EHSPN Around the League: Starting Pitcher (West)

Brandon Webb didn't have any pressure on him last season, pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was allowed to play in the "other league" since Bye Week decided to give all their players a season-long vacation in 2006. Now, the reigning Cy Young winner has all the pressure in the world pitching in Japan. Will he and new teammate CC Sabathia fold or will they finally propel Tokyo out of the basement of the EHCC?





By: Max Powers/Reno Weekly Rag


Every team has it's problems, and most of the time it seems to stem from their pitching staff. each team in the Western Division has issues among their starters. From drinking to health to age, it's a wide array of concerns across the board. The question is, which staff will be able to put their person life on hold while trying to help their team win 4 of the 5 pitching categories each week and which will fold under the pressure of every day life...and tequila drinking contests.


6-Tijuana Hispanics

Starting Five: Doug davis, Livan Hernandez, Jason Jennings, Jarrod Washburn, Adam Loewen
Wild Cards: Scott Baker and Miguel Batista
Future: Jon Lester and Jason Hirsh

Tijuana is not known as a pitcher's paradise. It's very easy for new pitchers brought in to get caught up in the local bar scene where tequila rules all. Just ask Doug Davis. After being traded from Golden to Tijuana last May he started off very strong for the Hispanics. In late June Miguel Batista started taking the newbie out on weekends, which quickly turned into a 4-5 times a week event. Davis won many tequila drinking contests though only managed 2 wins in July and 3 more in August, recording a dreadful 5.65 ERA in the process. The fact that the man was standing straight on the mound was astounding. The team doctors had an intervention with Davis in late July, and something must have gotten through as he recorded a 3.55 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP in the final month of the season. I'm sure the team has learned from this experience and will be keeping Jason Jennings under lock and key when the team returns from Spring Training.

5-Santo Domingo White Devils

Starting Five: Brad penny, Anibal Sanchez, Jose Contreras, Kevin Millwood, Zach Duke
Wild Cards: Mark Buehrle, Noah Lowry, and Bartolo Colon
Future: Scott Elbert

It's been a roller coaster off-season for Mark Buehrle. He's been traded 3 times, between 3 teams, in 3 different countries, in 3 months, just to end up back where he started. When he was drafted by the Devils he was reluctant to close a deal on a great new home in the Dominican Republic. When he was traded from one island nation to another, Buehrle quickly purchased a new home in Weymouth just to find out he was being sent even further north, across the border to Canada. When he found out he was going to to be sent back down to the Caribbean, he tried to buy the house he looked at 3 months prior, but it was already sold. For the time being, he's living with current teammate Bartolo Colon, who spends all his days in a personal whirlpool.

4-Winston-Salem Green Monsters

Starting Five: Brett Myers, Kenny Rogers, Cliff Lee, Gustavo Chacin, Paul Maholm
Wild Card: Erik Bedard, Daniel Cabrera, and Rich Harden
Future: Gio Gonzalez and Fransisco Liriano

Rich Harden is happy to be part of history. He was part of one of only two trades made by the Monsters since their inception into the EHCC in 2004. Reports say the starter is 100% but skeptics can't be so sure. I mean, they're skeptics. Either way, he's an improvement from former #1 overall pick Rocco Baldelli. On a different note, it looks as though Kenny Rogers will end up retiring as a Monster, with their Winston-Salem management's efforts to trade the veteran for youth has fallen short for two straight years. Not even the senior citizen community that is Golden wanted him and his temper problem. Daniel Cabrera has off-season surgery, on his eyes. Hopefully now he'll be able to throw strikes, and if that's the case he'll rack up plenty of strike outs for Winston-Salem. if all of their wild card starters can put it together, the team has a shot at returning to the playoffs, but as skeptics will tell you, that's a big "if". Oh, and obviously this staff would be a lot better if Fransisco Liriano listened to his trainers last season. Instead he's recovering from surgery.

3-Tokyo Omyoujis

Starting Five: Dontrelle Willis, Brandon Webb, CC Sabathia, Jeremy Sowers, Brandon McCarthy
Wild Card: Josh Johnson and Hayden Penn
Future: Thomas Diamond

Brandon Webb and CC Sabthia are starting to feel the heat. After the OhMyOujiies gave up anything and everything they could to bring them across the globe to Japan, the pitchers have been houded by Japanese media. When a pays what Tokyo did for two players, there's going to be repercussions. Will they live up to the hype? Will the crumble under the pressure? When Dontrelle Willis was traded to Tokyo prior to the 2005 season there was a lot of pressure for him to come through as a savior for the then new franchise. He filled the roll and then some, racking up 22 wins for the Japanese franchise. If the same thing can happen for Sabathia and Webb, the Omyoujis will be in good shape for 2007. That potential alone puts them in 3rd place in the West.

2-Golden Gryphons

Starting Five: John Smoltz, Jason Schmidt, Randy Johnson, Kelvim Escobar, Derek Lowe
Wild Cards: Matt Morris, Ted Lilly, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and Andy Pettitte
Future: Yovani Gallardo, Homer Bailey, and Merkin Valdez

With an average age of 36, the Golden starters are easily the oldest in the EHCC. They have done a good job grabbing every starter who's a stone throw away from a walker and bedpan besides Roger Clemens. The question in Colorado is whether or not the senior staff will help propel the Gryphons back to the championship or be sent out across the EHCC by the trading deadline for newer models. As it stands, the senior circuit in Golden still makes them the 2nd best staff in the West. Even at their old age, they'll still sit down enough batters to win the Gryphons 3 pitching categories a week.

1-Quebec City Piglets

Starting Five: Jake Peavy, Scott Kazmir, Justin Verlander, Freddy Garcia, David Bush
Wild Cards: Scott Olsen, Matt Cain, Chad Billingsley, and Anthony Reyes
Future: Brandon Erbe, Jeff Niemann, Andrew Miller, and Adam Miller

Scott Olsen, Matt Cain, and Jake Peavy are still pissed they don't have an EHCC championship ring. All three spent time on the defending champion Las Vegas Doggs' roster, just not at that crucial time where they won their two EHCC crowns. Olsen was sent up north last off-season, Cain followed him in one of the worst trades made by GM Howe Dogg in his career at the beginning of the 2006 season, and Peavy quickly followed two months later, being sent [back] to Quebec after Albert Pujols went down and the Doggs frantically tried to replace his production at first base with Jime Thome. While the Piglets gained much value in each of those three trades, it is obvious in the face of their current teammates that the trio is not happy that they were not part of the championship run. Along with the rest of the Piglet's talented young staff, they will try and put a ring on their finger at the end of the 2007 season. They have the ability, they just need to all put it together at the same time. Even with their lack of overall innings, this is clearly the best staff in the division.


Max Powers is a columnist for the Reno Weekly Rag. He loves apples, but hates apple pie...go figure.