Week Two
White Bear Bears beat
Midway Mets 3-0 (6-1, 6-1, 6-1)
The defending champs kept on rolling with a complete domination of the
struggling Midway Mets. Hitting was closer than the 6-1 score, but all the Mets
could take was home runs. Other than Robinson Cano, the Mets infield was a disaster
with Middlebrooks, Moustakas and Nunez combing to go 4-54. The Bears were
without Carlos Santana for most of the week, but received a consistent effort from
everyone else. Neither team pitched very
well with the Bears taking ERA 4.50-6.17. Other than Justin Masterson, the
Mets didn’t receive a 6+ inning start from everyone. Chris Sale was
particularly dreadful, giving up 8 runs in 4 1/3 innings. The Bears mistakenly
thought it was 2010 with a Ubaldo Jimenez start, but David Price finally came
back with a nice start, and they got 4.2 scoreless innings from their bullpen.
The Bears defense was dreadful (6 errors) but took the rest of the mixed
categories with an impressive 9.47 K/9. The two playoff teams from the Crisp
division are definitely headed in opposite directions.
MVP- Miguel Cabrera .333 (9-27, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 1 SB (!))
LVP- Brandon Morrow 0-1 (9.2 IP, 6.52 ERA, 1.86 WHIP, 2.79 K/9)
Roesville Raiders beat
Dinkytown Wildcats 2-1 (1-6, 6-0-1, 6-1)
In the other matchup between last year’s playoff teams, the Raiders took
advantage of injuries to Jose Reyes and Jared Weaver and dominant pitching to
take a relatively lopsided 2-1 victory. Roesville pitching was absolutely
dominant with a 1.95 ERA/1.08 WHIP/7.157 K/9 in a remarkable 55.1 innings. They
had eight starts with the two super-studs Verlander and Felix being the only
one-start pitchers on the staff. Clay Buchholz finally looked like the one-time
super prospect with a scoreless 15 innings and 2 wins. On the other side along
with the Weaver injury, J.A. Happ looked absolutely hapless (see what I did
there) and everyone else other than Derek Holland was just average. Neither team
hit very well, but Dinkytown took everything but steals with Konerko breaking
out of his slump (.333, 2 HR, 7 RBI) and 7 of their 9 hitters hitting .280 or
higher. Roesville only had three hitters that could say the same. On the mixed
side, the Raiders almost doubled the Wildcats in games pitched, dominated them
in K/9 (7.15-5.85) and had an amazing .197 batting average against. The Raiders
took a one-game lead in the Frigid division with a pitching performance for the
ages.
MVP- Clay Buchholz 2-0 (0.00 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, 19 K in 15 IP)
LVP- Nelson Cruz .154
(4-26, 1 RBI, 8 K)
Little Falls Polaks beat
Twin City Brewers 2-1 (4-3, 1-6, 4-3)
The Polaks marched into Twin City field and took a surprising 2-1 road
victory despite only taking 9 total categories. The Brewers definitely hit the
ball harder taking extra-base hits, RBI and HR, with Franklin Guttierez hitting
two dongs and Mark Reynolds knocking in seven runs. But Little Falls exhibited
some small ball, getting on base (hit .279), swiping bags (5 steals to 2) and
scoring runs (24-17). Top of the order guys Mike Trout (.292, 5 runs), Brett
Gardner (.350, 5 runs) and Coco Crisp (.333, 5 runs, 4 SB) all contributed to
the difference. Twin City took pitching with ease, with Little Falls putting up
a 5.22 ERA thanks mostly to Jarrod Parker (13.50 ERA, 3.45 WHIP) and Mark Buerhle
(10.38 ERA, 2.08 WHIP). Twin City got pure dominance from Ervin Santana (1-0,
16 IP, 11 K, 1.13 ERA, 1.19 WHIP) managing to cover up a pitiful performance
from Joel Hanrahan (6 ER in 1.2 IP in three appearances). Little Falls took
mixed 4-3 thanks to a high strikeout rate (8.59) and Twin City swinging at
everything (6 BB in 179 AB). The result ended up putting both teams at 3-3, and
with Midway facing a myriad of questions, these two might be fighting for a
playoff spot when it’s all said and done.
MVP- Coco Crisp .333 (6-8, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 5 R, 4 SB, 3 BB)
LVP- Joel Hanrahan 0-1 (6 ER in
1.2 IP, 32.40 ERA)
Township Tomahawks beat
Hugo Hurt Locker 2-1 (1-5-1, 7-0, 4-2-1)
In a matchup between a dominant Hugo offense and a
dominant Township pitching staff, the Tomahawks did enough in the mixed categories to
pick up a victory. You could make an argument that Township’s pitching was even
better than Roesville’s mastery, with a 5-0 record, a 2.02 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in
53.1 innings. Anibal Sanchez (2-0, 14 IP, 1.93 ERA) pitched like a MAN, despite
his name, and Jon Lester, CC Sabathia and R.A. Dickey did what they are supposed
to do. Hugo’s pitching didn’t stand a chance no matter what they did but their
4.28 ERA could have been avoided if Josh Johnson (6 ER, 5 outs) would have just
stayed on the team bus. Hugo’s hitting was better than anyone else’s in the
league with a .352 BA, 8 HR and 31 RBI. Hamilton, Fielder and Pierzynski all
had two HRs, and an amazing seven people hit over .300. Hugo’s two Detroit
Tigers dominated with Prince Fielder (see below) being an absolute beast and
Austin Jackson hitting .394 and tallying 10 runs. Mixed was closer than the
other two categories, but once again the unhittable Township pitching (8.43
K/9, .207 BAA) was too much to handle. With Dinkytown’s team decimated with
injuries, the status quo in the division could change, and this could prove to
be a huge victory as the year progresses.
MVP- Usually always from the winning team, but come
on…Prince Fielder .632 (12/19, 2 HR, 11 RBI, 9 BB)
LVP- Josh Johnson 0-1 (40.50 ERA, 1.1 IP)
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