Baseball Tri-Weekly: October Cover 2008

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EHSPN: One Sided Affair

As the first week of this year's EHCC Championship Series unfolded, fans - on both sides - are wringing their wrists. The score (7-3), which puts Las Vegas at a clear advantage heading into the second and final week of play, has Weasels fans nervous while keeping Doggs fans in anticipation.




One Sided Affair
By Max Powers; EHSPN


The home field advantage that the Bridgewater Weasels earned by just a half game over the Doggs has yet to aid the regular season champ in the 2008 EHCC Championship Series. The Weasels have yet to lead at any point during the series, trailing by as much as 8-2 at one point to the two time champion Doggs. The Doggs, who have not lost in Bridgewater since Week 8 of 2005, and have an overall record of 5-2 at The Concrete Jungle, have been impressive all week, putting up powerful numbers in all aspects of the game.

"We're just putting everything together as a team. When one of us struggles one day, someone else picks up the pace," says starting shortstop Jose Reyes. Reyes may have been referring to his hot start this week when he started 8 for 24 with 2 HR, 7 RBI, 6 R, and 2 SB while teammate David Wright struggled going just 5 for his first 27. On Sunday Reyes went 0 for 5, while Wright went 2 for 3 with a 2 run homerun, while scoring 3 runs on the day.

"We all know we're going to have to pick each other up at some point so no one gets down on themselves when they struggle," commented Wright after Sunday's performance.

On the other side, Weasels fans have to be worried about the play from EHCC All-Star Lance Berkman, who has recorded only two hits during the first week of play.

"Luckily I have guys like Ryan [Howard] and a Derek [Lee] around me to pick up my slack, but I know I'm going to have to perform the way everyone expects me to next week if we want a chance to win this thing," Berkman told reporters after going 1 for 4 on Sunday, "Believe me, no one wants this more than I do. This is my fourth trip here [the finals], I really don't want to leave empty handed again."

Unofrtunatly for Berkman, and the Weasels, Derek Lee's hot bat may be out of the line up spratically in the coming week. Lee, along with Doggs' hitters Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez, has reportedly come down with a very rare sickness. It is said to come and go randomly, without warning. Each of the three players have been listed as day-to-day, and could miss playing time at any point this week, depending on team doctors' recommendation one hour before game time. All three players sat out play this past Sunday and it is unknown when, or if, they will play again this season.

"It's really fustrating. Yesterday I felt fine. Today I could barely move. Right now I feel great. Who knows what I'll be like tomorrow," Ramirez told reporters regarding his current condition.

For most of Week 1, pitching has been a pretty lopsided afair, with Doggs starters dominating the mound. Going into Sunday play only three Weasels starters had an ERA of 3.00 or lower. Three starters actually had ERA's over 14.00 and WHIP's over 2.00. This was far from what GM Nastra Diggus was hoping for.

"We're better than this, and I think our pitching on Sunday will show that," Diggus told EHSPN prior to Sunday play.

Bridgewater pitchers John Lackey and Jamie Moyers went on to prove Diggus right, combining for 12 innings of work, 20 strikeouts, 2 wins, and just 1 earned run between them. Both pitchers were making up for a less than stellar performance earlier in the week.

"We were embarrased, simply put. We had to make up for the hole we helped dig for this team," said Moyer."

"Hopefully their performance on Sunday is a good sign of things to come this week and the rest of the staff will feel motivated by their success," GM Diggus said of his pitchers' Sunday performance, "It's the perfect set up. Everyone likes a big comeback."

Well, not everyone.

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Championship Series 2008

Two days into the 2008 EHCC Championship Series. It’s a familiar time and place for the Las Vegas Doggs, in line to win yet another championship. The opposing Bridgewater Weasels are also familiar with success, consistently at the top of the regular season standings in the EHCC, but have yet to take that final step to immortality with a Championship Plaque. It is a shortcoming that continues to haunt them, having made it to the Championship three times and fallen short three times.

