Divisional Rivalries Heat Up as New Leaders Emerge

Now well in to its inaugural season, the Pepper Virtual Baseball League has changed greatly. Early in the year, there were a few teams which seemed untouchable. Hartford, Galena, Punxatawney, Brooklyn, Cockeysville, Spokane and Chicago. However, after the first few weeks, some of these teams fell from greatness (and often from the top of their division). The month of May has seen some of these teams return to dominance while others have remained close in their divisional races. One team has entered the divisional leader scene with great flair. The Deadwood Outlaws, after moving from Seattle, have won 10 straight games and moved past Hartford in the McCoy division. Vero Beach has also jumped into the lead in their Picard division over the last couple weeks and have even built a small lead. The Data division race is currently the closest, with Springfield and Phoenix leading Chicago by 1/2 game. Washington, also playing .500 ball, is just 4 1/2 back. This article will basically recap the last few weeks and contain a focus on two teams which were major forces a few weeks back, Spokane and Cockeysville.

First, the writer of this article has an apology to make. I, Dan Shapiro, have done a pretty poor job as PR Official over the last few weeks because of a rather busy real life schedule, both academically and socially. However, I think I'll have a lot more time now because the main thing which took up my time is out of the way. I will attempt to write these articles on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and update the PR archives no less than once every two weeks.

Now, back to the article. With a full crew of active owners and a small waiting list, the PVBL has become a busy place. Every day it seems there is a new team leading a division or a significant injury shaking things up for a team at the top. We are nearing the half-way point of our first season and the all-star game isn't too far off. Our league commissioner has added two offices and the league leadership ranks have increased. Many owners are still churning out press releases every few days and we've already survived our first amateur draft. Now as play resumes and we march toward the midpoint of the year, it is becoming more apparent which teams will be fighting for the title and which will have to be content with building for next year.

As we look back on the first half of the year, it becomes apparent that an early season lead means little. The Cockeysville Crazies of the Spock Division were a top team for a while after the Galena Hamsters hit a major losing skid and seemed poised to rule the Spock Division for a while. Team owner Ian Preece considered his strengths to be "a blend of good offense and excellent pitching." At the time, his staff of Paul Wilson, David Wells, Scott Sanders, and Mike Hampton all sported ERA's below 1.50. Since then, Paul Wilson has jumped to 4.14, Sanders and Wells have remained effective at 2.54 and 2.55, and Hampton was traded to the Punxatawney Groundhogs for Pedro Martinez. Martinez has helped the Crazies since he came over, lowing his ERA back below 4.00 and improving to 6-4 on the year.

Their hitting has likewise continued to be effective. Scott Stanhoviak, Larry Walker, Eric Young, Michael Tucker, and Mike MacFarlane are all hitting well over .300. All but Young have hit at least 10 homers. 3 have over 60 runs created. Tucker leads the league in doubles and Eric Young ranks 3rd in stolen bases. MacFarlane and Walker each rank in numerous categories. Young, Tucker, and Walker have each stolen a ton of bases--32, 20, and 19. Pitchers Sanders, Wells, and Martinez all rank in a number of categories as well, as does reliever Bill Brandt. One might ask why this team has dropped off their winning pace and fallen back behind Galena. The answer lies in the late innings and the fringe starters.

Dave Howard, an early season surprise at short who once led the team in home runs, has returned to normality. He is batting just .240 and has struck out 58 times. Shane Andrews has been only average at third, batting around .260 most of the year. His defense (or lack thereof) has been a major problem all year. His fielding percentage is a pitiful .939 and he has made 9 errors in 67 games. Stanhoviak has made 18 miscues at first. The bullpen has been culprit in many losses as well. Bill Brandt has been the lone bright spot, sporting a 1.59 ERA. Only two other relievers have ERA's below 5, and one of those is Dario Veras at 4.97. The current bullpen has an overall record of 5-17 while the starters are 28-11. Of course, other pitchers have some wins and losses, but they have since been traded. But a 5-15 record in 1-run games along with a 1-5 record in extra innings will hurt any team. Nevertheless, at 36-31 on the year they are 4 1/2 games back of the Galena Hamsters and 6 1/2 ahead of the Austin Tornadoes. Perhaps, as Preece said, the Crazies, using "the best starting pitching styaff and a top of the line offense with average, power, and speed," could "go all the way."

The Spokane Paladins have fallen much father than Cockeysville. They led their division primarily on the strength of one player, team captain Mark McGwire. However, it was apparent even in the early going that this team might hit a speedbump. Back when they led their division, they had a league worst 8.22 ERA and were relying on their home run hitters to win games. Now that McGwire has slowed down (not all that much, he still has 36 homers) and the team isn't scoring 10-15 runs in every game, they are losing quite a bit more. Their pitching has been horrendous, with the team ERA still over 8 at 8.11 and until this changes, more wins don't seem in order. Team owner Jeremy Stephens realized this even when he had the lead as he "wondered if we will have enough 'pop' in our lineup to overcome giving up 10 runs on a regular basis.

