team has accomplished this season. In the beginning we had set out to build a team that would now, and despite road bumps along the way, we found ways to overcome them and have clinched the Franchises' first Division Crown. As we look back to our bold trades and our public psychological marketing campaign (internally we were never making any official move to another city nor throwing in the towel), we view them as successful as not only did we vault our team from almost the cellar at one point in the season, but dominated our way to the top and made our division rival (St. Francis) feel like he was in control the entire time and needed not to make any bold moves for key arms, while we were churning out key deals (Ogando, Wood) and FA signings (Penny) to put us where we are at now. We are ready to take on Frostbite, a team we should have swept in the playoffs a couple years ago, but thanks to late inning heroics, got lucky. We will make sure that doesn't happen again!"

Simply unbelievable.

The Rebels can still improve their playoff standing, and they have the chance to move to the number two seed with three games left against Frostbite Falls. If Philadelphia sweeps those final three of the season, they will stay at home to face the Flying Squirrels in the first round of the playoffs. If the Squirrels win but one, the home-field advantage sits in northern Minnesota.

As for the Friars, they still have the advantage in the wild card race. Winning that, though, will pit them against league wins leader Yuma.

FRIARS OFF THE SCHNEID, BUT FOR HOW LONG?

2011-10-27T00:53:00.001-07:00

September 30: Scott Hatfield’s charges finally won after enduring a four-game losing streak and falling out of first place. Could they keep it up October 2? Or would the Moabs gain back the ground in the wild card? What about the Rebels?

Many questions to be answered, and they will become clear in time. But, ironically, after being pushed back from his originally scheduled start because of concerns about his viability in helping the team win, Brett Myers had a good (though short) start.

Myers, in line to start the second game of the series, was pushed back to #4 when St. Francis couldn’t distance themselves from Philadelphia. But despite the snub the veteran stepped up and pitched four innings of four-hit, two-run ball before his extra-cautious manager turned it to the bullpen to begin the fifth with the team leading, 3-2.

In all, six pitchers came on in relief for the Friars. Joaquin Benoit, Rafael Betancourt and Scott Downs each threw a scoreless frame. Heath Bell began the eighth and retired four batters before allowing a pinch-hit single to Jimmy Rollins in the ninth. Even with a four-run lead, Bell was pulled for Jason Motte, who gave up a first-pitch single to Ben Zobrist.

With the game now a save situation (potential tying run on deck), St. Francis went to the bullpen again, this time for… BRONSON ARROYO???

The erstwhile starter had been pitching out of the ‘pen since Hatfield swung deals for more starting and other pitchers got healthy. And righty was to face a left-handed batter with pop, Chase Utley. Can you go against the percentages any more than that?

But “the percentages” don’t dictate everything that happens. Here’s how Arroyo’s one pitch of the night came over the radio:

“Utley staring out, salivating on the possibility of a pitch to drive. Arroyo’s been gopher-ball prone. Arroyo comes set…looks the runners back…and throws. A SMASH by Utley, but it’s RIGHT to Kelly Johnson at second! He flips to Ramirez…back to first…double play! The Friars take their first game in their last five and inch closer to the Rebels!”

In the other dugout, Jon Lester was pontificating on what could have been. After winning the first three games of the series, the perennial powerhouse was in position to tie for the wild card by finishing out the sweep. But Lester, in his worst game in a while, allowed five runs in five-plus innings, giving up seven hits and walking four. Felix Pie showed rare clutch ability, driving in St. Francis’ first run with a second-inning double and launching a two-run homer to knock Lester out of the game in the sixth.

St. Francis moved to within a half-game of Philadelphia in the Central, but that would just be for a few hours as the Rebels continued to bash Sin City. Cliff Lee struck out nine in 7.1 innings for his 19^th win, and Alex Rodriguez (two-run shot), Andre Ethier (solo) and Adam Jones (grand slam) all homered in support.

FRIARS’ JOY SHORT-LIVED

St. Francis came to the ballpark the next day with a brighter outlook for a new month. But after a few minutes they realized what the buzz was about in the ballpark above and streets around them. It was V-Day.

Justin Verlander was going to pitch.

Verlander was having an up-and-down season, entering the game just 6-9 with an ERA above 4.50. But he easily outdueled Ricky Nolasco. Verlander pitched eight innings, struck out seven, allowed three hits and didn’t walk a batter. His only blemishes were an Alexei Ramirez home run in the third inning and Paul Konerko sacrifice fly in the sixth. Brooklyn didn’t homer, but Adrian Beltre stood out with three RBI on two hits.

Things got worse for the Friars later in the day. Powered by third-inning long-balls from Ichiro Suzuki and Mike Aviles, Philadelphia finished their sweep of Sin City with a 3-0 victory.

So after the dust settled on October 1, Philadelphia led the Central by two games over St. Francis with six to play for both teams. The Friars lead Brooklyn (four games remaining) by two, Central California (three left) by 2.5 and New England (three left) by 3.5 in the wild card. Everyone else has been mathematically eliminated.

In other BARB news:

Yuma needs two wins in their final three games to be just the second BARB team to win 100 in a season. The 2003 Delta V’s won 103 games. The Firebirds have sown up the top seed for the 2011 playoffs.

REBELS CAPTURE LEAD

2011-10-26T02:31:00.000-07:00

After many months and big talk, the Philadelphia Rebels, getting strong pitching and timely hitting and benefitting from Brooklyn’s bludgeoning of St. Francis, have taken over sole possession of first place in the BARB Central Division. The big question: can they hold it?

The elder Melkonian’s team was, as has been mentioned many times, counted out more than once this season. But since the trade deadline, which forced Ron to take a hands-off approach, his team has stepped it up. Since September 1, Philly has a 17-10 record, good for third-best in the league behind Yuma (second) and, somehow, Central CA (first).

St. Francis, on the other hand, is 9-12 and has seen Philadelphia make up five games in the standings during the month. The Friars have lost seven of their past 10, while the Rebels have the opposite recent record.

Entering a big five-game series against the Brooklyn Moabs, St. Francis led the division by a single game. It was the wrong time to be playing the Moabs, obviously.

Eric Caskey’s squad, still thick in the wild card race (and not eliminated from division contention until September 29), won the first three games of the series by a combined score of 28-9. Scott Hatfield even micro-managed his rotation for the final 20 games of the season to get his best starters in his biggest games, but the potent Brooklyn bats bashed nine long balls in those three contests.

Meanwhile, the Rebels lost their first of the five-gamer at the Sin City Cowboys, 8-6, before going on to win the next two to tie and take the lead from St. Francis.

The news for the Friars gets worse before it gets better. Now in the division lead, they are facing the team that is immediately behind them in those standings: Brooklyn. The Moabs sit just two games back, and while they play the Friars for two more and the now-Eastern Division champs Frostbite Falls for one, they finish the campaign with three against cellar-dwelling Los Angeles. St. Francis has three against Worcester, which can hit at any time, before a final trifecta at home against Sin City.

But the ebb and flow of baseball changes on a whim sometimes. While the outlook may look bleak for Hatfield, his powerful offense could come alive in the final eight and take back the division.

If the playoffs opened today, Yuma would host St. Francis (a matchup of teams that looked destined for the #1 and #2 seeds just a month ago) and Philadelphia would travel to Frostbite Falls in first-round action. Both would be best-of-5 series. But a reversal of St. Francis and Philly would create an intriguing opening battle between the Melkonians.

SQUIRRELS SOAR ON

Champagne-soaked and delirious, Frostbite Falls players celebrated the franchise’s first division title in five years. It was also possibly the earliest the team clinched the division in any season. It wasn’t without late questions, however. The team began to tail off going into the final 10 games, and Brooklyn, though nine games back at one point, kept fighting and made it interesting.

Even the clincher was in doubt from the get-go. Normally reliable Jhoulys Chacin, who may or may not be on the playoff roster, allowed six runs (two in the first), all earned, in 4.2 IP against Pottsylvania. Luckily for him the offense found a way to hit Creeper ace Chris Carpenter. Jayson Werth, whose bat disappeared for most of the season, hit two big home runs, and Albert Pujols doubled three times to drive in four, including a two-run double to put the Squirrels up for good in the sixth.

One of the biggest saving graces for the Minnesotans was their lack of serious injury. Yes, Brett Anderson was lost for the season to Tommy John surgery and Evan Longoria missed an early month. But for the most part, when a player went down another one stepped up and played just as well until the starter came back. In all, only one player who played an important role throughout the season will miss the playoffs: closer Joakim Soria.

In other BARB action:

WORCESTER 6, LOS ANGELES 1

WP: Craig Kimbrel (6-0, 4.16)

LP: Trevor Cahill (7-16, 4.94)

A matchup of two potential 2012 playoff teams went the way of the defending champs. Mark Teixeira and Billy Butler both homered and, after Brandon Morrow was mysteriously removed after allowing a two-out, none-on single in a tie game in the fifth, youngster Craig Kimbrel earned the win with two K’s in 1.1 perfect innings. The Wolverines showed flashes of the talent coming back, with Dexter Fowler, Mike Stanton and Starlin Castro combining for all five hits and Trevor Cahill pitching well despite taking his lumps.

REBELS CONTINUE DIVISION PUSH

2011-10-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hellickson dominated

After publicly declaring themselves out of playoff contention at least twice this summer, the Philadelphia Rebels have fought back and held the wild-card lead for weeks…and now they’re on the brink of overtaking St. Francis for the Central Division lead.

Maybe the many trade shakeups got rid of a clubhouse cancer; maybe the players were upset at owner Ron Melkonian’s lack of faith in their talent and decided to play their best. Whatever the motivation, the notoriously fickle Philly fans have forgotten this team is destined for Detroit after the season.

The Rebels are on a five-game winning streak, all at home, and they are selling out a raucous Citizens Bank Ballpark night-after-night. The most recent series allowed fans to break out the brooms, as Max Scherzer, Cliff Lee and Alexi Ogando were masterful in one-run victories to sweep defending division champ Casselton out of playoff contention.

Scherzer got the party started on September 24. While he didn’t earn the win, the hard thrower showed a rare flash of great control in striking out 10 over seven innings against no walks. The Rebels actually trailed into the bottom of the ninth inning, but Andre Ethier hit one just over the right-field wall with a man aboard to steal away the victory.

Next to stymie the Horned Toad offense was Lee in an eight-inning, three-hit performance with nine K’s. J.J. Putz made it interesting by allowing a long Brandon Phillips two-run home run in the top of the ninth, but Philadelphia still had a one-run advantage and Putz didn’t completely cough it up. Lee earned his 18^th win, which is good for second in BARB.

Not to be outdone, recent acquisition Ogando struck out 10 over seven innings with just three hits and two walks to complete the sweep. The only run he allowed was a solo shot off the big bat of Jim Thome, but solo homers from Torii Hunter and Matt Wieters off of John Danks gave the Rebels a 2-1, series-ending victory.

With the sweep (and two wins before that over Sin City), Philadelphia stands three games up in the wild card and, incredibly, just one back in the division with five straight games in Las Vegas (due to a scheduling quirk) coming up.

On the other side of the coin, Scott Hatfield’s squad has to travel to Brooklyn for five games. The Friars are struggling after leading the division (quite comfortably at times) for most of the summer. The Moabs are already fighting for their playoff hopes (seven games back in the East and four in the wild card), so that promises to be an intriguing battle.

Brooklyn is also gaining hope from division-leading Frostbite Falls’ annual late-season swoon. The Flying Squirrels traditionally play sub-.500 ball over their final 15 games. That includes the season of their last World Championship, 2008. Frostbite was 4-6 over the last 10 and 7-8 in the last 15 games before immediately getting hot in the playoffs and taking the title. Many of those games, including the final regular-season game in 2007, were losses to archrival Pottsylvania. And who does Frostbite play in the upcoming five-game series? Those same Creepers, this time with Stephen Strasburg and a hot (read below) Jeremy Hellickson on the mound.

In other BARB action:

POTTSYLVANIA 6, LOS ANGELES 0

WP: Jeremy Hellickson (13-11, 3.84)

LP: Dan Haren (14-11, 4.85)

Jeremy Hellickson, in easily his best performance in BARB, carried a perfect game into the seventh and a no-hitter into the eighth inning before settling for a two-hit shutout. After setting down the first 19 hitters in order, Hellickson somehow walked Travis Snider. He then got three more outs in a row before Dexter Fowler’s single broke up the no-no with one out in the eighth. Hellickson finished with two walks and five strikeouts, and he was supported by another budding star: Desmond Jennings drove in three on two hits (including a home run) and raised his average to .349 in 83 at-bats.

FIREBIRDS GRIND OUT VICTORY

2011-10-04T23:33:00.000-07:00

Haren beat his former employer with his arm AND bat

Yuma: Chris Melkonian has never really been known to help out his brother’s team. But with a big ninth-inning rally September 10^th, the Firebirds helped reduce Philadelphia’s magic number in the wild card standings…

The New England-Yuma game September 9, a 5-2 Yankee Stompers victory, was just James Herndon’s team’s first win in their last five games. The four-game losing streak had pushed them a few games off the wild-card pace and reduced Yuma’s magic number for clinching the division to six. But the win was a bit of a reprieve before New England had to face David Price in the final game of the series in Arizona.

Price, however, didn’t intimidate the Yankee Stompers.

Single runs came home in the top of the first on a Corey Hart groundout and a Placido Polanco third-inning single, giving New England an early lead. Two singles and a Shane Victorino sacrifice fly in the fifth put Yuma on the board, but Price made two mistakes on the first three pitches of the sixth: Polanco lined a single to left-center, and Jed Lowrie launched a shot to left to make the lead 4-1.

Tim Stauffer, meanwhile, was dealing. The righty allowed two hits other than the fifth-inning singles, walked one and struck out five. He left after eight strong innings having clearly out-pitched Price.

Terry Francona brought in Jonathon Papelbon from the bullpen, thinking a three-run lead was safe for a normally shut-down reliever. The hard thrower was wild, however. Ryan Zimmerman was hit by a pitch and moved to second base on a wild pitch. Joey Votto walked on four pitches, and Ryan Braun lined a 1-2 single to load the bases. Another pitch got away from Papelbon with Vladimir Guerrero batting, scoring Zimmerman to close the gap to 4-2. Guerrero ended up grounding out to first, but Votto scored and Braun moved up. The Firebirds had the tying run on third base.

It didn’t take long for Braun to come home. The second pitch to Victorino was grounded right back through the box, and the game was tied.

Derek Lowe came on and sandwiched two groundouts around a single, but the damage was done. New England’s hitters seemed shell-shocked after Justin Morneau singled to open the 10^th frame: Corey Hart flied out and both Carlos Beltran and Ryan Raburn K’d against Matt Thornton.

Lowe stayed in for the bottom of the 10^th and immediately allowed a double to Nick Markakis. Zimmerman was walked intentionally to create a force play, and Joey Devine came in to pitch to Votto.

OOPS

It was a move which may be second-guessed for a while. Devine, while nails against left-handed batters, is a righty. Votto eats righties for lunch. This at-bat was more of the usual, as Votto worked the count full before pushing a Devine offering (no pun intended) down the third base line. It was enough to easily score Markakis for the win.

The aftermath? New England fell to 2.5 games behind Philly; Yuma’s magic number to clinch another Western Division title dropped to four. Interestingly, if the current standings hold out, the Firebirds and Rebels would face off in the first round of the playoffs—that should make for some great sibling rivalr Interestingly, if the current standings hold out, the Firebirds and Rebels would face off in the first round of the playoffs—that should make for some great sibling rivalry fun!

In other BARB action:

FROSTBITE FALLS 6, BROOKLYN 4

WP: Sean Marshall (2-2, 3.38)

LP: Daniel Bard (6-9, 3.35)

SV: Bailey (21)

Sean Marshall and Andrew Bailey picked up the slack after an off night for Cole Hamels—5.2 IP, seven hits, four runs allowed—and their work proved vital as Jayson Werth’s seventh-inning homer gave the Flying Squirrels a very rare three-game sweep of the MOABS in Frostbite Falls. The sweep pushed Frostbite’s division lead to a season-high eight games. Evan Longoria also homered in the win, and Ryan Howard and John Buck launched long balls for the visitors.

POTTSYLVANIA 5, ST. FRANCIS 4

WP: Aroldis Chapman (5-2, 1.81)

LP: Rafael Betancourt (1-1, 4.50)

Jeremy Hellickson’s uneven outing (eight walks in 6.2 IP) was erased as the Creepers scored three unearned runs off of Roy Oswalt in the sixth. But while they may not count against his ERA, the runs were mostly Oswalt’s doing: he muffed an easy grounder from the first batter of the inning, walked a batter between a force-out and fly-out, and then left one on a platter for Aramis Ramirez. Those runs only tied the game—Hideki Matsui ended it as the first hitter in the bottom of the ninth with a homer to right.

CENTRAL CA 7, AC/BC 0

WP: Daniel Hudson (14-7, 3.31)

LP: Zack Greinke (5-8, 4.31)

Dan Uggla’s seventh-inning grand slam broke open a 2-0 ballgame as the .45s won their sixth-straight game and stayed 2.5 games behind Philadelphia in the wild card. Daniel Hudson allowed six hits and one walk while striking out five batter over six innings, and Bud Norris was nearly perfect (one hit allowed) to earn a three-inning save.

CASSELTON 4, WORCESTER 1

WP: Brandon McCarthy (4-1, 2.77)

LP: Wandy Rodriguez (7-8, 5.50)

SV: Romo (3)

The host Horned Toads banged out 12 hits, including Casey McGehee and Geovany Soto homers, to keep their squad six games back in the wild card and push the injury-riddled defending champs further away from a playoff spot. Recent free-agent signee Brandon McCarthy hurled another good game, allowing one run on five hits and two walks in 6.1 IP.

LOS ANGELES 6, PHILADELPHIA 1

WP: Dan Haren (13-10, 4.99)

LP: Dustin McGowan (0-1, 6.59)

Dan Haren was outstanding in his chance to gain revenge on the team that traded him at the deadline, allowing just three hits and one run through eight innings. Haren matched his former team in hits at the plate, going 3-for-4, but in an even more astonishing turn of events, all three Haren hits were doubles. Los Angeles’ youngsters showed a glimpse of what is to come, as Eric Hosmer (HR), Chris Davis (HR) and Mike Stanton (three-run 2B) drove in all of the Wolverine runs.

COWBOYS ELIMINATED; PENCE GOES OFF

2011-09-27T21:54:00.000-07:00

Pence did all he could to keep the .45s in the chase

September 4: The Sin City Cowboys became the first 2011 BARB team completely eliminated from playoff contention, but they immediately had the chance to be a spoiler for a league power. In addition, Central California’s postseason hopes were kept alive by a Hunter Pence two-inning outlash.

Anthony Guerra’s Sin City squad has been all-but eliminated for a while now. They compete in the league’s toughest division and had injuries to some of their top players (Nelson Cruz, David Wright, etc.) that severely damaged their hopes of competing. But they are in position to be a dark-horse team in 2012: starters like Bumgarner, Shields and Wainwright and a big name who was a PTBN fortify the rotation, and Cruz and Wright team with Ian Kinsler, Brennan Boesch, Gaby Sanchez and Ian Desmond for a good offense.

But they were officially eliminated from the 2011 playoffs on September 4. Sin City beat the Casselton Horned Toads, 7-3, but the division-leading Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrels eked out a 2-0 victory at Los Angeles and wild-card leading Philadelphia beat Worcester by the same score.

That meant September 5-7 was a chance to directly harm the playoff chances of the Brooklyn MOABS. Brooklyn came into Las Vegas five games out in the Eastern division and ½ back in the wild card and ready to make a move after enduring a stretch of losing. The first game saw Kyle Lohse throw a good game (7 IP, 2 ER, 4K) and the Cowboy offense knock out Justin Masterson with four runs before making an out in the third inning. The Cowboys went on to win it, 5-3.

The next day was expected to be a good pitching matchup (Yovani Gallardo v. Jaime Garcia), and it didn’t disappoint. Gallardo went eight strong, striking out six and walking none, but he allowed a third-inning solo shot to Alex Rios. Garcia only pitching into the sixth frame, but two relievers allowed only four base runners in the final three and two-thirds innings.

