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Eugene Church · 04-21-2009, 07:25 PM

The Islandian Times

Wednesday, June 25, 2003

Turon First in TU South, Cape Coral and San Alejo Trail by 3 Games

Halfway through the season the Turon Typhoons (46-27) are leading the IPA Tycobbian Union South by three games over second place Cape Coral (43-30) and San Alejo (43-30). Close behind are the fourth-place Summerland Sunsets (42-31), who are only four games behind the Typhoons. In fifth place 9 games behind are the Colchester Elites (37-36). Sixth place belongs to the Ginza Ninjas (36-37), 10 games back. The other two teams are out of the running for everything this year. There will no pennant or playoffs this year for the seventh place Southport Sun Sox (26-47) and last place Arroyo Grande Suns (24-49), two of the worst teams in the IPA.

Ashton "Whitey" Richburn's Turon Typhoons are one of the better teams in the IPA. They have excelled with strong pitching and good hitting... Turon tops the TU with an outstanding 3.06 ERA (1st) and are batting .278 (6th) with 53 home runs (23rd-tied)... their only weak point is defense with a .973 FA (17th-tied)... Richburn's mound staff is led by All-Star Scotty Boswell (10-5 2.81), Jacques Lemaire (10-7 3.49), Keir McNamara (9-4 3.33) and Jeb Pickett (6-2 2.45)... closer Mac Yokum (2-3 3.12) has done a good job with 17 saves... The Typhoons boast a bevy of fine pitchers, including the bullpen... LF Joe Wheeler (.324/7 HR/43 RBI), 1B Boots Dubois (.306/5 HR/41 RBI), RF George Farley (.287/10 HR/35 RBI/46 R/12 SB) and C Trace Crittenden (.237/10 HR/49 RBI) provide the bulk of Turon's offense.

But Turon has some very good competition from Cape Coral and last year's division champ, the San Alejo Montaneros... Manager Huggy Miller's Hurricanes swing some of the best bats around... They are hitting at a .285 pace (3rd) with 62 homers (17th), spearheaded by 2B Hoshi Sato (.344/9 HR/40 RBI/42 R/8 SB), All-Star C Fats Dalton (.332/6 HR/50 RBI/33 R) and CF Edmundo Montano (.319/3 HR/45 RBI/37 R)... On the hill Cape Coral has compiled a 3.66 ERA (11th)... Miller's best arms are All-Star Cody Burg (9-5 1.97) and Jeff Salow (11-6 3.51)... Burg sports the lowest ERA in the Tycobbian Union with a 1.97 ERA.

Last season's finalist in the IPA Pro Cup Series was the San Alejo Montaneros and manager Lando Peceda has them right back in the thick of things, tied for second place, but only 3 games out. Peceda's ballclub can hit, but its pitching is suspect. The Montaneros have gone deep 89 times (2nd) this season and carry a lofty .282 batting average (4th)... but pitching is another story... San Alejo is only average with a 4.03 ERA (19th)... They have three good starters in Alberto Herrera (10-6 3.13), Ernie Arredondo (8-8 3.84) and Victorio Valarde (5-3 2.75), but Arredono is way off his 25-win pace of last year... Peceda dropped four pitchers at the All-Star break... A 17-game winner from last year Jaime Serrano (8-8 5.37) and closer Tino Elardo (2-5 5.17) have been replaced, along with relievers Gilberto De Paz (0-0 6.20) and Mateus Salinas (0-0 4.42)... The newcomers will make or break the Montaneros season... Peceda has six .300 hitters he can put in the line-up, paced by a pair of All-Stars 3B Paolo Huerta (.320/17 HR/62 RBI/54 R) and LF Bernie Valente (.331/13 HR/49 RBI/59 R/10 SB)... Huerta is number two in the TU with 62 runs batted in... rookie C Bobby Lafferty (.310/14 HR/54 RBI/35 R) and CF Vidal Munos (.300 9 HR/49 RBI/41 R) are tough outs in the batting order, too.

