Tuesday trade roundup

Two deals went through yesterday as Las Vegas and Vancouver both tried to upgrade their lineups for a playoff push.

After faltering and losing 6 straight and losing control of the Morris Division, Vancouver has actually turned things around and won 4 straight. Their anemic offense - ranked 13th in OPS (.723) - needed a punch. The Fist grabbed Jason Kubel from Amityville to help provide that punch. Kubel was only hitting .249/.312/.444 this season for the Ant Slayers, but Vancouver thinks he can help the team score some more runs. The Fist gave up pitcher Chad Billingsley, who has been lingering all year in the minors. Billingsley was 11-11 with a 5.12 ERA and 171 strikeouts last season for Vancouver. Billingsley is still young, however, and Amityville thinks that he will rebound. In addition to the players, the two teams exchanged draft picks - Amityville gets a second rounder, and Vancouver gets a 4th.

The bigger trade involved Las Vegas sending a boatload of draft picks to Hoboken in exchange for outfielder Brad Hawpe, reliever Nick Massett, and starter Edwin Jackson. Jackson may be best remembered for being dumped unceremoniously by Blue Ridge a few months back despite having solid numbers. But the Bombers were vindicated by Jackson's putrid record in Hoboken (2-5, 9.14 ERA in 8 starts). Massett was another player that was struggling (2-0, 5.27 in 40 appearances), but Vegas thinks both players could be assets. Outfielder Hawpe is a solid player who was hitting .274/.351/.510 for Hoboken with 12 homers and 32 RBIs. The Cutters received three picks in the 2011 draft (3rd,6th, and 10th) and 2 in 2012 (5th and 12th).

Not content to just make a trade, Las Vegas decided to clean house and parted with some interesting players. Rich Harden, a player that Vegas paid a lot to acquire several years ago from Vancouver, was jettisoned as owner Eric Wickstrom had grown increasingly frustrated by his lack of production. "It's the end of an error" said Wickstrom. Harden was joined on the way out by veterans Jose Contreras, Jeremy Guthrie, and Gary Sheffield. Another interesting castoff is young first baseman Chris Davis. Davis was a high draft selection in the 2009 draft (#2 overall), but his knack for striking out had put him in the Rat Pack's doghouse (or rathouse?). Also joining Davis on the curb is outfielder Scott Hairston. The purge left room for the Rat Pack to sign retreads Randy Wolf, Juan Pierre, and Gabe Kapler. "They may not sound spectacular" said Wickstrom, "but each one has a key role to play on this squad."

Blue Ridge gets ready to take on Morris Division

Blue Ridge made a big trade with Carolina, acquiring two bats that they hope will propel them to the top of the playoff contenders. Blue Ridge acquired third baseman Aramis Ramirez and outfielder Grady Sizemore from the Mudcats for Carl Crawford and a 2nd round pick. Ramirez is batting .302/.387/.527 with 16 homers and 51 RBIs for Carolina. Sizemore has 15 homers and 38 RBIs though he has struggled with a .228 batting average. Blue Ridge is only 1 game behind Vancouver in the Morris Division standings and they are currently the #1 wild card seed.

Vancouver took back the Morris Division lead with a 3-0 blanking of Amityville. Jake Peavy pitched a complete game, 1-hit shutout, walking 4 and striking out 10. Vancouver, in response to Blue Ridge's deal perhaps, picked up their former first baseman Lyle Overbay off the scrap heap. Overbay is expected to take over first base duties against righties, while Michael Cuddyer will slide back into the outfield.

It was a busy transactions day as Newark became frustrated with trying to spell Marc Rzepczynski's name correctly and cut him in favor of recent Amityville castoff Scott Feldman. Feldman will make a spot start for injured Javy Vazquez and the club will reassess their needs over the All-Star Break.

Bridgewater made the other move - a minor one. The Mallers cut utility player Jose Lopez and picked up journeyman Brett Myers. Myers was assigned to the team's minor league club.

Cutters farmhand dies in tragic accident

Stunning news as Hoboken Cutters farmhand Nick Adenhart was tragically killed in a car accident last night. Adenhart was leaving a minor league game in which he had a superb outing, but his hopes and dreams of reaching the DMBL are now over. The Cutters drafted Adenhart in the 6th round of the 2009 draft. R.I.P.

