[Eugene Church]

The Islandian Times

Thursday, June 24, 2004

What? Hurricanes Hold Top Spot In TU South At Halfway Point?
So far in the Tycobbian Union South the baseball experts have been all wrong. The favored Turon and San Alejo powerhouses have suddenly suffered severe power failures and tumbled down to fourth and fifth place respectively. Jumping in to take their spots at the top are the Cape Coral Hurricanes, Colchester Elites and the Summerland Sunsets.

Huggy Miller's Hurricanes have put together a fine first half and have a 2-game lead over Colchester and are 5 games in front of third place Summerland. San Alejo was the top choice to take the title this year, while the last year's Pro Cup winner, the Turon Typhoons were picked to be the runner-up this year.

The Cape Coral Hurricanes (42-31) have a solid club, strong in all categories, pitching, batting and defense. On paper they should be 10 games ahead in the standings. The 'Canes top the division with a .272 batting average, 383 runs, 3.09 ERA and are second in homers with 75 and in fielding with a .976 percentage.

Miller's top mound performers are All-Star Cody Burg (12-4 2.53), Doug Lyons (9-6 2.71) and Jeff Salow (10-4 3.73). The Hurricanes batting order boast good hitters from top to bottom, led by All-Star rookie LF Kippy Doyle (.315/17 HR/58 RBI/41 R), 1B Danny Mullins (.264/13 HR/48 RBI/56 R), C Fats Dalton (.289/10 HR/43 RBI/37 R) and 2B Hoshi Sato (.289/10 HR/32 RBI/57 R). Miller moved outfielder Mullins to first base to make room in the outfield for the talented Doyle. Mullins has handled the change well and has played the bag very well.

The Colchester Elites (40-33) have proved the prognosticators wrong, at least up to the All-Star break. The outlook was for a lowly sixth-place finish, but manager Uncle Robbie Wilbertson's Elites are running a very strong second in the TU South, trailing by just two games. Hitting is the name of the game in Colchester. They top the division in home runs with 78 and are second in scoring with 359 runs. Leading the attack are All-Star 3B Niles Stanton (.354/20 HR/64 RBI/47 R), 1B Harlan Roscoe (.303/15 HR/55 RBI/47 R), RF Tom Barella (.286/12 HR/41 RBI/53 R/22 SB) and rookie LF Douglas Tilford (.297/8 HR/37 RBI/41 R/21 SB).

Wilbertson has enough pitching to get by with three adequate starters in Frank Payne (9-5 3.24), rookie Tom Carter (5-1 2.45) and Ray Beckham (9-5 4.30). Colchester is in dire need of a closer. To fill that spot he took Tom Carter (5-1 2.45), one of his spot starters and long relievers, and inserted him into the closer spot. This will be the key decision of the year for the Elites. If Carter can come through and perform well, Colchester will be in the thick of the pennant race.

The Summerland Sunsets (37-36) get the job done offensively, ranked number two (.268 BA) behind first place Cape Coral (.272 BA) and number three in scoring (344) behind Cape Coral and Colchester. Skipper Will Hackett's Elites have benefited from the poor play of San Alejo and Turon to rise up to third place, just 5 back of the leading Hurricanes. Hackett's Sunsets could use a few more good pitchers as they are rated next-to-last with a 4.06 ERA. Summerland added three new arms at the All-Star intermission.

1B Karl Van Kooten (.278/8 HR/48 RBI) and CF Stacy Zacker (.285/10 HR/36 RBI/42 R) are Hackett's best hitters with some help from 2B Tucker Hill (.294/2 HR/19 RBI/35 R).

On the hill the Sunsets are led by All-Star Paul Felkner (11-5 2.54) and Duncan Cade (9-7 4.07), two portsiders. Without decided improvement in the pitching department, there is no way Summerland can compete with Cape Coral. However, they can compete with Colchester for the other playoff spot in the TU South.

The most asked question in the IPA this year? What has happened to Turon, St. Alejo and St. John? All of those teams were expected to dominate again this year. But it hasn't happened, much to the chagrin of Whitey Richburn, Lando Peceda and Smitty Michaels, the managers of the teams.

The Turon Typhoons (35-38) are the defending IPA champions, but haven't played like it this season. Picked to run a close second to San Alejo in the TU South, the Typhoons have slipped under .500 and down to fourth place in the standings, but only 7 games out. Richburn told reporters recently, "Our pitching has held up, but you can't compete when you are batting .245, hit half as many home runs and score a run a game less. When your club leader has 4 home runs and 29 RBIs at midseason, you have got serious problems. Absolutely no one on the team is hitting at all. I've never seen anything like it."

