| WEEK 6 PREVIEW |
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Spitball Artists over Raccoon City by 3 We... I mean they can do it! North Stars over Pontiac Pride by 2 2 starts by Mulder (good thing). 2 starts by Lowe (bad thing) Willis INC over Yankee Doodle by 1 Willis has to do better... right?! Foul Balls over PS Wankstas by 2 Lotsa starts by Foul Balls' good pitchers. |
| WEEK 5 WRAP-UP | ||
| Raccoon City (59-24-7)
def. PS Wankstas (37-45-8) 15-1 Stars: Gary Sheffield (RC), Tim Hudson (PW) Duds: Brent Mayne (PW), Curt Schilling (PW) In an absolute thrashing that brings back memories of the Raccoon's legendary blanking of GM PapaG's squad last year, GM KneeCo continues to roll. The scary thing is that they are getting better by the week too. Here is their respective win margins starting from the beginning of the season: 3, 4, 5, 9, 14. Many got in on the offensive act for the team. Gary Sheffield is on a tear, provided he plays. The hole at 3rd base is probably the only dark spot on an otherwise flawless start to the season of this team. On the other hand, the Wankstas' stock dropped markedly after a stellar week 4. This team looked like they might take a step towards the top of the standings, but a major loss like this is likely to follow them around all year. Brent Mayne's has been a bust, Pat Burrell and Ichiro's troubles persist. Some roster moves may be in order. |
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North Stars (49-32-9)
def. Willis INC (41-41-8) 13-3 Stars: Eric Chavez (NS), Pedro Martinez (NS) Duds: J.T. Snow (NS), Byung-Hyun Kim (NS) This may be a telling matchup for the North Stars. Not much attention has been paid to the North Stars as a possible top tier team. However, a thrashing of Team Willis should make them stand up and take notice. The pitching was the strength of the team, going 4-2 with 2 complete games and a 2.70 ERA. There is some trouble however. Jim Thome is now officially in a funk, Hideki Matsui had another subpar week and Paul Konerko, although he was benched, hasn't started to get hot yet. For Willis, this hurts, in that they fall in a deep hole towards catching the Raccoons. This was likely just a bad week, but it was enough cause for concern as to convince GM Willis to make a couple of moves to try and get better quick, by trading for Trot Nixon, and by picking up Junior Spivey, Mike Lieberthal and Alex Gonzalez. We'll see how that pans out. |
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| Yankee Doodle (40-42-8)
and Foul Balls (31-48-11) tie 8-8 Stars: Carl Everett (YD), Matt Morris (YD) Duds: Benito Santiago (YD), Kelvim Escobar (FB) Foul Balls gets unlucky to draw a tie in a week where they batted .324, had a .974 OPS, 50 RBIs and their best ERA of the season so far. Paul Lo Duca's bounce back week is a very good sign, as is Carlos Beltran's growing contributions. But Jason Giambi CONTINUES TO DO ABSOLUTELY ZILCH!!! And Randy Johnson has hit the DL for what looks like a prolonged period of time. It's almost unfair how this team has been ravaged by bad luck. That, plus the deep hole they've fallen into is just too much for them to overcome. On the Yankee Doodle side, a fortunate tie masks what was overall a bad week. Many offensive bad performances. It's hard to gauge this team right now. There's a healthy amount of good pitchers on the Free Agents list right now. Why are they still holding on to John Lackey? |
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Spitball Artists
(38-42-10) and Pontiac Pride (30-51-9) tie 8-8 Stars: Albert Pujols (PP), Barry Zito (SA) Duds: Carlos Lee (PP), Wade Miller (SA) Another tie. Both these teams put up strong performances. For the Spitball Artists, the offense finally woke up in a big way. Barry Bonds may have started to really roll now, Eric Hinske seems to have reverted to last year's form, Tim Salmon has been consistently great and Frank Catalanotto has been a revelation. The pitching was on target again, but that didn't show up in the W-L columns. Barry Zito and Mike Mussina appear poised to battle each other for the AL Cy Young this year. However, Wade Miller has been very unsteady. Next week will be very telling, as he gets two starts. There are whispers going around that GM Costa is considering giving up on this season and trading the big veterans like Bonds, Giles and Mussina for youth and draft picks. For Pontiac Pride, their first non-loss of the season can be considered somewhat of a moral victory. Albert Pujols appears to be unhindered by that little injury last week, and Kevin Brown is looking like the Kevin Brown of old. However, many of the same old problems persist, such as Carlos Lee, Roberto Alomar and Lance Berkman. |
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