Wednesday, July 25, 2007

At the end of BK-2 lets take a look around the NASBL. We'll look at the Less Filling Division. WEST



DFW leads the West with a record 67-38. Lead by SS C.Guillen .319
ba/14hr/70rbi, 3B F.Sanchez .333 and T.Hafner .297ba/33hr/103rbi. The Spurs lead the LF Division with a team BA of .294. The most surprising thing is their also lead the LF Division in team ERA of
4.30. The pitching is lead by D.Bush 11-5, 3.43era with G.Maddux 9-7, 4.74era, and K.Rogers 9-6, 5.63. The biggest surprise for DFW
is closer F.Rodriquez(K-Rod) who is having an outstanding year with
30 saves and is 1-1, 2.57era.

MSU find themselves in 2nd place with 58-46 record 8.5 games out.
They do lead the WC race by 3 games. The offense is lead by 3B D.
Wright .321ba/18hr/70rbi and R.Ibanez .309ba/24ba/61rbi. The table
setter is SS J.Reyes has scored 82 runs and leads the league in SB with 60 and has been throw out only twice. The pitching staff has four 9 game winners in D.Lowe,J.Westbrook, M. Morris, B.Howry [a reliever] and J.Beckett with 8 wins. To help beef up the staff for the stretch run they traded for Jason Schmidt. Closer JJ Putz has 27 saves a with a record of 4-2 with a minuscule era of 1.17!

TRY are in 3rd place 11.5 out with a record 54-48. They are only 3 games out in the WC race. With a big BK-2, TRY raised their team BA to .291. Lead by C. Crawford .329ba/78r/93b/15hr/60rbi, I. Suzuki .323 and V. Wells .250ba/14hr/61rbi. TRY is 3rd in the NASBL with a 103 team SB. The pitching is lead by K.Millwood 12-5, 480era and C.Hensley 8-4, 5.49. The strength of the team is the relief staff. 5 relievers have pitched a minimum of 30 games with a combined record of 19-10. The Closer BJ Ryan is 5-3, 2.25era and has 22 saves.

SPL even with a winning record of 55-51, are 12.5 games of in the West, but only 4 games out in the WC. The hitting is lead by C J. Mauer .338ba/14hr/59rbi, P. Konerko .288ba/26hr/73rbi. The pitching is lead by F.Garcia 11-6, 3.49era and J. Lieber 9-4, 4.93era. Rookie phoenum F. Hernandez is 7-11, 6.83era has been throw to the wolves but has shown signs of brilliance. SPL is hoping the trade that brought them J. Dye and future HOF R. Clemens can jump start them to make up ground in their play off hunt. Also look for INF E. German to have a Big impact the last half of the season.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

My 2 cents......

At the end of BK-2 lets take a look around the NASBL. We'll look at the Less Filling Division. CENTRAL


VFS are in 1st place with record of 62-41. The Sioux are having their best season in years. Six starters are hitting over .300 lead by 1B A. Pujols .328ba/38hr/99rbi. 1st Rd pick R. Zimmerman is struggling to get use to NASBL pitching batting just .238, but has 302b/9hr/59rbi. The pitching is lead by John Lackey 12-4, 3.63era and Brett Myers 9-6, 411era. Closer Billy Wagner has 22 saves with a 1.27era. The other 1st Rd pick Nelson Liriano is tearing up the NASBL with a 8-1 record and has 92 K's in just 68 ip and will push for ROY honors.

NYK 52-50 The young Knights are in 2nd place 9.5 games behind VFS, but are only 5 games out in the WC race. NYK has a .289 team batting average and are lead by Garrett Atkins.304ba/13hr/73rbi and Billy Hall .291ba/25hr/76rbi. The pitching is the big reason the NYK are in contention. 1st Rd pick Matt Cain is 11-7, 5.60era with 3 CG. 2nd Rd pick closer T. Saito is 4-1, 1.85era and 22 saves. Saito is the guy the NYKbeen looking for to come in and close out games. If they continue to play team ball they should be in the thick of things in September.

