Two leagues, twice the fun

For the first time in a couple decades, I’m in two leagues and as of last week, we have begun both of our seasons.  We started the Illowa APBA League (10 team Basic Game) the night after we drafted a few weekends ago.  As for the Boys of Summer League (16 team BBW/APBA Online, we just completed our first series of games.  Both leagues couldn’t be more different but I’m having a lot of fun. 

The BoS League will be played in a more consistent fashion whereas the IAL will be played in spurts.  Ninety of the IAL’s 162 games are played during three weekend get-togethers to facilitate face-to-face play since we don’t all live in the same town. 

I just slogged my way through my 30 games of stats for the IAL yesterday.  Truth be told, I kinda enjoy doing them.  With the BOS League, well, they’re done for me and I just get to look at them and they’re pretty complete.  

So how are we doing?

My BoS Urbana Locomotives are now 3-3 after a six game series with Merle Watkins’ Seattle Rainiers.  Both David Price and Adrian Beltre vindicated my picks of them in round 1 and 2 respectively.  Price is 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA and 22 strikeouts in 16 innings.  That includes a shutout for the Locos’ first win of the year.  Beltre is leading the team with a .348 average with four rbis.  Interesting though, leadoff man Nori Aoki has five rbis.  Maybe he wants to bat lower. 

I’ll admit I had fun doing my 17-13 Twin City Thunderchickens stats for the first month.  Start with the fact that our team ERA is 3.06 against the normally strong hitting IAL.   Stephen Strasburg’s performance assures me that he’s glad I’m didn’t trade him.  He went 3-1 with a 1.46 ERA and 41 Ks in 37 innings.  In fact, Joe Kelly (2-1, 0.79 ERA), Hyun-jin Ryu (3-1, 2.29), and Homer Bailey (3-2, 3.48, 46 K in 44 IP) all did well.  I even got some quality innings out of my DRZ, Scott Diamond (1.35 in 20 IP).

I’ve said this before but I don’t really have a cleanup hitter on my Thunderchicken lineup.  With Albert Pujols down to a paltry 1-5-6, I’ve been forced to get creative with my lineup and my strategies. I even batted Jose (3-5-6) Tabata in the cleanup spot to shake things up.  It even worked once with Tabata hitting two homers in one game. 

But Jason Kipnis!  My star secondbaseman doesn’t have what I would call a superstar card (0-0-6-8-8-9-9-11-10-10) but don’t tell him that.  Through 30 games, he’s hitting .382 with five homers and 22 runs scored.  Like Aoki in the BoS League, Kip is usually batting leadoff.  Ryan Zimmerman is only hitting .210 but he leads the team with 20 rbis and is tied with Kipnis with 5 homers.  Johnny “Heart Attack” Gomes is hitting a very un-Gomes-like .316 and has a knack for getting on base one way or another (.426 OBP).   

So now after finishing up with Seattle in the BoS League, the Locomotives will be taking on Hannibal Caveman and the Sacramento 66’s this coming week.  Unlike most of the BoS managers, I have actually met Hannibal’s manager Randy Woolley in person.  We both participated in the Chicagoland World Series APBA Tourney last fall. 

As for the Illowa APBA League, it’s time for intra-division play and I’ll be taking on my Chicago opponents in the next few months.  Time will tell if my 17-13 record was just fluke.