Fourth in the TU South standings are the Summerland Sunsets, skippered by Will Hackett... Solid pitching and defense are the Sunsets main strengths... Hackett's hill corps has compiled a fine 3.33 ERA (3rd) this season and has a .976 FA (7th-tied)... and they can produce some runs with a .273 team batting average (12th), but fall far short in the long ball category with only 45 (30th) for the year... Summerland has four impressive starters in Duncan Cade (9-2 2.60), Katsuyuki Nagashima (6-2 2.54), Paul Felkner (8-9 2.99) and Byron Hastings (7-0 3.17)... Bobby Winwood (3-4 2.83) has been sufficient in the closer role with 14 saves, but there are some question marks surrounding the rest of the mound crew... Hackett has added two new hurlers to the staff, one will be a spot starter, the other long relief... The Sunsets best batters are CF Stacey Zacker (.296/12 HR/50 RBI/47 R/10 SB), rookie RF Derek Visser (.302/8 HR/45 RBI/42 R), 2B Tucker Hill (.345/1 HR/26 RBI/45 R/8 SB) and rookie 1B Karl Van Kooten (.310/8 HR/34 RBI/39 R).

Manager Robbie Wilbertson has some talent on his Colchester Elites with three All-Stars, second best in the IPA, but otherwise they are only an average team... The Elites finished last season in second place, but have not been able to duplicate that success this year... They have fallen down to fifth place and trail by 9 games... Colchester is batting .273 (15th) with 61 roundtrippers (18th-tied)... lousy on defense with a poor .966 mark (31st)... while the mound staff features a 3.71 ERA (13th), headed by All-Star Dennis Pendarvis (9-5 2.22), Mark D'Allessandro (5-1 2.99), Barry Henry (5-8 3.03) and Ray Beckham (9-8 3.71)... At mid-season Wilbertson replaced one-third of his staff and will have a new closer for the second half of the year... All-Star 1B Roscoe Harlan (.345/7 HR/56 RBI/38 R) and All-Star LF Tom Berella (.329/4 HR/29 RBI/60 R/38 SB) provide much of the punch in the Elites batting order with some good help from 3B Niles Stanton (.290/19 HR/47 RBI/41 R).

The Ginza Ninjas are in the sixth spot in the TU South, 10 games out of first place... Manager Huroko Uchiyama's charges were a power in the first IPA season when there were only 24 teams... The Ninjas finished second in the regular season and were the runner-up for the IPA Pro Cup, losing out to the Volusia Vigilantes of the Ruthlandian Union in 2001... However, now they are just an average ball team... They hit good for average (.276-9th) with little power (43 HR-31st)... Ginza has a 3.90 ERA (16th) and a .973 FA (17th-tied)... Carl Trebek (8-8 3.02) and Alec Sasek (4-2 3.20) are his best pitchers with 1B Kenshin Yamamoto (.341/10 HR/41 RBI/31 R) and 2B Ken Mack (.319/1 HR/22 RBI/35 R) his only good sticks... A second-division finish is very likely for the Ginza Ninjas.

The Southport Sun Sox and Arroyo Grande Suns have had awful seasons thus far... Both clubs have cleaned house at mid-season in hopes of at least getting a look at some new talent... Southport is in seventh place, 20 games off the pace... manager Charley Oscar has added four new pitchers to his rotation, two of them will be starters... The Sun Sox are not a very good team... they carry a .269 batting average (20th), have hit 68 homers (11th), but have a terrible 4.87 ERA (30th) and a very poor .964 FA (32nd)... Oscar has some quality hitters in 3B James Bagwell (.346/12 HR/43 RBI/34 R), CF Rich Crowley (.317/9 HR/49 RBI/41 R/7 SB), LF Angelo Lombardi (.309/9 HR/45 RBI/44 R) and 1B Pat Mystryk (.295/12 HR/39 RBI/39 R)... Only his closer is worth mentioning... Neil Humphrey (1-3 2.98) has sparkled with 12 saves... Southport will finish no higher than seventh this season.

Manager Jean-Luc Marchand of the inept Arroyo Grande Suns had a fire sale at the All-Star break... The Suns have 8 new players, 4 pitchers and 4 position players...They are last in the division and are 22 games behind... Arroyo Grande doesn't do anything well... They are hitting a pathetically-low .244 (32nd), the worst of any team in the IPA... with 68 home runs (11th)... The Suns have a sky-high 5.34 ERA (32nd), again the worst in the league... with a .972 FA (23rd-tied)... not much to brag about there... But they do have an All-Star in SS Kevin English (.333/4 HR/23 RBI/34 R/9 SB), a good hitter for average and a great fielder with a .994 fielding percentage.

Tycobbian Union South Division Outlook:
It's going to be a close race in the TU South, a four-team struggle... Turon will win it and get the top seed in the playoffs, followed by Summerland, who will move up in the standings because of its strong starting pitching... Cape Coral will end up in third place with San Alejo fourth, Colchester fifth, Ginza sixth, Southport seventh and Arroyo Grande in the cellar.