Regardless of past performance, this will be a great match, but one has to think the two time champions have the advantage. Not only does the team know how to finish a season, but the Doggs have been on a torrid pace for since really the twelfth week of the season, taking only one match loss since that time. Statistically, the Doggs also have an advantage, outpacing the Weasels in every SV, K, ERA, WHIP, HR, RBI, and SB for the season.

Speaking from experience however, the season line is not necessarily the best prognosticator of a team’s success, this became readily apparent as I guided the Arlington Warriors to their first championship last year, carried by a slew of players who stepped up when it counted. Success finds those with the hottest hand.

For Bridgewater players such as Ryan Howard, Alex Rodriguez, Andre Ethier, and Jimmy Rollins on offense as well as John Lackey, Chris Carpenter, Jon Garland, and Jonathan Sanchez on the staff will need to assume such roles. These names played a big part of getting the Weasels this far. Other stars will have to out-produce their recent performances however. In last week’s match up with Rakeville, 1B Derrek Lee contributed a line of 2R, 0HR, 4RBI, 0SB and a .167AVG. He’s shown signs early in this series of fulfilling expectations and the Weasels hope he’s ready to go on a tear. For On the hill? Yet to pitch in this series, but a long-standing ace, Mike Mussina has had a rough week, tossing five innings but failing to provide a win and leaving with a 9.00 ERA, and 2.00 WHIP: not the stuff champions are made of.

In Las Vegas, we see such stars as David Wright, Albert Pujols, and Mark Buehrle rising to the occasion over the last week, but also more non-contributors. Where are Adam Dunn, Brad Hawpe, Oliver Perez, and Roy Halladay? They need to find the stuff that marked them as league stars before a third parade hits the streets of Las Vegas.

The Championship Round is the most nerve wracking experience for a team manager, drawing each to spend more than their already exhaustive time on their team. Every performance is analyzed, match ups are considered, and each change in lead excruciatingly painful or overwhelmingly joyous. The best advice I could offer on a successful week would be to watch the match ups, and consider those categories your team is most likely to win. Pick and choose those battles, weigh whether gains in cumulative stats are worth potential sacrifices in those important averages: batting average, but especially earned run average and walk/hits per inning pitch.

Best of luck to both Las Vegas and Bridgewater, this will be a great series to follow!

P.S. Can’t leave without a prediction: it’ll be Las Vegas by a 6-4 margin.



By Matt Skinner, GM Arlington Warriors

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Five EHCC Quick Facts

1.) This is both Las Vegas' and Bridgewater's 4th EHCC Finals appearance. Bridgewater lost to Weymouth three times (2001, 2003, and 2005). Las Vegas lost to Weymouth once (2002), and then went on to beat Weymouth (2004) and Golden (2006) once each.

2.) Las Vegas and Bridgewater are tied 1-1 in their all-time playoff match ups. Las Vegas beat Bridgewater in 2002 in the semi-final round, while the Weasels (then named the Bellingham Hawks) beat the Doggs in the 2001 semi-final round. Both team went on to lose to Weymouth in their respective EHCC finals.

3.) Only the Weymouth Shaddupu and the Arlington Warriors failed to produce a EHCC Player of the Week during the 2008 season.

4.) Since the introduction of the two divisions in the EHCC, Quebec City has won 4 of the 5 Western Division division championships, but has only made the EHCC finals once (losing in 2007 to Arlington). In the Eastern Division, only Rakeville and Las Vegas have taken home division championship honors: Las Vegas three times (2004, 2006, 2007) and Rakeville twice (2005, 2008).

5.) A Western Division team has never won the EHCC title. The division has only had a representatives in 2 finals (GLD-2006, and QC-2007).

Facts compiled by EHCC Historian Barry Larkin

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Rakeville Times: Not hot enough

Rakeville's Joe Mauer dives to tag a sliding Weasel at home plate but comes up short. The run turned out to be the winner as Bridgewater edges past the Rockets and into the championship series.




Not hot enough
By Aviator McShadeless, Rakeville Times

Bridgewater’s juggernaut offense just couldn’t be controlled as the underdog Rockets fell once again in the semi-finals of the playoffs, losing to the top-seeded Weasels 6-4.