But while Brooklyn was falling to their sixth loss in the last 10 games, neither Frostbite Falls nor Philadelphia could capitalize and take bigger division leads. The Flying Squirrels lost two straight to Worcester, the first in shutout fashion, and the Rebels lost 5-4 to Casselton and then 4-3 to St. Francis in 10 innings.

So with a month left in the BARB season (October 7 is the final regular-season day due to scheduling problems with 13 teams), only one playoff spot is almost assured: The Yuma Firebirds have a 13-game lead in the West and a magic number of nine. St. Francis leads the Central by 4.5 over Philadelphia, and Frostbite Falls is on top of Brooklyn by five games in the East (and the Flying Squirrels have yet to experience their annual late-season collapse).

Brooklyn, New England, Central CA and Casselton all sit within five games of Philly’s wild-card lead, and Worcester can’t yet be counted out at just nine back.

Other than Sin City, three other teams are almost completely eliminated: AC/BC, Pottsylvania and Los Angeles. In a quirk attributed to the schedule, LA sits a game and a half behind Pottsylvania in their division but has not been eliminated for the division title while the Creepers have. AC/BC has been eliminated from Western contention and is 18.5 behind in the wild card.

HOW THE REMAINING SCHEDULE BREAKS DOWN FOR CONTENDERS

Starting September 8:

Brooklyn: @ Frosbite Falls (3), @ LA (2), @ Worcester (3), vs. Sin City (3), @ Worcester (3), @ St. Francis (2), vs. St. Francis (5!?), vs. Frostbite Falls (1), @ LA (3)

Casselton: vs. Worcester (2), @ Pottsylvania (2), @ Central CA (3), vs. AC/BC (3), vs. Yuma (3), @ Philadelphia (3), vs. Philadelphia (3), vs. Worcester (3)

Central CA: vs. AC/BC (3), vs. Yuma (5), vs. Casselton (3), @ St. Francis (3), @ AC/BC (1), vs. AC/BC (1), vs. Yuma (3)

Frostbite Falls: vs. Brooklyn (3), @ Philadelphia (2), @ Sin City (3), vs. Worcester (3), @ Sin City (3), @ Pottsylvania (2), vs. Pottsylvania (5), @ Brooklyn (1), @ Philadelphia (3)

New England: @ Yuma (3), @ AC/BC (5), vs. Pottsylvania (3), @ LA (3), vs. Yuma (1), @ Yuma (1), @ AC/BC (3)

Philadelphia: vs. LA (3), vs. Frostbite Falls (2), @ LA (1), @ AC/BC (3), vs. Yuma (3), vs. Sin City (2), vs. Casselton (3), @ Sin City (5), @ Casselton (3), vs. Frostbite Falls (3)

St. Francis: @ Pottsylvania (3), vs. Sin City (2), vs. Pottsylvania (1), vs. LA (2), vs. Central CA (3), vs. Brooklyn (2), @ Worcester (1), vs. AC/BC (2), @ Brooklyn (5), vs. Worcester (2), @ Worcester (1), vs. Sin City (3)

Worcester: @ Sin City (3), @ Casselton (2), vs. Brooklyn (3), @ Frostbite Falls (3), vs. Brooklyn (3), @ LA (2), vs. St. Francis (1), vs. LA (5), @ St. Francis (2), vs. St. Francis (1), @ Casselton (3)

In other BARB action:

CENTRAL CA 7, NEW ENGLAND 1

WP: Jered Weaver (13-10, 3.74)

LP: Tim Hudson (5-11, 4.53)

Hudson, one of the newest Yankee Stompers, was beaten by two players the .45s kept in the fold because they were in the wild-card race instead of trading for prospects. Jered Weaver threw six shutout frames with six strikeouts, but Hunter Pence was the bigger story: 4-for-5, two runs, five RBI, a 2B and two HR. Pence hit a two-run bomb in the first and drove in three with an opposite-field shot in the second to knock out Hudson.

AC/BC 6, YUMA 4

WP: Wade Davis (1-2, 5.79)

LP: Brian Matusz (2-4, 2.93)

SV: Cordero (16)

Yuma scored four in the second inning and carried a 4-3 lead into the sixth in Anaheim before the wheels fell off for Matusz. Milton Bradley led off the inning with a home run to tie the game before three straight singles and a ground out put up two more runs for the final tally. Howie Kendrick hit a third-inning homer for AC/BC and Ryan Hanigan launched a two-run shot for the Firebirds.

RIOTOUS TRADE DEADLINE

2011-09-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

PHILADELPHIA FANS "REBEL" AT FIRE SALE

Philadelphia---It isn't pretty. What was left of the fan base of Ronald Melkonian's soon-to-be-former Rebels did not show much in the way of appreciation for the ever-mutable GM's recent series of moves. The City of Brotherly Love has had enough, it seems, staging in impromptu pep rally in the middle of the Rebel's 10-4 shellacing of visiting Casselton.

With new Rebel starter Dustin McGowan on the mound, the fifth inning devolved as angry fans waved signs, threw trash on the field and generally disrupted the game. The Rebels pulled their players off the field after Ichiro Suzuki complained he had been pegged in the back of the head by a miniature tin Minuteman, a promotion item from last year's "Fan Appreciation Day". Only after the umpires threatened to forfeit the game did play continue, but by that point McGowan's arm had stiffened up, and despite holding a 6-3 lead, the righthander would not get the decision. McGowan, who had been signed in desperation off the scrap heap as a free agent, would depart to a smattering of boo's despite an arguably-successful Philadelphia debut.

Why were the fans so angry? Let's just say that hysteria had repeated itself. Once again, trailing in the divisional standings entering August, Rebels GM Ronald Melkonian had executed a series of trades (see below) involving big-name, high-salaried players that were perceived as giving up on the season. In a great irony, the trades had been followed by a hot streak that had, paradoxically, put the Rebels in the position to make a run at the wild card!

As a surprised Melkonian explained on his blog, "Our team went from non-contenders to now potential Wild Card leaders during the time we announced a new direction for the team. Perhaps our moves sparked our club to better perform to levels we believed they could since day one, but for some odd reason never did. We hope our club can keep grinding it out and a playoff birth this season would be a nice treat."

To shore up a team that had traded away so much pitching, the Rebels cut a combined $11.3 million in salary by dumping....veteran 3B Chipper Jones and 1B Aubrey Huff! The moves gave Philadelphia enough payroll flexibility to sign McGowan to their rotation, and to also ink 41-year-old Takashi Saito to serve as the club's new setup man, with RHP J.J. Putz moving into the role of a new closer. None of this, in turn, would have been necessary but for the flurry of moves detailed on the club's blog.

And, to be fair, none of the moves in and of themselves were what had provoked the fans. Showing the marketing genius of Charlie Sheen, the Philadelphia brain trust has already announced that they intend to relocate to another city (Detroit) in 2012, and have already relabeled their team's web presence and promotions as the Detroit Hawks. The Melkonian management team has never been shy about pursuing whatever the newest definition of success might look like, but in thumbing their noses at a community in mid-season had clearly crossed a new line with their fans:

"DROP DEAD RONALD YOU BUM"

"MUGGED BY THE MOTOR CITY"

"GOD I WISH YOUR BROTHER OWNED THIS TEAM"

...were some of the printable things shared on signs during the hour-long disruption. The soon-to-be ex-Rebels finished out the day with a 10-4 win, with Putz (6-2, 2.33) getting the win, and former Rebel---we say that a lot around here---Gavin Floyd (7-8, 4.84) taking the loss, in part to long balls by Alex Rodriguez and Adrian Gonzalez. What should have been an encouraging day, though, was shrouded by the clouds of questions:

Will the Philadelphia fans (not known for their patience) continue to "REBEL"?

Will the Rebels, having abandoned any pretense of caring about their city, manage to earn a playoff spot?

Will anyone ever believe anything ever claimed on behalf of this organization ever again?

Stay tuned to the blog to find out!

REBELS BIGGEST SELLERS IN TRADE MARKET

Philadelphia dealt pitching, pitching and more pitching in three separate deals, two to clubs contending for a 2011 playoff spot, essentially emptying their roster of some of the older (and more expensive arms).

First, GM Melkonian sent Danny Haren and his $8.25 million salary to the Los Angeles Wolverines, a divisional rival but currently dueling Sin City for the loop's best record. In return, Los Angeles sent OF/1B Logan Morrison, a promising young player that Melkonian described as "an important piece of the puzzle" to anchor their latest rebuilding program.

The Rebels then packaged away staff leader Tim Hudson and his $9.0 million salary, not to a divisonal rival, but to a club that still enjoys a one-and-a-half game lead in the wild card race, the New England Yankee Stompers. New England is now a serious threat to go deep in the postseason if they can win a berth, based on the fact that they have a proven veteran rotation, starting with (ahem---former Rebel) Roy Halladay. To get Hudson, however, was not cheap: GM James Herndon sent young stud Alexei Ogando, along with veteran reliever Kerry Wood and a pair of prospects (OF Darnell McDonald and SS Tim Beckham).

To cap things off, Philadelphia made yet a third deal, this time with a divisonal rival that seems likely to earn a playoff spot, the St. Francis Friars. The Rebels again sent pitching, in the form of control artist Shawn Marcum and young reliever Jason Motte. To obtain the pair, the Friars sent a pair of prospects (LHP Mike Montgomery and 3B Josh Vitters), as well as a player to be named, thought to be a young pitcher.

All told, Philadelphia made its mark as the chief dealer of talent in the final weeks, a position defined as much by temperament as availability. St. Francis GM Scott Hatfield was blunt: "I wasn't that keen on Marcum, and truth to tell, I made many offers to other clubs. But the truth is that most of the clubs that had pitching were still in contention, and it made no sense for them to deal an arm. I would've love to open the vault for Jered Weaver. I made a serious run at Curtis Granderson. I tried to swap an extra reliever for a backup catcher. I was more active this year in the final weeks than I had ever been, but in the end, the only owner willing to deal a starting pitcher that was an upgrade was the Philadelphia GM."

FRIARS BIGGEST BUYERS DOWN STRETCH

In addition to dealing for Marcum, St. Francis Friars GM "Trader" Jack McKeon took advantage of the acquisition of Motte, sending RHP Leo Nunez (who had lost the closer's job to Heath Bell) along with two players to be named to the New England Yankee Stompers.

In return, St. Francis was reunited with a former All-Star and team leader, OF Johnny Damon. Damon was a member of the club's original expansion roster in January, 2009, and returns to where it all started, expected to platoon in left, pinch-hit, and serve as a leadoff hitter with Shin Soo-Choo out for the year.

"Sometimes the best trades come at the deadline," said New England GM James Herndon. "We won't know for a few years if this trade will pan out, but honestly, who can say 'no' to a 3-for-1 deal? We lose a great veteran presence in Johnny Damon but he will receive more playing time in St. Francis; we wish him the best."

McKeon was more sanguine to get Damon back. "With this latest deal I complete the circle, adding the veteran who helped start it all back to the mix. The club is largely a veteran club with a limited shelf life as far as the pitching staff goes," admitted McKeon, "but with the bats we have, we at least have a legitimate chance to advance in the postseason. This is the best job I have ever done as a GM, and at the risk of sounding arrogant, print the playoff tickets, I'm on my way."

McKeon's best move, however, may not have been meeting the demands of other teams, but roster management. It appears, for example, that both C Jesus Montero and RHP Randall Delgado could give the club a boost down the stretch and qualify for the playoffs. LHP Frankln Morales seems likely to give the club a second lefty out of the pen, a major plus. IF Todd Frazier is another likely callup who could add some versatility, and in a move that cost them very little, the Friars cut RHP Jason Frasor (and his 10-point something ERA) and used the savings to sign free-swinging power source Mark Reynolds.

FROSTBITE FALLS, AC/BC MAKE MINOR DEAL

The Squirrels, looking to improve depth in their chase for the Eastern Division crown, have added OF Jeff Francouer from Alex Coffman's Ball Club. Francouer gives Frostbite Falls a solid defender with perhaps a bit more consistency than either David DeJesus or Andruw Jones. In return, the Squirrels sent a pair of prospects, SS Jiovanni Mier and OF Andrew Lambo, neither of whom were expected to make the big club next year.

Indeed, with a pair of uber-prospects (Bryce Harper and Mike Trout) waiting in the wings, it could be argued that stars like Adam Lind and Jayson Werth are simply holding seats until the former pair are ready to join Jason Heyward in the division's best young outfield.

"We are very excited to pick up a veteran outfielder of Francouer's stature," Frostbite Falls GM Andrew Friedman said. "He came on our radar recently as a possible answer to our outfielders' struggles against left-handed pitching. He'll also be a good pinch-hitter and defender, so we feel he improves our team in many areas. It was tough to give up both Lambo and Mier, as we think they will be good big-leaguers, but the decision to trade them was made easier by the fact that both were blocked in the system. We wish both of them the best in their new system."

THE .45's WIN A MARATHON: FRIARS FRET

2011-08-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

A wild and wooly affair saw the visiting Cowboys and the host .45's battle to a 2-2 tie in extra frames, as two teams jockeying for next year put up seven innings of goose eggs before both clubs bat awoke in the 16th!

Starters Rich Harden and Jered Weaver each reached the sixth having allowed only one run, but a solo shot by Chris Iannetta against reliever Travis Wood gave the .45's a 2-1 lead after seven. With the game in their grasp, however, closer Brian Wilson was greeted with a leadoff double in the ninth by rookie Gabe Sanchez. Aging veteran Jorge Posada's swinging bunt led to an out, but with a thin bench, the pitcher Wood was allowed to 'sacrifice'. Not so! The 'bastard play' was on, and with a drawn-in infield, Wood hit a seam past the immobile Pablo Sandoval, an RBi single to score Sanchez and tie the game.

With a deep group of rookie left-handers to nullify Central California's best weapons, Sin City put up the zeroes, using starters Madison Bumgarner, Jaime Garcia and A.J. Happ to neutralize the opposition. Relievers J.P. Howell and Jose Mijares accomplished the same trick for the .45's, and the innings went by quickly, with eight K's over the next seven frames.

But when the southpaws ran out......BOOM!

Sin City took the lead in the TOP OF THE 16th: Usually a starter, Kyle Lohse (the seventh Cowboys pitcher) hit a sharp single to left. Alex Avila and Ryan Theriot worked walks to load the bases, and Ian Kinsler hit a two-run double off rookie Bud Norris (5-0, 4.44). When all was said and done, Sin City had a 5-2 lead headed to the bottom of the 16th....

....where everything pretty much fell apart. Lohse, trying to extend the game, gave up a leadoff single to Ramon Hernandez (playing 1B after a double switch!). While only a single, it was a long one that hit the top of the wall in left, and only the backstop's aging knees (and, perhaps, the fatigue of the long game) had discouraged him from taking a flyer at second. Sensing disaster, the Cowboys called on their eighth pitcher of the day....ace James Shields. Uh-oh. Pablo Sandoval hit a fielder's choice to force out Hernandez, but Marco Scutaro (really?) pulled a ball down the left-field line and just fair, over the wall, a two-run shot!

Deep breath. Sin City's lead was down to 5-4. Surely their ace could get a few more outs? But Shields walked Iannetta with one down. Rookie Danny Espinosa, looking for a first-pitch fastball.....GOT ONE! ...and GOT ENOUGH of it! Another two-run shot, back-to-back, off Shields (3-13, 6.97), who has to be unluckiest pitcher in the history of this league. Central California wins, sticking around in the West race, while the Cowboys status as cellar-dwellers remains unchanged. After a game like this, each club could use a day off!

In other BARB action.....

PHILADELPHIA 9, LOS ANGELES 4

WP: Cliff Lee (10-6, 3.89)
LP: Homer Bailey(2-1, 5.46)

Cliff Lee went eight frames, Chipper Jones added four singles and a pair of RBI for his new club, and the Rebels beat down the host Wolverines with a 13-hit attack. Los Angeles scored all their runs in an error-aided third after Lee hit Mike Stanton with two out to load the bases and rookie Eric Hosmer hit a two-run single. But Philadelphia answered in the fourth, wiping out L.A.'s brief 4-2 lead with a five-run frame off Bailey and Ted Lilly, pitching in relief.

This was the fourth straight win for the Rebels (53-45), and (most intriguingly) may signal a change in the tenor of the club's games. After underachieving on offense for most of the year, and beginning the day having both scored and allow the same number of runs (451), the game's result pushed Ronald Melkonian's club 'into the black' on offense.

YUMA 4, FROSTBITE FALLS 2

WP: Rafael Soriano (2-2, 3.52)
LP: Andrew Bailey (0-5, 3.38)

The Squirrels took a 2-0 lead in the seventh when Yuma starter Brian Matusz (2.00 ERA) allowed the other club to put six consecutive runners on base, eventually forcing extra innings, where the Firebirds forced a tie, and extra innings---where Ryan Braun punished former Squirrels closer Joakin Soria with a two-run, game-winning, walkoff blow.Yuma thus improves to 68 wins, tops in the loop, and the significant Vegas favorite to win it all........

ST. FRANCIS 3, POTTSYLVANIA 1

WP: Brett Myers (9-8, 3.97)
LP: Mark Buehrle (3-12, 5.14)
SV: Bell (1)

Kevin Youkilis hit his BARB-leading 11th triple to key a two-run sixth, Brett Myers had his best start in weeks, and new closer Heath Bell earned his first save with his new club as the Friars held on to win a pitcher's duel against the visiting Creepers. Losing pitcher Mark Buehrle and Myers actually took shutout bids into the sixth, where fourth OF (and former Creeper) Felix Pie led off with a single. Youkilis cashed in with his triple for the game's first run, and Paul Konerko singled home the "Greek God of Walks" for the only runs St. Francis would need. Pinch-hitter Max Ramirez would eventually supply the Creeper's only run with a solo shot leading off the eighth.

WORCESTER 7, AC/BC 6

WP: Brandon Morrow(5-3, 4.33)
LP: Matt Capps (1-9, 5.34)
SV: Mariano Rivera (22)

Newly-acquired Juan Uribe hit a pair of HR late in the ballgame, including the go-ahead shot with a man aboard in the ninth, as Worcester erased a 6-1 deficit in the final two frames to come out ahead. Earlier, the members of Alex Coffman's Ball Club had bunched together six hits, including rookie Mark Trumbo's first HR of the year, to knock out Elims starter Ryan Dempster. But Crawford and Uribe homered back-to-back to start the eighth to give Worcester hope, and the lineup batted around against Cordero and Okajima to give the visitors a chance in the ninth....which they seized.

Uribe's second bomb doubled his production with St. Francis, and after struggling to hit his (admittedly-considerable) weight with the Friars, he is batting .330 in his first week with the Eliminators. Change of scenery, and all that.

CAN FRIARS STAY RELEVANT?

Jose Bautista continues to pursue the league league in HR (36) and RBI (100 in his teams' first 108 games). Teammate Kevin Youkilis continues to wrestle for the batting title (.350, tops among qualifiers) and leads the world in runs scored, with 100. All good, and so, no surprise, the St. Francis Friars lead all of BARB with 600 runs scored.

But cracks in the Central-leading Friars armor are evident, notably among the starting team, which has been wracked by injuries to their pitching staff: veteran Roy Oswalt has spent two stints on the DL, and young lefties Jorge De La Rosa, Dallas Braden and Clayton Richard have all been lost for the season due to injury.

Thus, with teams like Philadelphia making bold moves to improve their chances, the Friars have finally begun to 'trade talk' in earnest with other BARB teams, seeking arms, any arms, to bolster both their injury-wracked rotation and their underperforming bullpen. In previous weeks, St. Francis has made deals for starter Ricky Nolasco, and new closer Heath Bell. Now, with some depth in hand, St. Francis has made another series of moves to upgrade their hurling for the final stretch of play.

First, satisfied with the acquisition of Bell, St. Francis acquired a useful left-handed reliever from Alex Coffman's Ball Club.....as insurance for LHP Scott Downs, who has been listed 'day-to-day' of late due left hamstring soreness. But the cost was high: veteran closer Francisco Cordero, who had lost the closer job following the acquisition of Bell.

