Avast me swabbies, tis time for the playoffs

Arr, Avast ye mateys! It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day today and we be gettin' inta the spirit of things. So today's blog be in Pirate-speak, ye scurvy dogs.

Tomorrow the 2008 DMBL Playoffs begin with the D.C. Bushslappers facin' the Philadelphia Endzone Animals. Now the Animals be winning the season series, but just barrrrrely - 7 games to 6. Interrrrestingly enough, the Animals be much better against the Slappers in the nation's capital, winnin' 4 of 6 there, while only going 3-4 in thar own stadium. Both teams faced each other recently, in D.C., where the Animals took 2 of 3. Philly has outscored the Slappers 69-55 in their 13 games.

Meanwhile, Hillsboro' and Vegas start thar series on Sunday. The two became bitterrr rivals way back before the season when Hitmen owner Brent Campbell stARRted trash talking with Rat Pack owner Eric Wickstrom. The Hitmen own the winnin' record in the season series, takin' 7 of 12. A closer examination of the stats tells a different story. The Hitmen established their dominance early on, winnin' their first 7 games against the Pack, but the Pack rallied back and won their last 5. We all know that the hot team usually prevails in the playoffs - it be all about momentum. Hillsborough outscored the Rats 87-67 over the course of the season.

Final Regular Season Players of the Week

Whoops, looks like I missed a post yesterday, but no fear, we have the selections for Players of the Week today!

Hitter of the Week

It was pretty hard to find good candidates this week - few had eye-popping numbers despite having two extra days to accumulate stats. Nevertheless, Philadelphia's Adam Dunn looks lik ea runaway winner for the final regular season JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week Award. Dunn led all hitters with a 1.095 slugging percentage and was second with a .538 on-base percentage. He was second in the league in RBIs (10) and tied for first in home runs (4).

It was a good offensive week for Vancouver. Mike Lowell led all batters with 13 RBIs and Andre Ethier was second in the league in slugging (.862) and tied for the lead in doubles (7). Curtis Granderson led the league in triples (3) further extending his DMBL-era record. David Ortiz had another good week, tied for the league lead in walks (10).

Other notables...Shane Victorino of New Jersey led the league in batting with a .472 average and had 3 stolen bases to boot...Las Vegas' Vlad Guerrero was one of four players tied for the lead in home runs with 4, but also put up a 1.217 OPS, 10 runs, and 8 RBIs on the week.

Pitcher of the Week

Unlike the hitters category, there were several deserving pitchers for top honors this week. Las Vegas, in particular, seemed to have the top stable of arms for the week. Old man El Duque pitched a complete game and went 1-1 with a 1.80 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in his 15 innings. Chris Young, who has been a disappointment this year, put together a solid 1-1, 1.29 ERA week with an 0.71 WHIP and 13 strikeouts in 14 innings. But the cream of the crop was the much-maligned Josh Beckett who finally fulfilled some of his promise. Beckett was 2-0 with a 1.23 ERA, including a complete game shutout and 16 strikeouts in 14.2 innings. Beckett takes this week's Drama Prairie Dog Pitcher of the Week Award.

Beckett has some seriously stiff competition from Hillsborough's C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia kept pace with Beckett, winning both his starts, including a complete-game shutout. C.C. put in another 8 innings in his other start and totalled 18 strikeouts with a 1.59 ERA and 0.71 WHIP - both just slightly higher than Beckett. Sabathia's teammate Justin Verlander also had a good week preparing for the playoffs (1-1, 2.76 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, CG, 10 K, 16.1 IP).

The top reliever had to be Tampa Bay's Lee Gardner. Gardner pitched in 6 scoreless appearances, earning a tie for the league lead in saves (3) with an 0.63 WHIP.

Other top performers: New Jersey's Brad Penny led the league in ERA with 1.29 and was 2-0 with a 1.21 WHIP...Vancouver's Jake Peavy notched two more wins to extend his league lead in the category, but also had 17 Ks to go with it...Sardine City's Fausto Carmona was another 2-0 pitcher with a 2.08 ERA in his 13 innings of work...Finally Hoboken's Jeremy Guthrie deserves some kudos for his 1-1, 1.93 ERA, 1.07 WHIP week which includes a 7-0 shutout of D.C.

