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rferry · 08-28-2012, 10:44 PM

Sorry for the delay. I'm just as anxious to find out how the regular season concluded.

August 20, 2012 (End of the Umnyuupian regular season)

National League (NL): The championship also went down to the final day. The Kishperkujt Cubs struggled to get their offense going, despite the fast turf at Nur, and could only pick up one game against the last place Otters. That allowed Elby to close their lead to one game. The Cubs' poor hitting lasted into their next game before they let the bats loose on the Turtles in a eight-run 8th inning. Meanwhile in Elby, the Pelicans were being blanked by former Baltimore Orioles prospect P Enrico Jimenez.
With two games left the Cubs were up by two. It didn't even matter if their offense stalled throughout the rest of the weekend. Nur pitchers did the job for them, scattering four Pelicans hits across nine innings on Saturday. The loss meant the Pelicans had to concede the title to the Cubs.

----
Umnyuupian Series preview

vs.

It will be the Kishperkujt Cubs vs. Brekkar Orioles in the Umnyuupian Series. The inaugural event replaces a series of tournaments and arbitrary ranking systems to determine one national champion. The winner will earn a berth to qualify for the Euro Club Championship Cup.
While the Cubs stumbling their way down the stretch, the Orioles finished the season with a five-game winning streak. A good sign the injury to star P Andy Sonnanstine hasn't hurt them too much. C Fehmi Dosti's older brother Shkumbin (9-5 2.33 89 Ks 5 saves) stepped in from the bullpen and gave the club five quality starts over the past month of Sonnanstine and Jose Ortegano's absence. He's scheduled to match up against arguably the best pitcher in the league: P Vincenzio Falchonelli. The Orioles' best chance will be to bring their bats. 1B Marko Lovre (.258-22-90) and LF Janji Cana (.284-13-56) should be counted for 3 homers between them. And that doesn't include americans 3B Abner Abreu (.271-10-51) and RF Ryan Hamme (.350-9-24).
To counteract the Orioles' sluggers, the Cubs will bring the league's best staff. Falchonelli and the recently required Edi Tolka will pitch the majority of the innings. Justin Cassel (8-6, 3.20 88K) and Niko Grlic (9-13, 3.48 96K) will move to the bullpen to support southpaws Adil Vulaj (2.62 and 12 saves in 106 IP) and Chasen Shreve (2.56 in 63 IP). The Cubs also welcome back CF/OF Cedomil Simic (.301/.369/.457) from the DL. He along with all-star 1B/OF Slobodan Chacic (.275-10-65) and NL doubles leader 2B Petrit Maxhuni (.308/.382/.452 with 37 doubles) will be the offensive weapons the Cubs turn to.
---

