DMBL Mirror League wrap-up 2009

The king of the Mirror League, Hillsborough, continued their streak, winning their 4th straight Mirror League title. The Hitmen fell just one game short of making their first World Series appearance this year. With the Mirror League victory, the Hitmen once again have great expectations for next season. "If the Mirror League is a reflection" said owner Brent Campbell, "then that means we will have victory in the DMBL next year as well!" Coming in second is the Las Vegas Rat Pack. The Pack was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Hillsborough and almost gave up on the DMBL. But the Pack is back with a vengeance and looking forward to coming back even stronger in 2010.

The third place team was a bit of a surprise. The second-to-last place Sardine City Straphangers will hope to combine a favorable draft position with a solid keeper list to truly contend for the first time in their short history. Philadelphia and Vancouver, two of the usual playoff contenders, rounded out the 4th and 5th positions. Despite this, Vancouver seems to be on a rebuilding program, though Philly does seem to be a contender again in 2010. Hoboken sits in 6th place (what would be the final playoff position for a typical DMBL season) and hopes to reverse their fortunes from a forgettable 2009 season.

Sitting at the bottom are the Morris Division champion Carolina Mudcats. The Cats fell to the Mighty Men in the second round of the playoffs and look destined to rebuild next season. The other two teams near the bottom are the Amityville Ant Slayers (13th) entering their sophomore season and New Jersey Team Buddah (12th) who seems to be stuck near the bottom every year.

Just to show how much this means, according to the Mirror League last season - out of the top 6 finishers, 4 made the playoffs. Arkansas, who finished 3rd, just barely missed out, and Sardine City, finishing 6th, was the second worst team in the league. 12th place Carolina, as noted before, won their division.

Trades keep rolling in...

Sardine City and Blue Ridge confirmed a deal today that sent infielder Alexei Ramirez to the Bombers in exchange for their 4th round pick. Ramirez was a much-criticized first round pick from last year's draft. But Ramirez struggled for the Straphangers, hitting .246 with a .607 OPS. The Bombers hope to improve on the young Ramirez's hitting.

Draft Lottery results posted

As mentioned yesterday, the Draft Lottery results were published a couple of days ago. Amityville, Arkansas, and Philadelphia all moved up one spot in the order, while Blue Ridge fell one and D.C. fell two spots. Both New Jersey and Sardine City, which sent threatening letters to the commissioner's office for the past two months, have their spots in the order secured. The squad of mercenaries and various mafioso types that have been hanging out in front of the Commish's office have been recalled to their respective home bases. Meanwhile, the D.C. office plans to put the "bomb" in "O-Bomber" after their less than favorable results. But don't worry about them - the O-Bombers already have an extra draft pick in the first round, and are fishing for more.

By the way, amazingly enough, it appears to be favorable to sit in the 7th spot as that team has never once in the history of draft lotteries picked in that position. 5 times out of 7 they've moved up in the order, to as far as the 4th overall slot.

Busy day of deals

Teams are wasting no time in making deals.

Las Vegas and Philadelphia agreed to a deal in which the Endzone Animals get veteran reliever Trevor Hoffman and Vegas gets their 4th round pick back. Hoffman had a very rough year last year for the Pack, going 1-8 with a 9.21 ERA and 7 blown saves, but the Animals believe he can bounce back. Philadelphia wasn't done dealing though and dealt away pitchers Brandon Webb and Scott Kazmir along with outfielder Michael Cuddyer to Vancouver for catcher Victor Martinez. Martinez mostly played a platoon role for Vancouver this year, but Philly intends to give him a fulltime gig. "It was tough to leave the Pacific Northwest" said Martinez in a tearful press conference, "but it'll be good to get another chance at another ring." Martinez had been with Vancouver since 2004. Webb was acquired by Philly in 2006 from Westwood and has been a fixture in the rotation since, but suffered an injury at the end of the season and will miss the entire 2010 campaign. Kazmir was another acquistion, nabbed from Hoboken last offseason. Vancouver hopes to work with Kazmir to find his groove again.

The results for the Lottery have been posted. More to come on that...

More trades

Seems as though Newark and D.C. have broken open the floodgates.