04-21-2009, 07:25 PM	#882
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 35,875	The Islandian Times Wednesday, June 25, 2003 Turon First in TU South, Cape Coral and San Alejo Trail by 3 Games Halfway through the season the Turon Typhoons (46-27) are leading the IPA Tycobbian Union South by three games over second place Cape Coral (43-30) and San Alejo (43-30). Close behind are the fourth-place Summerland Sunsets (42-31), who are only four games behind the Typhoons. In fifth place 9 games behind are the Colchester Elites (37-36). Sixth place belongs to the Ginza Ninjas (36-37), 10 games back. The other two teams are out of the running for everything this year. There will no pennant or playoffs this year for the seventh place Southport Sun Sox (26-47) and last place Arroyo Grande Suns (24-49), two of the worst teams in the IPA. Ashton "Whitey" Richburn's Turon Typhoons are one of the better teams in the IPA. They have excelled with strong pitching and good hitting... Turon tops the TU with an outstanding 3.06 ERA (1st) and are batting .278 (6th) with 53 home runs (23rd-tied)... their only weak point is defense with a .973 FA (17th-tied)... Richburn's mound staff is led by All-Star Scotty Boswell (10-5 2.81), Jacques Lemaire (10-7 3.49), Keir McNamara (9-4 3.33) and Jeb Pickett (6-2 2.45)... closer Mac Yokum (2-3 3.12) has done a good job with 17 saves... The Typhoons boast a bevy of fine pitchers, including the bullpen... LF Joe Wheeler (.324/7 HR/43 RBI), 1B Boots Dubois (.306/5 HR/41 RBI), RF George Farley (.287/10 HR/35 RBI/46 R/12 SB) and C Trace Crittenden (.237/10 HR/49 RBI) provide the bulk of Turon's offense. But Turon has some very good competition from Cape Coral and last year's division champ, the San Alejo Montaneros... Manager Huggy Miller's Hurricanes swing some of the best bats around... They are hitting at a .285 pace (3rd) with 62 homers (17th), spearheaded by 2B Hoshi Sato (.344/9 HR/40 RBI/42 R/8 SB), All-Star C Fats Dalton (.332/6 HR/50 RBI/33 R) and CF Edmundo Montano (.319/3 HR/45 RBI/37 R)... On the hill Cape Coral has compiled a 3.66 ERA (11th)... Miller's best arms are All-Star Cody Burg (9-5 1.97) and Jeff Salow (11-6 3.51)... Burg sports the lowest ERA in the Tycobbian Union with a 1.97 ERA. Last season's finalist in the IPA Pro Cup Series was the San Alejo Montaneros and manager Lando Peceda has them right back in the thick of things, tied for second place, but only 3 games out. Peceda's ballclub can hit, but its pitching is suspect. The Montaneros have gone deep 89 times (2nd) this season and carry a lofty .282 batting average (4th)... but pitching is another story... San Alejo is only average with a 4.03 ERA (19th)... They have three good starters in Alberto Herrera (10-6 3.13), Ernie Arredondo (8-8 3.84) and Victorio Valarde (5-3 2.75), but Arredono is way off his 25-win pace of last year... Peceda dropped four pitchers at the All-Star break... A 17-game winner from last year Jaime Serrano (8-8 5.37) and closer Tino Elardo (2-5 5.17) have been replaced, along with relievers Gilberto De Paz (0-0 6.20) and Mateus Salinas (0-0 4.42)... The newcomers will make or break the Montaneros season... Peceda has six .300 hitters he can put in the line-up, paced by a pair of All-Stars 3B Paolo Huerta (.320/17 HR/62 RBI/54 R) and LF Bernie Valente (.331/13 HR/49 RBI/59 R/10 SB)... Huerta is number two in the TU with 62 runs batted in... rookie C Bobby Lafferty (.310/14 HR/54 RBI/35 R) and CF Vidal Munos (.300 9 HR/49 RBI/41 R) are tough outs in the batting order, too. Fourth in the TU South standings are the Summerland Sunsets, skippered by Will Hackett... Solid pitching and defense are the Sunsets main strengths... Hackett's hill corps has compiled a fine 3.33 ERA (3rd) this season and has a .976 FA (7th-tied)... and they can produce some runs with a .273 team batting average (12th), but fall far short in the long ball category with only 45 (30th) for the year... Summerland has four impressive starters in Duncan Cade (9-2 2.60), Katsuyuki Nagashima (6-2 2.54), Paul Felkner (8-9 2.99) and Byron Hastings (7-0 3.17)... Bobby Winwood (3-4 2.83) has been sufficient in the closer role with 14 