2021 Mitchell Award contenders

2021 was a wild and wacky year in the DMBL. Expansion brought the league from 16 to 20 franchises and the season was simulated on the 60-game 2020 MLB season, so statistics come with a bit of an asterisk.

2021 Eck Award Winner: Liam Hendriks

Liam Hendriks ran away with the 2021 Eck Award, winning by one of the widest margins in recent memory and quietly putting together one of the highest Eck's scores in almost a decade.

First rounds both head to decisive game 5

We're back from hiatus, just in time as both first round playoff series head to a decisive game 5. Hillsborough evened up their series with Vegas yesterday. The Hitmen offense came alive and scored 7 runs in the third inning off starter A.J. Burnett to force the series to return to New Jersey. Nick Markakis was 3-4 and Russell Martin was 3-4 with 2 RBIs for the Hitmen. Ronnie Belliard also went 2-4 with 4 RBIs for the Hitmen. The series resumes Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, Vancouver is in Marietta, as their series climaxes with Ben Sheets and John Danks on the mound for their respective teams. This is essentially a rematch of game one that saw the Mighty Men destroy the Iron Fist 9-1, holding the defending champs to a dismal 4 hits. The Mighty Men also benefitted from 9 walks issued by Vancouver pitchers. Will it be a repeat?

The first round of awards were issued over the weekend, as winners for the Rintel and Eckersley awards were issued. Voting for the three top prizes is already underway and Gold Glove winners will be announced soon.

Spring Training kicks off

Yesterday was the first round of pre-season games, once again played in doubleheader format.

In Marietta, all eyes were on #1 draft pick Milton Bradley, but the surly outfielder was nowhere to be found. "Milton missed all of last season with an injury" said team manager Graig Nettles "and we're not about to take a chance of him hurting himself again by putting him into an actual game." Bradley may sit a while as Nettles and the Mighty Men plan to give him as much time as he needs until he feels comfortable.

Things were a bit better for #2 overall pick Chris Davis, who played in both ends of his team's doubleheader. Davis only went 1-6 in the two games, but feels good about things. "I've never faced DMBL pitchers before" said Davis after the game. "I'll be fine by Opening Day."

Finally, #3 pick Edinson Volquez pitched well in his Team Buddah debut. Volquez pitched 6 strong innings, striking out 7 and giving up only 2 runs, one of which was unearned. "I'm so glad we don't have to go to Stamford" said Volquez. "I have a pet babboon and I hear that they're kind of anti-monkey in that area." Volquez's pet babboon was seen on the sidelines advising the team while manager Matt Nokes was taking a catnap.

In other news, the DMBL has announced that they will add another year-end award to their mix. The award, dubbed the Bret Saberhagen Comeback Player of the Year Award will reward a player who has returned to the league after facing some kind of prior adversity - be it injury, retirement, or just crappy performance. The award will be judged by a small panel of judges as determined by the commissioner.

Last call for votes and Lottery update

Draft Lottery results will be revealed before the end of the day today, so stay tuned. There were some interesting shifts in the order...

Also I'm taking a last call for voting - I have not received a lot of ballots so the rest of you slackers email me your selections for Top Hitter, Top Pitcher, and Rookie of the Year!

Rock the Vote 2008

Seeing as tomorrow is Election Day, let us not forget our own votes.

Voting for the Kevin Mitchell Most Valuable Hitter Award, Ben McDonald Pitcher of the Year Award and the Pat Listach Rookie of the Year Award is still open. For the Mitch and the Ben Mac, it's the top 6 and for the Stash, it's the top 3.

Get voting! Voting results will be announced some time next week.

Players of the Week

Since we forgot to give out the awards last week, we'll include last week in our considerations.

Hitter of the Week

Our top two candidates for the Mitchell Award had a monster week...er weeks. Newark's Chipper Jones was huge, leading the league in average (.500), on base percentage(.615), and slugging (1.067) (and of course OPS) while also hitting 3 homers and 6 doubles, scoring 12 runs and driving in 11. Meanwhile, Vancouver's David Ortiz tried to keep pace with a 1.180 OPS week (.462 on base, .718 slugging), with 4 homers and 12 RBI.

Meanwhile, D.C. had a huge offensive week, hitting .320 as a team with a .828 team OPS. Matt Kemp (.460, 13 runs, 1.081 OPS) and Jeff Kent (.412, 1.027 OPS, 9 RBI) were big parts of that surge, but the main cog, and this week's JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week is Brian McCann. McCann hit .571 over the past two weeks with a 1.523 OPS and 13 RBIs.

Other considerations... Hoboken's Miguel Cabrera hit 6 home runs for the Cutters and drove in 15...Marietta's Josh Hamilton crushed the opposition with a 1.489 OPS, 5 HRs, and 14 RBIs...Philly's Jorge Posada had a solid week (.404, 4 HR, 11 RBI) and Tampa's Pat Burrell did his best to keep the Plunkers' playoff hopes alive (1.435 OPS, 4 HR, 9 RBI).