But the Typhoons do play good defense and are tied with Ginza for the division lead with a .978 fielding percentage.

Turon's top batters are SS John-Paul Thevenot (.282/4 HR/29 RBI) and 1B Boots Dubois (.283/3 HR/22 RBI).

Scotty Boswell (9-6 3.34) and Jeb Pickett (8-7 3.57) lead the Typhoon twirlers. Ace closer Mac Yokum (2-3 2.38) is doing a fine job with 14 saves in 31 game appearances.

Richburn is the eternal optimist, commenting, "The law of averages say the second half is going to be much better than the first half of the year. We'll do fine, if we hit like we are supposed to."

San Alejo is the southern-most town in the Islands. Peceda observed, "You would think we couldn't go any more south, but we have. Our hitting and pitching has dropped off the charts this season." The Montaneros have averaged 98 wins a year in their first two seasons in the IPA. They are on schedule to win only 70 games this season. Peceda's club is hitting 30 points less as a team and is scoring 1.5 runs fewer a game than last year. The team ERA has surged upward from 3.46 to 3.91 this season. That's why the San Alejo Montaneros (33-40) have slumped to fifth place and find themselves in the very uncomfortable position of being 9 games back in the race.

Montanero pitcher Alberto Herrera (10-6 2.57) has been Peceda's only dependable hurler. All the rest are suffering exceedingly bad years. Same thing for the batters. Only three of them are playing competitive baseball: 1B Rodger Wooten (.286/14 HR/41 RBI/, 3B Paolo Huerta (.267/10 HR/38 RBI) and SS Erico Pilar (.307/6 HR/39 RBI/39 R).

The Ginza Ninjas (31-43) and Southport Sun Sox are tied for the sixth spot in the TU South race and trail the top team by 11 games.

Manager Huroko Uchiyama's club has the same problem as several other teams - run production. The Ninjas team batting average has dropped 20 points from last season. Uchiyama assessed the season this way, "Our pitching has held its own, in spite of the fact that Kazuhiro Nakayama, a 17-game winner last year, has missed the entire first half with an injury. It will be good to have him back after the All-Star Game. Nakayama will make us a different team. Our main problem is that we suffer from a lack of runs. Defensively we are fine."

Uchiyama has two quality hurlers in All-Star Kojiro Motsumoto (9-12 2.66) and Alec Sasek (8-7 3.25). With the return of Nakayama, Ginza will have three fine starters. The outlook is good from that standpoint.

At the plate LF Ronnie Cahill (.316/9 HR/37 RBI), SS Dave Torregrossa (.285/2 HR/36 RBI) and 2B Ken Mack (.314/2 HR/20 RBI/29 R) have been the Ninjas best bats. One of Uchiyama's top performers, 3B Kenshin Yamamoto (.263/7 HR/34 RBI), a normal .300 hitter, is down some 40 points on his average at the halfway mark of the season. Ginza needs Yamamoto to come back strong in the second half. With him and Nakayama doing well, the Ninjas could move up in the standings, but still will not be a playoff team.

Famed center fielder Charley Oscar is in charge of the Southport Sun Sox (31-42). The polls have proven to be right in the case of the Sun Sox. They were the consensus seventh pick in the preseason analysis and that just about where they are. Oscar doesn't have much to brag about. His only pitcher of note is Walt Corbin (8-5 2.58) and and his one and only genuine hitter is 1B Pat Mystryk (.289/12/45 RBI). LF Angelo Lombardi (.254/15 HR/38) has supplied some much-need long ball, but has not hit much for average.

Oscar has too many needs to do much better than seventh this season. The BNN experts called this one right.

For the third year in a row the Arroyo Grande Suns (30-43) will undoubtedly end up the season in the TU South cellar, but they are better this year. Manager Jean-Luc Marchand Suns just might break the 60-win mark. They have never won more than 52. Improved pitching is the reason.

Indicating what he planned to do the rest of the year, Marchand told reporters, "Normally I carry nine pitchers, but for the last half of the season, I will use a 5-man rotation and will expand to 10 pitchers. I want to see as many starters as I can and give them experience in the starting rotation. This will help us find the starters for next season. I am also going to use my entire position players roster during the second half. Everyone will get a chance to show me what they can do. If we are going to lose, we might as well lose with a variety of ballplayers. We need to know if they can play or not."

Arroyo Grande's best pitchers have been starter Miguel Aguilera (6-7 4.08) and closer Val Hudson (2-1 2.13) with 5 saves and 34 relief assignments. Marchand has only one solid hitter in 1B Cristian Avajos (.281/16 HR/51 RBI).