Also coming over in the deal for salary reasons as much as anything is the former jewel of the Cubs farm system, 3B Josh Vitters. Despite being a former first-round pick, the Friars urged caution on Vitters, who they described as being 7th on their organizational depth chart. "In all candor," said acting GM Jack McKeon, "money played as big a role in this deal as the players involved. We are top-heavy in payroll, with limited flexibility, and we still haven't addressed our biggest need, which is starting pitching. Expect our club to remain active up until the trading deadline. We want to make the playoffs, and we aren't taking that for granted."

As if a prophet, McKeon later announced that the club had cut its ties with some injured veterans in order to pursue other well-traveled hurlers, reinvesting some of the payroll dollars they saved by deleting Cordero's salary. Ironically, the move comes with a benefit to a player earlier released by second-place rival Philadelphia, as the Central-leading Friars delved into the free agent market...but, again, the price was high!

St. Francis informed the agent of injured reliever Brandon Lyon that they were granting the franchise pitcher his unconditional release, but that still leaves the club 'on the hook' for over $3M in salary. Also receiving his walking papers: the brittle throwing arm of Joel Zumaya, to the tune of $1.5 M.

Goodbye, four-and-a-half million! But, the moves allowed the Friars to sign two veterans, adding former Rebels LHP Joe Saunders to a split contract. Saunders, who had been working out in Arizona following his dismissal by Rebels GM Ronald Melkonian, is slated to join the major league rotation, almost immediately, to be followed by recently-reactivated veteran Roy Oswalt.

At the same time, the Friars have signed former Yuma setup man Rafael Bettancourt, and it is believed they intend to demote or release disappointing reliever Jason Frasor. The signings add $1.33 M to the club's payroll, and further bolster a staff that recently added AC/BC lefty Franklin Morales.

"Morales, Betancourt, Saunders to the rotation...and we activate Roy today!" Thus, acting GM Jack McKeon confirmed he has got some moxie back for both the starters and bullpen corps, and it couldn't come at a better time with Philadelphia making moves to bolster their offense.

CENTRAL TEAMS GEAR UP FOR STRETCH RUN

2011-08-25T21:14:00.000-07:00

The top two teams in the Central Division—St. Francis and Philadelphia—both completed deals with AC/BC to strengthen their teams in hopes of playing October baseball.

Ronald Melkonian’s up-and-down Rebels, currently second in the Central (five games behind) and third in the Wild Card (two back) but on a six-game winning streak, recognized their weakness on offense and dealt two pitchers for two veteran bats. Scott Baker and Wade Davis, righties who pitched less than 60 combined innings for the team this year, were sent to Anaheim in exchange for Chipper Jones and Aubrey Huff.

“We boast the league’s third-best pitching staff. Unfortunately, we are the middle of the road when it comes to offensive numbers,” Melkonian said. “We need offense to compliment our dominant pitching staff, and in this deal, we addressed that by bringing in two quality veterans who are coming off strong seasons. Their skills will come in handy as we make our biggest attempt in the history of our franchise to make a playoff appearance this season.”

The rest of the Pennsylvania Times article can be found on Ron’s new Blog site: http://pennsylvania-times.blogspot.com/

With Adrian Gonzalez starting at first base and Alex Rodriguez nearing a return at third, it remains to be seen how much Jones and Huff will play. But it is likely that the Philadelphia’s run margin (only 13 more runs scored than allowed) will increase.

Alex Coffman, meanwhile, continues to build a good pitching staff for 2012. That staff had an addition and a subtraction just a few days later, as Franklin Morales was sent to St. Francis (along with infield prospect Josh Vitters) for closer Francisco Cordero.

The Friars, looking for room under the salary cap to pick up another starting pitcher (just four healthy starters) and/or other depth, decided Cordero was expendable after the acquisition of Heath Bell and that he deserved a shot to close with another team.

St. Francis’ press release:

“The Friars, satisfied with the acquisition of Heath Bell, acquired a useful left-handed reliever as insurance for LHP Scott Downs, who has been listed 'day-to-day' of late due left hamstring soreness. The cost was high: veteran closer Francisco Cordero, who had lost the closer job following the acquisition of Bell. Also coming over in the deal for salary reasons as much as anything is the former jewel of the Cubs farm system, 3B Josh Vitters. Despite being a former first-round pick, the Friars urged caution on Vitters, who they described as being 7th on their organizational depth chart. "In all candor," said acting GM Jack McKeon, "money played as big a role in this deal as the players involved. We are top-heavy in payroll, with limited flexibility, and we still haven't addressed our biggest need, which is starting pitching. Expect our club to remain active up until the trading deadline. We want to make the playoffs, and we aren't taking that for granted.”

LONG-OVERDUE TRADE ANNOUNCEMENTS

2011-08-16T15:03:00.000-07:00

Since the Roy Halladay trade announcement (about a month and a half ago), there have been seven more deals. I apologize for not getting some of them out in a timely manner. In any case, here’s what went down:

After their acquisition of Halladay, the New England Yankee Stompers stayed busy on the trade market. Just over a week after picking up “Doc” to lead the pitching staff, James Herndon increased his team versatility by dealing for AC/BC infielder Placido Polanco. Polanco cost Herndon Aubrey Huff, who can also play multiple positions, but not all of them adequately.

Herndon went right back out and picked up righties Derek Lowe and John Axford from the Sin City Cowboys to further bolster the hurlers. Three prospects went west: 1B Chris Carter, RHP Kyle Drabek and OF Jose Tabata, whom Herndon gushed about when he was acquired from Casselton. Read Herndon’s take on the deal here: http://yankeestompers.blogspot.com/2011/07/train-from-sin-city-rolls-into-town.html

Anthony Guerra, who has begun to stockpile prospects in the midst of a disappointing season, made a curious swap a few days later. He added 1B/OF Lance Berkman from the Los Angeles Wolverines and gave up young right-handed pitchers Homer Bailey and Zach Wheeler. Guerra’s press statement exuded confidence for the future, though:

“Once again Sin City positions themselves in place to prove driven in winning games at any price". Sin City traded Homer Bailey and the potential ace arm of righty Zach Wheeler for the bat of "say hello to my little friend" Lance Berkman. Cowboys had lost patience with Homer Bailey and figured to sell while his value was high. Zach Wheeler was affordable to loose with the far more superior arms of Martin Perez,Matt Moore, being opted to tripple A , and the additions of James Taillion,Anthony Renaudo, and Taylor Jugmann barely made them blink to aquire the Rising Sun of Lance Berkman in the line up. We believe that we made the right moves this season to really bring our team to the level of some of the other elite teams we have to compete against in our division. At the end of the season we will have dumped over 20+ million in salary at the same time to allow us to sign new young talent and the big time players we have sought out and traded for to help us bring home a Championship. Games lost this season have been close and lost in extra innings....but we believe at least the future holds a different fortune for the franchise next year to be seen for sure.”

Los Angeles GM Brian Chae had this to say:

“After a protracted period of discussions, the Wolverines have traded the resurgent Lance Berkman for two young right-handers. Both will be sent to the Wolverines minor league system with Homer Bailey likely to receive a call to the big show at some point in the future. While talented, Bailey has battled injuries and inconsistency in his short big-league career. Zach Wheeler is seen as the centerpiece of the trade, given his projection as a potential no. 1 or no. 2 starter, provided that he is able to further develop his command and control. Most importantly, both players are young and offer the Wolverines long-term control while providing further depth to a talented, but unproven, crop of talent. Lastly, with the trading of Berkman, the Wolverines now have substantial room under the salary cap. The team is now positioned to take on large salaries of other players provided that teams are willing to trade impact prospects in a deal.”

At the beginning of August, Sin City and AC/BC came to an agreement on four unestablished players: Ike Davis to the Cowboys and Gordon Beckham, Jose Tabata and Chris Tillman to Anaheim. Davis, who is out for the season with an injury, is expected to be the best option at first base next year for Sin City, while Beckham and Tabata will compete for playing time on a potentially contending AC/BC 2012 team.

“Well the way we here in Anaheim see it, we have a talented young first basemen in Mark Trumbo; so losing Ike Davis was not to bad and the newly acquired talent is young which we hope will help us get back into contention for the next season and seasons after,” Alex Coffman said.

YUMA PICKS UP A CATCHER

The Yuma Firebirds, the most-injured team in BARB so far this year, were at a loss for actions. They had lost their backup-backup catcher, Ivan Rodriguez, to a month-long injury, which meant Ryan Hanigan was the only healthy backstop. In case you (somehow) forgot, young Firebird starter Buster Posey was lost for the season in May to a gruesome injury, after which the speculative free-agent pickup of “Pudge” appeared brilliant. But in his free agent signings, Chris Melkonian had left no room for another player without releasing an established player in the process, which meant the team was unable to come to terms with C Brian Schneider. Their hand forced, the Firebirds sought out trade partners and finally found one, but at a hefty price: prospect LHP Casey Crosby was deemed expendable in order to acquire C Rod Barajas from the St. Francis Friars.

This was the reasoning from the Friar braintrust:

"Trader" Jack McKeon stared thoughtfully at his still-smoldering stogie. The acting GM and chief executive of the St. Francis Friars has been hampered by a high payroll, but on August 5th, he found himself maxing out all the credit cards, adding another $800,000 to his team's payroll, and (contrary to recent comments) doing this in order to obtain a prospect.

"We've made a deal with the West-leading Yuma Firebirds," said McKeon, "and I have some misgivings where the bottom line is concerned. It's going to be very difficult for us to make any moves down the stretch with our payroll, which is just a smidgen below the league cap of $120 million. Nevertheless, we were offered a significant prospect (LHP Casey Crosby) who has had some injury history, but appears to be putting things together at age 22. We had to take it, really, because getting another minor-league arm will make it easier to make a deal for pitching to help us now. At any rate, the price was a good team player, C Rod Barajas. Rod began the year as the right-handed half of a platoon with A.J. Pierzynski, but our team captain (and player/manager) Jason Varitek has been so good when Rod was on the DL, that we didn't see him having much of an impact."

"So, we sacrificed the luxury of carrying two catchers, took on some salary and acquired Crosby. He'll join our other four young lefties. Rod's departure will allow us to carry another utility guy, give us a little bit more flexibility. If anything happens to one of our other starters, we still have (Taylor) Teagarden at AAA. So, we wish Rod well, but think this will allow us some better matchups as we get closer to October, and...of course...if we can find a partner, another chip to deal for an impact arm."

“Trader” Jack and St. Francis were at it again shortly thereafter, completing a trade that sent IF Juan Uribe, pitcher Kevin Correia and top prospect Brett Lawrie to Worcester for IF Brent Lillibridge and RHP Heath Bell.

”Concerned by sagging bullpen performance, the St. Francis Friars reluctantly offered their hottest minor-league bat (IF Brett Lawrie) along with veteran starter Kevin Correia and utilityman Juan Uribe as part of a complex deal for Worcester reliever Heath Bell.

Bell, who has been a bridge to the great Mariano Rivera, earned a Series ring last season as Rivera's setup man but will see his salary shoot up in 2012, where younger arms (Johnny Venters, Jake McGee, Tony Sipp) seem ready to make a more affordable contribution.

To complete the deal, the Eliminators have also sent versatile IF/OF Brent Lillibridge to St. Francis, receiving veteran utilityman Juan Uribe (and his significant salary).

Friars GM "Trader" Jack McKeon confirmed that Bell would usurp the inconsistent Francisco Cordero as the club's primary closer, with both Cordero and Leo Nunez assuming setup roles.”

For his part, Eliminators GM Matt Caskey said, "the emergence of young, overpowering relievers have made the dependable, but soon to be expensive Bell expendable. Too many question marks surround this teams high price talent, so it was necessary to make move for cheaper talent. Lawrie is a fine player and we hope he becomes a pillar for this team for years to come."

With all of that, we’re down to the most recent deal, in which Ronald Melkonian (temporarily?) decides he’s back in the race. “Trader Ron,” after taking heat from Rebels fans after the Halladay trade, acquired a new ace: RHP Tim Hudson. The price was quite steep. In return, Los Angeles picks up SS Derek Jeter, OF Travis Snider, RHP Matt Garza and LHP Mike Minor.

Melkonian’s comments: “(I made this trade) to boast my starting staff with a veteran ace. Hudson provides further dominance in a rotation that now features: Lee, Haren, Hudson, Marcum, and Scherzer. Up and down, we have a very experienced, talented staff who should continue to help us climb back to the top. We got a lot of flak when we traded Halladay, in order to boast out offense and build a better overall rotation.... it has proven to be effective as we are now 4 1/2 games back and not 10+ at the time the [Halladay] trade. Jeter was thrown in to help the deal finically, since Hudson is at 9.00 million. We have a better SS in Andrus who is ready to take over, so we are happy to make room. We like Minor and Snider, but we are continuing to push forward this season, and cannot wait for Snider to figure it out at the major league level (demoted for the 3rd time this season). Garza may turn out to be a solid arm down the road, but we need a more experienced, ready arm now and not next year. “

The Wolverines, who are picking up steam in BARB, appear to be ready to compete in 2012 and beyond with their deep farm system starting to place players in the bigs.

Recent free agent signings/cuts:

Yuma released RHP Rafael Betancourt and signed OF Franklin Gutierrez

Worcester released OF Lastings Milledge

Los Angeles signed 2B Orlando Hudson

New England released LHP Craig Breslow and signed 1B Casey Kotchman

CAN THE FRIARS HOLD ON?

2011-08-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

Matt Guerrier looked downcast. Summoned by manager Jack McKeon to make an emergency start, the setup man had just given up four runs without retiring any batters in the second inning against visiting Philadelphia, with the big blow being a two-run single by Andre Ethier. Handing the ball over to McKeon, Guerrier slumped toward the dugout, he and his teammates down, 4-0.

To make matters worse, the injury-wracked ball club, which had once boasted the best record in all of BARB, had slumped, losing 10 of their last 14 games. How could this have happened? Let us count the ways: one by one, young lefties Dallas Braden, Jorge DeLaRosa and Clayton Richard have been lost for the season with injuries....while veteran Roy Oswalt has been sidelined much of the summer with a bad back, and RF Shin Soo-Choo out with a broken hand.

Yes, July was a weary month for the Friars. A trade for RHP Ricky Nolasco had helped the rotation, and rookie Zach Britton had also made some effective starts for St. Francis. Nevertheless, the latest loss (Richard) placed a strain on the club's rotation, and with Brett Myers and Brandon Arroyo also slumping, things were even worse. So it was that on Game Day 100 the Friars sent Guerrier, a career reliever, to the mound as an emergency starter.

After an inning and a half, the visiting Rebels had staked Matt Garza (1-5, 4.70) to a 4-2 lead, but Garza couldn't hold serve. Kelly Johnson (now playing LF) cashed in 2B Neil Walker with an RBI double in the fourth, and CF Chris Young smacked his eighth HR of the year off Wade Davis in relief to tie the ball game. Leo Nunez, Jason Frasor and Scott Downs put up zeroes in relief of Guerrier, meanwhile, and so in the eighth new Friars closer Heath Bell was given a 5-4 lead to protect, and a chance to make Downs a winner. The former Worcester setup man gave up a solo bomb to rookie Dustin Ackley, however, tieing the ballgame and giving teammate Jason Motte a chance to be the hero out of the pen.

St. Francis's bench punished Motte, however. Rookie Daniel Murphy came off the pine to hit a double leading off the bottom of the ninth, and St. Francis's fourth pinch-hitter of the day (OF Felix Pie) singled home Murphy with two out for a walk-off win, making a winner out of Bell (8-2, 2.19) in his St. Francis debut despite the burly reliever's blowing the save versus Ackley. The 6-5 win at home caused the Friars to improve to 5-5 over their last ten games, keeping hard-charging Casselton and resilient Philadelphia momentarily at bay.

Still, the question for the Friars is real: can they really make the playoffs with a sagging rotation? The only pitcher acquired this season (Ricky Nolasco) is regarded as more of an innings-eater than a true ace. Oswalt's expected return from a back injury should help, but the brittle veteran has to be watched closely, and can't really be counted on to provide that many innings down the stretch. Meanwhile, Bronson Arroyo and Brett Myers have both fallen on hard times. The only bright spot for the Friars on the pitching side of the equation has been Bell, whose acquisition allows them to push back the talented but erratic relief corps to earlier in the game. "We need some of our starters to step up," admitted McKeon after the game. "I can't keep sending middle relievers out to start. This was an emergency deal. Our payroll makes it tough to talk trade with other clubs right now, and we have to make sure that we don't completely gut our farm system."

LEE GOES FOR ONE-HIT SHUTOUT

2011-08-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

The crafty lefty shut down the .45s

July 18: Cliff Lee, now the ace of the Philadelphia Rebels (after the trade of Roy Halladay), and the rest of Ronald Melkonian’s squad traveled to Central California and saw Lee pitch dominant ball for eight innings (one hit, no runs allowed). Would he be able to finish out the masterpiece?

Lee, who had thrown a 14-strikeout, two-hit shutout of the Pottsylvania Creepers his previous time out, carried his success over into the high-profile matchup with .45s ace Jered Weaver. Through three innings, Lee was perfect and Weaver had yet to allow a run on two Rebels hits.

Andre Ethier changed that for the visitors. He got a hold of a 1-0 fastball from Weaver leading off the fourth and buried it in the right-center field bleachers for a 1-0 Rebels lead. Adrian Gonzalez, sensing Weaver was upset from leaving his previous pitch up in the zone, lined a shot through the pitcher’s legs and into center field for a hit. Weaver settled down, however, striking out Torii Hunter and popping up Dustin Ackley. But Mike Aviles, playing in place of the injured Alex Rodriguez, seemingly stole some of A-Rod’s magic and launched a ball just over the left-center field wall for a 3-0 Philly lead! That wasn’t all. Matt Wieters stepped up next and joined the party with a bomb down the right-field line.

Four runs on three homers in one inning quieted the Central California crowd, and they wouldn’t have much to cheer for most of the game. Lee allowed his first base runner on a Hunter Pence single in the bottom of the fourth, but he was perfect from then until hitting Pence with a pitch in the seventh. Neither time did the .45s make anything of their chances.

Jeff Niemann had replaced Weaver by the top of the eighth, but apparently he wanted to join the whiplash party: the first batter of the Rebel eighth, Ethier, put one in the seats in almost exactly the same spot as Wieters’ home run.

Lee entered the bottom of the ninth having thrown 93 pitches and allowed just the two runners, and he had a 5-0 lead. Was there any question he would finish it out?

Maybe the question was raised by his fatigued left arm. Chris Iannetta, who had entered the game on defense in the top of the ninth, drew a walk, the first of the day from Lee. Michael Bourn slapped a single down the right field line to move Iannetta to third. Pence just got a piece of one and hit a bounding ball to Gonzalez, but the Gold Glove first baseman couldn’t handle it! The first run of the day for the .45s put them in “slam range”, and they had two on with no one out. The crowd that was left started raising a ruckus to get into Lee’s head. Dan Uggla had a productive at-bat, grounding to Gonzalez to move Bourn and Pence to third and second, respectively.

Up came Matt Holliday. Behind him loomed the heart of the Central California batting order in Pablo Sandoval and Prince Fielder. The prospects looked bright for the home team. Holliday didn’t disappoint, hitting a ground ball just out of Ackley’s reach at second to score both Bourn and Pence! Just like that, the Rebel lead had been cut to 5-3, making it a save situation. Enter closer Jose Valverde to face the Panda. If he could reach safely, Fielder would come up as the potential winning run.

But, alas, Sandoval did one of the things he’s “good” at: hitting into double plays. Valverde’s second offering was a tailor-made twin-killing right at Jeter. The Rebels escaped with a win, ensuring they would stay within five games of division-leading St. Francis. While not finishing like he had hoped, Lee got the win to move to 9-5 with a 3.58 ERA.

In other BARB action:

LOS ANGELES 15, ST. FRANCIS 2

WP: Aaron Harang (2-5, 5.60)

LP: Brett Myers (7-7, 3.77)

The Wolverines, who were blasted by the Friars a couple of times earlier in the season, exacted their revenge on the road. They scored five in the first and four in the third, along with one in the seventh, two in the eighth and three in the ninth, to halt the Central Division leaders and move out of the cellar for the first time since early-April. Aaron Harang, just off the disabled list, allowed three hits and four walks in six scoreless innings. New acquisition Homer Bailey gave up two runs in the bottom of the ninth, but the game was out of reach long before that. Starlin Castro was the leading LA hitter with three base knocks (including a home run) in four at-bats, three runs and three RBI.

