Mile High Minute :: 2011, Week 8

Sometimes you have good weeks, and sometimes you have weeks where your team gets outscored by the other team’s offense alone. Baltimore pummeled the Mackerel in Week 8, mustering only 290 points to the Devil Jays’ 465.

“Ugh,” Mackerel GM Jon Bielecki said, “what a frickin’ terrible week. Pretty much everyone was awful. A few guys had average weeks, but most of the team was awful. There’s no other word for it.”

Baltimore swept the weekly league honors, with team of the week, hitter of the week (Asdrubal Cabrera, 41), and pitcher of the week (Michael Pineda, 61). “We just got overpowered,” Bielecki said, “For my part, I need to re-consider the lineup completely. It’s time to stop considering what a guy might or could do and focus more on guys who are actually producing. Week 8 was an example of what happens when the entire team struggles at the same time. Awful.”

Tim Lincecum had the lone bright spot of the week for Mile High, pitching a shutout on Saturday night. “There’s not a whole lot I can take away from this week, other than the hope that it’s not a trend.”

Mile High plays crosstown rivals the Colorado 470s in Week 9 in Leg 2 of the battle for the Shield Of Gratitude. Colorado won the first meeting 248-222.

Mile High Minute :: 2011, Week 7

Mile High completed its second two week winning streak by knocking off a streaking Marshall Street squad which had won four of its previous five matchups. Led by the return of Victor Martinez (42 points), the Mackerel posted their second highest offensive total of the season (241). Eight hitters posted 15 points or more, and only one scored less than 10.

“It was a nice change from last week,” Bielecki said, going over the numbers, “we had four guys score less than 10 and only 5 over 15.”

The pitching roster delivered an average-if-medicore performance considering they had 10 starts for the week. The Mack staff avereaged only 13.1 points per start, getting only 17 points from Tim Hudson over two starts, and 23.5 from young Rockie Jhoulys Chacin.

“They got the job done, but obviously we were hoping for more,” Bielecki said, “Frankly, we got lucky that Marshall Street had a bad week. We lost Lincecum’s second start due to rain, but since we got the win anyway, it actually works out well that we’ll get him twice against Baltimore.”

Mile High will take on Baltimore in Week 8. The teams squared off in Week 2 with Mile High winning 412-301.

Mile High Minute :: 2011, Week 6

 

After a two week skid, the Mile High Mackerel snapped their late-April losing streak by topping the Speedway Starwipes 345-296 in Week 6 of the ECB. Despite a few struggling hitters, the Mack were lucky enough to matchup against Ryan Friedman’s Speedway Starwipes, who were going through some struggles of their own.

“It’s been a bit of a strange season so far,” Bielecki said, “It feels like a lot of GMs are not really sure what they got from the draft. Myself included, some weeks.” Despite that, the Mackerel lineup has remained relatively consistent considering they currently have three players on the disabled list.

Gaby Sanchez, who was acquired a few weeks ago to fill one of those spots, led the offense in Week 6 putting up 42 points. Craig Kimbrel led the well-balanced pitching attack with 33 points. Mile High takes on Marshall Street in Week 7.

Mile High Minute :: 2011, Week 4

Another year has begun and Mile High has still not figured out how to beat Chicago. The Tiger Army, aside from being the rivals of the Mackerel, are the only squad against which GM Jon Bielecki’s team has a losing record in the history of ECB. That trend continued in Week 4 with a 445-415 loss to Steve Adler’s Tiger Army.

“We put up 415,” Bielecki said in his Monday morning presser, “We do that every week, and we’ll be okay. We just can’t get past Adler for some reason.”

Bielecki hung the loss on sluggers Victor Martinez and Logan Morrison going on the DL before Wednesday’s games started. The Mackerel got only two points combined from them.

“Would that have made the difference? I don’t know. Even with Jhouls’ 5 points, we still had almost 200 points from pitching. We’ve got to point the finger at the offense this week.”

Andre Ethier led the way for the offense, putting up a steady 34 points while David Price won both of his starts for an output of 54 points for the week. Even after the loss, Mile High is still ahead of Chiaco, sitting in 4th place after four weeks. The Mack will take on New Haven (11-25) in Week 5.

Mile High Minute :: 2011, Week 3

Mile High continued their solid early season play and started its first winning streak of the young season by dispatching New Haven to the tune of 406-355.

Troy Tulowitzki took home HOTW honors with 50 points, joining Mark Teixeira as the second Mackerel to take home the honor in the season’s first three weeks. Mile High had 7 hitters score 22 points or more, putting up a season-high 263 points of offense. Jered Weaver  continued to not lose, racking up his fourth win in as many starts.

“So far, so good,” GM Jon Bielecki said, “Everything’s clicking right now. We’ve got a couple of concerns, but the rest of the squad is really firing right now.”

“Weaver has been unreal,” he said, “but the biggest thing last week was getting solid starts from Lester, Price, and Cahill. If we can get our pitching together, we’ll be really tough to beat.”

Mile High takes on rivals Chicago Tiger Army in Week 4 of ECB.

Adlerithmetic :: All-Time Single Season Teams : Marshall Street

By Steve Adler 

As baseball season approaches I thought it may be informative to look at the best single season performances at each position for each of our eight franchises.

 

Methodology: I decided to use total point for the FANTASY FRANCHISE. The players may have put up more points during our playoffs, but not for this purpose. I also opted not to use points per game as I didn't think it would truly provide the best representation of each team. I decided to allow players to have multiple years for a team, mainly because I want to see if anyone besides A-Rod and Pujols ends up on Woosta’s roster. I used the positions as they would occur in ECB, not the way the MLB organization does it.  The rosters were compiled using the stats from the almanac. Unfortunately these stats only went back to 2005 so the years 2001-2004 will not be reflected. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

MARSHALL STREET MENACE
POS	NAME	YEAR	POINTS
C	Joe Mauer	2006	428
1B	Jason Giambi	2006	500
2B	Ian Kinsler	2008	510
3B	Troy Glaus	2006	478
SS	Derek Jeter	2006	509
CI	Troy Glaus	2005	430
MI	Robinson Cano	2010	501
OF	Carlos Lee	2007	516
OF	Andre Ethier	2009	507
OF	Ichiro Suzuki	2005	456
OF	Carlos Lee	2008	438
UTIL	Dustin Pedroia	2008	453
UTIL	Derek Jeter	2005	453
P	J. Broxton	2009	541.17
P	CC Sabathia	2008	534.84
P	Rafael Soriano	2010	532.17
P	CC Sabathia	2007	506.5
P	Roger Clemens	2005	508.16
P	Mariano Rivera	--	490.36

What I Learned:

1. Marshall St? In case you haven't noticed I've been going in the order of most playoff appearances. I didn't expect Marshall St to be ahead of Speedway. And they're not. It's a tie, but such is the magic of the almanac.
2. Yankees. Watts has taken advantage of the Yankee hatred in this league and benefited from great seasons from a variety of Yankees like Jeter, Rivera, Cano, Giambi, Sabathia, and maybe Clemens (can't remember which mercenary year that was).
3. SWA. BAT. Andre Ethier is the first Keene Swamp Bat to make our list (fittingly for a former GM who was also a SwaBat), but definitely not the last. Well, maybe he is for this go around, but hope to see some more when I update this list in a few years. Long live the Swamp Bats!