The Wrap-Up (Sweep Edition)

Week Three

Let me apologize to my loyal reader (Jeremy) for the lateness. Next week it'll be up right away. Anyhoo, in non-league news, look at the big balls on the Vikings. Love it. Also read this story: 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/25/carjack-victim-recounts-his-harrowing-night/FX6CAnypP1NbrMuPFb6zTM/story.html

White Bear Bears beat Twin City Brewers 2-1 (4-3, 1-6, 5-1-1)

In the only non-sweep of the week the Bears continued to roll with a 2-1 victory over the Brewers. They took a close 4-3 hitting matchup with a 21-20 RBI win making the difference. White Bear’s big dogs Miggy, Beltre and Carlos Santana combined for 14 RBIs. Sadly the Brewers’ JP Arencibia’s 4 HRs were wasted. Twin Cities pitching was dominant with a 3-0 record, 1.82 ERA and 0.91 WHIP which eased them to a 6-1 victory in the category. Yu Darvish pitched seven shutout innings, Kuroda and Shields both only gave up one ER, and the highest ERA anyone on the Brewers staff put up was a 4.50 from Addison Reed. It wouldn’t have mattered much, but the Bears could have done without the putrid performances from Brett Anderson (4 ER in 1 IP) and Erik Bedard (8 ER in 4.1 IP). Despite a poor pitching performance, the Bears did what they always did: Strike a bunch of dudes out. Their 11.2 K/9 and 56 extra at-bats took mixed and put them on the winning side of the matchup.

MVP- Miguel Cabrera .423 (11/26, 1 HR, 5 RBI)

LVP- Justin Morneau  .176 (3/17, 0 R, 0 HR)

Little Falls Polaks beat Midway Mets 3-0 (7-0, 6-1, 5-0-2)

The Midway Mets continued their precipitous decline with an embarrassing sweep at the hands of the suddenly surging Polaks. Little Falls got 4 HR from Longoria and 9 RBI from Trout, which led to an easy 7-0 hitting victory. Five Mets hitting under the Mendoza line, zero steals, and a mere 16 RBI certainly didn’t help. On the pitching side the Polaks went 4-1 with a 3.05 ERA, which was enough to win a relatively close pitching matchup. Sexy newcomers Doug Fister and Mark Buehrle both had great two-start weeks adding up to a 2-0 record with a 2.00 ERA. The Mets did manage their one category victory, completely dominating saves 4-0. Silver linings. Mixed was again closer than the 18-1-3 final deficit looked, but nevertheless resulted in a Little Falls victory. Midway finds itself five games out of the playoffs, while Little Falls head into an important early season matchup against the Bears only one game behind.

MVP- Doug Fister 1-0 (14 IP, 1.29 ERA, 0.86 WHIP)

LVP- Will Middlebrooks .080 (2/25, 1 R, 0 XBH, 0 RBI, 11 K)

Roesville Raiders beat the Hugo Hurt Locker 3-0 (5-2, 5-2, 4-3)

Roesville continued to dominate with their third straight series victory, taking a close 14-8 sweep over the doormat Hurt Locker. The Raiders pitching continues to be the most unbeatable staff in the league throwing up a 2.89 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in 37.1 IP. Other than a bad Alexi Ogando start, every pitcher on the staff threw up a sub-3.00 ERA. On the Hugo side, Bud Norris and Jason Vargas gave up 11 ER in 4 IP. This week Roesville’s hitting gave just as good an effort as the pitching with a .340 BA. Five guys hit over .330, with Lorenzo Cain (.556), Joe Mauer (.588) and Kyle Saeger (.409) leading the charge. On the Hurt Locker side, five guys didn’t manage to hit over .200 with Josh Hamilton (1/21) continuing to disappoint. Mixed was closer than the rest, with Hugo managing almost forty more at-bats, but their 9.00 K/9 was somehow not good enough to beat the Raiders ridiculous 9.64. Striking out 50 times (21 alone from the Tigers’ Jackson and Fielder) didn’t help their cause. The Raiders improved to a league best 8-1 and are already resting pitchers for the playoffs, while Hugo fell to six games back in the postseason hunt.

MVP- Joe Mauer .588 (10/17, 1 HR, 3 R, 6 RBI, 4 BB)

LVP- Josh Hamilton .048 (1/21, 0 XBH, 0 RBI, 1 R, 1 E)

Dinkytown Wildcats beat the Township Tomahawks 3-1 (5-0-2, 4-1-2, 5-2)

Frequent trade partners Dinkytown and Township did battle with the Wildcats taking a closer-than-it-looks sweep. They had identical 3-1 records and Township had an impressive 2.75 ERA, but ex-Tomahawk Jeremy Hellickson was just too much, putting up a 1.29 ERA/0.57 WHIP/9.64 K per 9 in 14 IP. Hitting was close in most of the categories, but Dinkytown used a .289-.228 BA advantage and thirteen extra RBI to take the victory. The Wildcats got 12 RBI from the left side of their infield (Machado and Lowrie) and a .450 BA from Mark Trumbo. On the Township side, something called Jeff Keppinger had more eligible positions than hits (4 positions-1 hit in 25 at bats) and only one player (Swisher) had more than 3 RBI. In the spirit of fairness, it should be pointed out that the guy Hellickson was traded for (Desmond Jennings) had 2 HR and 2 SB. On the mixed side both teams struck out way too much (47 and 44), but Dinkytown continued to play flawless defense (0 E) and finally managed to make some hitters swing and miss (7.88 K/9).  The parity in the Frigid division (can we change the dumb names of these divisions ?) makes the NBA look like communist Russia as seasoned veterans Roesville and Dinkytown are 5-6 games up on playoff spots three weeks into the season.

MVP- Jeremy Hellickson 1-0 (1.29 ERA, 0.57 WHIP, 15 K in 14 IP, .133 opponent BA)

LVP- Jeff Keppinger .040 (1/25, 1 R, 3 RBI)