Rakeville entered the final day down 7-3, and a series of solid pitching performances helped close the gap, but wasn’t enough to hold off an unyielding Bridgewater attack. They combined for an amazing 11 runs, three homeruns and 12 RBIs on the final day to lift them to the championship game against Las Vegas.

“We felt so good heading into the playoffs this year,” said Pitcher Roy Oswalt, who provided three career performances in the first two rounds this season. “Sure, no one expected us to win against Bridgewater, but we knew we could if we just played hard. We’d done it all season. I’m so disappointed.”

Critics said they didn’t do enough to solidify their pitching staff at the trade deadline, but after winning the bulk of pitching categories in both matchups, that criticism was clearly off.

“We knew our pitching staff was struggling earlier in the season, but I saw the talent there,” said Rakeville General Manager Jack Reed. “We needed to be patient with the guys we had and we were. Roy (Oswalt) and Josh (Beckett) were brilliant for us the last two weeks. I’m very proud of them, and I’m very proud of our team. It is hard to go through a change of managers and turn it around to win the division. There is a lot we have to look at heading into next season, but we still have a group of players that can win a championship.”

Offense will surely be a focus of the team this offseason. Despite a deadline deal to bring in Manny Ramirez, the Rockets still couldn’t hit well enough to take a single category in the semifinals. Between injuries and ineptitude, the team needs to figure out who is going to deliver Rakeville to the EHCC finals.

“We walked the line this year trying to find the best balance of future potential and present-day product,” said Reed. “Our window remains small, so we are going to do all we can to win a championship for this city.”

Of course, that quest will begin anew next season as the players rode back to the stadium this afternoon.

“They’re still my heroes,” said Tommy Shepard, a young fan who was waiting outside of Reed Field for the team bus. “Yeah, they always lose. My mom said it is O.K. to lose. She said it builds character.”

“You’re mom’s a fucking idiot,” said a drunken fan standing next to him.

Clearly, the pain of another playoff loss will carry us all through the offseason.

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Reno Weekly Rag: Weekend War

The Doggs/Shaddupu match up is too close to call heading into the final 3 days. The Doggs will be missing Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez from their line up for 2 days, with Coco Crisp, Jim Thome, and Mike Lowell taking their place. So with the game on the line, why have the Doggs decided to go without a live back stop during that time?




Weekend War
By Conor Intabedd; Reno Weekly Rag

The Doggs may be winning, but no one on the team feels like they've won. The 2nd round match up against the 6th seeded Weymouth Shaddupu has proved to be a bit more troublesome than most players, and fans, would have expected. The Doggs currently lead by a score of 5-4 thanks to a late night save by closer Kerry Wood, who has recorded the Doggs' only two saves of the week, and a early afternoon home run by outfielder Brad Hawpe.

"It's been a dismal campaign this week," so says Thursday pitcher Matt Cain, who lasted just 3.1 innings in yesterday's appearance. Cain relieved starter Ben Sheets, who went 6 innings, but allowed 5 earned runs on 9 hits and 3 walks, digging the Doggs in a ERA and WHIP hole they aren't expected to climb out of by the end of the week.

The Doggs' offense really isn't putting much together either, at least not by regular season standards. "The only positive thing we have to take away from this week so far, and the main thing keeping us alive is that Weymouth isn't doing too much at the plate either. As poorly as our rotation has been this week, they've done enough to keep their power at bay," commented Doggs' first baseman Albert Pujols.

The Doggs will be missing a few players for first few days of the weekend, as outfielder Alfonso Soriano, designated hitter Aramis Ramirez, and closer Kerry Wood have been trapped in their homes by Hurricane Ike. The Doggs also lost out on free agent starter Jason Marquis, who Las Vegas had been forced to drop due to his inability to start on Friday. The Doggs signed outfielder Coco Crisp and designated hitters Jim Thome and Mike Lowell to day-by-day contracts to fill in the voids left by the two missing sluggers. Matt Harrison and Bartolo Colon have been signed to hourly wages to spot start for Vegas this weekend.