Last place teams scramble for position

The season ended yesterday for 6 of the DMBL's teams. New Jersey has a firm hold on the #1 draft pick next year, one game ahead of Marietta. Both teams are done. Carolina also finished with a 100-loss season, but can slide into 12th place if Blue Ridge wins today's game. If Blue Ridge loses, then Marietta slides up into 12th place - a virtual disaster for owner Dave Landsman. You can bet he'll be the biggest Rat Pack fan today.

Hillsborough and D.C. both lost yesterday giving us one more day of seeding excitement. D.C. was shut out by Jeremy Guthrie and the Cutters 7-0. Guthrie went the distance, picking up his 15th win and getting his ERA under 4. Meanwhile Fausto Carmona shut down the Hitmen in a 5-1 victory for the Straphangers. Ryan Braun's three-run homer in the 5th set the pace.

D.C.-Hillsborough race heads into final stretch

We'll postpone the awards until Wednesday so we can include the last two games in our "week". Yeah, that and I forgot to run the reports, but maybe this will work out better anyway...

As it stands now, there's nothing of interest to write about except the big D.C.-Hillsborough battle for 5th place. D.C. is still up by one game on the Hitmen with two games left to play for each team. Hillsborough hosts Sardine City for the final two games, a team that they are 3-7 against. Hillsborough will send Dan Haren and C.C. Sabathia to the mound for those games, but Sardine City will counter with thier top two - Fausto Carmona and Cole Hamels.

Meanwhile D.C. hosts Hoboken, who they are 6-4 against on the season. D.C. will send Kelvim Escobar and John Maine up against Jeremy Guthrie and Jon Garland. It would seem like D.C. has the upper hand, but D.C. has a losing record (4-9) against the Hitmen this year, meaning that a tie would demote the Bushslappers to last place - there is no one game playoff for seeding.

Hitmen gain ground on Slappers

Well, here we are at the final weekend of the regular season. The top four positions are locked up in order. Hillsborough and D.C. have both clinched playoff spots, but their order is too close to call. D.C. lost 5-0 yesterday to Carolina. Mike Pelfrey won his first career DMBL game with 6 innings of 2-hit ball. Meanwhile C.C. Sabathia pitched a complete game shutout (6 H, 8 K), outduelling Blue Ridge's Ted Lilly (8 IP, 5 H, ER, BB, 5 K) to move the Hitmen to within one game of the Bushslappers. Interestingly enough, it might be to the Hitmen's best interests to remain in 6th place. Hillsborough is 7-5 against Las Vegas (who they would face if the season ended today) this year as opposed to 4-9 against Philadelphia. As for D.C., it doesn't really matter. They're 6-6 against the Rats and 6-7 against the Endzone Animals.

This'll all probably be wrapped up by Monday, so it should be an interesting weekend, to say the least.

Falcons sweep Hitmen

Tampa Bay shut out Las Vegas for the second straight day. This time it was Andy Pettitte going the distance, holding the Rats to 5 hits and improving to 15-6 on the season. For Pettitte, it was his 39th career complete game, tying him for with Kevin Appier for 15th overall and his 13th career shutout - good for 9th place overall, one behind Roger Clemens.

Arkansas completed the sweep of Hillsborough, taking a 5-1 win over the Hitmen. Former Hillsborough teammate Jeremy Bonderman evened his record at 12-12 with a 7.1 inning, 5-hit performance in which he struck out 8 Hitmen. Somehow the Falcons won, despite being limited to only five hits and one walk. Hillsborough falls to an even 2 games behind D.C. for the 5th playoff seed and their playoff magic number remains at 2.

Newark clinches 1st spot

Well Newark finally did it - the Sugar Bears broke their losing streak and clinched the Hanover Division by shutting out Hoboken 5-0 yesterday. Chien Ming Wang pitched 5.1 shutout innings and Luke Scott drove in 2 runs in the match. The dejected Las Vegas Rats went on to be shut out as well, by the Plunkers. Jered Weaver pitched 7 shutout innings in the 2-0 win for Tampa.

Hillsborough dropped their 4th straight game, a 4-3 squeaker to Arkansas. Of course Hillsborough just came off a streak that saw them win 16 of 18 games, so their timing is questionable with the season ending next Tuesday.

The Hitmen lost no ground to D.C. as the Slappers dropped a 7-2 decision to Jake Peavy and the Iron Fist. Peavy won his league-leading 23rd decision.