Week Fifteen: Summary of Series

Sass…win? Stunned managers question
Short week helps team pull off victory
By Beth Sass / hereforthesass.blogspot.com

MINNEAPOLIS -- Beth was sure to send a memo to Dawn informing her on Thursday that the Here for the Sass team was not losing to Go Boom!, managed by goesboom.

“The All-Star Break meant we didn’t actually play until Thursday night, so on Thursday morning, we were technically not losing to them,” Beth said, gleefully.

Beth reported that she entered the competition without very high expectations. “Of course I always want to win, but sometimes you have to face reality. I looked at the line-up that goesboom had, and looked at the motley crew that Dawn and I were sending to the field. It just didn’t seem like a fair competition. I sometimes forget that this is baseball, and anything can happen in baseball.”

The Sass won handily, with a final score of 8-3-1. They won in runs (20-16), home runs (7-1), RBIs (20-12), stolen bases (2), walks (8-6), wins (2-0), strike-outs (26-17), and WHIP (1.17-1.22). The Sass tied in holds (1-1), and lost in batting average (.289-.298), saves (0-2), and ERA (2.44-2.33).

“Yeeha!” shouted Dawn, as Nick informed her that the Here for the Sass team moved up to 12th place, putting them into the consolation round of the playoffs. “Let’s keep rolling, boys!”

The short week seemed to really fit well with the Sass’s style of play. Sassians have short attention spans, and seven days is often too long for them to keep in game mode.

This week’s offense leaders were: runs, Carlos Guillen (5); home runs, Carlos G. and Adam Dunn (2 each); RBI, Adam (4); stolen bases, Adam and Michael Cuddyer (1 each); walks, Carlos G. (3), and batting average, Little Nicky Punto and Adam (.467).

“If you had told me this week that winning the stolen bases competition depended entirely on Adam and Michael, I would’ve said, ‘chalk that up for a loss’,” Beth said, “I mean, Michael might steal every once in a while, but not usually. And Adam, it’s not that he’s overly slow, but he’s just not a base stealer, usually. Were the opposing pitchers not watching him?”

The Sassians were happy that they did not have to face former teammate, pitcher R. Johnson, as it was felt some players might cower in fear. Edwin Encarnacion had a particular fear of Johnson, and was relieved that goesboom benched Johnson for the short series.

As for pitching, the Sassians turned one of their best performances ever, with Aaron Harang leading the way for the starters, with 1 win, 7 strike-outs, and 0.00 ERA with a 0.71 WHIP. It was pointed out that the other Aaron--Aaron Cook--had an ERA and WHIP of 1.29, while Kristin Benson had a 2.00 ERA and 0.78 WHIP and Carlos Silva had 1 win, and a 3.00 ERA and 0.83 WHIP. Only Chan Ho Park had a very poor week.

Among the leaders, Julio Mateo had 3 strike-outs, Ambiorix Burogos had 1 hold, and Brad Halsey had the lowest WHIP at 0.43. Justin Duchschererererer, Julio, Brad, and Rheal Cormier all had ERAs of 0.00.

“Wow, if you pull out Jon [Rauch] and Chan Ho, we had a superb week of pitching,” Beth said, “I hope this trend continues.”

This week, Beth and Dawn face the Jello Fighters, led by Twink and CapitalBabs. Both teams in the BFL who are led by two female managers seem to have been bitten by the injury bug. Presently both teams have three men on the DL, which might be record lows for both, with the Here for the Sass team hoping that they’ll be down to two by Tuesday.