WORCESTER 5, BROOKLYN 3

WP: Brandon Morrow (3-1, 4.71)

LP: Rafael Perez (0-4, 5.19)

SV: Rivera (19)

The defending BARB champions, hanging on to hope in the East, broke Brooklyn’s league season-high 11-game winning streak with a comeback in Worcester. The Elims actually jumped out to a lead with single runs in the fourth and fifth off Justin Verlander (including a Mark Teixeira homer), but the Moabs put up three in the sixth to knock out Worcester starter Wandy Rodriguez. Brandon Morrow entered and pitched two and two-thirds innings of hitless relief with six strikeouts as his offense tied it in the sixth and scored two un-earned runs in the eighth to take the lead for good. Despite the loss, the Moabs are still tied for the best record in the league and four games ahead of second place in their division.

POTTSYLVANIA 4, YUMA 3 (15)

WP: Carlos Marmol (1-3, 2.22)

LP: Matt Thornton (5-3, 3.48)

SV: Samardzija (3)

Chris Carpenter went 10 innings for the second time this season, allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits, but he was in showered and home by the time this one finished. No one scored from the third until the 12^th (when both teams scored once), and it was scoreless again until Hideki Matsui’s one-out homer in the top of the 15^th inning. Typically wild Jeff Samardzija entered and pitched a perfect 15^th for the save. Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Pena also homered for the Creepers.

AC/BC 3, NEW ENGLAND 1

WP: Clayton Kershaw (7-5, 2.57)

LP: Alexi Ogando (2-4, 3.50)

SV: Okajima (2)

New England traveled to Anaheim with designs on moving to within three games of the West lead, but they couldn’t solve Clayton Kershaw. The lefty struck out 10 over seven innings, allowing one un-earned run on two hits and three walks, and David Ortiz hit a two-run homer and scored the third run in the AC/BC victory.

GET YER ALL-STARS....RIGHT HERE!

2011-07-29T07:38:00.000-07:00

As I write this post on Friday the 29th of July, BARB teams have now all played anywhere from 79 to 86 games. Thus, we are at the season's effective halfway point, and it is now time to select the league's All-Stars! With that in mind, I am providing you a ballot with the top 5-6 at each position for players, and the top 20 pitchers, listed alphabetically by position with some key stats in BARB noted. I hope everyone will chime in the comments with how they would rank the players in question, and (with a little luck) we can have a little fun with whatever player files GM's select! Players who are currently injured are marked in red. Rookies are in bold.

Catcher:

Ramon Hernandez, Central Cali (.336 avg..2nd in BARB, 3 HR, 29 RBI)
John Jaso, Pottsylvania (.278, 5 HR, 18 RBI)
Miguel Montero, New England (.285, 5 HR, 24 RBI)
Victor Martinez, Frostbite (.232, 8 HR, 23 RBI)
Buster Posey, Yuma (.329, 6 HR, 38 RBI)

DH/First Basemen:

Miguel Cabrera, New England (.291, league-leading 29 HR, 76 RBI)
Adrian Gonzalez, Philadelphia (.299, 12 HR, 63 RBI)
Ryan Howard, Brooklyn (.261, 19 HR, 64 RBI)
Albert Pujols, Frostbite (.272, 27 HR, league-leading .645 slugging)
Joey Votto, Yuma (.313, 22 HR, 49 RBI)

Second Basemen:

Robinson Cano, Worcester (.292, 9 HR, 50 RBI)
Howie Kendrick, AC/BC (.273, 3 HR, 43 runs scored)
Dustin Pedroia, New England (.249, 19 HR, 65 runs scored)
Brandon Philips, Sin City (.291, 4 HR, outstanding defense)
Martin Prado, Yuma (.271, 4 HR, 42 runs scored)

Shortstops:

Starlin Castro, Los Angeles (.294, 38 runs scored)
Alex Ramirez, St. Francis (.278, 1 HR, outstanding defense)
Hanley Ramirez, Worcester (.320, 3 HR, 5 SB)
Jose Reyes, Frostbite (.283, 36 runs scored, 9 SB)
Marco Scutaro, Central California (.312, 6 HR in 58 games)
Troy Tulowitzki, Brooklyn (.278, 12 HR, 59 runs scored)

Third Basemen:

Adrian Beltre, Brookyn (.293, 21 HR, 80 RBI in 78 G)
Chris Johnson, Worcester (.311, 6 HR, 37 RBI in 71 G)
Alex Rodriguez, Philadelphia (.243, 10 HR, 49 RBI)
Kevin Youkilis, St. Francis (league-leading .433 OBP and 82 runs scored)
Ryan Zimmerman, Yuma (.343, 6 HR in 29 G)

DH/Outfielders:

Jose Bautista, St. Francis (.228, league-leading 29 HR, 80 RBI)
Ryan Braun, Yuma (.270, 8 HR, 62 RBI)
Shin Soo-Choo (.305, 52 runs scored, 68 RBI)
Carlos Gonzalez, Casselton (BARB-leading 109 hits, 13 HR, 52 runs, 6 SB)
Corey Hart, New England (.304, 14 HR, 42 RBI)
Matt Holliday, Central Cali (.305, 10 HR, 52 runs scored)
Matt Kemp, Pottsylvania (16 HR, 47 RBI, 12-0 as a basestealer)
Nick Markakis, Yuma (.293, 2 HR, 47 runs scored)
Justin Morneau, New England (.349, .591 slugging over 61 G)
Michael Morse, Worcester (.242, 11 HR, 35 RBI)
David Ortiz, AC/BC (.269, 18 HR, 42 RBI)
Colby Rasmus, Sin City (.250, 17 HR, 52 RBI)
Ichiro Suzuki, Philadelphia (.315, 52 runs scored, 14 SB)
Jayson Werth, Frostbite (.294, 15 HR, 49 RBI)

Starting Pitchers:

Roy Halladay, New England (leads league with 11 wins, 2.44 ERA and 5 shutouts)
Dan Haren, Philadelphia (One of six to win nine or more games)
Jeremy Hellickson, Pottsylvania (9-5 with sub-.500 club)
Felix Hernandz, Frostbite (9-4, league-leading 87 K and 126 IP)
Daniel Hudson, Central Calia (82 K, 112 IP for rookie)
Cliff Lee, Philadelphia (3 shutouts, 76 strikeouts)
Tim Lincecum, Frostbite (2.50 ERA, .202 BAA leads league, 79 K)
Clayton Kershaw, AC/BC (Lefty also holding league to .202 clip, 85 K, 117 IP)
Hideki Kuroda, Central Cali (116 IP, 3 shutouts, 12 quality starts)
David Price, Yuma (9-2, 3.29, 120.1 IP, 2nd in loop)
C.C. Sabathia, Yuma (2.92 ERA, 9-4 record, 120 IP)
Travis Wood, Sin City (lefty 3rd in league with 2.84 ERA)
Jered Weaver, Central Cali (8-7, 80 K, 112 IP)

Relief Pitchers:

Heath Bell, Worcester (7-2 setting up for Rivera)
Joaquin Benoit, St. Francis (11 holds leads BARB)
Neftali Feliz, Brooklyn (leads all bullpenners with eight wins in relief)
Jonathan Papelbon, New England (17 saves, 45 GF leads league)
Mariano Rivera, Worcester (Finished 35 games, 14-1 in save situations)
Jose Valverde, Philadelphia (16-2 in save situations)
Brian Wilson, Central Cali (BARB-leading 18 saves...in 18 tries)

Notable absences from this list due to injury or sub-par performance, in no particular order:

Matt Cain, Chris Carpenter, Chipper Jones, Jon Lester, Evan Longoria, Joe Mauer, Roy Oswalt, Aramis Ramirez, Joakin Soria, Geovany Soto, Mark Teixeira, David Wright

"FIRE-SALE" THOUGHTS

2011-07-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

I want to make known my preference on the issue of the fire sale

The fire sale is certainly something that happens in reality. It occurs when a team is way out of contention near the trade deadline or wants to shed salary in the offseason.

Right now is not the preferred time to execute a fire sale. It is unrealistic to do so at this point. A lot can happen in a half-season. The Giants were in fourth place in the NL West around this time last year, and you all know what they did.

Also, teams have an obligation to attempt to win. The point of a fire sale is to get younger players and give up expensive players to teams trying to win, and the team trading the veterans is giving up on the season. At this point, many teams are still very much in their division race (including the team that declared the fire sale), and making a big trade might not be a good idea if a team isn't sure they'll stay in the race.

Once we get nearer the trade deadline, teams that are trying to contend will know what they need to bolster their team, and they might give more for a veteran (in effect giving the trading team a better deal).

So those are my thoughts and preferences on the fire sale. Please consider them.

NEAT TRICK

2011-07-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a recent trick that I learned that BARB owners might find very handy, and it involves the comparison function on MLB Yahoo.

Go to MLB Yahoo.

Within the site, you can reach a page called MLB-Statistics by Category. You can select batting, pitching, fielding, and so forth. Initially the page will only hold qualified leaders at the position. But at the very bottom is a button labeled 'Compare'.....

Push it!

This will take you to a page that will allow you to enter the names of any player for the purpose of comparison. Add a player. Then add another. Within minutes you can build a customized page that has the batting stats for all the players on your roster, even your pitchers, if you so desire:

Once you've built this page, SAVE it as a 'Favorite' or 'Bookmark' in your web browser. This customized page will be rebuilt daily by MLB Yahoo with no further instructions, because the URL of the page is actually a set of instructions to build the page! Wow! Instant, free current MLB stats for all your players, conveniently displayed on one page, and updated regularly.

Obviously, you can do the same thing with another page for all of your fielding and pitching stats.

RECHARGED NEW ENGLAND SWEEPS FRIARS

2011-07-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

It's a new era in BARB, as two teams which have never previously contended (New England and St. Francis) found themselves with 40 or more wins, with the Friars boasting a BARB-leading .662 winning percentage and an eight-game lead in the Central Division. But all of that changed in late June, as the Yankee Stompers came into Kansas and...well....stomped on their hosts pretty good, capping a four-game series with a doubleheader sweep!

In the opener, the Yankee Stompers (still dealing with the effects of trades shuffling their roster) were forced to use a variety of relievers early and often after Alexei Ogando could only last two innings. Joey Devine (1-1, 6.48) earned his first win of the year, however, when he and three relievers post six innings of shutout relief. Brandon Arroyo (5-7, 4.09) allowed just one run for the Friars (an RBI single by Corey Hart), but left trailing 1-0 in the sixth. Another newcomer, CF Austin Jackson, hit a two-out solo HR off Matt Guerrier to extend New England's lead to 2-0, so that when rookie starter Kyle Drabek came in, a run-scoring groundout by Jose Bautista was not enough to prevent him from collecting his second save of the season!

NEW ENGLAND 2, ST. FRANCIS 1!

Jackson, who had begun spring training with AC/BC, was wearing his third uniform of the young season after coming over in a trade with Philadelphia just days previously, and his insurance bomb was the first impact on the race of all the recent wheeling and dealing.

New England GM James Herndon had to be happy with the results, including the finale of the series. Ricky Romero (7-4, 4.96) gave the bullpen a break with six innings of one-run baseball to outduel Brett Myers (6-5, 3.07), and another player recently acquired (Jonathan Axford) collected his first save of the year by going the final three frames. Neil Walker had a pinch-hit triple off Axford to make the game close, but Axford (New England's ninth pitcher in the double dip) had enough off a margin to shrug off two late scores:

NEW ENGLAND 4, ST. FRANCIS 3!

Being swept by the opposition at home was a rude awakening for the Friars, who had come into the game with the loop's best record and an eight-game winning streak. Some owners are beginning to wonder if acting GM "Trader" Jack McKeon has lost his touch, as the club's only move to shore up its injury-plagued pitching staff has been to acquire Ricky Nolasco from Philadelphia. With Dallas Braden and Jorge De La Rosa lost for the year, and Myers and Arroyo struggling, the club seems to have a keen need to find a reliable lefty starter. So far, however, the Friars have shown little interest in dealing before the All-Star Break.

In other BARB action:

LOS ANGELES 5, AC/BC 4 (14 innings)

WP: Jeff Francis (1-0, 5.58)
LP: Hideki Okajim (0-4, 5.52)

Chad Billingsley's early departure put a strain on the visitors, as Alex Coffman's Ball Club was forced to use six relievers, and (eventually) usual starter Zack Greinke in relief in a long ballgame that went in the home team's favor largely due to rookie Michael Pineda. Pineda hurled three hitless innings in extra frames, long enough for 3B Chris Davis to hit a two-out, walkoff RBI single in the bottom of the 14th, giving the sagging Wolverines just their 17th win of the season.

YUMA 4, POTTSYLVANIA 2 (Game 1 of DH)

WP: Brian Matusz (1-1, 1.59)
LP: Santiago Cassila (1-1, 2.87)
SV: Storen (9)

YUMA 4, POTTSYLVANIA 1 (Game 2 of DH)

WP: C.C. Sabathia (9-4, 2.92)
LP: Chris Carpenter (4-11, 4.42)
SV: Storen (10)

Ryan Zimmerman homered twice for the visiting Firebirds in the opener, lefties C.C. Sabathia and Brian Matusz allowed just two earned between them on the afternoon and rookie Drew Storen continued to collect saves as part of Chris Melkonian's bullpen-by-committee to cinch a doubleheader sweep against the lowly Creepers in Pottsylvania.

The wins allowed the Firebirds to keep pace with hard-charging New England in the West, maintaining a slim (two game) lead. Pottsylvania, meanwhile, still has four regulars hitting below .200, and Skip Schumaker playing 2B instead of the free-swinging Aaron Hill. It's hard to believe that this club recently played in the BARB World Series, but a perfect storm of injuries and declining player performance has found them in major rebuilding mode less than 20 months after nearly winning it all. Such is baseball...

PHILADELPHIA 5, CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 4

WP: Jason Motte (1-0, 2.66)
LP: Dan Wheeler (2-4, 6.68)

Jered Weaver outpitched Matt Garza 3-2 through seven frames, but reliever Dan Wheeler served up a long ball to pinch-hitter Alberto Callaspo leading off the eighth to tie up the ball game, then stuck around long enough to surrender Adam Jones's walkoff RBI double as the Rebels bailed out reliever Jason Motte, who had earlier blown a save courtesy of Hunter Pence's two-run, go-ahead single.

GOOSE EGGS

2011-07-11T01:58:00.000-07:00

The Pottsylvania Creepers and Los Angeles Wolverines are, arguably, BARB’s worst teams. The Creepers have a better record by a few games, but they actually have a worse run differential. In any case, it was the two lowest-scoring teams facing off on June 17. The pitching staffs didn’t disappoint…

Mark Buehrle faced off with Tim Hudson in this matchup in Chavez Ravine, and the wily veterans showed good stuff all night long. Buehrle walked four and allowed three hits over eight innings, striking out six. The only time he faced a runner in scoring position with less than two outs was the fourth inning, but he induced a double play to end the threat. He didn’t earn a decision, though.

Hudson was even better. Seven innings, three hits, five K’s and no walks. He retired the last 12 hitters he faced. But he left with the score tied, as well.

Neither starter allowed a run, meaning it was 0-0 into the late innings. Buehrle came out to start the ninth and immediately allowed a double to Starlin Castro. He was instructed to intentionally walk Logan Morrison before Creepers closer Carlos Marmol entered. Marmol showed his wild side, going to a 3-2 count on his first hitter, Carlos Santana, before the young catcher grounded into a force at second and beat out the throw to first. Marmol struck out the next hitter after going 3-2 again, bringing up Mike Stanton. The big flychaser hit a soaring drive on the first pitch he saw, but it fell a few feet short of the left field fence and regulation ended without a run.

Pottsylvania made a charge in the 10^th, with Danny Valencia, Blake DeWitt and Erick Aybar all walking with two out. Michael Pineda stepped up big, however, getting Matt Kemp to roll over and ground out to first.

The contest stayed scoreless through 12 without much of a threat from either side.

DeWitt did his best to un-tie it, but his booming shot (relatively speaking) over Stanton’s head in right field bounced up against the wall for a double. After Aybar grounded out, Kemp lined a single to right. Stanton showed off his arm, gunning down a stunned DeWitt at home! Kemp advanced to second, but two were out and Carlos Pena, who is almost an automatic out these days, came up to face Matt Lindstrom.

Pena must have guessed correctly on the 2-2, however. Lindstrom didn’t bother turning around to watch as Pena did what he does best (when he makes contact), launching a no-doubter to right-center field. 2-0, Creepers!

Santiago Casilla, who came on in the 12^th, gave up an infield single to Castro in the bottom of the 13^th but retired the other three batters, and Pottsylvania ended up in the win column.

But as BARB nears the half-way point, the Creepers will have to work hard to stay above Los Angeles. The Wolverine youngsters are continually improving, and eventually the run differential has to show up in the standings, right?

In other BARB action:

BROOKLYN 8, YUMA 7 (16)

WP: Neftali Feliz (7-3, 3.20)

LP: Aaron Crow (0-1, 9.00)

SV: Madson (1)

Andrew McCutchen’s second home run of the day provided the only run in extra innings and made a winner of Neftali Feliz in Arizona. McCutchen, who also drove in single runs in the second and fourth innings, hit a solo shot to give the Moabs a 6-5 lead in the sixth, but Yuma tied the game in the eighth. Feliz threw five hitless innings, including being perfect through the first four, before handing the ball off to Ryan Madson for his first Brooklyn save.

CASSELTON 1, PHILADELPHIA 0

WP: Ernesto Friero (5-0, 2.23)

LP: J.J. Putz (2-1, 1.93)

Curtis Granderson drove in, and scored, the only run in a scintillating pitchers’ duel with an eighth-inning homer off of J.J. Putz as the defending Central Division champs picked up a game on the second-place Rebels. John Danks, the Horned Toads’ starter, allowed four hits through six innings and only threw 69 pitches, but management removed him for a pinch-hitter with a chance to score in the seventh (which obviously didn’t pan out). Ernesto Frieri came on in relief and allowed one runner on a walk (before erasing him on a double play) in three innings for the win.

AC/BC 9, WORCESTER 0

WP: Chad Billingsley (5-7, 4.14)

LP: Johnny Cueto (0-5, 9.38)

Chad Billingsley, Brian Duensing and Matt Capps combined on a seven-hit shutout of the vaunted Eliminator offense, but the big story from Anaheim was Alex Gonzalez. The shortstop was 4-for-5 with a double and homer (missing the cycle by a triple), three runs and seven RBI for nearly all of the AC/BC offense. After hitting a three-run double in the fifth and three-run homer in the, Gonzalez had a chance for the cycle in the eighth, but he flew out.

SIN CITY 6, NEW ENGLAND 2

WP: Kyle Lohse (1-0, 5.47)

LP: Roy Halladay (10-3, 2.54)

Roy Halladay struck out eight in seven innings in his first start as a Yankee Stomper, but nine Cowboys hits scored six runs off of “Doc” in the sixth and seventh innings and Sin City went on to the victory. Jaime Garcia went 5.1 innings of one-run but wasn’t involved in the decision because he threw 93 pitches and was taken out with a runner on third base. Miggy Cabrera hit his third home run in two days in the losing effort.

NEW YANKEE STOMPERS BLOG

2011-07-08T01:25:00.000-07:00

James Herndon has re-done his blogsite. Looks pretty good. Check it out here: http://yankeestompers.blogspot.com/

Also, his most recent post includes his comments on acquiring Roy Halladay, including calling it "the greatest day in the history of this franchise."

HALLADAY DEALT NO-DECISION--THEN DEALT AWAY

2011-07-04T16:52:00.000-07:00

Halladay is excited to be free of the revolving door that is the Rebel locker room

Philadelphia Rebels ace Roy Halladay was streaking. A decision in every start of the season, including eight straight wins dating back to a 3-1 loss to Brooklyn in mid-April. He hadn’t given up more than three earned runs in any of the victories. So it came as a surprise when the Worcester Eliminators rocked him on June 15…but an even bigger surprise (or no surprise at all, depending on your view point) was yet to come.

