My 2 cents-- 2010 NASBL Year in Review

Today we look at the TG Division. Next week LF Division.

Taste Great Division
EAST
HHA 99-63 Captured the East Crown for the 3rd time in the last 4 years with a record of 99-63. HHA lead the NASBL in hitting with a team BA of .296! DH M. Tejada lead the team and was 3rd in the league with a .347ba. Trader Stan did another outstanding job in the 2010 Draft pulling off trades that landed the Andrew (Brothers)- CF Andrew McCutchen
.297ba, 79r, 17hr, and Closer in waiting Andrew Bailey 9-4 23sv, with a 2.03era. To top it off with HHA 1st Rd pick they got ROTH contender 1B Kendry Morales .288ba, 382b, 38hr, 117rbi who lead the team in HRs and RBIs.

LCC 94-68 After kissing their sister two out of the last 3 years (granted a very good-looking sister with 94 and 97 wins and still missing the playoffs) the Beard-man made all the right moves to just get into the Tourney. LCC was second with a team BA of .280. This years success was made possible with the trades made last year acquiring SS-Troy Tulowitzki
.289ba, 86r, 33hr, 102rbi & 3B Ryan Zimmerman .276ba, 95r, 31hr, 97rbi. LCC has their ROTH candidate in OF/1B Greg Jones who hit .338ba, 26hr & 66rbi. Clayton Kershaw 13-10, 375era & Edwin Jackson 13-10, 4.87 each lead the starters while Jose Valverde 4-4-24 sv, 3.12era and CJ Wilson 5-2-12sv, 3.01era anchored the bullpen.

SPR 93-69 After another great season SPR was 5th with a Team BA of .270, lead the league in steals with 191 ROTH candidate Niger Morgan hit .302, 79r and lead the league in SB with 62 while Jacoby Ellsbury was 2nd with 52. Adam Dunn had a .267ba, .400ob, 98r, 39hr, 102rbi was 2nd in HRs & BBs. The pitching was 2nd in the league with a team ERA of 4.16, had a 20 game winner in CC Sabathia 20-8, 4.09era. The bad news is SPR plays in the toughest Division in NASBL and their 93 wins left them 1 game behind LCC for the playoffs. If someone understand how Doug Sherlag feels is Mr. Beard himself!

ILl 91-71 What a year the Chows had plus 12 in wins from 2009 to 91, however like Mr. Burns team in Springfield will just miss the playoffs. The strength of the Chows is definitely their pitching which they lead the league in team era of 3.84 and 14 team SH! CY candidates Brian Anderson (20-5, 3.07era), and Chris Carpenter (17-8, 3.30era) lead the staff with ROTH candidate Randy Wells (15-8, 3.0era). Closer Joe Nathan (1-5, 2.62era) had lead leading 44 saves. The Chows achilles heal was their hitting with Todd Helton's .288 lead the team. Carlos Pena only hit .213 however hit 35hr, 99rbi and Hanley Ramirez hit .290ba, 84r, 23hr, 90rbi. Look Brad to add some sticks with all that pitching!


SOUTH
NJt 79-83 It came down to the last week of the season and the Heap prevailed by 1 game to win the South over defending Champ OJW. The Heap had a team BA of .261 (11th) and the offense was lead by MVP Candidate 1B Joey Votto .334ba, 76r, 422b, 29hr, 77rbi, and OF'er Nick Swisher .233ba, 82bb, 27hr, 88rbi Past MVP Champ Alex Rodriquez struggled at the plate with a .236ba, 21hr, 65rbi. NJT was 3rd in the NASBL with a 4.21era. CY Candidate Tim Lincecum lead the way going 19-8, 2.81era and league leading 22 CG! Chad Billingsley (no relation to Leave it to Beaver's Mom Barbara) was 16-12, 3.85era. The Trash Heap lead the league with 74 Complete Games-- 21 games better than the NY Knights.

OJw 78-84 After winning the NASBL Crown last year Mark Hildenbart's Outlaw's fell 1 game short of making the playoffs this year. A look inside the numbers can reveal the difference in the 2 seasons. OJW favorite son Manny Ramirez lead the team LY with a .321ba, 98r, 38hr, 114rbi, had an injury plague year with a .240ba, 16hr, 52rbi, while Ryan Ludwich had a .271ba, 94r, 35hr, 86rbi down to .278, 17hr, 78rbi. Pitching was the big difference in OJW success. Last year Jobe Chamberlain had a 'Superman' season going 14-2, 2.11era in middle relief. This season as a starter he had a devil of a time going 4-14, 6.66era. Ryan Dempster went from a 21-7, 3.11era to 11-10, 4.67era. Scott Baker had a break out year oin 20-8, 4.22era.

GRk 73-89 Just 2 seasons removed from a 91 win season, Johnny Miller had the Road Kill just 6 games out of 1st behind NJT. Granted their record was 73-89 this season but to see where the Road Kill came from in 2009 a year which saw 116 loses, they are headed in the right direction! Matt Wieters the Over all #1 pick in 2010 was everything he was advertised hitting .290, 9hr, 40rbi just 282 ab. Working towards rebuilding for 2011 Miller made key trades acquiring RF Hunter Pence and future Closer Rafael Soriano. GRK also need to have bounce back seasons from OF Alex Rois and SP Yovani Gallardo. If they can do that then Trader Johnny will have the Road Kill on the right track!

LVi 69-93 Just 2 seasons removed from a 96 win Division Winning season LVI finished 10 behind NJT. Just like the GRK above LVI finished 51-111 in 2009 and made an 18 game improvement to go 69-83. Kevin Burns needs Albert Pujos to continue to play at his MVP form again after hitting .299, 103r, 512b, 37hr, 127rbi. 3B Evan Longoria needs to live up to all the press he received a couple of seasons ago. LVI hopes his bat catches up with his wonderful fielding at third! 2B Robinson Cano looks to have a breakout season in 2011! Kevin Burns will look to the draft and thur making trades (aka like the one which brought Pujos over to LVI) to rebuild the Iron Pigs to their winning form.