New Britain, Detroit, Montgomery and Arizona broke the ice on free agency, signing the first A and B players.
The Spitfires inked reliever Rudy Cole, who had spent all 9 years of his career in Vancouver. Cole has a "Nuke Laloosh reputation" (million-dollar arm, or in this case $12.5MM over 2 years, and a 5 cent head). sneekes is betting his as-yet-unnamed new pitching coach can restore him to his Season 4 Fireman Of The Year glory.
Detroit front-loaded a 3-year deal to get infielder Greg Evers, a 9-year vet looking to bounce back from a bad year. Evers is an excellent defender with a Grade A arm and thunder in his bat (228 homers). GM rockindock has assembled one of the league's better defensive infields with Evers at 2B, Alberto Owen at SS and Ismael Mercado at 3B.
Montgomery grabbed a potential bargain in IF Alex Gonzalez, who's coming off a monster 200-hit, .333/27/92 campaign. GM cbriese is marvelling at the Biscuits' good fortune this off-season, having added SS Gus Harper and 3B Gonzalez for the price of $6.1MM a year (Gonzalez), and a run-of-the-mill reliever.
Arizona ponied up $32MM and change to nab George Carter, an excellent reliever with absolutely amazing recovery abilities. Carter has never started a game in the majors, yet has thrown as many as 189 innings in a season. He's coming off a pair of relatively poor seasons - let's see if the change of venue puts him back on track.
While there are quite a few solid players available this year, all await the decision of the 1 marquis name: James Martin, former ROY and 2-time MVP who bolted on the Gansta' Chimps after 8 hugely productive seasons. Oddsmakers are saying it's 50-50 on whether he'll land a max contract.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Ordonez Eclipses Power Marks; Young Sets New Wins Record
A pair of AL stars have bested Double Mendoza single-season records in major stat categories.
Helena's slugging first baseman, Pascual Ordonez, has set new single-season records for both home runs and runs batted in. Ordonez smacked 78 homers and knocked in 192 runs this season.
The previous record for homers was 75, set by Syracuse's Ivan DeSoto in Season 5 (the last "steroid-era" season). Chad Bieser (then with the Biscuits) set the old RBI mark of 179 way back in Season 1.
Ordonez was a highly sought-after ($25.7MM bonus) IFA in Season 4. He debuted in Season 6 with a sold .281/30/80 season, and foreshadowed this year's monster performance with 51 and 57 homers in Season 7 and 8. He made the All-Star Team in Season 7 and picked up 2 Player Of The Week Awards this year.
On the pitching side, Honolulu's Bret Young topped the old wins record (25 by Memphis' Robert Knight in Season 6) with 27. Young was an original minor-leaguer of the Honolulu franchise, and won a Cy Young award in Season 5.
Helena's slugging first baseman, Pascual Ordonez, has set new single-season records for both home runs and runs batted in. Ordonez smacked 78 homers and knocked in 192 runs this season.
The previous record for homers was 75, set by Syracuse's Ivan DeSoto in Season 5 (the last "steroid-era" season). Chad Bieser (then with the Biscuits) set the old RBI mark of 179 way back in Season 1.
Ordonez was a highly sought-after ($25.7MM bonus) IFA in Season 4. He debuted in Season 6 with a sold .281/30/80 season, and foreshadowed this year's monster performance with 51 and 57 homers in Season 7 and 8. He made the All-Star Team in Season 7 and picked up 2 Player Of The Week Awards this year.
On the pitching side, Honolulu's Bret Young topped the old wins record (25 by Memphis' Robert Knight in Season 6) with 27. Young was an original minor-leaguer of the Honolulu franchise, and won a Cy Young award in Season 5.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Welcome To Season 9
Welcome back to all our owners, and a special shout out to our new Double Mendoza owners:
sneekes (new Britain)
amerith (Texas)
indiansrck27 (Albuquerque)
bret2775 (Helena)
moy23 (Chicago NL)
mnnorthstars (Charleston)
antonsirius (Tacoma)
With free agency about to begin, questions abound. Will KC become the 3rd repeat WS winner? What teams will surprise? Which new owners will shine? Stay tuned for another scintillating season of Double Mendoza action!
Welcome back to all our owners, and a special shout out to our new Double Mendoza owners:
sneekes (new Britain)
amerith (Texas)
indiansrck27 (Albuquerque)
bret2775 (Helena)
moy23 (Chicago NL)
mnnorthstars (Charleston)
antonsirius (Tacoma)
With free agency about to begin, questions abound. Will KC become the 3rd repeat WS winner? What teams will surprise? Which new owners will shine? Stay tuned for another scintillating season of Double Mendoza action!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
ML Debut
Due to injuries, the Memphis Maulers were forced to call up and start Juan Belliard in the middle of a penant chase. Belliard responded with a 4 hit complete game shutout in his major league debut. He walked two and struck out four.
AL Playoff Race
With 4 games remaining there are some tight playoff races going on. In the American League, the Chicago Gansta' Chimps have clinched the North Division title as well as the #2 seed and bye for the playoffs. The AL East is still up for grabs as the Durham Blue Devils lead Pittsburgh by 2 games. The AL South is also up for grabs as the Maulers lead the Tides by one game. In the AL West, the Brawling Kahunas have clinched the division and the #1 seed. The Oakland Oaks have clinched a wild card berth. The Richmond Tides lead the race for the second wild card spot by 2 games.
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