After going eight innings against the Pottsylvania Creepers in his previous start, Halladay had a 10-2 record, 1.72 ERA, seven complete games and five shutouts. The front-runner for the Cy Young Award, for sure. But the defending champs weren’t impressed.

Worcester came in with some injuries, but even with Joe Mauer and Jason Kubel on the disabled list they hit like they were facing a AA pitcher. Hanley Ramirez led off the top of the first with a walk (a rare occurrence from Halladay, who had walked just 12 in his first 99.1 IP), and Carl Crawford singled. One out later, Robinson Cano made him pay. Cano launched a no-doubter over the left-center field wall at Citizens Bank Ballpark, a quick 3-0 lead.

Halladay seemed to settle down, throwing perfect second and third innings. Elims starter Wandy Rodriguez, just off the DL, got out of trouble in the third when Ichiro Suzuki was thrown out at home after trying to score from second on a shallow single, and the score stayed 3-0.

Cano led off the fourth and reached on an error by shortstop Elvis Andrus. He scored on Delmon Young’s double to make it 4-0. Chris Johnson struck out, but Nick Swisher walked in front of Russell Martin, who copied Cano’s first-inning feat: a blast to left-center, just a few feet away from the first landing site! Just like that, Halladay and the Rebels were down, 7-0. Ronald Melkonian’s brain trust kept “Doc” in the game for a fly out and single before Jon Rauch was ready to come in. Crawford flew out on the big righty’s first pitch, and after just three and a half innings the hosts seemed in an insurmountable hole.

The Rebels finally got on the board in the fifth. With two out and no one on, Andrus walked and Adrian Gonzalez singled, bringing up Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod joined the three-run blast parade with a shot just inside the foul pole in left, and Philly closed the gap to 7-3.

The Rebels added another run in the sixth, but Mark Teixeira hit a two-run bomb in the seventh to make it 9-4. Even with a rare Andrus home run, the ability of the Eliminator bullpen meant the game was almost assuredly going to the loss column for Philadelphia.

But maybe, juuuuust maybe, the Worcester manager micro-managed too much.

Heath Bell started the bottom of the ninth after getting the last out of the eighth and got a groundout before Adam Jones hit a seeing-eye single to right. Mariano Rivera was brought on, and Miguel Montero greeted him with a single to left. Matt Wieters pinch-hit for Matt Belisle, and Craig Kimbrel was brought on, oddly for Rivera. Maybe the Eliminators were looking for a strikeout. Kimbrel’s first offering, though, was lined the opposite way for a run-scoring single, making the score 9-6. Mike Aviles stepped up and doubled in Montero, with Wieters moving to third.

Brandon Morrow came on and walked Ichiro to load the bases, bringing up Andrus. The scrawny shortstop lined a game-tying single to right-center.

So it was, with runners on first and third base, one out and four runs in to tie the game, that Adrian Gonzalez stepped up. Morrow quickly got two strikes on the powerful lefty, but pitch number three didn’t reach the catcher. Gonzalez hit a high-arching shot towards the right-field bleachers. Nick Swisher took a few steps back, but he realized there was nothing he could do. If he caught it, Ichiro would tag and score to win the game. He wouldn’t have had a chance anyway, as the ball barely cleared the wall (much akin to Juan Uribe’s pennant-winning shot in Game 6 of the 2010 NLCS) for a three-run homer.

It was all over. Halladay was rocked for seven runs (six earned) over 3.2 IP, easily his shortest start of the year. His offense, however, bailed him out at the expense of an astonishing meltdown from arguably the league’s best relief corps, and the Rebels, with a 12-9 win, weren’t pushed back farther in the Central Division.

The next day came the bombshell. Melkonian, wheeling-and-dealing as ever, had traded Halladay, as well as Austin Jackson and Miguel Montero, to New England.

In return, the Yankee Stompers gave Philadelphia catcher J.P. Arencibia, outfielder Torii Hunter, and right-handed starters Dan Haren and Max Scherzer. Why trade the best pitcher in the league, Ron?

“We get a top ace for an ace, a promising young arm in (Scherzer) who is performing extremely well, making our rotation stronger as a whole, we increase our team’s struggling offense with Hunter who should provide immediate help in that department, as well as give us a gold glove in CF, with Ichro in RF and Either in LF, and gives us a more valuable and promising catcher in JP over Montero.”

League observers noted that Jackson and Hunter are very comparable players, with the younger player leaving Philly. Questions are beginning to rise (again) whether Melkonian wants to win, or if he’s just trading for the sake of trading.

Another trade was completed, with Central California sending Anibal Sanchez to the Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrels. Prospect righty Kyle Gibson and a player to be named go to the .45s.

“We’re happy with this,” said Flying Squirrels GM Andrew Friedman. “We didn’t think Fausto Carmona would be the answer to the fifth spot in our rotation the rest of the season, so to pick up a pitcher as dominant as Sanchez can be is big. We might have mortgaged our future somewhat to do it, but we have some talent in the minors that will soon make up for the guys we traded.”

League historians noted that Sanchez made his BARB debut with the Squirrels in 2006, earning a win and a losing a game with two saves in five appearances.

In other BARB action:

AC/BC 6, YUMA 0

WP: Clayton Kershaw (4-4, 2.85)

LP: Matt Cain (5-7, 5.65)

SV: Gregg (1)

Solo home runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings gave Kershaw all of the support he would need as he combined with Kevin Gregg on a shutout of the West-leading Firebirds. Cain struck out nine but was charged with four runs over his six-plus innings. Kershaw K’d six over 6.1 innings, allowing six hits and one walk. Gregg earned his first save because he came on in the seventh with a three-run lead before the team scored three more.

YUMA 5, CASSELTON 4

WP: Matt Thornton (1-0, 3.27)

LP: Mike Adams (1-2, 2.78)

Casselton took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth in Yuma, but Mike Adams didn’t record an out as Nick Markakis and Ryan Braun singled before Joey Votto hit a booming, game-ending triple. Adams pitched both the seventh and eighth innings and appeared somewhat fatigued in the ninth, but Horned Toads management stuck with him. Matt Thornton pitched three scoreless innings for the win in relief of starter Tommy Hanson.

CASSELTON 6, SIN CITY 5 (16)

WP: Brad Ziegler (1-1, 3.12)

LP: Jeremy Affeldt (0-4, 6.87)

Jaime Garcia and Gavin Floyd both went seven-plus innings, but they were both in bed and asleep by the time the game finished. The Cowboys tied the game in the ninth on a Ryan Theriot single and briefly took the lead on Jorge Posada’s solo homer in the top of the 16^th, but Asdrubal Cabrera and Brandon Phillips knocked back-to-back RBI singles in the bottom of the inning to end the nearly five-hour affair.

POTTSYLVANIA 6, BROOKLYN 1

WP: Jeremy Hellickson (7-5, 3.88)

LP: Justin Verlander (2-5, 5.16)

Aramis Ramirez did damage to Justin Verlander’s ERA, hitting an RBI single and three-run homer off the fastballing righty before the end of the third inning. Ramirez later added another shot off Moabs’ mop-up man Daric Barton (yes, you read that right) for five RBI on the day. Hellickson gave up four hits and no walks with eight strikeouts over eight innings, allowing his only run on a Brian McCann groundout in the second.

'THE GUIDED MIGUEL' LAUNCHES FIVE IN SERIES

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

New England---The West-leading Yuma Firebirds, a perennial post-season fave, began their latest road trip sporting a season-high ten-game winning streak and the loop's best mark (43-19), but when the dust settled somewhere near Beantown, the Yankee Stompers, led by DH Miguel Cabrera, swept a three-game set from Chris Melkonian's troops to put themselves back in the pennant race!

In the first game of the set, Tim Stauffer left in the sixth trailing 3-2, but Kerry Wood (5-0, 2.82) struck out Ryan Braun to end a threat with runners on and keep the game close. 2B Dustin Pedroia reached with one out on a Jason Bartlett error in the bottom of the frame, and Corey Hart delivered an RBI double to take Stauffer off the hook.

In the seventh, Matt Latos (6-3, 4.18) gave up an RBI single to rookie Jose Tabata, and Cabrera led off the eighth with his second home run of the game, and a 5-3 New England lead! Jonathan Papelbon worked around a leadoff double in the ninth by Nick Markakis, collecting his 12th save of the year in nailing down the opener.

Cabrera went yard twice in the second game, as well: blasting a two-run shot in the first off David Price for an early 2-0 lead, and (with the score still tied) launching a one-out, three-run bomb off Luke Gregerson (3-3, 4.34) in the eighth, giving Danny Haren (7-3, 5.09) a chance for the win. Papelbon again came in and sputtered (a ringing double by Victorino with one down), but fanned pinch-hitters Denard Span and Ty Wigginton for a 5-2 win, and his 13th save.

Two close contests, settled late in favor of the home team, and that set up the final match of the series. The finale was nowhere near as close, however, as Cabrera and company batted around in the sixth, scoring their first run on 'Miggy's' fifth bomb of the series, but also knocking out Tommy Hanson (7-3, 3.96) with five more safeties in the bottom of the second, the icing on the cake an RBI single by Pedroia at the expense of reliever Tyler Clippard. That made things smooth sailing for Gio Gonzalez, who gave up a pair of unearned runs in six frames. Rookie Alexei Ogando was a bridge to Papelbon, who came out for the third straight game and finished up with his 14th save.

An impressive three games for New England, part of a seven-game winning streak that stopped Yuma's run in the West and brought them within five games of the Firebirds, who have begun to deal with a wave of injuries. Still, at 43-22 there was little cause for alarm: despite the setback, Yuma still sports the loop's best record.

In other BARB action:

PHILADELPHIA 10, BROOKLYN 0
WP : Cliff Lee (6-2, 2.85)
LP: Ubaldo Jiminez (2-2, 3.23)

Cliff Lee gave up doubles to B.J. Upton and Ben Zobrist in the early innings, worked around an error with two out in the third, and then retired the last nineteen hitters without breaking a sweat, finishing with a two-hit shutout, while his fellow Rebels cashed in poor defense on the part of the Moabs: the visitors committed a total of four errors, all with Ubaldo Jiminez on the mound. 'The U' was gone by the end of the fifth, and the route was on, helping the host Rebels snap a three-game losing streak and improve to 27-24 overall.

It is rumored that Rebels GM Ronald Melkonian has a move in place for the month of July that is intended to vault him back in contention, but despite this win, Philadelphia is six back of the Central-leading Friars, and twelve games back in the 'W' column.

POTTSYLVANIA 6, SIN CITY 0
WP: Jeremy Hellickson (6-5, 4.14)
LP: James Shields (2-7, 6.42)

Rookie Jeremy Hellickson used just 108 pitches to go the distance, holding the Cowboys to just five hits en route to his first-ever BARB shutout, backed by a pair of HR from Aramis Ramirez. It was a rare day of dominance for the Creepers, who have struggled to score runs for their starters, and managed only six hits even in this effort. The Creepers have scored a BARB-low 176 runs through their first 60 games, less than three runs per outing. Their 'Murderer's Row' could drive their manager to suicide: Erick Aybar (.192), Carlos Pena (.169), Ramirez (.185), Ryan Ludwick (.180), Brad Hawpe (.159), Skip Schumaker (.143)....

AC/BC 10, CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 2
WP: Zack Greinke (4-1, 3.22)
LP: C.J. Wilson (5-6, 4.41)

Josh Hamilton went 4-for-4 with 5 ribbies, Milton Bradley (hitting just .162, and playing for his job) finally hit a home run, and Alex Coffman's Ballclub rolled to an easy win in their Southern California digs. Brittle Chipper Jones also had a good day, reaching base and scoring three times from the top of the order, sufficient for a 8-0 lead after six. Zack Greinke, bidding for a shutout, settled for an easy win that kept the ball largely away from the club's Achilles heel (the bullpen).

FROSTBITE FALLS 5, CASSELTON 4
WP: FelixHernandez (-2, 3.42)
LP: Josh Beckett (4-5, 5.93)
SV: Bailey (3)

Albert Pujols had three hits, Adam Lind chipped in a pair of RBI doubles, and visiting Squirrels got their 30th win of the year to pick up a game on East-leading Brooklyn, as 'King Felix' took a shutout into the eighth before needing some serious relief help, when Casselton C Geovanny Soto came off the deck to belt a three-run bomb to get his club back in the game. But Sean Marshall only gave up one more run, and Andrew Bailey remained perfect as the club's new closer.

Speaking of relief, Frostbite fans are scratching their heads about the normally-reliable Joakim Soria, who has not only lost nine games in relief, but his hold on the ninth frame. Will 'The Mexicutioner' (love that nickname) recover his late-inning flair, or will the Squirrels pursue relief help in the second half?

ST. FRANCIS 5, WORCESTER 1 WP: Cliff Richard (6-1, 2.98)
LP: Ryan Dempster (4-4, 5.37)
SV: Benoit (2)

"It's so funny, but we don't talk anymore." If you don't get the reference, never mind...the fast-working Richard probably wouldn't either, working quickly to scatter six safeties, missing a shutout when he bunched three of the safeties in the ninth. By that time, however, the host Friards had the game well in hand, thanks for four long balls at the expense of starter Ryan Dempster, two of them solo shots by LF Jose Bautista, who leads all of BARB with 21 round-trippers.

With the win, St. Francis becomes the second club to reach 40 wins (40-24) before the All-Star Break, largely due to the lineup's league-leading 353 runs in 64 games.

MORE PLAYERS ON THE MERRY-GO-ROUND

2011-06-30T22:05:00.000-07:00

Nolasco is now a Friar

As the BARB season progresses, the standings make clear which teams are going to contend and which should build for next year. Correspondingly, general managers have picked up trades and talks, including a slightly head-scratching deal from “Trader Ron”.

Just about the time of the last published trade news, a swap came through between Worcester and Los Angeles. In a deal designed to bolster his injury-depleted offense, Matt Caskey acquired OF Nick Swisher for the price of lefty Ted Lilly.

“Worcester simply has too many healthy starting pitchers,” Caskey said. “It was the right move for the team and hopefully Swisher can provide some much-needed energy.”

Los Angeles GM Brian Chae turned around and made a deal with the other Caskey, Eric. Brooklyn sent the Wolverines young corner infielder Chris Davis for left-handers Rafael Perez and Derek Holland. No press release was immediately available from the New Yorkers, but Chae explained, in short, that the trades helped serve his youth movement.

“Punting Swisher was just to free up the outfield rotation for the younger guys…and given the amount of starting pitching I have, I figured giving up Holland (who’s talented, but inconsistent and a clear injury risk) for a corner infielder who can play right now helps my team. All of my top talent is still with my team.”

Between those trades, another became official: Ronald Melkonian traded his number three starter, Ricky Nolasco, to division-rival St. Francis for young third baseman Pedro Alvarez and prospect outfielder Blake Smith. Scott Hatfield’s squad was five games ahead at the time of the trade, and one of his biggest needs was a starting pitcher. What better way for him to acquire one than from his main competitor for what amount to spare parts?

The lengthy press releases from both sides follow:

Scott Hatfield: “There is an amusing benediction of sorts: "May you live in interesting times."

So it was that in late June, the St. Francis Friars confirmed that Jack McKeon, who had been serving as defacto GM for the organization, was named not only acting GM, but (in an interesting arrangement) the club's "co-field manager". As part of his increased responsibilities, McKeon will receive no additional salary but, as he assured reporters, "I will be getting an allowance for any additional Havanas I have to light up."

McKeon wasted no time in shaking things up, engaging in the rare 'Challenge Trade' with a team in his own division. Frustrated with the slow learning curve of Pedro Alvarez, "Trader" Jack dealt the second player selected in the 2008 amateur draft to division rival Philadelphia, along with minor-league OF Blake Smith. In return, the Rebels somewhat curiously parted with a starting pitcher, RHP Ricky Nolasco (2-5, 5.60 in nine starts with the Rebels). Alvarez, attempting to earn playing time with the Friars, had found his route blocked by a pair of versatile (and productive) new starters, 3B/1B Kevin Youkilis and 3B/OF Jose Bautista. With Youkilis hitting .335 with a league-leading 60 runs scored, and Bautista lead all of BARB with 19 HR, Alvarez found himself riding the bench. The rookie had gone 3-for-12 in brief duty before being sidelined by a minor injury.

"We don't think the kid's ready," said McKeon bluntly. "He's still a work in progress, swings at too many pitcher's pitches when he doesn't have to, still airmails throws on routine plays. He's got a guaranteed major-league contract ready to kick in, though, and it would be hard on the kid to have him up here and basically warm the pine. So, we think this is the best thing for him. He'll go to an organization where the player in front of him---A-Rod----is getting long in the tooth and will likely spend a lot of time in the future as a DH. We think a lot of him, and he's obviously the most talented player in this deal. But you can't make an egg without breaking a few omelettes."

"The big question is," McKeon continued, "is whether getting Nolasco, who has struggled, is going to help us. The sense I get is that Philadelphia thinks he won't help us all that much, because he's underachieved with them, and they would like to clear a roster spot for some talent that they see over the horizon. It's an unusual situation, dealing with a division rival. I asked GM Melkonian whether or not he understood that I was trying to steal his lunch money---which I am----and whether or not it made sense to basically sit down in the cafeteria and have lunch with me. Well, he has a different perspective, in which his organization has the pitching depth to make this deal. So, you know, don't look a gift horse in the mouth. We think having Nolasco helps us, even if he doesn't put up especially good numbers, because he is a young, affordable starting pitcher who can pile up K's in short stretches. If it doesn't work out with him in the rotation, perhaps he can fill a long relief role and we can give Correia more work. The bottom line is that we've had a lot of injuries to our pitching staff, and getting any arm at this point gives us a little breathing room. We'll know more about this trade by August."

Ronald Melkonian: “Sets up my team for a big trade that will be announced July 1st. It will allow us to be more flexible with our deep rotation and we acquire a top, young 3B in Pedro to help fill out our future team and finding a possible successor to highly paid, but aging AROD for next season. Also provides us with much needed depth at the hot corner this year when he gets off the DL. We thought it was the perfect time to acquire a top, young 3B with much promise, considering we have SP to spare, especially with a deal on the horizon July 1st. Nolasco isn't living up to his potential and is actually hurting us so we were happy to part ways with him. Blake Smith helps us increase our OF depth and our future rebuilding of that area.”

CHARLIE SHEEN IS A MAJOR LEAGUE TALE-TELLER

2011-06-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

The former 'Two And A Half Men' star is by all accounts not half as clever as he thinks he is, so perhaps he really believes his latest piece of self-promotion. According to Sheen, during the filming of the comedy 'Major League' two decades ago, he took steroids for several weeks in an attempt to put some juice on the fastball of his character, erratic closer Rick 'Wild Thing' Vaughn.

According to Sheen, he elevated his heater from 79 to 85 mph while consuming steroids. What a transformation: from Al Nipper to Phil Niekro. Wow. I would laugh, except this would imply that Sheen is actually witty in person.

The truth is, any reasonably healthy, average-sized adult male who works out regularly can show marginal gains in velocity....and they would be in the range of radar gun readings Mr. Sheen mentions. The main benefit of steroids is not that they would enhance gains in arm strength, but that they would improve recovery time for muscle fibers after repeated bouts of throwing. Besides, muzzle velocity is largely a function of the speed with which an arm can be rotated, rather than muscle mass.

Besides, I've seen the movie. I've seen Sheen's "pitching motion". It's not the least bit athletic-looking, and the fastballs that emerge from his hand are, as far as I can tell, special effects. What a chump.

JUNE 5 GAMES

2011-06-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

In recent BARB action:

BROOKLYN 6, SIN CITY 5

WP: Daniel Bard (4-4, 3.86)

LP: James Shields (2-6, 6.08)

SV: Street (8)

Yovani Gallardo erased a 3-1 deficit with a seventh inning grand slam, but he didn’t factor in the decision after Nelson Cruz’ second home run of the day tied the game in the eighth. In the bottom of the inning, a passed ball allowed Carlos Quentin to score the eventual winning run and make a winner of Daniel Bard.

YUMA 8, AC/BC 6 (11)

WP: Matt Thornton (2-0, 2.30)

LP: Matt Capps (1-6, 5.72)

David Ortiz was the main force in AC/BC’s 6-1 lead after five with four RBI on a double and home run (knocking out Tommy Hanson in the process). But the Anaheim squad’s bullpen couldn’t hold the 6-3 lead for Chad Billingsley. Kevin Gregg, Hideki Okajima and Jordan Walden allowed single runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively, to put the game into extra innings. In the eleventh, Matt Capps got two outs and allowed a single to bring up Vladimir Guerrero, who dumped the ball just over the left-field fence to win the game.

