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!"

Cats roll into first

The Mudcats rolled right along with their 5th straight victory, moving into first place in the Morris Division. Carlos Delgado's fifth inning home run started a three-run rally that gave the Cats the lead en route to a 4-2 win over D.C. John Maine, acquired from Philadelphia who acquired Maine from D.C. before the season started, earned his first win of the year with a solid 7 inning, 4-hit effort. Maine had been a disaster in his previous starts for Philly and Carolina - he had a 12.27 ERA entering the game, but lowered it to a still horrible, but less ghastly, 7.20 after Tuesday's start.

Carolina managed to take first because Vancouver lost another nailbiter to Las Vegas 7-6. The Fist actually got off to a 5-1 lead after three innings, but Vegas had a huge 4-run 6th inning to tie it up. Joe Mauer hit a solo homer in the 7th to give the Rats a 6-5 lead, then scored an insurance run in the 8th. They ended up needing that insurance because Vancouver got back another run in the 9th, but Adam LaRoche struck out with runners on base to end the game.

Hoboken and New Jersey battled it out for 11 innings yesterday, with the Cutters finagling a 9-8 win after the dust cleared. The Cutters busted out with a 5-0 lead after 3 and then extended it to 7-3. But the Buddahs battled back in the 8th, scoring 4 runs, highlighted by a 3-run Mike Jacobs home run. David DeJesus gave the Buddahs the lead in the 9th with a solo home run, but Mike Napoli answered him back with a solo homer of his own in the bottom of the inning. Finally in the 11th, Marlon Byrd hit a walkoff home run to win the game and stave off humiliation for the Cutters. DeJesus missed hitting for the cycle in the game by a double, going 4-6 with 2 singles. DeJesus said he would have tried to stretch the second single into a double, but his shoelace was untied.

The Sugar Bears scored 8 runs in the first inning against the Sardine City Straphangers, but were lucky to escape with a victory. Little by little, the Sardines battled back, making it a 9-4 game entering the ninth. Ryan Braun hit a three-run homer to make the score 9-7 but it was too little too late. The rest of the team went down in order to end the game.

Carolina, Hudson, move up

Tim Hudson pitched 7.2 shutout innings en route to a 5-0 win over the O-Bombers. The win, Hudson's 102nd in his career, moved him past Brad Radke to 14th overall. Hudson held D.C. to only 4 hits and 4 walks, while striking out 5. Carolina now owns the longest winning streak in the league at 4 games.

A.J. Burnett outduelled Zack Greinke to take a 3-2 decision against Vancouver yesterday. The showdown of the two division leaders was decided by a 2-run Matt Holliday homer in the third inning. Vancouver made it interesting when pinch hitter Jeff Clement hit a home run in his DMBL debut to make it a one-run game, but Chase Utley struck out with 2 runners on base to end the game. Las Vegas won the game despite being outhit 9-5 in the game. Last season's One-run Wonders are now 4-1 in one-run games.

Hillsborough dropped their third straight, a 6-1 defeat at the hands of Gavin Floyd and the Blue Ridge Bombers. Michael Young was 4-5 and Nate McLouth and Prince Fielder were each 3-5 to lead the Bomber offense. Floyd went the distance, holding the Hitmen to 8 hits and striking out 7. Hillsborough remains only one game out of first, but fell to third place in the Morris Division, lept over by Carolina.

Tossing Darts...

For the first week this season, the top batter decision wasn't so easy to make. There weren't too many eye-popping numbers to choose from this week - at least not all on the same player's stat line. We're just going to toss a dart at the board and pick Arkansas' Lance Berkman as this week's JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week. Berkman led the league with a .536 batting average and .581 on base percentage. He was second in slugging (.821) and also scored 7 runs and drove in 7. Hi stop competition this week was Hoboken's Hank Blalock, who was the leader in slugging (.840), but with a .360 average and .429 on base. Blalock did have 11 RBIs and 3 homers this week.

The top home run hitter was Hoboken's Miguel Cabrera (4), but his other numbers were ordinary (.323 OBP, 7 R, 7 RBI). D.C.'s Jose Reyes had a good week as well, hitting .406/.432/.625 with 3 doubles and 2 triples, plus 7 RBIs and 6 runs. Albert Pujols led the league with 12 RBIs while hitting .462/.559/.769 with 5 doubles.

Some part timers were solid in limited action - Hillsborough's Ron Belliard (7-11 .636, HR, 2B, 5 RBI), Vancouver's Adam LaRoche (.400/.478/.750) and Sardine City's Lyle Overbay (.500/.529/.563).

This week's top hurler is a tossup as well. We'll stick with the faithful dart and take aim at Las Vegas, which features our top two contenders. On one side we have Tim Lincecum who was 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA in 16 innings. Lincecum struck out 12 and had a WHIP of 1.06. Sounds pretty good, huh? Well hold on a second. His teammate Derek Lowe was also 2-0 with a slightly higher 1.80 ERA in 15 innings. Lowe had the lower WHIP at 0.87, but only struck out a measly 4 batters. Well we all know that chicks dig a strikeout so we'll give our Fantasy Darts Competition Pitcher of the Week Award to Timmy and better luck next time, Derek. Some others that had a shot at the golden dartboard were Marietta's Scott Baker (1-1, 1.93, 1.00 WHIP) and Blue Ridge's Justin Duchscherer (1-1, 1.15, 0.77 WHIP).