Todd Wellemeyer and Roy Halladay dueled to a 1-0 final, with the O-Bombers ending the Mudcats' 5-game winning streak. Halladay went the distance in the loss, giving up 7 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 7. Wellemeyer didn't make it all the way through, but held the Cats to 6 hits in 8 innings. It was his first win of the season after losing his first 5 decisions. The lone run scored in the 3rd when Dan Uggle doubled in Jay Bruce.
Derek Lowe shut out the Iron Fist on 6 hits last night, sending the defending champions careening out of first place and into third. The Rats only managed 7 hits, but still scored five runs to give Lowe all the run support he'd need. It didn't help that Fist starter Chad Billingsley walked 5 in 5.2 innings. Carlos Pena was the offensive hero, going 2-4 with a home run and 3 RBIs.

The third shutout of the night belonged to Hillsborough's Felix Hernandez. Hernandez, perhaps finally ready to fulfill some of that promise, pitched 6.1 innings, holding the Bombers to 3 hits and striking out 6. The Hitmen gave him plenty of run support - Aubrey Huff was 3-4 with his 11th home run and 3 RBIs to lead Hillsborough to a 9-0 victory.

Philadelphia is now on a three day transaction streak. It all started Monday when the Animals cut Jeremy Affeldt and signed Jose Veras. The next day, the team felt they needed a bigger veteran presence and signed Ken Griffey and cut Matt Joyce. Yesterday, the club picked up Micah Owings and dumped Joe Blanton. Why? "Just for the heck of it" said club owner/GM Anthony Pucci. "I'm spinning the wheel to see who we can cut tomorrow!"

Here come the vultures

Well the dust finally cleared after Saturday and Sunday's cuts and the scavengers have moved in to grab the cuts.

D.C. was one of two teams making two grabs off the waiver wire. You can make it three if you count Sunday's pickup of Ramon Ramirez, cut by Hillsborough. Yesterday, they grabbed Kevin Gregg from Newark and Juan Cruz from Vancouver. Gregg was put right to the test yesterday, pitching two innings and giving up one run in D.C.'s 9-4 drubbing of Marietta.

Las Vegas was the other team making two moves yesterday. The Rat Pack continued the trend on relievers by signing Mudcat castoff Scott Linebrink. They also picked up DH Jim Thome, cut by Newark. While Thome was sent to the Vegas' AAA team, Linebrink was called into yesterday's 15-5 rout of Blue Ridge. Linebrink picked up a save while pitching 3 hitless innings.

Philadelphia was denied in getting Kevin Gregg, but was able to snatch third baseman Mark Reynolds from New Jersey. Reynolds also got into the game, a 13-4 blowout of Sardine City. Hmmm, do you notice a trend? All three teams that made waiver wire claims won in blowout fashion yesterday. Coincidence? Reynolds was a pinch hitter in the game, walking for Alex Rodriguez after the game got out of hand.

Carolina remained undefeated yesterday with a 6-4 win over Hoboken. Vernon Wells was 2-3 with 2 RBIs and three others hit solo home runs to lead the Mudcats to a 3-0 start - the last undefeated team standing in the DMBL.

Hitmen move into wild card spot

Jake Peavy won his league-leading 13th win yesterday as Vancouver cruised to an 8-2 victory over D.C. Curtis Granderson was 3-5 with 3 RBIs and hit his 19th triple of the year. Granderson appears poised to obliterate Jose Reyes' DMBL-era record of 24 triples set last year.

Hillsborough moved one game over .500 and into sole possession of 6th place overall with their third straight win and sixth in seven tries. C.C. Sabathia struck out 11 in 7 strong innings and Carlos Lee had 3 RBIs. Hillsborough has been going back and forth about selling their players, but now sitting in the final playoff spot, they may become buyers.

Las Vegas and Newark remain tied for first in the Hanover Division after both teams won their games yesterday. Javier Vazquez improved to 11-1 in Newark's 5-4 edging of Hoboken, while Tim Lincecum propelled the Rat Pack to a 5-2 win over Tampa Bay.

Mike Lamb hit 3 home runs in Philadelphia's 7-1 rout of fraternal rival Carolina. Jason Bergmann limited the Cats to 3 hits over 7 innings and struck out 9. Philly still trails Vancouver by 3 1/2 games in the Morris.