CASSELTON 5, POTTSYLVANIA 3

WP: R.A. Dickey (4-6, 5.05)

LP: Randy Wells (0-2, 9.35)

Geovany Soto blasted a grand slam in the second inning that was too much for the Creepers offense to make up. R.A. Dickey pitched a complete game, giving up a homer to Carlos Pena and just one other earned run, to win his fourth. Randy Wells, in his second start off the disabled list, saw his ERA drop despite five earned runs in 5.2 IP.

LOS ANGELES 6, ST. FRANCIS 5 (10)

WP: Matt Lindstrom (2-1, 3.48)

LP: Matt Guerrier (0-1, 3.65)

SV: Holland (4)

Home runs from Kevin Youkilis and Jose Bautista staked the hosts to a 5-3 lead into the ninth, but Francisco Cordero was touched for two singles and a walk to load the bases before Nick Swisher (in one of his final at bats as a Wolverine—more on that later) tied the game with another single. With two out in the top of the 10^th, Carlos Santana hit an “excuse-me” bloop double down the left field line to score Stephen Drew. Derek Holland (in his last Wolverine appearance) pitched a perfect bottom of the 10^th for the save.

NEW ENGLAND 9, CENTRAL CA 0

WP: Ricky Romero (5-3, 4.69)

LP: Hiroki Kuroda (4-4, 4.12)

Ricky Romero finished one out short of a complete game shutout as the Yankee Stompers gave their home fans something to cheer about by completing a three-game sweep of the Central California .45s. Romero’s 126^th pitch was ball four to Brett Gardner, so Kerry Wood came on and struck out Danny Espinosa for the final out. Corey Hart was the offensive star, driving in four runs and scoring three on a 2-for-2 day with a double, home run and two walks. Torii Hunter drove in three runs on two hits.

DUELING MARATHONS

2011-06-24T00:43:00.000-07:00

BARB’s 2011 campaign has seen multiple extra-inning affairs, including some 15- and 16-inning games. The last day of May, however, featured two contests with free baseball—and both lasted longer than any other game this season. Read on to find out if one set a league record for innings played.

Sin City got off to an early lead in Worcester as Colby Rasmus reached on an error, was balked to second base by Ted Lilly, and came home on Nelson Cruz’s single in the first. Worcester answered, however, with Delmon Young singling in Carl Crawford.

Single runs scored for Worcester in the third and Sin City in the fourth and fifth, and it stayed 3-2 into the bottom of the seventh inning.

That’s when Worcester seemingly broke the game open (relatively speaking) with three runs off Jaime Garcia. Lastings Milledge tied the game with a double to score Mike Morse and move Grady Sizemore to third base. Billy Butler then punched one up the middle to score both Sizemore and Milledge, and the two-run lead seemed secure in the hands of the Eliminator bullpen.

Rasmus actually led off the eighth with a triple off of Lilly, who was then pulled for ace setup man Heath Bell. Bell struggled, allowing a Nelson Cruz double and walking Jason Bay. The next two hitters, Gaby Sanchez and Gordon Beckham, both hit the ball in the air to move Cruz to third and across the plate for the tying run.

From the ninth to the 12^th, the only semblance of a threat from either side was a first-and-second, two-out situation for Worcester in the bottom of the 11^th. Butler flew out to left, though, and the game continued.

Sin City took a brief lead in the top of the 13^th. Beckham and Kurt Suzuki singled, with the former moving to third on the second hit. Jorge Posada hit the ball to first. Mark Teixeira threw home, but Beckham slid under the tag to put the Cowboys ahead.

Jeremy Affeldt, who entered in the bottom of the 12^th, had the task of closing the game out. Mike Morse had other ideas. The right-handed batter took the platoon advantage against the lefty Affeldt, and an 0-1 pitch was deposited over the left field fence to tie it up again.

The top of the 15^th saw Sanchez and Beckham lead off with base hits. After a strikeout, Posada singled up the middle. That easily scored Sanchez, and when Sizemore misplayed the ball Beckham scored all the way from first for an 8-6 lead.

Beckham had a part in the bottom of the inning, but not in a good way. The very first offering from Carlos Villanueva was grounded to third by Robinson Cano. Beckham fired to first, but the skip got by the bag and Cano reached second base. Second baseman Ian Kinsler, in his first Sin City game, muffed Delmon Young’s grounder to put runners on first and third with no one out. Worcester appeared to have a great chance to win. A Chris Johnson single drove in Cano, and More dribbled one slow enough to reach and load the bases with no outs. Russell Martin did his job, tying the game on a sac fly. The bases were loaded again when Sizemore was walked, but Derek Lowe came on in relief and induced two ground ball force plays to end the inning.

Not much happened in the 16^th, 17^th and top of the 18^th. Lowe struck out Sizemore and popped up Milledge to open the bottom of the 18^th. Butler, however, doubled to the left-center gap and moved to third on a Teixeira single.

Cano stepped up for his second time against Lowe and decided he had had enough. The first pitch was scorched into shallow left. Butler scored easily, and Worcester had a 9-8, 18-inning win, the longest game in the 2011 BARB season…

…BUT NOT FOR LONG

AC/BC traveled to The Monastery to play the St. Francis Friars and got on the board first. Jeff Francouer grounded out to shortstop with one out, scoring Placido Polanco.

St. Francis starter Kevin Correia helped himself by lining a single to right field to lead off the third, and after a strikeout and Clayton Kershaw wild pitch, Kevin Youkilis brought in the run with a double to the wall in right.

Correia was put in line for the win when “Youk” tripled into the right field corner in the sixth and was brought home on Paul Konerko’s sacrifice fly, and the score stayed 2-1 into the ninth inning.

But St. Francis closer Francisco Cordero couldn’t shut down Alex Coffman’s Baseball Club. In fact, he didn’t get an out. David Ortiz drew a nine-pitch walk and was pinch-run for by Peter Bourjos. Bourjos used his speed and stole second base, and Polanco scored him easily on a single up the middle. Leo Nunez was brought in and got the three outs, but the damage was done. Despite a runner reaching base in the bottom of the ninth, the game went extras tied at two.

AC/BC had a good chance to score in the 11^th, when Polanco singled in front of a James Loney double. Polanco was held at third, however, and he was stranded as Francouer flied out.

Innings continued to pass without a run. Another AC/BC runner reached third in the 14^th, but a fly out ended that threat as well. Neil Walker doubled to left-center for the home squad in the 17^th, but he was left on the bases.

Finally, a full extra game passed as the 18^th went and the game was still 2-2. League officials began searching the record books, and they discovered that the longest game on record was an August 14, 2009 contest between the Yuma Firebirds and Fresno Regulators. That game went 23 innings and was won by the Firebirds with a two-run shot by Joey Votto.

In the 20^th, Mark Trumbo and Polanco hit back-to-back singles. Roy Oswalt, the third starting pitcher to come on in relief for St. Francis, induced a force out, fly out and ground out to end the threat.

The Friars also mounted a charge in the 20^th. Neil Walker led off with a triple, and it appeared the game would (mercifully) end soon. Chris Young and Youkilis were walked intentionally to load the bases and set up a force play.

Somehow, Mike Scioscia’s strategy worked. Shin-Soo Choo grounded into a 6-2-3 double play and Konerko grounded out to short, sending the affair to the 21^st.

Neither team scored in the 21^st, and AC/BC’s only 22^nd-inning runner was Polanco, who finished the day 6-for-9. Jonathan Sanchez pitched the 21^st for the visitors and came back out for the 22^nd. He got a quick fly out from Alexei Ramirez, but Walker beat out a slow chopper to short. Zack Greinke was brought in to face Young.

Greinke must have been groggy from his nap in the middle of the game, because after stealing a strike he left a curveball at the belt.

GOODBYE!!!

Young didn’t miss the hanging breaking ball. It soared into the St. Francis night and disappeared into the empty left-field seats. The few fans still left in the ballpark cheered or scrambled for the souvenir. Young rounded the bases and was mobbed by the team at home plate. The Friars had taken the game, 4-2. It didn’t quite reach the 23-inning record, but no one in the park was disappointed that they didn’t have to spend another inning-plus just to see history.

In other BARB action:

FROSTBITE FALLS 12, NEW ENGLAND 11

WP: Felix Hernandez (6-2, 3.39)

LP: Tim Stauffer (4-5, 3.52)

“King Felix” was staked to an 8-3 lead after six, but he was knocked out by the Yankee Stompers offense in the seventh as the hosts pulled within one run. Frostbite Falls scored four in the top of the ninth to build a comfortable lead, and it turned out they would need it. New England benefitted from two errors to score four times in their half of the last inning and had the tying run on third with one out before Andrew Bailey, just activated off the DL, finished the game off with a strikeout and groundout.

CENTRAL CA 3, BROOKLYN 2

WP: Dan Wheeler (2-3, 6.45)

LP: Neftali Feliz (4-3, 4.34)

Eight masterful shutout innings from Justin Masterson (four hits, zero walks, seven K’s) were undone by one shot off the bat of Danny Espinosa. The Brooklyn win seemed in hand with Feliz on in the ninth, but he walked two while getting two outs before Espinosa teed off on a 1-0, get-it-in fastball. Adrian Beltre drove in both runs for the Moabs with sacrifice flies in the first and sixth innings.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS AT IT AGAIN

2011-06-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

When you hear the word “trade”, what is the second thing that comes to your mind (after the name Melkonian, of course)? How about Sin City, New England and Casselton.

That’s right, the three teams that have made the most trades this season (yes, more than Ronald Melkonian’s Philadelphia) had another round.

Landon Bolt, who has seen his defending Central Division champion Casselton squad struggle in the young season, struck the first blow with his third and final trade of the month. Bolt orchestrated one of the biggest deals in BARB history with Anthony Guerra of Sin City. In all, 13 players switched sides. The swap also served to increase Bolt’s team salary nearer the cap than any other team: $119.98 million.

One of the biggest names in the trade was Brandon Phillips. The second baseman, hitting .279 and playing his usual spectacular defense for the Cowboys, marked an immediate upgrade from Casselton’s original combo of Reid Brignac and Gordon Beckham. In addition, righties Josh Beckett and Francisco Rodriguez, left-hander Phil Coke and young fly chaser Aaron Hicks were sent to the Horned Toads.

In return, Beckham, fellow middle infielder Dee Gordon, outfielders Carlos Beltran and Brennan Boesch and pitchers Taylor Jungmann, Ramon Ramirez and J.A. Happ were sent to the Cowboys. A player to be named was also included.

“With Joe Nathan struggling, it was important for us to shore up the back end of our bullpen,” Bolt said. “And by obtaining Beckett, we hope to bolster our rotation depth. I believe that once we are completely healthy, our 25-man roster is as good as any.

Following that deal, Anthony Guerra turned around and dealt Beltran and Ramirez, as well as reliever Joey Devine, to the New England Yankee Stompers for injured right-handed pitcher Adam Wainwright.

“Adam Wainwright never threw a pitch for New England, but we wish him well in his rehab and continuation of his career,” GM James Herndon said. “Our bullpen has taken many hits, but Joey Devine will be more than just a replacement. “

***BREAKING NEWS***

Apparently not wanting to miss the party, Ronald Melkonian agreed to a trade just before this went to press. The deal was with Guerra, and they had to wait a few days for the new weeks because Guerra had completed two trades in the previous week.

Melkonian, within striking distance of first place in the Central, made a curious deal. He acquired some young depth, but traded away were stalwarts in three different spots. Sent to the Rebels were five unestablished players: 1B Justin Smoak, 2B Dustin Ackley, OF Austin Jackson, RHP Wade Davis and LHP Mike Minor. In return, Sin City picked up 2B Ian Kinsler, OF Jason Bay, RHP John Axford and two PTBNs.

It will remain to be seen how this affects the Rebels’ chances of competing. And with their previous two deals, Sin City appeared to be giving up on 2011 and preparing for 2012. But dealing all of the young talent for some high-salaried established players appears to signify Guerra wants to compete this year.

HUDSON FLIRTS WITH NO-NO

2011-06-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

Hudson dominated the Creepers...but did he get enough run support?

May 24: The Pottsylvania Creepers traveled to Central California to face the .45s and young starter Daniel Hudson. Batter-after-batter and inning-after-inning, the righty set down Creeper batters with ease, until he was on the verge of BARB history.

The temperature in Fresno was a sweltering 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Typically, the baseball soars in hotter air, but tonight was different. Maybe .45s management decided to use the humidor; maybe Boris Badenov exchanged Pottsylvania ‘s maple bats for balsa wood. In any case, the Creepers flailed all night against Hudson (3-4, 3.71).

Hudson opened the game by getting Erick Aybar on a first-pitch pop-up. Matt Kemp and Carlos Pena grounded and flied out, respectively, to complete an eight-pitch inning. The top of the second was even shorter, as Hudson needed just five pitches to dispatch Aramis Ramirez, Ryan Ludwick and Brad Hawpe. The story was the same through the next two innings, making Hudson perfect through four on 43 pitches.

The .45s offense, however, wasn’t doing much better. Manny Delcarmen, normally a reliever who has been pressed into starting duty, didn’t allow a hit through four innings himself. He did have some control problems, walking five. The bottom of the fourth was where Delcarmen started to lose it. He walked Matt Holliday and Prince Fielder. Dan Uggla grounded out to second base to move both runners up, but Ramon Hernandez walked to load the bases.

Light-hitting but speedy Alcides Escobar made contact on a 1-2 pitch, but it was right back at Delcarmen. The hurler came home for one out, and John Jaso fired to first base to complete the double play.

Hudson came back out to start the fifth and got Ramirez and Ludwick. Hawpe, however, didn’t take the bat off his shoulder in a five-pitch, perfect-game ending walk. Hudson was miffed, but he got his focus back and induced a groundout off the bat of Skip Schumaker.

As mentioned, Delcarmen is usually a reliever. He’d thrown 63 pitches, and his fatigue was evident in the three walks he issued in the fourth. With that in mind, Creepers manager Will Clark replaced Delcarmen with Pat Neshek (1-2, 4.50) to open the fifth. Aaron Hill also came in to play second base in place of Schumaker, and the ball found him immediately. Alex Gordon smashed a ball straight down in front of the plate and high into the air. Hill rushed in behind the mound and tried to make the bare-hand play, but he double-clutched and Gordon reached without a throw. The official scorer played the “home” card and ruled the first hit of the ballgame!

Hudson laid down a sacrifice bunt, but Michael Bourn flied out for the second out. Hunter Pence, however, grounded the ball through the middle and into center field. Gordon, off with contact, scored easily and the .45s led, 1-0!

Buoyed by the run “support”, Hudson set down the next six Pottsylvania hitters in order. One runner allowed on a walk through seven innings was making the crowd antsy in expectation.

The top of the eighth opened on a Ludwick fly out. Hideki Matsui pinch-hit for Hawpe and grounded to Gordon, but the throw sailed past Fielder! Matsui gained second base, and the official scorer rightfully gave a two-base throwing error. That brought Danny Valencia to the plate. Valencia worked the count to 2-1, and Hudson came to the inside corner with a fastball. Valencia took a hack and splinters flew everywhere, but the ball floated toward center field. Escobar made a head-long dive. Would the ball find leather or…

…GRASS!

A lucky hit, but a hit nonetheless! Seven and one-third hitless innings, all for a broken-bat single. The home crowd gave Hudson a standing ovation. He acknowledged it but quickly got back to business: a one-run lead with runners on first and third (Matsui was only able to advance one base) in the eighth. Ace closer Brian Wilson ran to the bullpen and hurriedly began throwing. The .45s pulled the infield in, and they were rewarded when John Jaso rolled over on a 2-0 fastball. Dan Uggla fired home, and Matsui was easily erased. Hill had a chance to tie it, but a can of corn to right field kept Ron Flautz’ club in the lead.

Flautz stuck with Hudson and his 93 pitches for the ninth, even with Wilson warm. Kemp and Pena singled with one out, but Bourn’s throw from center field nailed Kemp trying to make third base. With two out, Hudson threw a change-up to pinch-hitter Yuniesky Betancourt that was golfed into center. Bourn moved two steps to his left and squeezed it for the final out!

It wasn’t a no-hitter, but Hudson did throw a masterful three-hit shutout. He left the mound to a thunderous ovation after his club’s 22^nd win of the year.

In other BARB action:

PHILADELPHIA 3, NEW ENGLAND 0

WP: Roy Halladay (7-2, 1.67)

LP: Alexi Ogando (2-1, 3.43)

Roy Halladay scattered 10 hits to throw his BARB-leading fourth shutout of the season. Halladay also walked one and his defense made an error, but three double plays helped keep the Yankee Stompers with goose eggs on the board. The Rebels scored twice off of New England starter Alexi Ogando in the first and once off Kerry Wood in the sixth to provide Halladay all of the run support he needed.

YUMA 5, CASSELTON 4

WP: Matt Thornton (1-0, 3.27)

LP: Mike Adams (1-2, 2.78)

WORCESTER 6, FROSTBITE FALLS 5

WP: Heath Bell (6-1, 2.25)

LP: Joakim Soria (1-8, 5.59)

SV: Rivera (10)

Frostbite Falls lit up Worcester starter Ted Lilly for five runs over the first five innings, but the Eliminator bullpen held the hosts scoreless in the final four innings as their offense picked it up. Worcester scored twice in the sixth and seventh before Hanley Ramirez’ one-out, two-run ninth-inning homer off Joakim Soria put the Elims up for the first time, and for good. Albert Pujols doubled and homered to drive in three runs in the losing effort.

AC/BC 2, ST. FRANCIS 1

WP: Brian Duensing (1-0, 2.16)

LP: Bronson Arroyo (4-6, 4.19)

SV: Walden (5)

Milton Bradley’s two-run bomb provided the only scoring AC/BC needed to beat Bronson Arroyo on the road in St. Francis. Arroyo was two outs away from a three-hit shutout, but Alexei Ramirez muffed a David Ortiz grounder before Bradley’s shot. Jordan Walden allowed a Kevin Youkilis triple and Shin-Soo Choo walk in the bottom of the ninth, but Paul Konerko struck out to end the game.

KONERKO TEES OFF

2011-06-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

Konerko punched a hole in the BARB record books

May 22: The St. Francis Friars traveled to Southern California for a showdown against the cellar-dwelling Los Angeles Wolverines. What transpired was an exercise called “batting practice” for the Friars—and just plain exercise for Wolverine pitchers and fielders.

The barrage began on the second pitch from LA starter Jordan Zimmerman (2-4, 5.40). Kelly Johnson, after taking a strike, drove a single right back through the box. Kevin Youkilis also singled, moving Johnson to third base. Shin-Soo Choo scored Johnson on a force play at second and just beat out the return throw to first, which brought up Paul Konerko. The first baseman, who began his career with the Dodgers, planted a Zimmerman pitch in the left-center bleachers at Chavez Ravine for a quick 3-0 lead.

Youkilis led off the third inning with a homer to almost the same spot as Konerko’s blast. Wolverine management decided Zimmerman had done enough, and Tom Gorzelanny was brought in. The lefty immediately got fly outs from Choo and Konerko. Jose Bautista, however, beat out a slow roller before advancing to second base on a Chris Coghlan error that would have ended the inning. Felix Pie took advantage of the mistake, singling in Bautista. A.J. Pierzynski then doubled into the left field corner to score both Chris Young and Pie, and the St. Francis advantage was 7-0.

Gorzelanny started the fourth and faced both Choo and Konerko a second time, but this go-‘round he didn’t have the success of the previous inning. The inning began well, with Johnson striking out. Youkilis took one of his trademark walks, however, and Choo lined a single to right. That brought up Konerko, who blasted an “oppo” shot—halfway up the right field bleachers! That made it 10-0. The normally late-arriving fans were just getting in their seats, and already the home team was in a nearly-insurmountable hole.

Roy Oswalt, meanwhile, was cruising through the young, but talented, Wolverine lineup. Through four innings, Oswalt scattered two singles, struck out three and induced a double play. With the big lead, he was able to go into cruise control, though he did get into trouble in the fifth, when it was already 15-0.