Peninsula League (PL): The pennant contest began with the Qelm Pirates visiting Tropje with a two-game lead on the Eagles. In the first game before a packed house, Qelm had the better American pitching in the first contest and took a 2-0 lead with some aggressive base-running from SS Modest Vata. Their starter left the game amid a rally. The Pirates bullpen halted it at one run and 2B Abas Prela got it back with a RBI single in the next half-inning.
P Preki Djuretic came in to close the game. With the win the Pirates would have a three-game lead with three games left to play. A strike out swinging, walk, another strikeout. Fans on their feet cheering. Single, single, single. Oh no. The game is tied. Finally a strikeout sweeps the bases clear. What followed were two innings of overanxious plate discipline and defensive base-running from the Pirates. Meanwhile the Eagles waited patiently for their opponents to self destruct. Leading off the bottom of the 11th, OF Claude Fantini concluded the game with a home run to left-center.
The next day the teams came back to an overflowing crowd. Qelm sent out another American - former Tigers farmhand Jeff Barfield. The Eagles were patient and he had to leave in the 6th inning. The bullpen gave up five runs in the next 1-2/3 innings. But that's okay because the Pirates tacked on five in P Milovan Banovic's last inning of what was an impressive start. Then the Pirates added 5 more in the next inning. Heading into the bottom of the 9th, they led 10-6. Time to call in their closer Djuretic. Time for Preki's redemption. A single and a walk. Get the bullpen ready. A groundball followed by two walks. P Alonzo Paluzzi is finally ready and takes the ball. A groundball skips past the drawn in infield. Then a double off OF Bahri Kiuprili's bat. The inning ends with a strikeout and slow roller to third.
In Kiuprili's next at bat, he hits a leadoff triple. Fantini drives him in. The game is won. The league lead is held by both clubs. The weekend's series - Eagles @ Fjuth Crusaders, Pirates @ Putjep Yellow Sox - will determine the champion.
The Eagles took the lead Friday as Qelm was shutout by the Yellow Sox. At the conclusion of their game, the Pirates huddled into the clubhouse to watch the Eagles win in extra innings on a 3B Yorikane Sasaki home run.
On the final day of the season, the Eagles led by 1 game. They failed to capitalize on that lead losing to the Crusaders 5-2. Meanwhile in Putjep, P Alonzo Paluzzi was being called in to finish a 6-2 lead and set up a one-game playoff to determine the league's champion. A shortstop's error and walk was followed by a fly out and strike out. When the bases were loaded with a walk, P Preki Djuretic was called in. A walk. 6-3. Seriously?! A walk. 6-4. Stop this! A walk. 6-5. What the ---! Grand slam. 6-9. $^&E#@!
The Eagles take the pennant!

It was reported sometime later that Djuretic has gone missing. No one has seen him since leaving under his teammates protection Saturday night. Some claim Preki (2.11 ERA in 48-2/3 innings before this week, 4.24 in 50-2/3 after) threw the games. Some claim he's been murdered. Some claim he's under the protection of monks at a local monastery. Others contend that it was monks that killed him after losing their wagers. No one knows for sure it seems.

---
Other news

Coastal League (CL): The Gidrm Pilots had a great week, sweeping Dasht and Hetre. Thursday's 13-3 victory over the Rams gave P Pleurat Abrup his 16th win of the year. Thus securing for him the CL pitching triple crown. In addition to 16 wins, his 157 strikeouts topped the Dasht Padres' twin star hurlers in strikeouts by at least 24 a piece. His 1.92 ERA was also a full tenth below any competitor.
The Urdhi Lions dropped every game this week to finish below .500 tied with the Rams for third place.

National League (NL): The Istamo Turtles resigned RF Pjetri Troshani (.311-19-67) to an extension. The pending free agent will continue with the only club he's ever known for an additional four years with the hefty compensation of $60K per year.
The Nur Otters finished 43-71 for a .377 winning percentage, up from .306 when they fired Riza Sopa and hired Steve Roadcap. Malko's new skipper Jim Horner (28-35, .444) barely outperformed Etrit Gjokal (21-29, .420).

Peninsula League (PL): The Treqyt Tigers ended on a three-game losing streak to fall below .500 and into 4th place in the PL. The Tigers will have to improve their pitching over the off-season. Their only sub-4.50 ERA starter (Naim Zhugli, 5-2 2.87 62 K in 62 IP since joining the rotation in June) is a free agent and their starting catcher is 41yo and nearing retirement.
The Fjuth Crusaders fired their manager Bertoldo Gerosa. The Crusaders spent much of the league in last place despite the league's best overall left side of the infield in SS/2B Mike Mooney (.320-24-69) and 3B Dillon Baird (.270-14-45). One wonders what that team could have been with a healthy 1B Jorge Padron (.333-6-27 in 120 AB) and a competent 2B/SS.

Valley League (VBL): The Trini Steza Angels finished on a nine-game winning steak to reach with 50 wins. They swept four out of the six major awards including the league's best domestic hitter and pitcher. It could have been five of six but P Tommy Mendoza (12-5 2.60 140K) barely missed out being named Top Foreign Pitcher.
The Top Foreign Batter Award was hard to choose for the Valley League. Angels SS Jose Torres garnered only 2 first-place votes, but took the overall lead over Bees 1B Salvador Rosario (.319-23-47) and Dragons 2B Jose Ramirez (.339-17-48).
The Dhje Twins fired their manager. Dhje was expected to contend with access to players on the Istamo Turtles' youth program and were tied for first place when the affiliation agreement was severed. The Twins signed .300 hitters OF Djordje Stojkovic and 2B Tista Sapunxiu to fill out the roster, but the two never hit above .250 in a Twins uniform. The team they fell to last place by the end of May and stayed there the rest of the year.

