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EHCC Fact or Fiction: Week 3
Rakeville cracks the record books... for now?
By Pedro Gammo and Jayson Snark / EHSPN.com
Fact or Fiction: The QC's new young team will stay in playoff contention all year.
Gammo: Fact
Playoff contention? Yes. Now remember, playoff contention could mean top 8 or even 9 depending on the competition. I'm not saying that The QC will compete for the title (though with Thome swinging the bat like he has been their offense looks pretty good through April) but they're just as good if not better than any "middle of the road" teams such as Golden, Tijuana, Bizton, and Winston-Salem. Their pitching is a bit young, and watch for them to get younger as the year goes on, so they may falter as the season progresses, but their experienced offense should hold tough through August unless they decide to trade off some veterans at the deadline or before the MiDraft (Kent, Thome, Rolen), which is very likely even if they are still in contention for the #5 or #6 seeds. Look for them to finish 7th or 8th if they make some big trades for even more youth, about 1 to 3 games back from the playoff spots, which is still in direct contention.
Snark: Fact
Do I think they'll be hovering at or around the 5th or 6th playoff spot all year? Yes, probably. Now, ask me if I think they'll end up securing that spot? No, probably not. I think they'll be close all year, possibly putting GM Pat Renaud's commitment to the future to the test. Renaud is an EXTREMELY competitive guy, and if he thinks he has the horses to not only make the playoffs, but possibly make a run as well, then he just might make a trade or two that compromises that future a bit, but ultimately makes The QC more competitive in the here and now. If that happens, I'd say the odds of them securing one of those final playoff spots is much more likely. That said, I don't see that happening, which means that the only way for The QC to make the playoffs is for their extremely young starting pitching to mature and gel faster than expected. Not entirely out of the question, but a longshot.
Fact or Fiction: Las Vegas’ lack of offense in week 3 is a major cause for concern.
Gammo: Fact
Okay, maybe not a MAJOR concern (they do still have Albert Pujols) but I know Las Vegas management is worried. They would have lost four out of the five offensive categories to just about any team in the EHCC in week 3. They batted a putrid .239 for the week. They had an outrageous offensive stand in week one against The QC, putting up over 40 runs and 40 RBI with over 15 HR and batting well above .300, but since then the team seems to have forgotten how to put the bat on the ball. I would assume they're just going through a slump, but playing against powerhouse Weymouth and with Rakeville and Golden coming up, they couldn't have picked a worse time.
Snark: Fiction
That's just dumb. Any team with Albert Pujols and David Wright is going to be awesome. That's pretty much that.
Fact or Fiction: Rakeville’s record of 110 strikeouts will be tied or broken again in 2006.
Gammo: Fact
It’ll be broken again – by Rakeville. Their pitching staff is phenomenal at getting that 3rd strike past hitters. Pedro, Oswalt, Beckett, and Vazquez, along with newbies King Felix and Bush pitching well, the Rakeville staff is right up there where they have been for years as far as their pitching staff goes: the top. They demolished the old record by 12 K's and look for them to push the envelope again later in the year when they have a few of the K kings going twice in one week again.
Snark: Fiction
110 strikeouts is an awful lot. For any team to break any record, it takes a little bit of luck to go with an awful lot of talent. For the Wins and K's records, it takes even more than that. It would take a "perfect storm" of pitching matchups to break those records. In order for a team to top 11 Wins or 110 K's, not only would they need great pitchers with high K/9 rates, but they'd need these pitchers to have 2 start weeks (i.e. pitching on Sunday or Monday and then again on Friday or Saturday). It's hard enough to have the guys who can reach the type of levels needed for that kind of a record on skill alone, much less get them an extra start in the week. It's also important to have RP's who are used frequently with very high K/9 rates as well, guys who can pitch 3 or 4 times in the week and pick up 2-3 K's per appearance.
That said, if any team can do it this season, I'd put my money on the loaded Las Vegas pitching staff. They have the strikeout horses in the rotation (Sheets, Peavy, Schilling, Halladay, etc.) and also in the bullpen (Rodriguez, Lidge, Rivera) that, with a little bit of luck, they could challenge the record. I just don't see it happening though.
Fact or Fiction: Winston–Salem are a bunch of dirty rotten cheaters.