That was because the Friars scored another five runs in the top of the fifth inning. Jeff Francis, who replaced Gorzelanny in the fourth, sandwiched a fly out and strikeout around a single. Youkilis singled again, but Francis appeared to be out of the frame when Choo grounded one to the left of second base. Normally sure-handed Starlin Castro, however, let this one bounce off his glove and everyone was safe. Konerko, up next, was held in the park, but he still blooped one into center for two runs. The next batter was Bautista, and this time he let his uppercut swing do its work. The ball was hit into the left field stands, a three-run home run.

In the bottom of the fifth, Los Angeles finally got on the board. Lance Berkman knocked in Nick Swisher and advanced to second base on a Young error before Mark Reynolds doubled him in.

The sixth went quietly, but in the seventh inning Brian Fuentes allowed Konerko’s third clout of the game, a two-run shot to make the score 17-2, which would be the final.

How big was Konerko’s day? His nine runs batted in are tied for fourth-best in a game in BARB since 2005 (2003 and 2004 records are not available, unfortunately). His three home runs marked the second time in his BARB career he’d accomplished that feat. Amazingly, the 17 Friar runs were seven short of their team record. In July of 2010, Scott Hatfield’s squad put up 24 on the Arizona Thunder…

In other BARB action:

FROSTBITE FALLS 13, BROOKLYN 2

WP: Brett Anderson (2-2, 4.53)

LP: Jon Lester (4-2, 3.91)

The Flying Squirrels had one of their biggest scoring outbursts of the season with an eight-run fourth inning in support of Brett Anderson’s complete game. Rickie Weeks, Albert Pujols and Jose Reyes all homered, although none of them came in the fourth, and Reyes and Jayson Werth drove in three runs apiece. Anderson allowed eight hits and two walks as part of his 118-pitch outing (84 for strikes), and he struck out six Moabs. Troy Tulowitzki had both Brooklyn RBI on a single in the sixth.

LOS ANGELES 9, CASSELTON 3

WP: Trevor Cahill (2-6, 6.46)

LP: R.A. Dickey (2-5, 5.91)

Just two days before Konerko’s outburst, the Wolverines had their own three-home-run game. Mark Reynolds somehow made contact in every at bat, going 3-for-3 in addition to a walk. Reynolds, however, hit three solo shots, which is a record for the franchise’s time in Los Angeles. Two of the home runs were down the left field line, and one was to right-center field. Trevor Cahill benefitted from the power show, throwing eight strong innings while appearing to start to live up to the level at which most people thought he’d perform.

NEW ENGLAND 7, YUMA 6 (15)

WP: Craig Breslow (2-0, 9.88)

LP: Tyler Clippard (2-1, 1.37)

“Western” Division rivals New England and Yuma had a marathon of a game, with the host Yankee Stompers prevailing in the bottom of the 15^th when a two-out Torii Hunter ground ball went through the legs of defensive replacement Felipe Lopez at second base. New England scored twice on a double by David Ross (a former Yuma backstop) to tie the game in the ninth, and both teams scored two in the 10^th before zeros from the 11^th through 14^th. Newly-acquired Craig Breslow earned the victory after getting one out to close the top of the 15^th.

JIMENEZ, WEAVER, HALLADAY SHINE ON THE MOUND

2011-06-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

BROOKLYN 2, AC/BC 1 (11)

WP: Ubaldo Jimenez (2-1, 3.25)

LP: Hideki Okajima (0-3, 7.20)

Ubaldo Jimenez threw a complete game, with six hits, two walks and six strikeouts on 128 pitches through the 11 innings, and Andrew McCutchen hit a walk-off with two out in the bottom of the 11^th to increase Brooklyn’s winning streak to six. Zack Greinke earned a no-decision for Alex Coffman’s club, going eight strong with four hits allowed, one being a solo shot off the bat of Ryan Howard. Jimenez actually had a shot at a shutout, but David Ortiz’s two-out, ninth-inning double scored Alex Gonzalez from first to send the game to extra innings.

CENTRAL CA 3, FROSTBITE FALLS 1

WP: Jered Weaver (5-4, 3.88)

LP: Brett Anderson (1-2, 5.12)

Jered Weaver pitched masterfully, scattering seven hits in a complete game in Frostbite Falls. Weaver, like Jimenez (above), took a shutout into the ninth. Albert Pujols ended that bid, however, with a blast to left on the first pitch he saw of the frame. Frostbite looked to be mounting a late threat, as Victor Martinez singled on the very next pitch, but a double play and popout put Weaver back above .500 on the season. Alex Gordon homered in the victory, and Matt Holliday and Danny Espinosa also drove in runs.

YUMA 13, SIN CITY 9

WP: Matt Cain (3-4, 5.09)

LP: Jaime Garcia (4-2, 3.71)

Nick Markakis had one of his best days with the bat, going 3-for-5 with four RBI (including a bases-clearing triple) in support of Matt Cain’s eight-plus innings. Cain actually started the ninth with a 13-4 lead, but he didn’t get an out and was charged for two additional runs to inflate his season ERA. Joey Votto homered and scored three times for the Firebirds, and Buster Posey drove in two on three hits.

ST. FRANCIS 6, CASSELTON 2

WP: Roy Oswalt (3-3, 3.47)

LP: J.A. Happ (1-2, 4.01)

Roy Oswalt was masterful in his return from the disabled list, scattering nine hits and a walk in a 107-pitch complete game. With a 3-1 lead in the seventh, Shin-Soo Choo launched a three-run blast to break the game open. Choo had a run-scoring single for a four-RBI game. Kevin Youkilis also had a solo home run. Joe Nathan, who was recently banished to the back of Casselton’s bullpen, appears to be hitting his stride after pitching two perfect innings of relief with four strikeouts.

PHILADELPHIA 6, POTTSYLVANIA 0

WP: Roy Halladay (6-2, 1.90)

LP: Mark Buehrle (1-6, 5.90)

Roy Halladay threw a complete-game, four-hit shutout and even hit a two-run single as part of a four-run seventh to break the game open. The Rebels didn’t homer against crafty lefty Mark Buehrle, but Andre Ethier, Ian Kinsler and Miguel Montero all had doubles to help their team keep close behind St. Francis in the Central Division.

WORCESTER 11, NEW ENGLAND 5

WP: Craig Breslow (1-0, 11.91)

LP: Ricky Romero (3-2, 5.36)

The Yankee Stompers had nearly as many hits as the Eliminators, but gopheritits from the pitching staff put this one out of reach early on. Ricky Romero allowed three jacks, including back-to-back shots from Mark Teixeira and Delmon Young in the fourth, and the bullpen gave up two more. Both Teixiera and Young hit two out, and Robinson Cano added a late two-run bomb. Dustin Pedroia’s two home runs provided most of the offense (four runs) for the losing squad.

BELTRE A-FIRE

2011-06-11T00:02:00.000-07:00

BROOKLYN 11, CENTRAL CA 3

WP: Francisco Liriano (1-2, 5.60)

LP: Anibal Sanchez (2-4, 5.49)

Young lefty Francisco Liriano struck out 11, didn’t walk a batter and gave up just one run over eight innings, but and even bigger story was Adrian Beltre’s performance in the three-game sweep in Central California. This game, the big third baseman was 3-for-4 with three runs, two doubles and two RBI. In the series, Beltre had nine hits in 12 at-bats (.750), scored seven times, hit three doubles, a triple and three home runs, and drove in 13. Through the first two weeks of May, Beltre is 23-for-43 (.545) with seven doubles, two triples and eight jacks. He has scored 17 times and driven in 23, and he has struck out once. It’s pretty safe to say he’s already the player of the month.

CASSELTON 5, POTTSYLVANIA 1

WP: John Danks (2-2, 5.36)

LP: Chris Carpenter (3-5, 3.81)

SV: Adams (3)

Carlos Gonzalez was the offensive standout as the Horned Toads avoided a three-game sweep in the Creeper Dome. “CarGo” doubled in the first to score a run before putting the game out of reach with a two-run shot in the top of the ninth. He finished 3-for-5 to raise his average to .348. Curtis Granderson set the table with a four-hit night (two doubles and a triple) and three runs scored. New closer Mike Adams pitched 1.2 innings, allowing one hit and striking out two.

WORCESTER 7, YUMA 4

WP: Wandy Rodriguez (2-3, 3.96)

LP: Tommy Hanson (6-2, 3.41)

SV: Rivera (7)

The Eliminators spread the wealth on offense, with seven different players each driving in a run on the road in Yuma. They became the first team this season to beat up Firebirds starter Tommy Hanson (5 IP, 9 H, 5 R). The two most injury-riddled clubs in the league (ironically, also the teams that benefitted from great health in splitting the previous two world championships) played a tough three-game series, with Worcester taking two.

LOS ANGELES 13, ST. FRANCIS 5

WP: Jordan Zimmerman (2-3, 4.79)

LP: Zach Britton (0-1, 11.00)

Jordan Zimmerman coasted to seven shutout innings, allowing three hits and walking three, in The Monastery. Brian Chae’s young stars provided most of the offense. Dexter Fowler scored three runs, Starlin Castro had a run and an RBI, Carlos Santana walked four times and scored twice, and Mike Stanton had three hits and two RBI. Mark Reynolds, however, might have had the best line: 2-for-5, one run, a home run and five RBI. Jeff Francis allowed five runs in the eighth (when LA had a 13-0 lead), including a three-run long ball off the bat of Felix Pie, but the Wolverines still took two of three from the Central Division leaders.

AC/BC 7, SIN CITY 3

WP: Chad Billingsley (4-3, 3.79)

LP: James Shields (1-5, 7.11)

Chad Billingsley threw a complete game, allowing just one earned runs and striking out four, as AC/BC’s offense lit up James Shields like a parade at Disneyland. Shields, who was in high demand during free agency, gave up six runs, all earned, in five innings to see his ERA rise. Howie Kendrick hit a two-run bomb in the third and Ryan Doumit doubled and scored twice.

NEW ENGLAND 5, FROSTBITE FALLS 2

WP: Alexi Ogando (2-0, 2.13)

LP: Tim Lincecum (4-1, 2.55)

SV: Papelbon (9)

Justin Morneau hit two home runs and drove in four as the Yankee Stompers handed Tim Lincecum his first 2011 loss. Reliever-turned-starter Alexi Ogando allowed two hits and two unearned runs over 5.2 innings to earn his second victory, and the New England bullpen survived scares in the sixth, eighth and ninth innings to close it out.

BATTLE FOR CENTRAL GOES 16 INNINGS

2011-06-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

The look of a feared hitter?

The 2011 BARB season promised two almost-equal opposing forces in the Central division: Philadelphia’s starting rotation and St. Francis’ offense. On May 9, the two clashed in an epic battle that saw a total of five runs scored in the 16^th (and, obviously, last) innings. Which team came out on top? Read on to find out…

The game began as a match between two lefties: Philly’s crafty veteran Cliff Lee and youngster Zach Britton, making his first career BARB start.

It was scoreless into the top of the third, when Shin-Soo Choo gapped Lee’s 0-1 pitch with two on and two out. Result: Choo standing on second base and a 2-0 lead for Scott Hatfield’s charges.

The Rebels came right back in the bottom of the frame, when Carlos Beltran pulled a get-it-in 2-0 fastball from Britton down the left field line and inside the foul pole. “Trader Ron’s” team added to their lead in the fifth. Lee doubled to lead off, Ichiro singled, Beltran doubled, and Adrian Gonzalez singled to take the lead. Alex Rodriguez hit a double play that brought in another, and the Rebels went to the sixth with a 4-2 advantage.

The back-and-forth continued: Rod Barajas hit a solo shot in the top of the sixth to pull within one. Kevin Youkilis launched a two-run shot in the seventh to take back the lead for St. Francis. A-Gon’s two-run single put Philadelphia back on top, but a Jose Bautista 8^th-inning bomb tied it back up.

In the ninth, Choo skied a sacrifice fly to score Vernon Wells, and Francisco Cordero had a chance to save it with two out and Asdrubal Cabrera on second base in the bottom of the frame. But he had to face Matt Wieters, who lined a shot back the middle that ALMOST took off Cordero’s head! Cabrera scored easily, and into extra innings they went.

Between the 10^th through the 13^th, the only real threat was made by the Friars in the 11^th. Two walks and a single loaded the bases with just one away. Big Paul Konerko was stepping up to the plate. Konerko was 0-4 with a walk up to that point. Make that 0-5. Jose Valverde’s 2-1 offering was pounded into the ground, right at second baseman Mike Aviles. Aviles came home to Miguel Montero for one, and Montero threw to Gonzalez at first for the 4-2-3 double play.

Konerko finally reached again when his fly ball to center fielder Adam Jones was dropped in the 14^th. Konerko moved to third after a walk and force out, but J.J. Putz dropped the hammer for a big three-pitch see ya on Juan Uribe.

The Rebel offense, quiet since the ninth, finally made noise as the game went into the 15^th. Andre Ethier singled, and Jones played small ball to the T with a sac bunt. Montero was walked intentionally by Leo Nunez (in his fourth inning of work) to set up the double play. The hitter was Elvis Andrus, whose speed enables him to beat out many twin killings each year. Alexei Ramirez-Uribe-Konerko, however, was the story as Andrus ended just the inning, not the game.

J.J. Putz entered the 16^th having thrown 38 pitches over three innings of relief. He normally goes just one inning per appearance, so one could fault the current Rebel (who knows what uniform he’ll be wearing when the wind changes) for tiring. The “Greek God of Walks” recognized Putz’s fatigue, drawing a five-pitch walk. Choo, already 2-for-5 with a double and three RBI, stepped up expecting a fastball, and that’s what he got.

Ethier and Jones could only watch. Choo’s blast sailed well over the right field wall at Citizens Bank Park, and just like that the Friars had a 9-7 lead. Putz kept the ball down after that, inducing two groundouts and a strikeout. But the damage was done, and if Nunez could just get three outs the marathon would be over, in favor of St. Francis.

But Philadelphia had other ideas. Alberto Callaspo grounded a ball so weakly that Ramirez couldn’t get to it in time. Ichiro lined a single over the second baseman, and Mike Aviles put it in the two hole on the ground, bringing up big Adrian Gonzalez with no one out and the bases loaded. Nunez would have none of it, striking him out on a foul and two swing-throughs.

Next up? Putz. Unfortunately, no one was left on the Rebel bench, so the pitcher had to hit for himself. All the Friars needed was a double play, and they relaxed after seeing the batter. Putz took a ball, fouled a pitch off, and then took a good hack at a hanging curve ball, sending it past the bag…

FAIR down the left field line! Callaspo and Ichiro scored easily. Bautista, playing in on the pitcher, cut it off and held Putz to a single with Aviles advancing to third. Tie game off the bat of the PITCHER! A relief pitcher, no less! Nunez was instructed to walk Ethier intentionally to create a force at any base, and Matt Guerrier came on to face Jones and got him to pop out. That left it up to Montero. A hit or a mistake and the game is over, but an out and it could go on, and on, and on…

Montero worked the count full. Bases loaded, two out. Tie game in the bottom of the 16^th. There’s no way Guerrier would throw out of the strike zone, right?

Actually, no. A BP fastball, right down Van Ness. Montero pulled it, a sure single between third and short. Aviles scored, and just like that it was over.

The final tallies: 10 runs on 23 hits, just one error and a one-game division lead for the host Rebels. Nine runs, 12 hits and no errors for Hatfield’s squad; 12 runners left on base. Putz (1-0, 1.80) with four innings and a two-run single. Nunez (0-1, 3.38) with 4.1 IP, not able to hold the only lead he was given. A tough loss, sure, but GM Jack McKeon just sighed and threw up his hands.

“You’re not going to win them all. We have a long season ahead of us.”

In other BARB action:

ST. FRANCIS 8, PHILADELPHIA 0

WP: Brett Myers (4-3, 3.16)

LP: Ricky Nolasco (2-3, 5.32)

The Friars came back to win the second game of the three-game set, and then they sat back and watched as Brett Myers had a game for his career. Myers pitched a two-hit shutout (both were soft singles to Carlos Beltran), didn’t walk anyone and struck out three on 87 pitches. He erased Beltran on a double play after one of the hits to face just one batter over the minimum. St. Francis, which scored three runs in both the first and fifth, had a breakout game from new acquisition Felix Pie: 3-for-5, two runs, three RBI, a triple and a home run.

LOS ANGELES 6, CASSELTON 5 (1^ST game of DH)

WP: Derek Holland (1-2, 3.27)

LP: Ramon Ramirez (0-1, 2.70)

SV: Lindstrom (1)

CASSELTON 8, LOS ANGELES 3 (2^nd game of DH)

WP: R.A. Dickey (2-4, 6.96)

LP: Tim Hudson (1-4, 4.70)

Derek Holland vultured a win after blowing a save opportunity by allowing Casselton to tie the game in the sixth after they put runners on against Jordan Zimmerman. Ramon Ramirez took the loss after committing an error in the bottom of the eighth that lead to a sacrifice fly from Luke Scott, who was 2-for-2 with two runs and two RBI. Horned Toads starter John Danks didn’t finish three innings. He walked five and allowed three hits and three runs, all earned.

Travis Hafner (?!) and Jay Bruce hit back-to-back triples as part of a five-run fifth inning as the Horned Toads beat the Wolverines at Chavez Ravine in game two. To be fair, Hafner’s “triple” was just a liner that centerfielder Nick Swisher couldn’t come up with on the dive, but it wasn’t ruled an error. Hafner drove in a total of three runs in support of R.A. Dickey. The knuckleballer went eight strong, giving up five hits and two earned runs while walking one…and without any wild pitches.

POTTSYLVANIA 6, SIN CITY 4 (1^ST game of DH)

WP: Chris Carpenter (3-4, 3.81)

LP: James Shields (1-4, 6.55)

SV: Marmol (7)

SIN CITY 14, POTTSYLVANIA 5 (2^nd game of DH)

WP: Jaime Garcia (4-1, 2.79)

LP: Mark Buehrle (1-5, 5.89)

Carlos Pena raised his average to a robust .170 with a 4-for-4 day with four RBI. Two of the runs came on a two-run shot in the first inning, and Pena added run-scoring singles in the second and fourth innings in support of Chris Carpenter, who inched closer to .500 with a workman-like six and two-thirds innings (nine hits, four runs allowed on 111 pitches). Aaron Hill, batting .100, added a possibly wind-aided home run to left at the Creeper Dome.

The Cowboys salvaged a single win in the three-game set when the offense broke out for 18 hits, six of them home runs (each from a different hitter), and Jaime Garcia pitched well enough to earn his fourth victory against just a single loss. Sin City scored four times in the third inning and then got the circuit clout party started with back-to-back shots from Gaby Sanchez and Brandon Phillips in the fourth. Kurt Suzuki, Alex Rios and Colby Rasmus went long in the sixth (none in a row), and David Wright ended the scoring with a two-run homer off the pole in left in the seventh.

BLOG FINISHED

2011-06-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

The different features of the BARB blog have been finished. The standings and stats are posted and rosters are updated. Check it out.

I will try to keep the standings updated with the posted games. The top of the standings tells you what date we're at (although we're actually a little bit behind on reporting games right now; trying to get caught up soon). Stats will hopefully be updated weekly or bi-weekly, BARB-time.

RECENT GAME ACTION

2011-06-08T00:57:00.000-07:00

Hudson showed off his arm...and bat

CENTRAL CA 11, BROOKLYN 6

WP: Daniel Hudson (2-3, 4.11)

LP: Yovani Gallardo (3-2, 4.72)

Daniel Hudson may have allowed nine hits (three of the long balls) and six runs (four earned), but he was allowed to stay in the game and pitch seven innings for two reasons: first, the .45s scored seven times in the fourth (and 10 total in the fourth-through-sixth innings). Second, Hudson was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI. Both RBI came on one of the doubles as part of the big fourth frame. Adrian Beltre had another multi-homer game for the hosts, with two to drive in three runs, but only Beltre and Troy Tulowitzki (HR, 3 RBI) provided any offense for the perennial contenders.

