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Old 11-02-2005, 08:18 AM   #184
Breeze
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
The National Herald - Wednesday, April 18th

SPORTS



Blistering
by Lou Scribe

The late Spring sunshine has been hot, and there are several red, sunburned faces around the Dynasty League lockerrooms to prove it. However, nothing is as hot as the FOFC All Stars and more specifically their pitching. The FOFC All Stars, proved durning the spring with a 12 and 8 record that they would be able to compete with the games greatest players ever, but there were still some reservations from the fans, players, and even the manager.

"I feel like our pitching is good enough to let us compete, but Spring training is just that - training. The stats we accumulated are thrown out and we start from scratch. We'll have to see how we do when the lights come on." Manager Benton Breeze commented at his press conference following the last Spring game.

So far (with the lights on) so good.

How's a 14 and 1 record sound? Pretty good right? Well that's only part of the story, and it doesn't truly capture the teams dominating pitching. If I were to tell you that the FOFCers have a team batting average of .269, which places them in the middle of the pack, have 15 home runs which is also middle of the pack, and have managed to score only 62 runs, the only teams that have scored less are the 6 and 9 Caribbeans, the 4 and 9 Post- Americans, and the 3 and 11 Japanese teams, you would probably guess the All Stars are around a .500 team.

Let's get a little more specific about the teams offense...Pflaggstettler is the only full time player hitting over .300, but he is way over that number currently sitting at .453. The Catcher platoon of Bullock and Hays are hitting a combine .333 with Bullock getting the most at bats so far and carrying an impressive .375 average. The rest of the regulars are under .300 and Gunner who isn't even a full-time starter leads the team in home runs with 3. To give you a bit of comparison, Jimmy Foxx leads the league in homeruns with 9 and it takes 5 to get on the short list leaderboard. Pflaggstettlers 12 RBI lead the team, but that won't put him on the list of league leaders either. Despite the rather vanilla offensive statistics the team has a 2.5 game lead in the National League. How is that possible you ask?

...it's the pitching stupid.

"We've really done well pitching," says team pitching coach Sal Maglie. "Coming into the season we really preached to our guys to pitch to spots, but to challenge hitters. We knew free passes would kill us. In this league you can't be giving teams baserunners, and so far so good."

The FOFCers have only issued 40 walks, second lowest in the league to the Old Timers. With the low number of walks and the great pitching the FOFCers are only allowing just over 1 baserunner an inning. The teams ERA is 2.43, almost an entire run better than the next closest team the Pre-Nationals who are at 3.35. The biggest reason the All Stars have a low ERA - try the top 3 pitchers in the rotation - Babson, Nielsen and Mighty. All 3 are in the top 7 lowest ERAs in all of baseball. The league leader is Cannonball Dick Redding at 1.44, but Mighty is second (1.57), Nielsen is 4th (1.85) and Babson is 7th (2.03). The two right handers at the end of the games Kronside and Sammy Knowles have combined to go 14 scoreless innings, striking out 14 and walking only 4.

"We've been doing so good that pitchers like Rodney and Fozborg are getting very little work, and these guys are good enough to start for team in this league," Maglie points out. "Our 5th starter is 2 and 0 with a 3.21 ERA and he's goine 7 innings in both games. Not bad."

All that is great, but it still doesn't give you the full affect of how dominating the FOFC pitchers have been. Let's try throwing out a few more numbers -

9 and 0 in 1 run games
1 and 0 in extra innings
In the 15 games played - 7 times they have held opponents to 0 or 1 run.
In 9 of the 15 games opponents have been held to 2 or less.

Now is the pitching coach Maglie smiling - absolutlely. "We have a 2.43 ERA and that is awesome in any league, but we've done it against hitters with last names of Ruth, Gehrig, Gibson, Charleston, DiMaggio, Cobb, Speaker...I could go on and on and on. I'm extremely proud of my staff."

What about the Manager Benton Breeze -

"We've pitched well and gotten timely hitting, and I'm thrilled by our 14 and 1 start, but the numbers as impressive as they appear are hidding some very unsettling facts." Benton explains, "We are 9 and 0 in 1 runs games, that means we are 1 bad pitch, or misplayed ball away from losing those games.
We've played 14 of our 15 games at home, and that is a huge advantage. Our park isn't as cavernous as the Dead Ballers, Old Timers or the Centurions, but it's designed to help our pitchers, and they've benefitted from that. We have also benefited from being healthy this season. Have you seen some of the names on the Injury Report. Wow."

And of course we get his typical response for this time of year...

"It's early and there is a bunch of baseball still to be played. I just hope we can continue to play this way."

Last edited by Breeze : 11-02-2005 at 08:29 AM.
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