Offensively, Spokane has been one of the best all year. McGwire is hitting .429 and with 36 homers through 70 games, is on pace to hit 84 total. He has already racked up 88 RBI. Teammate Dante Bichette is not far behind with 29 longballs and 84 RBI. Eric Davis, who missed part of the season due to injury, is hitting .399 with 9 homers. Hi Stedronsky, who came over with a bunch of pitchers in a pre-season trade for David Cone is hitting .290 with 18 homers and 47 RBI. He has also racked up 80 strikeouts. The Gonzalez boys, Alex and Luis, are both contributing to the offense (though Luis far more than Alex). Luis is batting .318 while Alex is hitting .270 with 82 strikeouts. Catcher Mike Matheny has been a bit of a dissapointment, however. He is hitting just .241 and has struck out 78 times.

But even Matheny's struggles pale in comparison to those of the Paladins pitchers. There is only one pitcher, closer Armando Benitez, with an ERA below 5.51, and Benitez has thrown the least number of innings on the team. #1 starter Jamey Wright is 6-4 with a 5.80 ERA in 85 1/3 innings of work. He has walked 51 in this time. He has been the true staff ace with nearly the lowest ERA and most victories of the 4 starters. Wilson Alvarez, the #2 man, is 4-2 with a 6.41 ERA. He has just 3 quality starts in 15 games. Tim Wakefield has started 5 games so far and has not recorded a quality start. He is 0-2 with a 12.99 ERA. Current 4th pitcher Al Leiter has the lowest ERA of the staff a 5.79 and has the most quality starts with 7. His record is currently 5-5. However, this leaves out 2 pitchers that have recorded 22 starts for the team so far, only one of them being quality. Mark Clark went 13 outings without getting a quality start, going 1-4 with an 8.49 ERA. Jeff MacDonald had 1 quality outing in 9 tries with a 0-3 record and 11.83 ERA.

Now for the worst part, the bullpen. Darren Oliver has thrown the most innings with 63 in 26 games. He is 3-2 with a 9.43 ERA. Ariel Prieto has the lowest bullpen ERA outside of Benitez at 5.51. He has thrown in 32 games, leading the team in that category. Bill Moore and Bill Pulsipher have each struggled greatly. Moore is 5-3, 11.81, while Pulsipher is 1-4, 12.54. Cliff Magrane is 3-1, 8.69 in 18 games. Closers Alan Mills and Armando Benitez have thrown the least on the team. Mills is 3-3 with a 7.36 ERA in 14 2/3 innings. Benitez has been the lone bright spot on the entire pitching staff. He has dominated the opposition to a tune of 2-0, 1.32. He also has 6 saves, almost as many as the rest of the pen combined.

Obviously, the result of any Paladin game hinges on the offense. When they score 10 or more, they rarely lose. However, they haven't been able to do that in many games recently. They have dropped from a large lead over Binghamton to 3rd place in the division at 36-34, 7 games back of Vero Beach and 4 1/2 behind the Mets. Although they went 10-4 in out of division play, a 26-30 inner-divisional record has kept them well behind the other teams.

In the other divisions, there have been some changes in leadership. The Springfield Panthers currently lead the most competitive division in baseball, the Data division, but only by percentage points. They are 38-28 and are tied in games ahead with the Phoenix Gila Monsters but lead by .005 in the standings. The Chicago South Siders are just 1/2 game back. Even the Washington Sea Dogs and Larimer Knights are close, with Washington 4 1/2 behind and Larimer trailing by 6.

Punxatawney still leads the Riker division and have increased their lead to 16 1/2 games over Tampa Bay. North Spokane, the worst team in baseball at 21-48, trails by 25 1/2. The Flaming Skulls of Brooklyn have reestablished themselves as the premiere team of the Enterprise league's Kirk division. After nearly falling into a tie with Motor City, they have retaken a 4 game lead. Owner Ryan George was very prophetic a few weeks back when he said, "The only reason why it has been so close is because of my injuries or else we would be 4 games in 1st." Well, following the return of Manny Ramirez and Brian Boehringer from the disabled list, as well as the healing of many minor injuries, the Flaming Skulls hold that 4 game lead. Galena has retaken the lead in the Spock division by going 9-1 in their last ten games.

However, one team which seemed to be the best team in baseball, or at least the EL, for many weeks have fallen out of first in their division. Jeremy Chrabascz's Hartford Whalers have gone 2-8 in their last 10 games and watched a 4 game lead over the Deadwood Outlaws turn into 4 games back. Deadwood has won 10 straight. However, because an injury to Outlaw starter Jeff Fassero, the division may once again be up for grabs. The lead change can be attributed to non-divisional play records. Hartford was 14-16 while Deadwood beat up on opponents to a tune of 22-8 during the month of play against the Spock division.

Also, May Players of the Month were named by League Statistician John Dybala. McGwire and Frank Rodriguez were chosen from the Defiant League while Gary Sheffield and Scott Sanders were picked from the Enterprise League. Honorable mention went to Steve Finley, Ryan Klesko, Shane Reynolds, Pat Hentgen, Ken Caminiti, Rafael Palmeiro, Greg Maddux, and Alex Fernandez.

Hopefully these will be published more often. I hope everyone enjoyed this installent of the State of the PVBL. If you have any comments or opinions for future articles, please let me know.

Dan Shapiro

PVBL PR Official