UBL December/January News

After 4 months, the National League leaders for playoff berths are:

Beaners

Mashers

Hackers

Madmen

The Headhunters, Redbirds, and Falcons are not out of it, sitting at 2, 4, & 6 games out, respectively.

In the American, these teams would qualify:

Yankees

Tourists

Jackals

Taters

And in fact, these are the only teams over .500.

December Notes:

A-Rod (Vipers) batted an incredible .461 for the month and led the league with 53 hits.

Bonds (Yanks) hit .378 and led the league in OBP, SLG, runs, extra base hits, walks, and HRs.

M.Ramirez (Tourists) tied Bonds for most HRs, and had 47 RBI on the month, 11 more than anyone else. To put that in perspective, that projects to 282 RBI for the year - mightily impossible.

Pettitte (Falcons) obviously likes his new team, as he led all pitchers with a 1.18 ERA on the month.

Burkett (Tree Frogs) had a nice month, leading the league in OBP against, SLG against, runners/9, and HRs allowed (0). He was 2nd in hits/9 and BA against, and had a solid 1.99 ERA.

The Big Unit (Vipers) led in Ks, averaging 14.1 per 9 innings.

Hudson (Hackers) & Reynolds (Tourists) led the way in wins, both were 5-1 on the month.

Gordon (Tourists) was the top save guy, going 9 for 9.

January Notes:

Catalanotto (RedHawks) led the league in batting (.451) and OBP (.524).

Pujols (Jackals) led in RBI (30) and tied for the lead in HRs with 12.

Thome (Beaners) also had 12 homers and led all players in extra base hits.

Everett (Jackals) hit .439 and led the league in doubles, with 14.

Nixon (Hackers) led in SLG (.811), Tejada (Headhunters) led in hits, and Bonds (Yanks) & Abreu (Headhunters) tied with 30 runs scored

Pettitte again led the way in ERA at 1.46.

R.Johnson equaled that ERA mark and again led in Ks and Ks/9 (13.1)

Mussina (Redbirds) went 5-0 to lead in wins.

F.Castillo (Taters) led in OBP against, walks/9, and runners/9.

Buehrle (Hurricanes) held batters to .172 and allowed just 5.2 hits/9, continuing his fine season.

Seanez (Redbirds) was 9 for 9 in saves.

Overall leaders after 4 months:

ERA - Buehrle, 2.47

Wins - Zito (Yanks) 14-3, Clemens (Tourists) 14-4, Hudson (Hackers) 14-5

Saves - Nen (Mashers), 30

BA - Drew (Beaners) and Jeter (Yanks), .357

Runs - Bonds, 127

RBI - Bonds, 130

HRs - Bonds, 56

(Bonds is hitting .351 and has a real shot at a "quadruple crown")

Individual Games of Note:

White Sox AB R H BI D T HR BB

6/4 Gonzalez L 5 4 5 6 1 1 3 1

RedHawks AB R H BI D T HR

7/9 Catalanotto 6 3 5 3 0 0 3

White Sox AB R H BI D T HR BB

7/19 Gonzalez L 4 3 3 7 0 0 3 1

(Luis's 2nd 3-HR game in 2 months)

Beaners AB R H BI D T HR

7/26 Drew JD 4 3 3 9 0 0 3

Tourists AB R H BI D T HR

6/30 Ramirez M 6 2 3 10 1 0 2

RedHawks AB R H BI D T HR BB

6/1 Martinez E 5 5 4 3 0 0 2 1

(a very rare 5-run performance - and with his blazing speed)

And here's the line score for that game:

R H E LOB

2002 Scum 6 0 0 8 2 0 0 3 1 20 23 2 6

2002 RedHawks 4 1 5 0 9 0 2 0 x 21 23 1 11

(anything can happen at Coors, I guess)

Marathons:

6/3 TreeFrogs 7, Bulldogs 6 in 17

7/2 TreeFrogs 6, Headhunters 4 in 17

7/25 Madmen 3, Tourists 2 in 17

1-hitters:

Tree Frogs INN H R ER BB K PCH STR BF

6/21 Burkett 9.0 1 0 0 2 12 121 76 30

(this against the mighty Yankees)

Redbirds INN H R ER BB K PCH STR BF

7/6 Glavine 8.0 1 0 0 1 4 96 59 27

Seanez 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 8 7 3

Yankees INN H R ER BB K PCH STR BF

7/22 Miller W 9.0 1 0 0 3 4 114 70 29

On 7/9, The Hurricanes' Oswalt had a no-hitter through 8 2/3, Browns' Belliard broke it up with a single and eventually scored to tie it, Browns win in 13.

Top strikeout game - on 6/25, the Viper's R.Johnson K'd 16 Redbirds in a 4-1 win.