saves, but there are some question marks surrounding the rest of the mound crew... Hackett has added two new hurlers to the staff, one will be a spot starter, the other long relief... The Sunsets best batters are CF Stacey Zacker (.296/12 HR/50 RBI/47 R/10 SB), rookie RF Derek Visser (.302/8 HR/45 RBI/42 R), 2B Tucker Hill (.345/1 HR/26 RBI/45 R/8 SB) and rookie 1B Karl Van Kooten (.310/8 HR/34 RBI/39 R). Manager Robbie Wilbertson has some talent on his Colchester Elites with three All-Stars, second best in the IPA, but otherwise they are only an average team... The Elites finished last season in second place, but have not been able to duplicate that success this year... They have fallen down to fifth place and trail by 9 games... Colchester is batting .273 (15th) with 61 roundtrippers (18th-tied)... lousy on defense with a poor .966 mark (31st)... while the mound staff features a 3.71 ERA (13th), headed by All-Star Dennis Pendarvis (9-5 2.22), Mark D'Allessandro (5-1 2.99), Barry Henry (5-8 3.03) and Ray Beckham (9-8 3.71)... At mid-season Wilbertson replaced one-third of his staff and will have a new closer for the second half of the year... All-Star 1B Roscoe Harlan (.345/7 HR/56 RBI/38 R) and All-Star LF Tom Berella (.329/4 HR/29 RBI/60 R/38 SB) provide much of the punch in the Elites batting order with some good help from 3B Niles Stanton (.290/19 HR/47 RBI/41 R). The Ginza Ninjas are in the sixth spot in the TU South, 10 games out of first place... Manager Huroko Uchiyama's charges were a power in the first IPA season when there were only 24 teams... The Ninjas finished second in the regular season and were the runner-up for the IPA Pro Cup, losing out to the Volusia Vigilantes of the Ruthlandian Union in 2001... However, now they are just an average ball team... They hit good for average (.276-9th) with little power (43 HR-31st)... Ginza has a 3.90 ERA (16th) and a .973 FA (17th-tied)... Carl Trebek (8-8 3.02) and Alec Sasek (4-2 3.20) are his best pitchers with 1B Kenshin Yamamoto (.341/10 HR/41 RBI/31 R) and 2B Ken Mack (.319/1 HR/22 RBI/35 R) his only good sticks... A second-division finish is very likely for the Ginza Ninjas. The Southport Sun Sox and Arroyo Grande Suns have had awful seasons thus far... Both clubs have cleaned house at mid-season in hopes of at least getting a look at some new talent... Southport is in seventh place, 20 games off the pace... manager Charley Oscar has added four new pitchers to his rotation, two of them will be starters... The Sun Sox are not a very good team... they carry a .269 batting average (20th), have hit 68 homers (11th), but have a terrible 4.87 ERA (30th) and a very poor .964 FA (32nd)... Oscar has some quality hitters in 3B James Bagwell (.346/12 HR/43 RBI/34 R), CF Rich Crowley (.317/9 HR/49 RBI/41 R/7 SB), LF Angelo Lombardi (.309/9 HR/45 RBI/44 R) and 1B Pat Mystryk (.295/12 HR/39 RBI/39 R)... Only his closer is worth mentioning... Neil Humphrey (1-3 2.98) has sparkled with 12 saves... Southport will finish no higher than seventh this season. Manager Jean-Luc Marchand of the inept Arroyo Grande Suns had a fire sale at the All-Star break... The Suns have 8 new players, 4 pitchers and 4 position players...They are last in the division and are 22 games behind... Arroyo Grande doesn't do anything well... They are hitting a pathetically-low .244 (32nd), the worst of any team in the IPA... with 68 home runs (11th)... The Suns have a sky-high 5.34 ERA (32nd), again the worst in the league... with a .972 FA (23rd-tied)... not much to brag about there... But they do have an All-Star in SS Kevin English (.333/4 HR/23 RBI/34 R/9 SB), a good hitter for average and a great fielder with a .994 fielding percentage. Tycobbian Union South Division Outlook: It's going to be a close race in the TU South, a four-team struggle... Turon will win it and get the top seed in the playoffs, followed by Summerland, who will move up in the standings because of its strong starting pitching... Cape Coral will end up in third place with San Alejo fourth, Colchester fifth, Ginza sixth, Southport seventh and Arroyo Grande in the cellar. Last edited by Eugene Church; 04-26-2009 at 04:44 PM.