----

European leagues: The Italian Baseball League has been recognized as the top league by writers. Expectant champion Fortitudo Bologna will be the team to beat in the Euro Final Four.
1B Brad Hawpe (.237-3-15 in 29 games) is unlikely to win any awards in the Russian league to activate his bonus, but by playing in 27 games his $81K option for next year has vested. Thus it also triggered player options for 2014 and 2015. With the player (1B/OF Ivanhoe Bairov) the St. Petersburg North Stars pushed to the outfield to make room for him having hit twice as many homers (6), the deal looks quite bad.

Major League Baseball: Very close contests in the AL Central and NL West. The KC Royals lead continues to shrink, from five games a month ago to 1 now over the Detroit Tigers. The Royals recently called up top draft pick P Mike Montgomery to join the rotation.
The Dodgers have overtaken the Giants in the West. It's been a rough month on the Giants. The Cardinals, Nationals and Padres swept them. Their starting CF Angel Pagan also went on the DL, meaning Melky Cabrera has moved to CF and leaving all of their corner spots (except 3B with Panda) lacking of any offensive contribution. The Rockies are 3-1/2 games behind and expect OF Carlos Gonzalez to start rehabbing this week.
The Red Sox, Rays and Yankees are also within a game of each other, but all three are expected to reach the postseason.
The best team in all of baseball (78-43 Texas Rangers) and the last place team in the AL East (57-65 Baltimore Orioles) share at least one thing in common. They have hit over 178 home runs, 25 more than any other club. Both teams have four players a piece among the AL's top twelve sluggers. Of course it takes more than slugging to win pennants. The Rangers have the league's best ERA and second best OBP while the Orioles rank 10th and 11th in those categories.
The Phillies can't seem to put away the injury-plagued Braves and restructuring Marlins. Neither team is in position to challenge for a wild card slot so the race will become very interesting over the next two months when intra-division games become the norm.
Finally in the NL Central the Reds have opened up a five-game lead on the Brewers. It's hard to believe that the Brewers had control of this division from April to middle of July. Now here come the Reds and they may even lose a wild card spot to the Cardinals or Rockies.

American Association: With former major leaguers Matt Stairs and Koyie Hill swinging their bats and Rich Rundles closing games, the Gary SouthShore RailCats are the class of the league. They are beating teams at over a .700 clip.
Bringing up the rear are the Dallas/Ft.Worth-area and Kansas City franchises. The KC T-Bones' owners recently fired the GM and field manager and gave unlimited powers to former MLB star Cecil Cooper. He has since signed AAAA veteran Chris Lubanski and moved Mark Prior into the rotation.
Nothing like a hometown kid done good. When 1B Tim Morris was cut this spring by the Mariners after two decent, but unremarkable, years in A ball he returned home. He planned to move on from pro ball. However, the baseball itch got him and he tried out for the nearby Camden Riversharks. He now leads the league in home runs with 11 in 40 games along with a .311 average and 40 RBIs.

Umnyuupians abroad:
Istamo youth prospect 19yo RHP Besnik Frasheri signed a minor league contract with a major league club! The sinker-slider righthander brings his raw talent to the SF Giants organization. In 52 games in Umnyuupia he had a 4.53 ERA and 9 saves. For him to succeed in America, he'll need to harness control of his pitchers.

Gidrm closer P Jovan Kordic also signed with a major league club at the season's end. The 26yo righthander is with the Gulf Coast League squad of the NY Yankees. He recently saved 15 games for the Pilots and scattered 14 hits over 34 innings for a 1.85 ERA. He has a wicked sinker that drops like a brick, but will need more than that to move up in the legendary Yankees organization.

