April Players of the Month

The first month of the DMBL season has passed and there are a few surprises and some disappointments. At the top of the surprise chart has to be Poovey Farms, currently sporting the best record in the league at 18-8. The former Brick City Batmen are off to a blazing start, leading the Van Slyke Division by 5 1/2 games and currently riding a 6-game winning streak. Last year's champion San Francisco Experience sputtered a bit out of the gate, but have taken control of the Drabek Division. Meanwhile, in the Kruk Division, Tucson holds a 1-game edge over Marietta. It looks like this one will be a dogfight this season. Finally, Allentown holds a tenuous lead over Arkansas in the Fisk Division. The Golden Falcons led the division much of the month, but have now dropped five straight and have a mediocre 13-13 record.

Livingston leads the list of disappointing teams so far, sitting in last place in one of the tougher divisions. Livingston was among the league's elite last year, but it struggling this year. Last year's World Series runner up, Hoboken, is the other disappointer. Despite sitting in second place, the Cutters are one game under .500 and sit 5 1/2 games behind Poovey Farms. Vancouver seemed like they were going to be a contender this year, but have lost a string of heartbreakers that keeps them in 3rd place in the Fisk Division. The Iron Fist are 0-8 this year in 1-run games, so maybe their luck can still turn around.

April's JR Cigar Smokin' Batter of the Month is Delmon Young of El Paso. Drafted almost as an afterthought in the 10th round of the 2015 Draft, Young leads the league in batting average (.443), on base percentage (.450), hits (43), and runs created (28). Debuting in 2008 with Carolina, Young has only been a full time starter twice in his career, and one of those seasons he was traded midseason. Other notable batters this month: Allentown's Jose Abreu (.368/.395/.697, 6 HR, 21 RBI) and Mike Trout (.310/.395/.670, 9 HR, 20 RBI), Arkansas's Steven Pearce (.326/.387/.695, 9 HR, 20 RBI), Vancouver's Anthony Rendon (.347/.383/.622, 7 HR, 25 RBI), Poovey Farms' Yasel Puig (.333/.402/.635, 6 HR), and Livingston's Paul Goldschmidt (.333/.383/.562, 5 HR).

April's Omaha Steaks Pitcher of the Month is Mike Fiers of Hopatcong. You've probably read about his recent flirtation with the DMBL's first perfect game, but Fiers has been an ace all month for the Floating Fish. Despite a mediocre 3-3 record, Fiers has a 2.86 ERA and allowed 8.0 runners per 9 innings. He also has 2 shutouts this month. Fiers was the third overall pick in this year's draft. Other considerations: Fiers' teammate, Kyle Hendricks (4-1, 1.54, 8.6 R/9), San Francisco's Henderson Alvarez (6-0, 2.39), Tucson's Greg Holland (3-0, 8 saves, 0.00 ERA, 4.7 R/9), Hillsborough's Garret Richards (3-1, 2.00, 8.0), Livingston's Chris Archer (4-2, 2.63), Marietta's Michael Pineda (2.89, 8.0, 2 CGs), and Arkansas' Matt Shoemaker (3-1, 2.48, 8.9).

April Showers bring... injuries, it seems. The month brought long term injuries to several teams. San Francisco's Chris Sale was lost for a month when he decided to start watching the new Daredevil series on Netflix. Reportedly, he was so into it, that he tried to recreate the character's origin story and got hit by a truck carrying radioactive waste. It didn't turn out too well for him. Sale's teammate Hanley Ramirez was also a casualty of Sale's binge-watching. After leaving out too many crumbs from snacks and refusing to clean, a mouse infestation overcame the San Francisco locker room. Ramirez was singled out by the rodents and bitten repeatedly. He also did not gain any notable super powers. Other injuries of note: Tucson's Troy Tulowitzki (37 days), Arkansas' Justin Morneau (27) and Anthony Rizzo (21), Hillsborough's Zach Putnam (24) and Edwin Encarnacion (33), and Marietta's Justin Turner (30). Blue Ridge rookie hurler Yordano Ventura broke his funny bone, an injury that has baffled the team's doctors.

Opening week in review

Not only was veteran Johan Santana of Arkansas the only starter to win both his starts in the opening week, his first win of the season, a 7-1 victory over Carolina, was the 100th of his career, becoming the 18th pitcher in league history to reach the milestone (and beating Mark Buehrle, who sites at 99 wins, and Roy Oswalt, who picked up No. 99 Monday night). He now sits in a tie for 16th all-time in wins, with Brad Radke and Javier Vazuez. And so, Santana, who won the Ben McDonald Award pitching for Philly in 2005 and 2007, is the first Mentos, The Freshmaker Pitcher of the Week for the 2011 season.

The only other two-win pitchers during the opening week were relievers: Hoboken's Tim Stauffer (2-0) and Daniel Bard of Sardine City (2-1). Philadelphia's Matt Thornton led the league in saves with three and Marietta's Francisco Liriano was tops in strikeouts with 18. Other notable pitchers were Philly's Roy Halladay, who tossed a complete game win, helping him match Carolina's Tim Hudson for the lead in innings pitched with 16 1/3. Amityville's David Aardsma tossed 7 1/3 hitless innings in four relief appearances and Carolina phenom Stephen Strasburg fanned 10 while earning the win in his first start.

We were inclined to give the Rebecca Black/Know Your Meme Batter of the Week to a veteran like Hideki Matsui, who's raking for Philly this year. The long-time Sugar Bear started the season with a 5-for-5, two home-run opening day performance and followed it up two days later with two more homers and five more RBIs. He led the league in RBIs (10), tied for the lead in runs (7) with four other players, and matched New Jersey's Joey Votto for the league lead in homers (4).

Still, Gerald Dempsey "Buster" Posey of Arkansas put up arguably a better week, considering it was his first one in DMBL. The rookie backstop, who was drafted as an ineligible prospect in the 12th round of the 2010 draft, led the league in multiple categories, including batting average (.571), slugging (1.034), hits (15), extra base hits (9), runs created (16.0), RC/27 (27.0) and total bases (30). He was second to fellow rookie Jason Heyward of Las Vegas in on-base percentage, and tied with Votto for second in RBIs.

In addition to Posey, teammate Justin Morneau and Carolina's Michael Young hit safety in all seven games they played last week. Other players with multiple-homer games last week included Marietta's Ichiro Suzuki and Justin Morneau of Arkansas, who like Matsui did it on Opening Day. Other notables during opening week were Vancouver rookie Austin Jackson, who along with Alexis Rios of Blue Ridge and Marietta's Brett Gardner led the league in steals (3). In addition to Young, Amityville's Delmon Young also racked up a dozen hits last week.

Despite picking up both player awards this week, it wasn't enough for Arkansas to reach the .500 in the opening week, finishing at 3-4. Arkansas wasn't alone though. While Las Vegas and Philly both raced out to 6-0 starts, only Carolina, Blue Ridge and Hoboken bettered the .500 mark. After one week, Bridgewater and New Jersey were bringing up the rear, at 1-5.