ST. FRANCIS 7, LOS ANGELES 0 (1^ST game of DH)

WP: Bronson Arroyo (3-4, 4.98)

LP: Jordan Zimmerman (1-3, 5.40)

LOS ANGELES 11, ST. FRANCIS 3 (2^nd game of DH)

WP: Tom Gorzelanny (2-2, 3.33)

LP: Kevin Correia (1-1, 7.00)

Bronson Arroyo threw a four-hit shutout with two strikeouts and benefitted from two Jose Bautista home runs in the first game of a double header in Los Angeles. Arroyo had a perfect game into the fifth before Nick Swisher lined a solid single to left field, and he escaped trouble (runners in scoring position) in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Jordan Zimmerman pitched well, giving up three runs (just one earned) in six frames, but Michael Pineda got rocked for back-to-back homers from Bautista and Vernon Wells in the seventh to break the game open.

In the second game, Los Angeles’ offense finally showed signs of breaking out of its opening slump. Kevin Correia, making his second (and possibly last) spot start, gave up five runs, all earned, on five hits and two walks in one-plus inning. The Wolverines continued teeing off on the Friar bullpen, scoring twice on Matt Guerrier and four times in the sixth off Joaquin Benoit. Six different Wolverines had multiple hits, and Mike Stanton drove in four. Edwin Jackson, the LA starter, didn’t reach two innings (giving up all three runs), but the relievers picked up the slack with seven and 1/3 scoreless innings.

NEW ENGLAND 4, FROSTBITE FALLS 3 (10)

WP: Tim Stauffer (4-2, 1.88)

LP: Chris Perez (3-1, 1.69)

SV: Papelbon (8)

Jed Lowrie blasted a Chris Perez pitch to the top row in center field at Rocky Top for a solo homer in the 10^th to make a winner out of Tim Stauffer, who pitched two scoreless innings with one hit and one walk. Felix Hernandez (7.2 IP, 3 R, 8 K) and Max Scherzer (7 IP, 3 R, 7 K) were matched pitch-for-pitch, but neither side could gain an advantage while they were in the game.

WORCESTER 5, YUMA 4 (10)

WP: Heath Bell (3-1, 2.70)

LP: Luke Gregerson (2-1, 3.38)

Two long home runs from Joey Votto weren’t enough, as Robinson Cano hit a walk-off to right in the 10^th to give the Eliminators the win in the matchup of the previous two BARB champions. Mark Teixiera and Michael Morse also homered for the defending champs. Cano’s shot came after three strikeouts and a flyout in regulation and drew Worcester a game closer to East-leading Frostbite Falls.

CASSELTON, NEW ENGLAND DEAL TWICE

2011-06-07T00:49:00.000-07:00

It's becoming a tradition: during the first few days of a new trading period (after exhausting all allowable deals the previous month), James Herndon is on the horn and ready to continue trying to improve his team.

This time, his trading partners included Landon Bolt (Casselton) and Matt Caskey (Worcester). The first swap of June, however, was actually a challenge trade between Bolt and Ronald Melkonian (a name we curiously haven’t seen in the trade announcements in a while).

In that trade, one of the most expensive players in the league was dealt to his fourth team of the year. Derek Jeter, with a $10.5 million salary, was headed back to the eastern United States and getting ready to don the red, white and blue of the Philadelphia Rebels. In addition to the aging shortstop, Shawn Marcum went from the defending Central Division champs to one of the trendy picks of 2011.

In return, the Horned Toads picked up two players who were expected to help with the stick and the leather, outfielder Carlos Beltran and infielder Asdrubal Cabrera, along with young outfielder Jose Tabata (more on him later). John Lackey was also a part of the deal, but Bolt cut him immediately after taking him on to satisfy Philly’s salary cap.

Melkonian was excited about the prospect of another shutdown starting pitcher. “Not only will we feature Halladay and Lee, but Marcum will boast it even further. With Nolasco and Garza to complete the back end, we are continuing to push towards a playoff berth this season. We also get a great vet in Jeter to help our offense and defense this season.”

Casselton, meanwhile, turned around and dealt Tabata, righties Alexi Ogando and Fautino De Los Santos and outfielder Chris Carter to New England for three veterans: Curtis Granderson, Scott Rolen and Gavin Floyd.

While no formal statement was issued by Bolt, it can be assumed that he wasn’t happy with his team’s performance so far but felt his squad could still compete, so he upgraded defensively at third base and centerfield and wanted to add a solid arm after losing Marcum. Herndon did hold a press conference to announce the new acquisitions—and wonder aloud about Melkonian’s moves.

“We’ve been pursuing Tabata since the beginning of the season, and we believe Philadelphia undervalued him. Talks with Philadelphia fell through, but Landon Bolt called and offered us Tabata along with other players we’ve been looking at. We think De Los Santos will be closing many games for us in the future, Ogando will be a staff ace and Carter will smash many a long ball over the Green Monster.

“Not often does a deal benefit both teams, but I feel both Casselton and New England came out on top in this trade. Philadelphia, on the other hand? I’m not sure what you can say about the situation, but their aggressiveness to win now may end up costing them the season. It is still early, though, and ‘Trader Ron’ can pull off another trade.”

Afterward, Herndon and Caskey agreed to a minor deal that likely won’t have too much impact for either team this season. Worcester, confident in their bullpen and outfield, sent Craig Breslow and Ryan Kalish a few miles across Massachusetts and picked up utility man Brent Lillibridge.

OVEREXTENDED?

2011-06-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

Arguably one of the best pitchers in the Central, Josh Johnson (1-3, 5.05) has fallen on hard times after an epic 10-inning outing two starts ago, raising concerns that he may need to go on the DL after being routed in the first half of a doubleheader in Anaheim.

In the first game, Johnson sailed through the first two innings against visiting St. Francis unscathed, but seemingly became unnerved after Alexei Ramirez and Kelly Johnson hit back-to-back doubles in the third. A wild pitch scored Ramirez, and a Kevin Youkilis single plated Johnson, and the Friars was just getting started. Jose Bautista knocked Johnson out with a two-run single, and Vernon Wells hit a three-run bomb off reliever Kevin Gregg, and the rout was on. Ramirez would later add an RBI triple off Gregg, and Youkilis a two-run belt off Hideki Okajima. All of this made easy pickings for LHP Clayton Richard (1-1, 7.16), who (as his ERA suggests) had been pretty worthless for much of the year. The fact that a hurler like Richard could've exploited their suddenly-vulnerable ace had to make Alex Coffman's Ball Club more than a little concerned.

AC/BC rallied in the nightcap, however, getting a complete game effort from their other ace, LHP Clayton Kershaw (3-3, 2.09), handing a previously-undefeated Jorge De la Rosa (4-1, 2.84) his first loss, with a little help from underperforming OF Milton Bradley, whose .075 batting average had him earmarked for a possible early release.

In other BARB action:

FROSTBITE FALLS 5, BROOKLYN 2

WP: Tim Lincecum (3-0, 1.96)
LP: Justin Verlander (1-1, 4.40)
SV: Soria (5)

IF Michael Young led off the fourth with an epic triple, then scored on Jose Reyes's RBI double to snap a 2-2 tie and help Tim Lincecum remain undefeated in front of the home folks at Frostbite Falls. Squirrels 1B Albert Pujols hit an insurnance home run, his 7th of the year, against reliever Daniel Bard.

WORCESTER 3, SIN CITY 2

WP: Ryan Dempster (1-2, 4.91)
LP: Travis Wood (1-3, 3.09)
SV: Rivera (5)

Mark Teixeira had four hits, including a two-run insurance double in the eighth, while Ryan Dempster took a shutout into the eighth before needing help, as the defending world champs held on to win on the road in Sin City. In the only bright spot for the Cowboys, 2B Brandon Philips hit a two-run bomb on Dempster's 113th pitch to make the game close for the home team.

YUMA 3, CASSELTON 2

WP: Rafael Soriano (1-1, 2.30)
LP: Carlos Zambrano (2-2, 2.91)

Bidding for a shutout, Matt Cain surrendered a two-run single to Travis Hafner in the top of the ninth, but reliever Rafael Soriano became the pitcher of record after the Horned Toads let 'Big Z' come out to work the bottom of the frame in a 2-2 tie. Zambrano allowed back-to-back singles to lead off the inning, then could only stare in disgust as reliever Joe Nathan coughed up a walkoff double to Denard Span. The bullpen such a strength for the defending Central champs last season, continues to betray Landon Bolt's club in 2011.

POTTSYLVANIA 7, CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 5

WP: Aroldis Chapman (3-1, 1.93)
LP: Hiroki Kuroda (2-2, 4.75)
SV: Pena (1)

Matt Kemp went deep twice for the second time in three games, and Hideki Matsui and Ryan Ludwick also both took the .45's starter deep, while unheralded Tony Pena bailed out Carlos Marmol after the Creepers' regular closer let the opposition back in the game with five baserunners in six at-bats.

NEW ENGLAND 6, PHILADELPHIA 3

WP: Gio Gonzalez (2-2, 4.98)
LP: Ricky Nolasco (1-1, 4.58)
SV: Papelbon (6)

Streaking New England kept pace with defending Eastern champ Yuma with another explosion of offense, with both Curtis Granderson and Miguel Cabrera collecting three hits at the expense of the Rebels pitching staff. Tim Stauffer, a potential future starter for the Yankee Stompers, earned his first hold with a pair of scoreless innings to hold Philadelphia in check.

PARDON OUR DUST

2011-06-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

League,

Over the next week or so the blog design will be updated. Ronald Melkonian and I will be adding features and changing the design a bit. The changes will allow for more readily-accessible rosters, stats and standings.

I will still be posting game descriptions and trades (and hopefully delve into other areas, such as the MLB draft), but it might look a little funky for a while.

BELTRE WINS POWER STRUGGLE IN EASTERN SPLIT

2011-05-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

Rocky Top---"Anything he can do, I can do better." Or at least, so it seemed early in May, as Brooklyn Moabs 3B Adrian Beltre came out on top against Squirrels OF Jayson Werth, three homers to two, to ensure a split of a twi-night doubleheader on the road against Frostbite Falls.

In the opening game, Jason Heyward proved impossible for C John Buck to corral on the basepaths and Werth proved his...well, mettle. Heyward singled with two down in the third, and launched for second on the first pitch to Werth. Werth drilled the ball over a leaping Ben Zobrist and Heyward, never hesitating, scored on what would be a double. Frostbite Falls led, 1-0! Brooklyn brought things even when Andrew McCutchen singled, swiped second and scored on a groundout in the fourth, then went ahead in the sixth on Ryan Howard's team-leading 5th HR, and appeared ready to send things to the bullpen.

But, again, Heyward and Werth made Yovanni Gallardo (3-1, 3.93) pay. Heyward worked a walk to lead off the bottom of the sixth, and Werth again made hard contact with the runner on the move, a second RBI double that tied the affair at 2-2.

Felix Hernandez couldn't hold it against Brooklyn's bench, however. Pinch-hitter Daric Barton worked a two-out walk, and Hernandez inexplicably hit Gallardo to put Barton at second, where he scored two pitches later on a single by pinch-hitter Ian Stewart. Brooklyn led, 3-2, and seemed ready to put things in the hands of their bullpen, especially since Gallardo had been hit by a pitch. For reasons unknown, Gallardo was instead allowed to start the eighth, and the first two hitters he would face....you guessed it....Hayward and Werth.

Heyward walked on a 3-1 pitch. Gallardo got ahead of Werth, but his 1-2 offering was BELTED well back, over the wall in right center....a two-run poke, and a 4-3 Frostbite lead! Middleman Chris Perez (3-0, 0.79) got the win, and Joakim Soria worked around a walk to Brian McCann to collect his fourth save: Frostbite Falls had one a tough game in the opener, 4-3!

In the nightcap, Werth would supply more offensive juice, hitting his second HR of the day and team-leading 9th overall, driving a pair of runs against Jon Lester (3-0, 3.45). But it wouldn't be enough, because Moabs 3B Adrian Beltre had a career day. Beltre hit a solo homer leading off the second, hit an RBI double in the fourth and scored, and smashed a two-out bomb in the fifth, all at the expense of Cole Hamels (2-3, 3.86). Beltre would cap his big day with another solo shot against reliever Eric O'Flaherty, as he and his club romped to an easy 8-2 win! So, on the day overall, Beltre went 4-for-9 overall, but his four hits, all for extra bases, were the winning margin by a long shot in helping the Moabs salvage a split.

With his big day, Beltre took over the team lead in HR (6) and RBI (19), and is hitting .262 overall after being let go by the Eliminators in favor of younger, cheaper, talent.

In other BARB action:

YUMA 4, CASSELTON 2

WP: Tommy Hanson (5-1, 3.40)
LP: Shawn Marcum (1-3, 4.32)
SV: Soriano (10)

Buster Posey snapped a 2-2 tie with a seventh-inning sac fly, Rafael Soriano collected his BARB-leading 10th save of the season and the visiting Horned Toads hurt their own cause by rapping into three double plays to help keep the defending Central champs below .500 in mid-May.

ST. FRANCIS 8, AC/BC 4

WP: Kevin Correia (1-0, 2.25)
LP: Chad Billingsley (2-3, 4.54)

With both Dallas Braden and Roy Oswalt sidelined, the Friars called up veteran Kevin Correia to make a spot start on the road in Anaheim, and Correia had a strong effort: despite ten hits, the minor-league free agent went eight innings, allowing only two earned, while getting plenty of run support, as both Kevin Youkilis and Jose Bautista homered.

POTTSYLVANIA 4, CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 0

WP: Tony Pena (1-0, 4.05)
LP: Daniel Hudson (1-3, 3.92)

Matt Kemp homered twice, driving in three runs to support Koji Uehara and three relievers, who combined on a six-hit shutout to get Pena a win and escape the cellar in the highly-competitive Central Division. Grant Balfour and Carlos Marmol combined to fan five of the last six .45 hitters, dropping the Central Cal's below .500 in the Western Division, behind both Yuma and AC/BC . . .

PHILADELPHIA 5, NEW ENGLAND 3

WP: Cliff Lee (3-1, 3.15)
LP: Max Scherzer (2-2, 5.40)
SV: Jose Valverde (10)

Former Darwin farmhand Max Scherzer's first start in a New England 'uni' was ruined by poor defense in the fourth, as a passed ball by J.P. Arencibia and a dropped fly led to three unearned runs, while Alex Rodriguez had a perfect day at the plate (3 H, 2 BB) as part of the Rebels 13-hit attack.

THE POSEY ISSUE

2011-05-27T23:34:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure you've heard, Giants star catcher Buster Posey is pretty much done for the year after getting leveled by the Marlins' Scott Cousins. In fact, you may have heard Chris Melkonian yelling and screaming at the baseball gods, considering Yuma's many injuries before this atrocity.

Casselton's Landon Bolt has written up a little piece with his views:

http://hornedtoads.blogspot.com/2011/05/poseying-question.html

Check it out!

NEW ENGLAND SCORES 10...IN ONE INNING

2011-05-27T16:53:00.000-07:00

Down, 5-1, after eight innings in Casselton, the New England Yankee Stompers executed one of the biggest comebacks in BARB history, exploding for double-digits in the top of the ninth to take two of three from the Horned Toads.

Casselton scored three in the first, including a two-run single by Casey McGehee, and one each on a “Pronk” double in the sixth and Mike Napoli moonshot in the seventh. The 5-0 lead seemed insurmountable as John Danks dominated through seven: three hits and four walks allowed, and three rally-killing double-plays induced.

In the eighth, the visitors got on the board when David Ross (?!) found Target Field’s 411-foot left-center field gap and slid in with a triple before scoring on Ryan Raburn’s groundout.

With just 93 pitches through eight, Danks was sent out to start the ninth inning. Dustin Pedroia, however, greeted him with a single, and after Justin Morneau launched a two-run shot, Casselton management turned to the ‘pen. First up was ousted closer Joe Nathan (1-3, 6.75), who got Miguel Cabrera to fly out. A three-two pitch to Corey Hart was slung just inside the foul pole, though, and all of a sudden it was a one-run game. Nathan was visibly upset and walked Aubrey Huff, but he recovered to induce what appeared to be a game-ending double play from Ross. McGehee, playing second, couldn’t come up with it! Instead of a save and confidence for Nathan, two were on with just one away and dangerous Adam Dunn stepping up as a pinch-hitter.

Dunn hit it hard, but he was the second out as McGehee corralled it before the ball hit the ground. But Nathan walked Torii Hunter to bring up Jed Lowrie, who smoked a ball to left field…

JUST OUT OF REACH of diving Carlos Gonzalez! When the dust cleared, Lowrie was standing on third base with three RBI and a 7-5 New England lead. Alexei Ogando was brought on to face Dustin Pedroia, who beat out a slow chopper to short as Lowrie scored. Morneau was walked intentionally (after Pedroia stole second and moved to third on a throwing error), and “Miggy” stepped up again. This time, he met the ball perfectly. A three-run blast to right-center, and the advantage was 11-5.

Casselton had a shot in the bottom of the ninth, when Clay Hensley allowed two runs, but Jonathon Papelbon earned his fifth save by striking out Travis Hafner on four pitches.

The beneficiary of the run support? Kerry Wood (1-0, 2.92), who pitched the sixth, seventh and eighth while allowing just one run. With the win, New England improved to 17-12 and second place in the surprisingly competitive Western Division. Defending Central champ Casselton, meanwhile, continued an early-season slump and fell to 9-14, 5.5 games out in their division.

In other BARB action:

CENTRAL CA 3, LOS ANGELES 1 (1^st game of DH)

WP: Hiroki Kuroda (2-1, 4.17)

LP: Edwin Jackson (0-5, 4.99)

SV: Wilson (7)

In a rare pitching duel, Hiroki Kuroda and hard-luck Edwin Jackson matched up with eight innings and three hits apiece. Alex Gordon got the scoring started with a first-inning home run off Jackson. Mike Stanton returned the favor in the seventh to tie it up, but the .45s broke through in the ninth. Jackson, left in while throwing a shutout after the first, allowed a first-pitch single to Matt Holliday and was immediately pulled for Derek Holland. An error, groundout and two singles, however, put the .45s on top for good. Brian Wilson finished it out with his seventh save and lowered his ERA to 0.69.

CENTRAL CA 8, LOS ANGELES 3 (2^nd game of DH)

WP: Anibal Sanchez (2-2, 4.91)

LP: Tom Gorzelanny (1-2, 4.15)

The .45s completed a three-game sweep and won their 10th game (with no losses) against Los Angeles (who lost their 11^th straight overall) in the young season. The Wolverines actually had an early lead, and the game was tied at two into the fifth, but Tom Gorzelanny (into the game after Aaron Harang’s fourth walk) allowed three runs on four singles and a walk. Los Angeles answered with one run in the bottom half, but Central CA closed it out with one in the seventh and two in the eighth for the final margin.

POTTSYLVANIA 3, AC/BC 1

WP: Jeremy Hellickson (2-3, 4.58)

LP: Clayton Kershaw (2-3, 1.91)

SV: Carlos Marmol (6)

Clayton Kershaw pitched well, allowing three earned runs on four hits over eight frames (with seven Ks), but Jeremy Hellickson won the duel of young stars with 8.2 IP, five hits and one run. In fact, Hellickson was two outs away from a shutout before Ryan Doumit homered to right on a 3-2 count. Carlos Marmol came in after an out and a walk from Hellickson and struck out Milton Bradley to end it. All three of the Creepers’ runs came on a Brad Hawpe laser over the left field fence in the seventh.

YUMA 4, ST. FRANCIS 3

WP: David Price (4-1, 2.90)

LP: Brett Myers (4-3, 4.62)

SV: Rafael Soriano (9)

The Firebirds, winners of eight of their last 10 and 21-8 overall, took two of the three games at St. Francis to push the Friars behind Philadelphia in the Central. St. Francis had the edge early on the back of Kevin Youkilis. The Greek God of Walks put his power to good use for solo shots in the fourth and sixth and a 2-0 lead. Joey Votto, however, answered with a two-run shot in the seventh to tie it, and four singles scored two runs in the top of the eighth to put Yuma ahead. Shin-Soo Choo did what he could to pull St. Francis closer in the ninth, with a double, a daring advance on a flyout to center, and a sprint home on a groundout, but Neil Walker hit a can of corn to earn Rafael Soriano his BARB-leading ninth save.