Game 5 (April 30 - May 6, 2007)

(Author's note: A special thanks goes out to the Nerdery Sports Bureau, led by statistician gurus Chuck Bowman and Jason Backus. These guys have WAY too much time on their hands, but they've helped me expedite this email. So if you have a stat question, consult the Nerdery!)

Welcome back Dirt-Dogs to the 1/6th of the way through the season Fantasy Review Spectacular! Or, as the say on ESPN Deportes, NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NOOOOOOOOOOOO - Revision Beisbol Fantasia Espectacularrrrr! Was that a little bit racist? Probably, but remember, you probably laughed just a little bit at that. Come on... admit it!

Let's talk about some events that took place in MLB this week. For starters, our caps off this week to Cards fans everywhere for the tragic loss of pitcher Josh Hancock. You never like to hear things like this happen, especially to someone so young.

Okay, back to the fun MLB news. Certain abnormalities are taking place in MLB right now that are very interesting. For starters, the Yankees have dropped 5 of their last 6 to the Boston Red Sox. This has left even me scratching my head about what's going on in the AL East, Sox fan that I am. The ramifications of these past two weekend may affect your team. There's been talk on New York's WFAN that long-time manager Joe Torre may be fired, and that several Yankees may be sent down to the minors as early as today. There are some possible long-term ramifications for your team here. So if you have Yankees, particularly younger Yankees or recently injured Yankees, keep an eye on them! Also, another interesting MLB tidbit from last week came from Rockies rookie shortstop Troy Tulowitzky, who turned an UNASSISTED triple play on Sunday. That's only happened 13 times in the history of baseball!! If you haven't seen the Sports Center highlights yet, drop your laptop right now... leave work, stop talking to your loved one, and get to a TV... RIGHT NOW!

GAME 4 RECAP

Three big come-from-behind wins last week! In Michigan, We Want a Touchdown overcame the Knights of Darkness in the FINAL HOURS of the week with a score of 7-5. Out in Ye Olde New England, the WickedGreen Monstahs rallied over the Pink Roos, defeating them 6-4. In Chicagoland, Carroll the Younger and his Hoot's Howitzers pulled off their first victory of the season with a walk-off performance over the Midland Loons, 6-5. New York hegemon Tiger Bandwagon held on for a 7-4 victory over the Philly Cheesesteaks. The Pawtucket Red Sox of Providence and Boston-based Mike Made Me Do This decided to call it a draw with a score of 6-6. And, this week's blowouts can be spelled with one word: Backus. The Rockford Margaritas pummeled the Triple Diamond D's 8-4 and the Rockford Stingrays blew out the Gnorthside-Chicago Gnome Gnorth Gninjas 8-3.

NOTABLE STATS

Runs: Stingrays I (46)
HR: Stingrays I (12)
RBI: Gnome Gnorth Gninjas (44)
SB: Mike Made Me Do This, We Want A Touchdown! (10)
E: Pink Roos, Gnome Gnorth Gninjas (1)
AVG: Stingrays I (.351)

W: Stingrays I, Margaritas, Pawtucket Red Sox, Philly Cheesesteaks (4)
S: Stingrays I (8)
HR: Knights of Darkness (0)
K: Mike Made Me Do This (61)
ERA: Wicked Green Monsters (1.74)
WHIP: Pawtucket Red Sox ( 1.07)

GAME 5 PREVIEW

WickedGreen Monstahs (2-2) @ Knights of Darkness (1-2-1)
Both of these teams had critical games last week! The Monstahs climbed back from a near humiliating defeat at the hands of the Roos last week, and thanks to an outstanding pitching performance by the Monstah's relivers (ERA 1.75, 5 Saves) the Monstahs scraped together enough of an offense on Thursday, Friday and Saturday to come back from 2-9 deficit on Wednesday to pull off a 6-4 victory. The Knights, however, had the exact opposite fate, losing on the last day of their series, featuring a solid offensive punch that was not strong enough to hold out over the Footballers. This looks to be a classic pitching vs. batting matchup. The Monstahs take in a pitching squad that's had an ERA under 2.75 for the past three games, while the Knights produce offense where the Monstahs are the weakest: stolen bases and RBIs. I can't really say who will win this one, because that would be biased...

Philly Cheesesteaks (1-3) @ Pink Roos (1-3)
Here are two teams that desperately want the bloodbath in the East to be over, each suffering tough losses last week. The Cheeseteaks were bludgeoned by the Tigers, despite the poor performance by the Tigers pitching squad. The Roos are still rubbing their eyes in disbelief over how the Monstahs managed to catch-up, and worse yet, overtake them in the final three days of the week. But, that's baseball. Sometimes, you think you're taking a routine ground ball up the first base line and it goes through your glove, forcing you to hang your head in shame and flee to Iowa where you can't be chased down by guys named Sully from Southie... as you are blamed for 68 years of futility ... when it wasn't your fault anyway that the game got tied on a wild pitch anyway. (Hold on, tearing up...) Ahem, like they say, there's no crying in baseball. The Roos were an offensive explosion the first part of last week and have a solid, yet not perfect rotation. If the Roos can muster the same kind of offensive umph seen last Monday, they should dry their tears, and continue the woes of the team from Philly.