Lots of movement going on in the league yesterday as the trading deadline looms closer. Arkansas shuffled out Mark Grudzielanek in favor of Tim Wakefield, who had pitched in 4 games in an earlier stint with the team. Hillsborough cut scrub shortstop Alex Gonzalez in favor of DMBL veteran Aubrey Huff, who was cut earlier this year by Carolina. Hoboken dumped prospect Jeff Niemann for former Vancouver backstop Gerald Laird. Las Vegas shook up their AAA squad by cutting Greg Dobbs and signing former D.C. first baseman Lyle Overbay. Finally, Philadelphia signed Adam Lind who Carolina cut a month ago.

Reinforcements arrive for playoff rosters

Arkansas pounded out a 10-7 victory against D.C. yesterday. Justin Morneau had 4 RBIs and the Falcon bullpen pitched 4 1/3 innings to bail out starter Dan Haren. The Falcon Nation held their collective breaths as Kenny Lofton had to leave the game in the fifth inning, but the news out of Arkansas is that Lofton will return for the Falcons next game Thursday.

A 6-run fourth inning propelled the Hoboken Cutters to an 8-6 win over Marietta. Mike Napoli went 2-4 with 2 homers and 4 RBIs as the Cutters moved to within one game of the final wild card spot.

Philly doubled up South Boston 6-3, though Johan Santana just missed becoming the first 16 game winner this season. Santana pitched seven solid innings though he was trailing for much of the game until Philly rallied to tie it in the sixth.

Many teams shored up their rosters in anticipation of a playoff run. Newark signed a third catcher in Brian Schneider, while Hoboken picked up second baseman Jose Valentin. Philadelphia re-signed veteran Todd Walker who had filled in earlier in the season.

Falcons turn to trash heap for help

Arkansas went dumpster diving Tuesday, salvaging three players from the scrap heap of Sunday's deadline castoffs. First, Arkansas signed up Pat Burrell who was cut by Hoboken after posting a .160 average with 53 strikeouts in 156 at bats. True to form, Burrell went 0-3 in his Falcons debut with three strikeouts. Next, Arkansas grabbed Juan Cruz who had made a spot start in Philly for injured Brandon Webb. Cruz also spent some time pitching in relief with Las Vegas. Cruz made more of a positive impact than Burrell, pitching 6 innings and surrendering two runs and earning a victory in the Falcons 3-2 win over Sardine City. The third cast-off was Marietta's Chad Qualls who was released when the Mighty Men acquired B.J. Ryan over the weekend. Qualls had been 4-4 with a 5.03 ERA in 50 appearances for the Mighty Men.

The Falcons have actually had a bit of success picking up players off the junk pile this year. Bob Wickman, who was a disaster for the Buddahs, has emerged as a solid closer for the Falcons, picking up 12 saves in 13 tries and compiling a 2.77 ERA. Bernie Williams, released to make room for Burrell, was doing very well as part of a platoon - .847 OPS, .360 average in 25 ABs. Another platoon role player, Craig Biggio is batting .286 and recently hit his 1500th career DMBL hit.

Marietta's Francisco Liriano lost for only the second time yesterday. Liriano was pounded for seven runs (six earned) in 2.1 innings, to fall all the way to 12-2 on the season. It was by far Liriano's worst performance of the season as D.C. jumped all over Liriano early and often. Brad Hennessey relieved Liriano in the third and poured a jug of kerosene onto the fire, giving up six more runs in his 3.1 innings.

Liriano's loss gave Philly's Johan Santana a chance to jump back into competition for the McDonald Award against the Rat Pack. The Endzone Animals gave Santana enough run support for an 8-4 victory and Santana improved to 13-2 on the season.

Mighty Men pitching shuffle

Well, after Tuesday's debacle in Marietta, David Landsman had enough. Gil Meche was banished to AAA and Paul Byrd was sent packing. The Mighty Men acquired Woody Williams from Vancouver, who was himself banished to AAA after a less than stellar start to the season. Williams hopes for a new start and a change of scenery might do him well. Vancouver received an 8th round draft pick as compensation.

Hoboken kept the streak alive (seven in a row now) by sweeping Marietta, 5-3 thanks to a solid Jon Garland start. Garland held the Mighty Men to three runs, two earned, in 7.2 innings. Chris Duncan hit his 20th homer of the season.