Immediately following the other day's Abreu deal, D.C. has acquired shortstop Erick Aybar from Vancouver for their 3rd round pick in 2011 and prospect Cameron Maybin. Aybar was a trade deadline pickup for the Fist this past season, but his solid play earned him the main part of a platoon role down the stretch. However with young Elvis Andrus as the apparent shortstop of the future for Vancouver, Aybar was deemed expendable. Maybin has been a hot prospect for a while now, even had a stay in Vancouver's farm two years ago. The Fist hope that maybe he'll finally put it all together and live up to the hype.

Today, the third deal of the offseason was consummated between Philadelphia and Hillsborough. The Hitmen traded lefty C.C. Sabathia to the Endzone Animals for their 1st and 5th picks in 2011 and reliever George Sherrill. Sabathia was 14-9 with a 3.92 ERA for the Hitmen this season and has been a solid starter for most of his career (though the 3.92 ERA was his career low). Sherrill had a rough 2008 season, but he should be a good candidate for a bounceback in '09.

Newark executes first trade of offseason

The final drops of champagne weren't even out of the bottle before Newark pulled the trigger on the first deal of the offseason. After the Series was over, an irate Butch Garretson pulled Bobby Abreu into his office and went on a 20 minute tirade. Apparently, the veteran outfielder had been playing video games in between innings of Game 7. "No wonder he went 0-4" said Garretson. Abreu, who had been with the team since 1999 was swiftly dealt to D.C. for first baseman Nick Johnson, second baseman Howie Kendrick, and D.C.'s 6th round pick. Johnson, a former Mitchell Award winner, had played with the Sugar Bears from 2005-2007. Johnson missed the entire 2008 season, forcing Newark to make a difficult decision to release him. But D.C. took a chance on Johnson in the 2009 draft and is now able to cash in. "Now Nickie Boy, that's a fine young lad who wouldn't be playing Call of Duty in between pitches" said Garretson.

Your 2009 champions: The Mighty Men!

The Mighty Men put everything on the back of veteran Mike Mussina and the old horse came through with a gem. Mussina pitched a 9-inning shutout in game 7, limiting the vaunted Sugar Bears offense to only 2 hits and 3 walks, and securing the 2009 Championship for the Mighty Men. Moose was named the World Series MVP and awarded the Bud Black Trophy. The tearful Mussina announced in the postgame press conference that he would retire now. "Really what else can top this?" he said. Mussina has spent the last 6 years with the franchise and looks like a serious candidate for the Hall of Fame. But back to the game...

The Mighty Men jumped on the Sugar Bears right off the bat as Kevin Youkilis led off the game with a double. Youk would score shortly after on a two-run Milton Bradley home run. Meanwhile, Mussina carried a no-hitter into the 5th inning, when the no-no was broken up by a J.D. Drew single. The Mighty Men tacked on another run in the 8th on an Adrian Beltre single with two men on. Newark would get their only other hit in the 9th - a weak blooper up the middle by Mike Fontenot - but he was doubled off by Manny Ramirez to end the game.

It's on

Tonight...for all the marbles. Saunders vs. Mussina

Deja vu all over again

Newark has tied their series with Marietta, forcing a decisive game 7 in Newark Friday evening. Newark jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the 2nd inning yesterday as Shawn Marcum walked the first three batters, then giving up two singles. Marietta scored one in the bottom of the inning to make it 3-1. Then in the bottom of the 3rd, Kevin Youkilis hit a single that tied the game up at 3. In the 4th, the Mighty Men took a one-run lead on an Orlando Hudson single. It was short-lived, however, as Manny Ramirez tied it up with a solo home run in the next inning. The score remained 4-4 until the 7th when Asdrubal Cabrera hit an RBI single to give the Sugar Bears the 5-4 lead. Newark then extended the lead in the 8th on a Jason Giambi solo home run. Time was running out for the Mighty Men, but their first two batters in the 9th hit singles. Milton Bradley put the kibosh on that with a double play grounder - although Nick Punto managed to score on the play to make it 6-5. Brian Giles hit a single in the next at bat, leaving Newark closer Joey Devine sweating with big time slugger Adrian Gonzalez due up. Unfortunately for Marietta, Gonzalez struck out, ending the game.

Mighty Men take one step closer to the title

The Mighty Men took a 4-2 decision against Newark last night and now are just one game away from winning their second title in franchise history. Then again, the Mighty Men are standing in the same exact spot as the Hillsborough Hired Hitmen stood not that long ago.

