Opening week in review

Not only was veteran Johan Santana of Arkansas the only starter to win both his starts in the opening week, his first win of the season, a 7-1 victory over Carolina, was the 100th of his career, becoming the 18th pitcher in league history to reach the milestone (and beating Mark Buehrle, who sites at 99 wins, and Roy Oswalt, who picked up No. 99 Monday night). He now sits in a tie for 16th all-time in wins, with Brad Radke and Javier Vazuez. And so, Santana, who won the Ben McDonald Award pitching for Philly in 2005 and 2007, is the first Mentos, The Freshmaker Pitcher of the Week for the 2011 season.

The only other two-win pitchers during the opening week were relievers: Hoboken's Tim Stauffer (2-0) and Daniel Bard of Sardine City (2-1). Philadelphia's Matt Thornton led the league in saves with three and Marietta's Francisco Liriano was tops in strikeouts with 18. Other notable pitchers were Philly's Roy Halladay, who tossed a complete game win, helping him match Carolina's Tim Hudson for the lead in innings pitched with 16 1/3. Amityville's David Aardsma tossed 7 1/3 hitless innings in four relief appearances and Carolina phenom Stephen Strasburg fanned 10 while earning the win in his first start.

We were inclined to give the Rebecca Black/Know Your Meme Batter of the Week to a veteran like Hideki Matsui, who's raking for Philly this year. The long-time Sugar Bear started the season with a 5-for-5, two home-run opening day performance and followed it up two days later with two more homers and five more RBIs. He led the league in RBIs (10), tied for the lead in runs (7) with four other players, and matched New Jersey's Joey Votto for the league lead in homers (4).

Still, Gerald Dempsey "Buster" Posey of Arkansas put up arguably a better week, considering it was his first one in DMBL. The rookie backstop, who was drafted as an ineligible prospect in the 12th round of the 2010 draft, led the league in multiple categories, including batting average (.571), slugging (1.034), hits (15), extra base hits (9), runs created (16.0), RC/27 (27.0) and total bases (30). He was second to fellow rookie Jason Heyward of Las Vegas in on-base percentage, and tied with Votto for second in RBIs.

In addition to Posey, teammate Justin Morneau and Carolina's Michael Young hit safety in all seven games they played last week. Other players with multiple-homer games last week included Marietta's Ichiro Suzuki and Justin Morneau of Arkansas, who like Matsui did it on Opening Day. Other notables during opening week were Vancouver rookie Austin Jackson, who along with Alexis Rios of Blue Ridge and Marietta's Brett Gardner led the league in steals (3). In addition to Young, Amityville's Delmon Young also racked up a dozen hits last week.

Despite picking up both player awards this week, it wasn't enough for Arkansas to reach the .500 in the opening week, finishing at 3-4. Arkansas wasn't alone though. While Las Vegas and Philly both raced out to 6-0 starts, only Carolina, Blue Ridge and Hoboken bettered the .500 mark. After one week, Bridgewater and New Jersey were bringing up the rear, at 1-5.

Mallers win first Championship

The Mallers took game 7 decisively with a 7-1 final. Both teams started out by scoring one run in the first inning. In the 5th, the Mallers finally got to Javier Vazquez, scoring 3 runs and opening up a 4-1 lead. The Mallers scored 3 more runs in the next two innings to solidify their lead. Chris Carpenter went the distance, allowing 7 hits and two walks while striking out 10. Bobby Abreu was 3-5 with a homer and 3 RBIs and Ryan Zimmerman was 3-4. Abreu and Raul Ibanez were named the co-MVPs of the Series, sharing the Bud Black trophy. Ibanez hit .375 for the series including the tying HR in the game 5 that Bridgewater won 8-7. Abreu's homer in game 7 gave the Mallers the lead. "They deserve it equally" said Jaime Landsman after much deliberation.

World Series Game 7 - For the whole bag of chips

Tonight is the finale of the 2010 DMBL World Series - Game 7 in Bridgewater. The Mallers will try to complete the improbably comeback from a 3-1 series deficit and the Sugar Bears try to hold on and return to past glory. The Mallers will send Chris Carpenter to the mound, while the Sugar Bears go with Javier Vazquez. It's the third straight year that the Series is going to a game 7 - is it a bad omen that Newark lost both previous series?

Rookies!

What's the hardest part of voting for the Pat Listach Rookie of the Year Award?

Figuring out who is a DMBL rookie!

Luckily the hard work has been done for you, on the DMBL Exco!

Check out these write-ups of the rookie batters and the rookie pitchers. And each post is followed by a spreadsheet with all the data so you can dive in yourself. Enjoy!

Never Give Up!

While we're handing out awards, what happened to the Jeff Reboulet Award?

Find out which DMBL rookie toiled the longest before finally reaching the promised land this season. The good news: He was finally eligible after six seasons in the MLB! The bad news: He didn't appear in a game this season anyway.

"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

Read all about it in a brand-new Rookie Watch With Phil Plantier.

And the pitchers!

Now you can check out the candidates for the Ben McDonald Pitcher of the Year Award:

http://excoboard.com/dmbl/143052/1728035

New on the Exco!

Not sure who to vote for in the Kevin Mitchell race? I wrote up the obvious candidates for the Batter of the Year Award (though you can vote for whoever you want) on the Exco.

http://excoboard.com/dmbl/143052/1728035?page=1#4688735

Hopefully I'll also have time to do write-ups for Pitcher of the Year and Rookie of the Year also.

If you haven't joined the Exco yet, follow this link and sign up! It's free!

http://excoboard.com/dmbl