Pawtucket Red Sox (1-2-1) @ Tiger Bandwagon (3-1)
Okay, where do I start on this one... hmmm... let me think. How about the 10.80 ERA by Tiger/Yankee reliever Mariano Rivera? As you can imagine, smiling with glee over here. But I'm not quite sure who to throw my support behind here this week. Do I support the PawSox, who knocked my girlfriend out of the top three, or the Tigers, whose oppression on the East is keeping me near the basement. Sorry hon, when in doubt, gotta say GO SOX! Right now, the Tigers look unstoppable. Their offense and pitching staff remains healthy and productive. And despit ethe trouble, they've been having in their relief core (and the fact that the SOX GOT MARIANO'S NUMBAH), they should have enough weapons to beat the Sox in just about any stat. That is, unless Dice-K has a lights-out performance on Thursday. That could, in effect, change eveything for the PawSox.

Loons (2-2) @ We Want a Touchdown! (4-0)
Looks like we have another Bowman subdivison match up this week, which isn't too hard considering there are four Bowmnas in this league to begin with, but hey... it's always interesting. This week is particularly interesting in that this Bowman match up features two very solid, very respectable teams in the top tier that have gone above and beyond in proving me wrong at the start of this season. I've said it before and I'll say it again. The Loons have a very National League approach to the game, winning by amassing consistent talent and using different approaches to win. In Week 1, the Loons won using pitching. In Week 3 they won with some impressive offense and did so again in Week 4, losing only on the final day. The 'Footballers, proving that inexperience doesn't necessarily mean a lack of excellence, have been winning games by keeping them very close, edging out their opponents in categories, sometimes coming from behind to win like last week against the Knights. This is the mathcup of the week here folks. Both of these teams are for real and this game will tell which has a better strategy and more luck: Bowman the Elder, or Bowman the Youngest.

Margaritas (3-1) @ Hoot's Howitzers (1-3)
The Margarita's have been mopping up competition in the West, following thier only loss at the hands of the Anti-Mikes from the East in Week 1. The Margaritas drafted well and it shows, but in order to stay ahead of the Stingrays (whose GM is likely sitting on the couch accross from her as she's reading this) and keep the pressure on the surprising 'Footballers, the Margaritas are going to have to continue their streak against the Howitzers. Sadly, it shouldn't be too difficult. I warned my brother he cursed himself by drafting Johnny Damon. He brought this upon himself. I have no sympathy for him... well maybe just a little. The Hows have definitely struggled in the start of the season, but had their most promising performance of the season against the strong Midland Loons. Their pitching is heating up! With a ERA of 2.38, an impressive 54 strikeouts, and a WHIP of about 1.2, they are no longer dwelling in the basement.

Stingrays (2-2) @ Dirty Diamond D's (1-3)
The Stingrays have crawled back into the top tier of teams with a core that's now begining to cement offensively and defensively. The Triple D's however, had difficulty producing power numbers the last two games. The numbers on this game can be a real crapshoot. But look for high offensive numbers from the Rays, and better pitching stats from them too. But hey, I've been wrong before... well... often, actually.

Gnome Gnorth Gninjas (1-2-1) @ Mike Made Me Do This (3-0-1)
The Anti-Mikes have been great at producing one thing in this league more than any other team so far: ties. They are so good in fact that they managed to pull off a tie in the actual game last week. The Anti-Mike's picked up the unexpectedly brilliant Hideki Okajima, the newly appointed Boston set-up man, which helped add some umph to her strikeouts and bring down her overall ERA. This, among other factors, give the Anti-Mikes a potentially stronger pitching squad going into Monday. The Gninjas actually had an excellent offensive performance last week... they just had to go up against the absolutely SICK numbers posted by the Stingrays. If the Gninja's keep up those kind of numbers, it will spell trouble for the Anti-Mikes. I'm going to refrain from saying anything else... cause I don't want to be exiled to the couch.

DIVISION STATS

Hoaggie-Grinder Division (Record, Games Back)
1. Tiger Bandwagon (3-1) --
2. Mike Made Me Do This (2-1-1) 0.5
3. WickedGreen Monstahs (2-2) 1.0
4. Pawtucket Red Sox (1-2-1) 1.5
5. Philly Cheesesteaks (1-3) 2.0
6. Pink Roos (1-3) 2.0

Deep Dish Division
1) We Want a Touchdown (4-0) --
2) Margaritas (3-1) 1.0
3) Stingrays (2-2) 2.0
4) Loons (2-2) 2.0
5) Knights of Darkness (1-2-1) 2.5
6) Gnome Gnorth Gninjas (1-2-1) 2.5
7) Hoot's Howitzers (1-3) 3.0
8) Triple Diamond D's (1-3) 3.0