"We are hoping that by signing them to hourly wages that they will last longer than some of our other starters have this week. We need them to come away with a win, and that just can't happen if they aren't pitching at least 5 innings," said GM Howe Doggs regarding the hourly wage contracts of Colon and Harrison.

The Doggs have designated catcher Nick Hundley and reliever Dan Wheeler for assignment. Both players are expected to decline the assignment, and look for work elsewhere once they clear waivers. In the mean time, the Doggs are expected to finish off the weekend without a back stop and down two closers, with Wheeler being waived and Wood missing from action. A strategy many are skeptical about going into the final days of such a tight match up.


"There are so many close categories, and though I understand Wins is one of them, saves is just as important. I'm nervous that this might come back to bite us come Sunday," long time fans and season ticket holder Chris Paul commented.

"We're really going to have to work hard this weekend. With no catcher we're just going to have to strike everyone out so that no one gets on base. If we let anyone get on base we'll lose steals for sure," said Saturday starter Joe Blanton.

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Other EHCC notes:

--Over on the East coast, Rakeville currently trails number 1 seeded Bridgewater 3-6. Most categories are close heading into the final three days. Bridgewater has 5 scheduled starters to Rakeville's 4.

--The Doggs were supposedly making phone calls to Byrd's home at 12:01 am (Pacific time), just after his waiver period had supposedly ended, only to get his voicemail stating that he was still on waivers. Doggs' brass decided to settle on signing starter Bartolo Colon instead and then headed to bed, only to awaken to the news that Byrd had signed with rival Weymouth. Byrd is schedule to pitch against Las Vegas on Saturday, while Colon is scheduled to make an appearance for the Doggs on the same day.

--The Doggs' line up isn't the only one affected by Hurricane Ike. The Weasels will be without sluggers Derek Lee and Lance Berkman for two days. Good news and bad news for Bridgewater fans, as Lee is a dismal 2 for 14 against Rakeville this week, while Berkman is 5 for 12, with 5 RBI and 4 runs scored this week thus far.

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Rakeville Times: Judgement Day

Miguel Cabrera watches as his late game home run clears the right field fence to give Rakeville a 6-5 lead in homeruns over Winston-Salem. It was a crucial seventh day for the Rockets and they rose to the challenge.



Judgement Day
By Aviator McShadeless

What should have been a climactic moment in the career of Pedro Martinez turned into a sobering reminder of how good this Rockets offense can be at times. Miguel Cabrera and David Ortiz provided two booming home runs to lift Rakeville over Winston-Salem this week and force another face off against their archrival Bridgewater.

“It was back to Rockets baseball,” said Javier Vazquez. “Our pitching was strong and our bats mighty. It is how we won a ton of games the last few years. For some reason we went away from that this year, but it has been good to see us getting back into the rhythm at the right time.”

The Rockets took a 5-4 lead heading into the final day, but many felt the game was in hand early in the week.

“We knew we should win that game,” said Chase Utley. “Given our playoff history folks were nervous. Still, there is no reason we should have lost. This team is a great one, even if this season hasn’t been an example of our talent. In essence, we are the same team that dominated the league the last three years. Now, we have to finish the deal.”

The sentiment was carried by most as they boarded the bus to Bridgewater, a team that the Rockets have a compelling history against in the playoffs. In 2005, after a surprising romp through the regular season, Rakeville was upset by a vivacious Weasels team in the semi-finals. Bridgewater went on to meet Weymouth in the Championships, losing by the closest margin in EHCC history. The following year Rakeville got some revenge, trouncing their rival in the quarterfinals before losing to the eventual champs Las Vegas. Now, on the heels of a blow out win in Week 21 and a shocking, come-from-behind Division crown, Rakeville has all the momentum in the historic series.

“They are the favorites,” said Manager Justin Fuller. “You can’t rattle off a season like they had and not expect to be the favorite. We’ve had some success against them, but that is all in the past. They are a great team. We are hitting our stride and I’m proud of what we’ve done, but they are still the favorites.”