Top relievers this week included Jonathan Papelbon of D.C. (save, 0.00 ERA in 5 IP, 6 K), Octavio Dotel of Philadelphia (2 saves, 0.00 ERA in 3 G, 9 K in 4.2 IP) and Hoboken's Craig Breslow (1-0, 2.70, 0.90 WHIP in 6.2 IP).

Breaking a catch(er)

Another backstop went down yesterday, as New Jersey's Jason Varitek will miss most of the next week to recover from a rabid squirrel attack. Teammate J.C. Romero thought it would make a great April Fool's prank if he released the rodent in the locker room, but the prank turned into a nightmare when the squirrel started foaming at the mouth and went after Varitek. Varitek becomes the fourth catcher to hit the injury list. We all remember Chris Ianetta's incident from a week or so ago. He's been joined by Las Vegas' Chris Coste - also out around a month - and Sardine City's Miguel Montero. All these ailments have been a boon for the league's castoffs - the much-traveled Jason Kendall and Yorvit Torrealba have now found jobs with Blue Ridge and Sardine City, respectively, while Las Vegas proudly welcomed John Buck back aboard. Will New Jersey turn to the likes of Kenji Johjima or Gregg Zaun? Or will the Buddah just try to tough out the loss until Varitek can return?

Newark escaped a close one in Blue Ridge yesterday, outlasting the Bombers in extra innings. With the game tied up at 5 in the late innings, Carl Crawford hit an RBI single to give Blue Ridge a one-run lead. But the Bombers gave up a 9th inning leadoff home run to Jack Cust to send the game to extra innings. The teams' bullpens battled it out for four innings but Blue Ridge finally fell in the 14th when Asdrubal Cabrera lined a single up the middle to score J.D. Drew.

The Mighty Men manhandled Jake Peavy and the Iron Fist yesterday, scoring 6 runs against the defending Ben McDonald winner and chasing him in the second inning. The Mighty Men would tack on two more runs to take an 8-3 decision. Brian Giles and Kevin Youkilis each had 3 RBIs and Giles and Derek Jeter had 3 hits apiece.

Greinke off to another great start

Great pitcher's duel yesterday in Marietta. Vancouver's Zack Greinke took on the Mighty Men's Ervin Santana, emerging as the victor in yesterday's 1-0 blanking. Greinke went the distance, limiting the Mighty Men to only 3 hits and striking out 10. Meanwhile, Santana was chased after 7, despite only giving up 4 hits, 3 walks and one run. Santana struck out 8. The lone run scored when Troy Glaus hit a single with two runners on in the 5th. The damage could have been much worse - Santana got out of a bases-loaded jam to end the inning.

How are those new additions working out in Carolina and Philly? Well the Mudcats got off to a good start, outlasting the Rat Pack in 10 innings, 3-2. No help from Magglio Ordonez though - 0-5 on the night. Philadelphia, meanwhile, was crushed by Amityville, and falling into last place overall. Fred Lewis didn't make an immediate impact either (0-3), but free agent signee Matt Joyce got a hit in his lone at bat.

Greinke's wasn't the only shutout yesterday. D.C. stymied the Straphangers 2-0 behind John Lannan. Lannan didn't quite make it the full 9 - he ceded the last out to reliever Ramon Ramirez - but he was impressive, allowing only 2 hits and 3 walks, while punching out 5. Banged up Sardine City got two of their three hits from replacement catcher Brandon Inge, who is covering for the injured Miguel Montero.

Sugar Bears up to their old tricks

Yesterday the offensive juggernaut known as the Sugar Bears returned to form, blasting the Blue Ridge Bombers 33-2. The 33 runs scored ties the league record set by the Sugar Bears in 2001. Jason Giambi was 6-6 with 4 home runs and 9 RBIs and Jack Cust walked 5 times and scored 5 times. Pitcher Gil Meche pitched 7 shutout innings before giving up 4 runs late in the game. Also in the game, catcher Miguel Olivo was 4-6, Matt Stairs was 3-4 with 2 home runs and Nick Swisher hit two pinch hit home runs - one as he pinch hit for Manny Ramirez in the 5th and another when he pinch hit again in the 8th. Manny Delcarmen entered in the 8th inning and struck out 8 batters in his 2 innings of work. "Ha, they thought we needed the custom stadium to wreak havoc on the league" said manager Don Mattingly after the game. "Well take that!"

Meanwhile, Arkansas and Hillsborough have worked out yet another deal yesterday. Arkansas reacquired C.C. Sabathia and Dan Haren along with Ryan Howard in exchange for Cristian Guzman, J.J. Hardy, Jeremy Bonderman, and Ian Snell plus the Falcons 6th and 7th picks in 2010 and their 13th in 2011. The Falcons noted that they are not done dealing yet and are entertaining a few interesting offers from Hillsborough that could "put them over the top".

Yesterday's intense debate on the Ning brought to light a few issues that will be resolved in the next few weeks. The DMBL High Council is discussing all the factors involved and trying to find the best resolution for the latest dispute. Sure we all thought that Sardine City's response was out of line and that Philadelphia's "suggestion" was inappropriate, but we need to discuss this in a rational and mature way.