Joe Crede and the Sardine City Straphangers almost made it exciting again in Newark yesterday. Crede was 3-4 with 6 RBIs and 2 homers in the game. The Sardines' big 4-run eighth inning had the team within one run of the Sugar Bears, but Newark's Jim Edmonds hit a 2-run bomb to dash the hopes of the Straphangers. Nick Johnson was 4-4 in the game. Cole Hamels fell to 2-11 on the season.

Yesterday was a busy day on the waiver wire. Honolulu signed up Jose Valverde and sent him to AAA. Newark picked up former South Boston farmhand Joey Gathright as a potential pinch runner. And finally, Philadelphia picked up journeyman outfielder Trot Nixon to take the spot of recently-injured Jeff DaVanon.

Carolina sweeps, Newark avoids sweep

Carolina completed the sweep of first-place Philadelphia thanks to an excellent performance from Carlos Zambrano. Zambrano threw seven innings of three-hit ball and allowed only one run while striking out eleven and walking three. Carolina gave Johan Santana only his second loss of the season.

Newark, on the other hand, avoided the sweep by handing the Cutters a 10-3 loss. Gregg Zaun hit a 3-run homer rookie Tony Saunders picked up his second win on the season. Saunders is perhaps the latest in a line of WTF Sugar Bear starters - scrap heap pickups that end up winning double digits for the Sugar Bears. Will Saunders join the John Thomsons and Mike Graces and become another Newark legend? With that powerhouse offense behind him, why not?

In case you missed the late transactions last night, Arkansas signed a couple of DMBL veterans to help fill out platoon roles. Craig Biggio, who played briefly for Hoboken this year, and Bernie Williams, recently released by Sardine City, were brought on board. "We needed some veteran leadership on this team." said owner Stump Matiash. "We're tired of the constant keg parties and video game tournaments after games." Arkansas is currently two games back of sixth-place Vancouver for the final wild card spot.

South Boston broke Marietta's seven game winning streak with a 14-8 romp. Vlad Guerrero posted a monster 5-6 night with 6 RBIs and a homer. The Gang had a total of 20 hits. Marietta actually had an 8-5 lead in the ninth inning and the usually reliable Mariano Rivera on the mound, but Rivera gave up five straight singles to lead off the inning and then a homer to Prince Fielder. The Gang scored a total of nine runs in the inning when all was said and done.

Duncan Responsibility

First off, a reminder. The All-Star game is rapidly approaching, so if you haven't voted yet, make sure you do it soon! Now on to the games...

Chris Duncan possibly cost the Cutters their game against the Sugar Bears yesterday. In the first inning, Duncan bobbled a ball in the field when Chipper Jones yelled out "Mine!" from the infield. The gaffe cost the Cutters two runs in the first inning. Then in the second inning, Duncan fell for the same trick again Jones yelled "Ha!" from the dugout and Duncan, spooked again, let the ball fall in front of him, scoring Mark Teahan. Two more runs would score that inning and soon the Cutters were down 6-0, all unearned runs. Duncan tried to make up for his bloopers in the sixth with a solo home run, but in the seventh, Chipper would make Duncan pay for it. On a high fly ball from Nick Johnson, Jones yelled "Yabba Dabba Doo" and Duncan let the ball fall out of his glove. Luckily for Duncan, no runs scored that inning, but he was left feeling very embarrassed. "That was not cool at all" said Duncan after the game. Cutters manager Wally Backman called Jones "Bush League" and Cutters GM/owner Mark Hrywna was seen throwing furniture around in the owner's box. "Hey it's all part of the game" Jones stated in the post-game press conference.

Jermaine Dye had a huge night for Honolulu. The Shark outfielder was 3-5 with 3 home runs, leading the Sharks to an 8-2 spanking of the Rat Pack. Dye now has 29 homers on the year and is tied with Ryan Howard for the league lead. In the game, Jason Schmidt secured his 10th win of the season.

Brad Penny held the Straphangers to only three hits over seven innings to improve to 7-6 as the Buddahs shut out Sardine City 8-0. Team Buddah, despite being eight games under .500 actually has a positive run differential now (352 for, 346 against).