The Mighty Men jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first two innings, then padded the total to 4-0 after a 2-run 5th. It was a good thing too, because the Sugar Bears managed to score two more runs during the rest of the game, but ended up short. John Danks earned the win by pitching 6.1 innings and giving up only an unearned run on 6 hits. Brian Giles was the star on offense, going 3-4 with a run and an RBI. An interesting little tidbit, or not, but out of the 6 total runs scored in the game only 2 runs were earned. Both teams committed a pair of crucial errors that led to runners crossing the plate. Orlando Hudson's error in the second with 2 outs continued the inning that led to Marietta's 2nd run, then J.D. Drew's error in the 5th on a single allowed both runners to advance an extra base. Both runners would score easily on a Kevin Youkilis double. Meanwhile, Derek Jeter's error in the 5th allowed Newark to score their first run and Newark's other run scored a runner that reached base on Josh Hamilton's miscue in the outfield.

The teams are off today and resume their series on Wednesday.

Series tied up yet again

Marietta once again knotted the series after falling down 2-1 over the weekend. But the Mighty Men battled back to bring the series back to Newark on even footing. Things looked bleak for Marietta as the Sugar Bears rolled out to a 9-2 lead. In the 8th, Marietta rallied to pick up 3 runs, but were still down by a 9-5 margin. With Newark's vaunted bullpen, things looked bad. But in the 9th, the inexplicable happend. Adrian Beltre led off with a single and Milton Bradley followed up with a single, but the next two batters were retired, leaving the Mighty Men down 4 with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th. Geovany Soto came up and singled in Beltre. He was followed by Jason Bay, who hit a 3-run homer to tie the game up. Newark brought in their clutch closer Joey Devine to try to get out of the inning, but he walked the first two batters. Frustrated, Newark manager Don Mattingly brought in veteran lefty Randy Johnson to face Kevin Youkilis. Johnson, who was told he was on the roster basically for "moral support", was surprised to be brought into the game, but Newark was in panic mode. Unfortunately for them, the move did not pay off as Johnson served up a 3-run homer to Youkilis, ending the game. "So much for moral support" said a demoralized Joe Saunders who would have been in line to pick up the W in the game.

The series resumes tonight in Newark...

Marietta evens it up

It was looking pretty bad for the Mighty Men there for a while. Newark and Chien-Ming Wang were holding the Mighty Men scoreless for the first 7 innings, but the Mighty Men came through. The Sugar Bears got on the board first when Manny Ramirez hit a two-run homer in the 6th. Chipper Jones would get a base hit in the inning, but it was the last hit Newark would get in the game. Yes, they did walk a few more times, but the Sugar Bears also hit into two crushing double plays.

In the 8th inning, the Mighty Men made their move. Chipper Jones' error allowed Brian Giles to reach base with one out. Adrian Gonzalez then singled. Josh Hamilton hit a sac fly to score Giles, making the score 2-1 in Newark's favor. Kevin Youkilis then came through with a two-run home run to give the Mighty Men the lead. Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless 9th to pick up his 4th save of the playoffs.

The series resumes Saturday in Marietta. Newark, so far, is undefeated on the road in the playoffs. They'll be sending Justin Duchscherer to the mound against Mike Mussina.

Game 1 goes to Newark

Both the Mighty Men and Sugar Bears sent lefties to the hill in game one and both were doing well for 4 innings. The score was 0-0 until the bottom of the 5th when the wheels fell off for John Danks and the Mighty Men. J.D. Drew started things off with a one-out single, followed by a Manny Ramirez base hit. After the next batter popped out, it looked like the Mighty Men might escape unscathed. But Asdrubal Cabrera came through with a double, scoring two runs and giving the Sugar Bears the lead. Cabrera would score on an Edgar Renteria single and soon Newark had a 3-0 lead. Meanwhile, the Mighty Men could not figure out Saunders, who retired 10 straight at one point. Finally in the 8th, Geovany Soto came through with a 2-run homer to bring the Mighty Men to within one run, but Newark came back with 3 more runs in the bottom half. The Mighty Men managed to get two runners on the bases in the 9th, but their two big guns - Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Hamilton - failed to plate anyone. Final score: 6-2 Newark.

The Mighty Men were held to just 3 hits in the game by Joe Saunders, who pitched 8.1 innings to earn the win. J.D. Drew was the offensive hero for Newark, going 4-4 with 2 runs scored. The two teams resume later today with Chien-Ming Wang taking the mound for Newark and Marietta counters with Shawn Marcum.