Big Unit waits for a call

Former Sugar Bear and future DMBL Hall of Famer Randy Johnson is still looking for a team to latch on to during spring training. The 46-year-old went 13-5 last season with a 3.99 ERA and 199 strikeouts in 27 starts for Newark but was not protected in the offseason and has yet to get a sniff from other teams.

The "Big Unit" in 2009 continued to add to his career strikeout mark, finishing with 3,409, but fell tantalizingly short of other records. Johnson remains two wins behind all-time leader Greg Maddux (232) but is the winningest lefty in league history (230), significantly ahead of Tom Glavine (170).

Johnson is one of only four pitchers to start 450 games but could pass Glavine (455) and Roger Clemens (452) should he can join a team in 2010. Maddux, however, is out of reach at 497 starts.

DMBL Mirror League wrap-up 2009

The king of the Mirror League, Hillsborough, continued their streak, winning their 4th straight Mirror League title. The Hitmen fell just one game short of making their first World Series appearance this year. With the Mirror League victory, the Hitmen once again have great expectations for next season. "If the Mirror League is a reflection" said owner Brent Campbell, "then that means we will have victory in the DMBL next year as well!" Coming in second is the Las Vegas Rat Pack. The Pack was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Hillsborough and almost gave up on the DMBL. But the Pack is back with a vengeance and looking forward to coming back even stronger in 2010.

The third place team was a bit of a surprise. The second-to-last place Sardine City Straphangers will hope to combine a favorable draft position with a solid keeper list to truly contend for the first time in their short history. Philadelphia and Vancouver, two of the usual playoff contenders, rounded out the 4th and 5th positions. Despite this, Vancouver seems to be on a rebuilding program, though Philly does seem to be a contender again in 2010. Hoboken sits in 6th place (what would be the final playoff position for a typical DMBL season) and hopes to reverse their fortunes from a forgettable 2009 season.

Sitting at the bottom are the Morris Division champion Carolina Mudcats. The Cats fell to the Mighty Men in the second round of the playoffs and look destined to rebuild next season. The other two teams near the bottom are the Amityville Ant Slayers (13th) entering their sophomore season and New Jersey Team Buddah (12th) who seems to be stuck near the bottom every year.

Just to show how much this means, according to the Mirror League last season - out of the top 6 finishers, 4 made the playoffs. Arkansas, who finished 3rd, just barely missed out, and Sardine City, finishing 6th, was the second worst team in the league. 12th place Carolina, as noted before, won their division.

Trades keep rolling in...

Sardine City and Blue Ridge confirmed a deal today that sent infielder Alexei Ramirez to the Bombers in exchange for their 4th round pick. Ramirez was a much-criticized first round pick from last year's draft. But Ramirez struggled for the Straphangers, hitting .246 with a .607 OPS. The Bombers hope to improve on the young Ramirez's hitting.

Draft Lottery results posted

As mentioned yesterday, the Draft Lottery results were published a couple of days ago. Amityville, Arkansas, and Philadelphia all moved up one spot in the order, while Blue Ridge fell one and D.C. fell two spots. Both New Jersey and Sardine City, which sent threatening letters to the commissioner's office for the past two months, have their spots in the order secured. The squad of mercenaries and various mafioso types that have been hanging out in front of the Commish's office have been recalled to their respective home bases. Meanwhile, the D.C. office plans to put the "bomb" in "O-Bomber" after their less than favorable results. But don't worry about them - the O-Bombers already have an extra draft pick in the first round, and are fishing for more.

By the way, amazingly enough, it appears to be favorable to sit in the 7th spot as that team has never once in the history of draft lotteries picked in that position. 5 times out of 7 they've moved up in the order, to as far as the 4th overall slot.

Busy day of deals

Teams are wasting no time in making deals.

Las Vegas and Philadelphia agreed to a deal in which the Endzone Animals get veteran reliever Trevor Hoffman and Vegas gets their 4th round pick back. Hoffman had a very rough year last year for the Pack, going 1-8 with a 9.21 ERA and 7 blown saves, but the Animals believe he can bounce back. Philadelphia wasn't done dealing though and dealt away pitchers Brandon Webb and Scott Kazmir along with outfielder Michael Cuddyer to Vancouver for catcher Victor Martinez. Martinez mostly played a platoon role for Vancouver this year, but Philly intends to give him a fulltime gig. "It was tough to leave the Pacific Northwest" said Martinez in a tearful press conference, "but it'll be good to get another chance at another ring." Martinez had been with Vancouver since 2004. Webb was acquired by Philly in 2006 from Westwood and has been a fixture in the rotation since, but suffered an injury at the end of the season and will miss the entire 2010 campaign. Kazmir was another acquistion, nabbed from Hoboken last offseason. Vancouver hopes to work with Kazmir to find his groove again.

The results for the Lottery have been posted. More to come on that...

More trades

Seems as though Newark and D.C. have broken open the floodgates.

Immediately following the other day's Abreu deal, D.C. has acquired shortstop Erick Aybar from Vancouver for their 3rd round pick in 2011 and prospect Cameron Maybin. Aybar was a trade deadline pickup for the Fist this past season, but his solid play earned him the main part of a platoon role down the stretch. However with young Elvis Andrus as the apparent shortstop of the future for Vancouver, Aybar was deemed expendable. Maybin has been a hot prospect for a while now, even had a stay in Vancouver's farm two years ago. The Fist hope that maybe he'll finally put it all together and live up to the hype.

Today, the third deal of the offseason was consummated between Philadelphia and Hillsborough. The Hitmen traded lefty C.C. Sabathia to the Endzone Animals for their 1st and 5th picks in 2011 and reliever George Sherrill. Sabathia was 14-9 with a 3.92 ERA for the Hitmen this season and has been a solid starter for most of his career (though the 3.92 ERA was his career low). Sherrill had a rough 2008 season, but he should be a good candidate for a bounceback in '09.

Newark executes first trade of offseason

The final drops of champagne weren't even out of the bottle before Newark pulled the trigger on the first deal of the offseason. After the Series was over, an irate Butch Garretson pulled Bobby Abreu into his office and went on a 20 minute tirade. Apparently, the veteran outfielder had been playing video games in between innings of Game 7. "No wonder he went 0-4" said Garretson. Abreu, who had been with the team since 1999 was swiftly dealt to D.C. for first baseman Nick Johnson, second baseman Howie Kendrick, and D.C.'s 6th round pick. Johnson, a former Mitchell Award winner, had played with the Sugar Bears from 2005-2007. Johnson missed the entire 2008 season, forcing Newark to make a difficult decision to release him. But D.C. took a chance on Johnson in the 2009 draft and is now able to cash in. "Now Nickie Boy, that's a fine young lad who wouldn't be playing Call of Duty in between pitches" said Garretson.