PCM 50-54-- Find themselves in unfamiliar territory. They are 12.5 games behind in the South and 8 games out in the WC race. CF Tori Hunter leads the team .310ba/27hr/65rbi and 1st Rd pick Prince Fielder .266ba/15hr/51 rbi is a star in the making. The pitching is the reason PCM is struggling. It's all or nothing. Two starters are responsible for half the teams wins, J.Santana 13-7, 4.12era and B.Arroyo 13-5, 4.41era. Then there is Dan Haren 3-10, 5.69era and P.Martinez 3-8, 5.44era PCM has won '7' straight South Titles. They will need a big second half to make it '8'.

GCG 33-71- If one team knows the term 'growing pains', it's GCG. They made the biggest off-season trade with HHA when they traded R.Oswalt and P.Burrell for M.Cabrera and M.Buehrle. Cabrera leads the team in hitting .320 but hasn't been a big run producer. They are building a young team with the likes of Cabrera, 1B- J. J.Morneau, C- R.Martin and SS-S.Drew. INF-K.Youkilis has been a pleasant surprise .300ba/10hr/52rbi and NASBL stolen base thief J.Pierre has 59 steals in 70 attempts. The pitching which looks like a MASH unit is struggling. M.Prior 1-5, 5.80era, J.Moyer 3-13, 6.37era and V.Padillia 2-13, 7.26era. Young Closer C.Ray has on the job training 2-3, 6.47era and 7 saves.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

News and Notes from Illinois

Illinois and LCC Complete 2nd Trade

Illinois sent David Dellucci and Kiko Calero to Lake Champlain for Casey Blake and John Rauch. This trade should help LCC in the pennant race and give the Chows more flexibility at the corner positions for next season.

Chows Petition NASBL to hold Draft at Seventies Stadium

After acquiring two first round picks via trade, GM Brad Sherlag is formally petitioning the league to hold the live draft at Seventies Stadium this off-season. “It would be a real boost for our small season ticket base if they could come out and see the draft in person. Having the home team go to the podium three times would add some excitement to the event that I am sure the home viewers on ESPN2 would enjoy. We may not have a posh club to hold the event in like some of the more expensive stadiums, but we do have a banquet room in the lower lever that would fit the draft teams, the commentators and some fans. We hope Commissioner Beard will see this as an exciting opportunity and allow the great people of Illinois the chance to host the draft.”

Can’t Tell the Players without a Program

As the second half of the NASBL season gets underway, you may not recognize your Chows. Of the 30 Chows that broke with the club over a quarter of the roster has turned over. Only eight holdovers remain in place from when Brad Sherlag purchased the old Yorktown franchise. Those eight are Beltran, Beltre, Barrett, Kearns, Dunn, Halliday, Speier and Gagne. Vidro was with Yorktown, however he was released by the Chows and re-acquired via the draft.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

My 2 cents.....

At the end of BK-2 lets take a look around the NASBL. We will start with the Taste Great Division. SOUTH

Their are so many things that could be said tongue in cheek about the South. We are going to take the high road. OK how about this-- 1st team to 74 victories wins the Division.

TTB leads the division with a 49-56 record. They are tied with HHA with a League Leading team BA of .296. TTB is lead by the duo of OF Matt Holiday .347ba/30hr/76rbi and young slugging 1B Ryan Howard .285ba/37hr/92rbi. The Achilles heal for TTB is their pitching. They have team era of 5.89. Chris Young is 11-5, 5.26era & Gil Meche is 10-7 5.97era. Stopper Akinori Otsuka is 3-5, 3.93era, but has 18 saves. TTB needs to out slug their opponents to win the division.

NJT is in second place 6 games behind in the South with 43-62 record. They closely mirror TTB with a team BA of .293 but a league worst 6.14era. J.Damon .326ba/18hr/63rbi, A.Rodriquez .307
ba/19hr/77rbi and R. Sexson .291ba/27hr/82rbi our doing their part in leading NJT in hitting. The very un-NJT perforamnce is the pitching staff. Future HOF R.Johnson is only 6-8 with a 4.64era [very un-Johnson-isk]. J.Bonderman is 10-10 with a 5.78era and F.Cordero is 2-4-18saves and a 5.35era. No pitcher on the staff has an era under 4.50!