Also:
Italy Baseball League - Fortitudo Bologna - P Janji Naci: 3.34 ERA 28:66 W:K in 102-1/3 IP
AAIPB - Bridgeport - P Agim Hajdaraga: 3.38 ERA 6:9 W:K in 16 IP
AAIPB - St. Paul - 1B Martin Lamaj: .244/.312/.423 5 HR 16 RBI
AAIPB - Sugar Land - P Velimir Stolic: 2.50 ERA 4:5 W:K in 18 IP

08-28-2012, 10:44 PM	#28
rferry All Star Reserve Join Date: May 2002 Location: DC Posts: 549	Sorry for the delay. I'm just as anxious to find out how the regular season concluded. August 20, 2012 (End of the Umnyuupian regular season) National League (NL): The championship also went down to the final day. The Kishperkujt Cubs struggled to get their offense going, despite the fast turf at Nur, and could only pick up one game against the last place Otters. That allowed Elby to close their lead to one game. The Cubs' poor hitting lasted into their next game before they let the bats loose on the Turtles in a eight-run 8th inning. Meanwhile in Elby, the Pelicans were being blanked by former Baltimore Orioles prospect P Enrico Jimenez. With two games left the Cubs were up by two. It didn't even matter if their offense stalled throughout the rest of the weekend. Nur pitchers did the job for them, scattering four Pelicans hits across nine innings on Saturday. The loss meant the Pelicans had to concede the title to the Cubs. ---- Umnyuupian Series preview vs. It will be the Kishperkujt Cubs vs. Brekkar Orioles in the Umnyuupian Series. The inaugural event replaces a series of tournaments and arbitrary ranking systems to determine one national champion. The winner will earn a berth to qualify for the Euro Club Championship Cup. While the Cubs stumbling their way down the stretch, the Orioles finished the season with a five-game winning streak. A good sign the injury to star P Andy Sonnanstine hasn't hurt them too much. C Fehmi Dosti's older brother Shkumbin (9-5 2.33 89 Ks 5 saves) stepped in from the bullpen and gave the club five quality starts over the past month of Sonnanstine and Jose Ortegano's absence. He's scheduled to match up against arguably the best pitcher in the league: P Vincenzio Falchonelli. The Orioles' best chance will be to bring their bats. 1B Marko Lovre (.258-22-90) and LF Janji Cana (.284-13-56) should be counted for 3 homers between them. And that doesn't include americans 3B Abner Abreu (.271-10-51) and RF Ryan Hamme (.350-9-24). To counteract the Orioles' sluggers, the Cubs will bring the league's best staff. Falchonelli and the recently required Edi Tolka will pitch the majority of the innings. Justin Cassel (8-6, 3.20 88K) and Niko Grlic (9-13, 3.48 96K) will move to the bullpen to support southpaws Adil Vulaj (2.62 and 12 saves in 106 IP) and Chasen Shreve (2.56 in 63 IP). The Cubs also welcome back CF/OF Cedomil Simic (.301/.369/.457) from the DL. He along with all-star 1B/OF Slobodan Chacic (.275-10-65) and NL doubles leader 2B Petrit Maxhuni (.308/.382/.452 with 37 doubles) will be the offensive weapons the Cubs turn to. --- Peninsula League (PL): The pennant contest began with the Qelm Pirates visiting Tropje with a two-game lead on the Eagles. In the first game before a packed house, Qelm had the better American pitching in the first contest and took a 2-0 lead with some aggressive base-running from SS Modest Vata. Their starter left the game amid a rally. The Pirates bullpen halted it at one run and 2B Abas Prela got it back with a RBI single in the next half-inning. P Preki Djuretic came in to close the game. With the win the Pirates would have a three-game lead with three games left to play. A strike out swinging, walk, another strikeout. Fans on their feet cheering. Single, single, single. Oh no. The game is tied. Finally a strikeout sweeps the bases clear. What followed were two innings of overanxious plate discipline and defensive base-running from the Pirates. Meanwhile the Eagles waited patiently for their opponents to self destruct. Leading off the bottom of the 11th, OF Claude Fantini concluded