Pitcher of the Week

D.C. almost made it a sweep of the awards this week as both Shawn Marcum (1-0, 1.15, shutout) and Derrek Lowe (3-0, 1.21, shutout, 1.16 WHIP) had great weeks, not to mention a superb performance by closer Jonathan Papelbon (5-5 saves, 0.00 ERA in 5 games). But this week's Springfield Punx Pitcher of the Week Award goes to Philadelphia's Brandon Webb. Webb was also 3-0, but with a slightly better 1.14 ERA and slightly lower 1.14 WHIP. Webb also amassed 19 strikeouts in 23.2 innings of work.

Marietta's Mariano Rivera logged a lot of playing time over the past two weeks, but the old man still got it done. Rivera appeared in 12 games with an 0.71 ERA, picking up a win and a save, while striking out 11 in 12.2 innings.

Other pitchers of note...Speaking of old men, Arkansas' Roger Clemens still has a little bit of gas left in him (2-0, 2.02 ERA, 0.97 WHIP)...Looks like some time in the minors has done Philly's Yovani Gallardo some good (2-0, 3.09, 13K in 11.2 IP)...Hillsborough's Dan Haren (2-0, 1.72, 12 K, 0.77 WHIP) has helped keep the Hitmen on pace with D.C.

Santana takes this round

After the young rookie Francisco Liriano won in the head-to-head playoff matchup, Johan Santana will have to console himself with the Ben McDonald Pitcher of the Year trophy. And it was a mighty close vote. The closest, in fact since Santana himself won it back in 2005. Is it the closest vote in DMBL history? Nope, a quick scan of the past winners will clearly show that's not true. In 1999, voters were torn between Arkansas' two aces and Kevin Brown and Pedro Martinez split the prize. It doesn't get any closer than a tie, folks.

A lone second place vote for Philly's Erik Bedard probably cost Liriano at least a tie for the award, but it's far from the most egregious award-voting sin. Way, way back in 1991 when the award still didn't have it's catchy moniker, there were three top candidates for the award - Ben McDonald of Arkansas, Dennis Martinez of Newark (that would be the Newark Crimewave, not the Sugar Bears of today), and Dennis Eckersley of Vancouver. While history shows that Eck probably had the best season of all three, being a reliever, he wasn't going to win this thing. One voter, who shall remain nameless, wanted to ensure that Ben Mac would secure the award (and unbeknownst to him grace the name of the trophy that would be awarded in the future). So the voter jotted down McDonald's name first and Martinez's name sixth, which sealed the fate of El Presidente. The two Denni were denied and McDonald won what some considered a tainted victory. McDonald didn't enjoy much of a career in the DMBL, despite being much younger than Martinez - in fact he only had one other winning season in 1997, while Martinez had a stellar run from 1991-1994. But if not for that single ballot, perhaps we'd have been awarding the Dennis Martinez Pitcher of the Year trophy?

Listach Award Announced

Francisco Liriano of Marietta won the coveted Pat Listach Rookie of the Year Award yesterday. It was the first time a member of the Mighty Men franchise has won the award. The Listach was first awarded back in 1998 when the Mighty Mites were still the Jerusalem Rabbis. Liriano was a key member of the team's 2008 World Series push, and despite losing in a tough six-game series to the Sugar Bears, Marietta's ownership is happy with the results. "Frankie pitched his heart out for us this year," said owner David Landsman in a press conference. The good news, however, was tempered by the announcement made earlier today in Marietta. Landsman announced that he was so happy with Liriano's performance that he has awarded him a year-long cruise around the world. "We think this is the best way to put Frankie in a position to be successful with our franchise for many years to come" said Landsman. Skeptics think that the "cruise" idea is a cover for some injury sustained after Liriano was forced to pitch on three days' rest in the Series. "It's awfully convenient that Marietta is willing to let their ace pitcher off for a whole year to hang out on a cruise ship instead of leading their team to another possible Series appearance" said Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Terence Moore.

Keeper Peepers and other stuff

If you haven't joined the DMBL Ning group, then you're missing out on Butch's recent Keeper Peeper series of posts. Butch takes a look at the possible keeper lists of all 14 DMBL teams, trying to discern who is a "no-brainer" and who will likely be cut. It's a good way to gauge what the possible needs and surpluses of the teams are when trying to propose a trade this winter. The first three are already up there.

Yesterday, the winner of the Ian Rintel Front Office Award was revealed. The award was first truly awarded in 2004 (and retroactively awarded since).

Also finally posted to the site is the 2007 DMBL World Series Recap by Zane Smith. Zane takes a game-by-game look back at the Sugar Bears-Mighty Men series and announces the winner of the presitigious Bud Black Award.

Don't forget to vote!

Seeing as yesterday was election day, I'll use this opportunity to remind everyone to vote for post-season awards. Vote for the top six for the Mitchell (hitter) and McDonald (pitcher) awards and the top there for the Listach (rookie of the year). Voting is open for about another two weeks, so time is running out.

Since 2001, the total votes for post-season awards has averaged just over six votes, with 2003, 2005, and 2006 all maxing out at seven votes. This year we're hoping we can get into the double digits at least.

Look for Zane Smith's World Series recap article to hit the site either today or tomorrow. Finally, we'll know the answer to the burning question - "who won this year's Bud Black (World Series MVP) award?"