OJW is in third place 7 games out with a record of 43-64. The hitting is lead by M.Ramirez .281ba/25hr/67 rbi, J.Bay
.260ba/29hr/70rbi, having a bit of a slow start are A.Soriano
.242 however with 28hr/77rbi and A.Ramirez with.234ba/22hr/57hr.
The problem for the Whales is their pitching. Youngster's Jake Peavy is 8-8, 4.53era and Scott Kamir 7-4, 4.19 are doing their part but veterans Tim Hudson 4-10, 5.80era and Andy Pettitte 6-10, 6.44era. The vets need to turn things around to 'Make my Day' for OJW fans.

GRK the Defending Champs find themselves with a record 40-67. GRK started rebuilding when they traded All-World Roger Clemens and J.Dye to SPL for OF Alex Rios and P Noah Lowry. Then they traded Jason Scmidt and Y. Torrealba and GRK 5th in 2008 to MSU for Joe Crede, Chris Britton and MSU 2nd in 2008. Valdy Guerrero is having
a monster year hitting .362/33hr/94rbi. Valdy said "Me kno care what front office do, me here to pla beezsball"!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

My 2 cents.....

At the end of BK-2 lets take a look around the NASBL. We will start with the Taste Great Division. 'EAST'

HHA has the best record in the league at 68-35. They are tied with TTB with a .296 team BA. SS Miguel Tejada is leading the league in hitting with a .376ave/26hr/97rbi. HHA is also leading the league in team pitching with a 4.12 era. C.Zambrano leads the league with 13 wins, with R.Oswalt and B.Webb each having 12.

SPR is 60-42 in 2nd place in the East, but has an 8.5 game lead in the Wild Card race. L.Berkman is hitting .354/41hr/82rbi. Rookie Luke Scott .360ba/11hr/43rbi and lead the league in stolen bases with 123 and only being caught 24 times. CC (Rider)Sabathia is 10-3 with a 3.16era. J.Nathan despite a 1-4 record has 26 saves.

LCC is 52-51 and find themselves 8.5 back in the wild card race. Lead by Chipper Jones .350ba/23hr/60rbi and Big Papi .283ba/34hr/74rbi. LCC did make a move acquiring veteran pitcher Curt Schilling to make a last playoff run to beaf up the pitching staff. E.Bedard is 8-7 with a 5.34era. If the LCC bats can get hot they can hit their way back in the race.

ILL is 47-57 and some can say has a big bright smile on the face of management. ILL has made some outstanding moves in the 1st two blocks, not on the field but off. They have made some great trades for young pitching and have acquired two 2008 1st RD picks including having their own for a total of '3'. They did give up some good players in the likes of Josh Johnson and Rich Harden, but come draft day in 2008 ILL will be sitting pretty.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Sherlag Brothers Strike Deal - Chows now have Three 1's


The Brothers Sherlag made their first trade. Although the Chows and 'Topes have become bitter division rivals in only a short period of time, the sibling rivalry cooled long enough to find common ground and make a deal.


Going to Springfield will be oft (or is it always) injured starter Rich Harden, left handed reliever Matt Thornton and the Chows 12th round draft pick. Coming back to Illinois will be Keith Foulke, Tim Corcoran and Springfield's 1st Pick.


Chows GM Brad Sherlag explained the move as follows, "This was a difficult deal to pull the trigger on. Rich Harden could be one of the top five pitchers in the entire NASBL if he ever strings together a healthy season. However, keeping a pitcher each year with limited innings really hampers our roster building and decreases the chance we hit with prospects in the later rounds. Having three first round draft picks should help us change the direction of the Chows for years to come."


It is nice to see that Brad Sherlag isn't even pretending this time that the players coming back to Illinois will make an impact. Getting back a Keith Foulke is like the scene in major league where it is uttered "this guy here is dead." Though still alive, Foulke wouldn't even be good enough with his dead arm to pich in the Major Leagues, much less the NASBL.


'Topes fans can now hope that the nuclified air of Springfield will have regenerative properties for all Harden's ailments. If he can be healthy for the post-season run, the trade could help bring a crown to Springfield. If he can be healthy beyond, the younger Sherlag may be able to brag about a fleecing for the next 15 years or so.