Rakeville will kick off the epic series with veteran Javier Vazquez on the mound. Bridgewater counters with former Rockets farmhand Yusmeiro Petit. How fitting that that the best pitcher they have is a Rakeville castoff…

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EHSPN: 2008 Playoffs Round 1 Recap

Weymouth closer J.J. Putz put up two saves and a scoreless set of innings to help push Shaddupu past the Quebec City Piglets. Meanwhile, Rakeville closed out the Green Monsters to make it an all Eastern Division semi-finals.


East Coast Bias
By Max Powers, EHSPN


Week 1 of the 2008 playoffs brought fans everything they expected. Excitement, torture, and upset. With the wild card round now behind us fans can get pumped up for the real test. A test that will give just two teams a shot at the crown. One team will be fighting for their first, where another will be looking to tack on to championship total. One thing is for sure, the champion will represent the Eastern Division as all Western Division teams have been eliminated after the first week. Let's take a look at how the semi-final round match ups shaped up the way they did.

(4) RAK def (5) WS; 6-3

The Monsters kept their streak alive in 2008, losing their 3rd straight playoff appearance. The Monsters, who have never made it past the 1st round, had a lot of promise in 2008. They made quite the run at the end of the regular season, catapulting themselves into the 5th seed, the highest regular season seed the organization has ever had going into the playoffs. They were met by a retooling Rakeville squad which has always been known for its pitching, has been reworking their offense all season in an effort to compete for a chance at a championship.

Rakeville's newest offensive threat, Manny Ramirez, and long time Rocket third baseman Miguel Cabrera helped propel their team into the 2nd round with 5 home runs and 18 RBI's between them against a struggling Winston-Salem rotation. Roy Oswalt also stifled Monster hitters. His two wins gave the Rockets the category and also helped solidify Rakeville's hold on strikeouts, ERA and WHIP.

The Rockets proved to the rest of the league that their team has become one of the most well rounded rosters in the league and should be able to take any category in any given week. They travel on to Bridgewater to take on their Eastern Division rival Weasels in the semi-final round. The two teams have met twice before in the playoffs, once in 2005 when the Weasels beat the Rockets int he semi-final round, and once again the following year when Rakeville defeated Bridgewater in the first round. Rakeville battled Bridgewater during the 2008 season for the Eastern Division crown, a battle that the Rockets ended victorious.

(6) WEY def (3) QC; 5-5 by ERA tie-breaker

How many times can it be said - "It all comes down to pitching." For the second year in a row, the number 6 seed defeated the number 3 seed by a score of 5-5 by way of the EHCC ERA tiebreaker. The Piglets were the clear favorite going into the match up, regardless of how they finished the regular season. They defeated team Shaddupu twice in the regular season, including the most recent match up in the final week.

Quebec City was plaqued by not only injuries to their infield, but also by a string of bad outing by their record breaking pitching staff. Piglets' starters Randy Johnson, Ted Lilly, and Justin Verlander all had arguably their worst starts of the season. Such woeful starts that even masterful performances by starters Derek Lowe, Paul Byrd, and Chris Young could not dig Quebec City out from. Funnily enough, the Quebec City offense was the strongpoint for the team this week, taking 3 of the 5 categories from a struggling Weymouth line up, and even fought through the very last pitch for a 4th thanks to a pair of Carlos Delgado home runs. Unfortunatly for the Piglets' fans, the team fell one home run shy of winning the week.

Shaddupu now travels from Canada to the desert of Las Vegas where they will face off against their Eastern Division rival, the Doggs. The two teams have faced each other 4 times, with Weymouth being the victor in 3 of those match ups, including 2 semi-final round victories and 1 championship round victory. The Doggs have never beaten team Shaddupu in the semi-final round of the playoffs, their lone playoff victory coming in 2004, when the Doggs beat Shaddupu for the EHCC Championship. The two teams haven't met in the playoffs since 2005.

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This is the 2nd time in EHCC history that all four teams in the semi-final round have been representing the saem division. The last time it happened was 2005, when the same four teams, and same two match ups, made the semi-final round.

This is 3rd time in EHCC history that all four teams in the semi-final round were once of the original EHCC 6 teams. The only other seasons in which this was true was 2005 and 2001.

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