Gammo: Fiction
Developer of Player Personnel (or should I say former developer of player personnel) Charles Logan was the one behind this debacle involving Josh Barfield. Winston-Salem management was kept in the dark and Logan worked on his own accord. He's been fired since the mistake, and rightfully so. Logan has a bad history and Winston-Salem took a big chance hiring him in the first place. He's been known to let his power get out of control and has a history of contacting prospects before they are drafted, trying to entice them to sign with Winston-Salem before the draft, a direct violation of EHCC rules. Not enough evidence has been brought to the table to cost Logan his job until now. Signing Josh Barfield to a major league contract without the authorization of Winston-Salem management and while he was property of The QC’s minor league organization was plenty reason for Winston-Salem to give Logan the boot. God help us all if this guy ever becomes president.
Snark: Fact
In my book, once you try to steal another team's protected player, you're branded a cheater for life. What Winston-Salem did was reprehensible and could have caused horrible ripple effects across the league. Just because they realized the error of their ways and repented (dropping Josh Barfield the same day they picked him up) doesn't make it okay. If I yanked a child's ice cream cone out of their hands, the same ice cream cone they'd just purchased from the ice cream truck with their own money that they earned by raking leaves in the backyard, if I took this ice cream cone from their tiny little hand and claimed it as my own, and then, before taking a bite, gave it back to the child and said, "Oh, sorry about that, I didn't realize that was your ice cream cone," does that make it okay? Well, that's not actually how it happened. What actually happened was that I purchased an ice cream cone from the ice cream truck at the same time as the child, then took a cone that the ice cream man handed out, but then realized that this ice cream cone was mint chocolate chip, but I'd ordered Rocky Road, and saw a child still waiting for his ice cream cone and the ice cream man realized that the ice cream cone I was holding was actually the child's, so I gave it to him and took my ice cream cone from the ice cream man. I guess that's pretty much exactly what happened in this situation too. But screw it, they sell cigarettes at the ballpark! They're nogoodniks!
Fact or Fiction: The Bizton Markies are the poorest managed team in the history of the EHCC.
Gammo: Fiction
This is a toss up. Plymouth, Hudson, Homestar, Haverhill and FitchVegas have all housed pretty horrible teams and management in the past. I didn’t include Athol and Enfield in this list because, even though they have been contracted, cannot be considered as bad as the previous 4 by a long shot. Let's consider the evidence: Plymouth did not attend the 2005 Major League Draft, failed to sign any of his automatically drafted players (including MVP candidate Derrek Lee), and refused to allow Octavio Dotel out of his cell in the basement of the Plymouth stadium. He also traded Jake Peavy, Brad Penny, and a 2nd round MaDP for Jeremy Burnitz, Gil Meche, and a 1st Round MaDP during the 2004/2005 off-season. Hudson, rumored to have won a championship in another league after being contracted by the EHCC, failed to update his roster for 15 straight weeks during the 2003 season, though he was present at the 2003 draft. Homestar made some questionable moves and was all but impossible to get a hold of during the off-season or regular season. He did trade Tim Wakefield and a draft pick for David Ortiz however, probably the worst trade Las Vegas ever made in retrospect. I'm sure everyone is aware of Haverhill's track record, but he did last over 5 seasons. FitchVegas, well, that guy was a tool. And no one really liked them. In fact, I’m not even sure how they got into the league, to be honest.
As for Bizton, they've made perhaps 2 of the top 5 worst trades in EHCC history in the same off-season, and attempted to take two more of the top 5 this past month, but the EHCC vetoed them both. He has made every draft in which the team had picks in, but failed to sign any of the drafted players after the draft in 2006. He has been accused of playing favorites with his trading partners and it has been reported his is one of the most difficult teams to get a hold of by any means. Although the team has yet to fill their 25-man roster in 2006, they still switch around their line up more often than Hudson ever did and they at least don't hold players hostage. It's hard to say, but I'm going to have to give the award to Plymouth right now, but one more bad move by the Markies and it could easily change. I'd say Plymouth has a half step on Bizton thus far, but I will not count Bizton out of this race just yet.
Snark: Fiction
Well, I don't know. That's a tough one. They're certainly right up there. But there have been some awful, awful teams in this league. We all remember the Drunkkats, or the Coretesticulastics, the Plymouth Bells, and, of course, who can forget the Haverhill Swingers.
The bottom line is that Bizton has run a solid team into the ground with horrific trades and lack of attention paid to the league. Does this make him the worst owner/manager in EHCC history? I say no, but it's not by much and he shouldn't be in the league.
Pedro Gammo and Jayson Snark write for EHSPN.com. Their first "Fact or Fiction" was delayed due to Mr. Gammo being MIA: Mountainbiking in Asia.