Marietta and D.C. both parted with two of their prospects yesterday. D.C. gave up on Phillip Humber and signed up DMBL veteran Matt Morris. Meanwhile, Marietta was less calm about releasing disappointing Kei Igawa. After Igawa was torched in AAA, an irate David Landsman was rumored to have issued a hit on Igawa. Igawa was taken into protective custody just in case, though Landsman denied the charges. In a video taken by a fan's cell phone, Landsman appears to say "put a bullet in the back of his head", but the video is a bit grainy. Nevertheless, Igawa was issued his walking papers and Paul Byrd was welcomed back to the Mighty Men clubhouse.

The Gang's all here

The Mudcat moves seem to have worked for one game anyway. The Cats edged the first-place Animals 4-3 yesterday behind a solid outing from Roy Halladay (though he didn't figure into the decision) and three-hit games from Rocco Baldelli and Aramis Ramirez.

Still waiting, Barry....

Cliff Lee is making a case to stick in the Sharks rotation with a solid outing yesterday against the Rat Pack. Lee is now 1-1 with a 2.77 ERA in two starts filling in for the injured Jered Weaver.

South Boston has been on a little bit of a run lately, winning their fifth straight against Marietta yesterday. Aaron Harang shut down the Mighty Men for 7 innings, allowing only an unearned run and striking out 10. Poor Jeff Suppan finally pitched an outing for Marietta without getting destroyed, but had to settle for the loss (and lowering...yes lowering... his ERA to 10.13). During the game Matt Diaz extended his hitting streak to a league-high 23 games, besting Miguel Cabrera's earlier streak of 22.

Hoboken certainly got their revenge on Tuesday's smackdown from Newark. Hoboken pounded on the Sugar Bears to a 13-5 tune. The Cutters had 21 hits in total. Geoff Jenkins was 5-6 with 3 RBIs and Miguel Cabrera was 4-5 with 4 RBIs and a homer.

Philly's obsession with Khalil Greene continues as the Animals re-signed the shortstop for the second time this season. His playing time should be limited though as the club activated David Eckstein from his month-long sting on the DL.

Monday Musings

Well Draft Day has come and gone, and now we look forward to Spring Training. The 2007 Draft may have been one of the longest in the history of the DMBL/Microleague. We'll post some draft analysis at a later date, after the draft results have been posted. Let's take a look at some of the post-draft fallout.

The Mighty Men wasted no time and have made Kerry Wood a record holder, though I doubt he would be proud of this one. Wood was released before the draft was even finished, making him the fastest to be released after being drafted. The Mighty Men realized they were at their inelligible limit, so they decided to cut Wood so they could draft Josh Hamilton and Micah Owings. Oh yeah, they also traded off Kevin Kouzmanoff to the Golden Falcons to create another opening. The Mighty Men drafted 8 inelligible players in this year's draft!

Sunday, the Bushslappers made the first post-draft pickup and invited Mark Mulder to camp. We don't expect Mulder to see any action in the spring, but maybe D.C. thinks that Mulder can rebound and show something. Will he be worth holding onto? Probably not, but he's worth a spring roster spot, for now.

The Sugar Bears, meanwhile, were disgusted that newly-drafted outfielder Nate McLouth showed up out of shape. McLouth was cut in favor of former Golden Falcon catcher Javier Valentin. McLouth was quite upset with the move and even stated that the Sugar Bear fitness policy was impossible to live up to. "They draft you and send you a case of Super Golden Crip cereal and expect you to not gain a few pounds?" said an irate McLouth. Sugar Bear skipper Don Mattingly noted that no one expected McLouth to eat the entire case of cereal in one night.

The newest DMBL team, the Sardine City Straphangers, pushed their roster to the maximum by signing journeyman infielder Alex Cintron. The Straphangers have launched a new radio show, From the Tunnel, to inform fans of the latest dugout gossip. You can read all about it on their team notes page.

Meanwhile in Vancouver, the Iron Fist invited former Vancouver draftee Kevin Mench and DMBL rookie Jose Bautista to camp to try out for some platoon roles. "We needed some players that could hit lefties" said manager Darren Daulton. Bautista is expected to platoon with Mike Lowell and Mench will share time in the outfield. Neither one has high hopes to make the final team, but hope they can show something and land a spot on another DMBL team.