Tweet
09/26/2061
We had a magic unicorn this week as Indy went 7-0. The Clowns swept Pittsburgh and Santo Domingo, which aren't great feats, but regardless it has still been a heck of turnaround. They are now +14 since August 1st, have a winning record for the first time since April, and have completely destroyed their chance of a top ten draft pick. Okay well maybe it's not all good. Other top weeks were the Roadrunners who went 6-1 and California who went 5-1. Phoenix now has a three game lead on the Kodiaks and is almost a lock to win the division, their second straight Bock title. Finally we had Maine, Seattle, and New Orleans all go 5-2. It looks like we have a lot of playoff teams going into the postseason en fuego.
Power Rankings
1) Phoenix Roadrunners (117.3, ++)
2) California Kodiaks (115.9, ++)
3) New Orleans Voodoo (111.2, -)
4) Maine Guides (107.4, --)
5) Baltimore Bulldogs (104.0, ++)
6) Indianapolis Clowns (101.6, ++)
7) Montreal Exports (99.8, -)
8) Seattle Pilots (99.2, --)
9) Wilmington Wildcats (99.2, -)
10) Toronto Canadians (98.1, -)
11) New York Cyclones (98.0, -)
12) Windy City Blues (98.0, +)
13) Pawtucket Patriots (95.2, -)
14) Washington Bats (94.5, -)
15) Dallas Drillers (90.0, +)
16) Syracuse Snappers (89.6, -)
17) Denver Bulls (87.3, --)
18) Carolina Tobs (80.5, o)
19) Pittsburgh Millers (73.1, -)
20) Philadelphia Freedom (68.1, +)
21) Los Angeles Dinos (67.5, o)
22) Batavia Muckdogs (66.0, --)
23) Hartford Whalers (56.5, o)
24) Santo Domingo Rum Runners (51.1, o)
Performance of the Week
P Kurtis McClellan - The 27 year old was undrafted out of high school and the CCBL, then was signed a year later by Batavia. He was released a few months later and signed by Maine. He was released again one month later and signed by Syracuse. He ended up shooting all the way up to the 27th overall prospect in the league, and is now a three-year starter for the Snappers. This past week against Hartford he showed how dominant he can be with the #2 overall pitching performance of the season. In a complete game shutout he allowed only two hits while striking out 12. He's now 14-9 with a 3.19 ERA and 122 ERA+ on the season.
Prospect of the Week
3B Blake Bateman - Drafted 4th overall this season, Bateman went from the RL to A to AA to AAA for the Whalers. Look for the 21 year old to be in the majors by next season as scouts think he can be a multiple time All-Star at third. At Oregon he was a 2x NCAA All-Star where over 186 games he hit .341/.416/.624 with 49 HR, 174 RBI and 33 stolen bases. Looks like help is on the way Whaler fans.
Five Things We Think We Think
1. The Domestic league playoffs are set. Maine has the top seed throughout the playoffs, while it appears New Orleans has put together back to back amazing months to take the Lager. Montreal still has a long shot though as they get three at home against Toronto, while New Orleans has to travel to Wilmington. The rest of the Domestic is just positioning between Pawtucket, Wilmington and Toronto for the #2-4 Wild Card seeds. In the Import it comes down to Seattle and Windy City for the final Wild Card spot, while Baltimore and New York are in a tie for the Stout crown. Seattle has a two game lead on the Blues and plays three at home against Phoenix, Windy City has three at home against LAD, New York has three at home against Washington, and Baltimore has three at home against Carolina.
2. California is hot, and so is Rory Elia Jr. The 21 year old rookie is hitting .467 with 4 HR and 9 RBI over his last nine games, and the Kodiaks have won eight straight. Even though Stats+ has their odds at winning the Bock at 1.4%, at least there's a chance. This was a team who started out the season 23-31 and had the GM ready to fire everyone but himself. They then went 19-9 in June and haven't posted a losing month since. If you would have told us in September they'd by 21 games over .500 with a chance to win the division back in May, well we might not have believed you. Meanwhile Elia Jr has put up a 4.8 WAR while playing 118 games at third, and according to his coaches still has a lot of development in the tank.
3. Out of the top ten teams in zone rating this season, only LAD doesn't have a chance finishing at .500, while seven of them are in or have a shot at the playoffs. Montreal leads all with a +46.41, Wilmington is second at +46.40, and Phoenix is third at +36.28. On the other side of life is Hartford at -50.87, Batavia at -49.73 and Philly at -43.03. The top player in the league is Dino's shortstop Derick Murphy who has a ridiculous +28.2 ZR this season. The worst player in the league was Toronto's second basemen Victor 'That's Too Far Way' Day. To be fair the 35 year old has some bad knees, and was never a great fielder to begin with. This season though he's posted a -15.4 ZR. If he had a bat we might not care, but he's hitting .287 with no home runs and 28 RBI in 111 games. Toronto is postseason bound, but there had to be a better second basemen out there somewhere.
4. How many players in the past 25 seasons have posted a zone rating of +25.00 or more? Including Murphy the number is six. The crazy stat is that it's been done 16 times, but Caron Wilson of California has done it 11 of those times. The 41 year old is hitting .151 this season, but in 117 games at short has managed to put up a very respectable +6.0 ZR. There are 15 players who have a career zone rating of more than 100, three players who have 200 or more, and one player who has more than 252. That would be Wilson who's career ZR is +413.0, or 161.2 points higher than second place Dane Jennings.
5. What's on tap? Well it's hard to believe but it's the last week of the regular season once again. We already discussed the big series above, as it's a huge short week for more than a few teams. Streak wise Cali has won eight straight, Indy has won seven straight, Phoenix has won six straight, and Windy City has won four straight.
Stat of the Week
.
| Cumulative Franchise Pythagorean Difference (Using pythagenpat exponent for pythagorean record) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|