the game with a home run to left-center. The next day the teams came back to an overflowing crowd. Qelm sent out another American - former Tigers farmhand Jeff Barfield. The Eagles were patient and he had to leave in the 6th inning. The bullpen gave up five runs in the next 1-2/3 innings. But that's okay because the Pirates tacked on five in P Milovan Banovic's last inning of what was an impressive start. Then the Pirates added 5 more in the next inning. Heading into the bottom of the 9th, they led 10-6. Time to call in their closer Djuretic. Time for Preki's redemption. A single and a walk. Get the bullpen ready. A groundball followed by two walks. P Alonzo Paluzzi is finally ready and takes the ball. A groundball skips past the drawn in infield. Then a double off OF Bahri Kiuprili's bat. The inning ends with a strikeout and slow roller to third. In Kiuprili's next at bat, he hits a leadoff triple. Fantini drives him in. The game is won. The league lead is held by both clubs. The weekend's series - Eagles @ Fjuth Crusaders, Pirates @ Putjep Yellow Sox - will determine the champion. The Eagles took the lead Friday as Qelm was shutout by the Yellow Sox. At the conclusion of their game, the Pirates huddled into the clubhouse to watch the Eagles win in extra innings on a 3B Yorikane Sasaki home run. On the final day of the season, the Eagles led by 1 game. They failed to capitalize on that lead losing to the Crusaders 5-2. Meanwhile in Putjep, P Alonzo Paluzzi was being called in to finish a 6-2 lead and set up a one-game playoff to determine the league's champion. A shortstop's error and walk was followed by a fly out and strike out. When the bases were loaded with a walk, P Preki Djuretic was called in. A walk. 6-3. Seriously?! A walk. 6-4. Stop this! A walk. 6-5. What the ---! Grand slam. 6-9. $^&E#@! The Eagles take the pennant! It was reported sometime later that Djuretic has gone missing. No one has seen him since leaving under his teammates protection Saturday night. Some claim Preki (2.11 ERA in 48-2/3 innings before this week, 4.24 in 50-2/3 after) threw the games. Some claim he's been murdered. Some claim he's under the protection of monks at a local monastery. Others contend that it was monks that killed him after losing their wagers. No one knows for sure it seems. --- Other news Coastal League (CL): The Gidrm Pilots had a great week, sweeping Dasht and Hetre. Thursday's 13-3 victory over the Rams gave P Pleurat Abrup his 16th win of the year. Thus securing for him the CL pitching triple crown. In addition to 16 wins, his 157 strikeouts topped the Dasht Padres' twin star hurlers in strikeouts by at least 24 a piece. His 1.92 ERA was also a full tenth below any competitor. The Urdhi Lions dropped every game this week to finish below .500 tied with the Rams for third place. National League (NL): The Istamo Turtles resigned RF Pjetri Troshani (.311-19-67) to an extension. The pending free agent will continue with the only club he's ever known for an additional four years with the hefty compensation of $60K per year. The Nur Otters finished 43-71 for a .377 winning percentage, up from .306 when they fired Riza Sopa and hired Steve Roadcap. Malko's new skipper Jim Horner (28-35, .444) barely outperformed Etrit Gjokal (21-29, .420). Peninsula League (PL): The Treqyt Tigers ended on a three-game losing streak to fall below .500 and into 4th place in the PL. The Tigers will have to improve their pitching over the off-season. Their only sub-4.50 ERA starter (Naim Zhugli, 5-2 2.87 62 K in 62 IP since joining the rotation in June) is a free agent and their starting catcher is 41yo and nearing retirement. The Fjuth Crusaders fired their manager Bertoldo Gerosa. The Crusaders spent much of the league in last place despite the league's best overall left side of the infield in SS/2B Mike Mooney (.320-24-69) and 3B Dillon Baird (.270-14-45). One wonders what that team could have been with a healthy 1B Jorge Padron (.333-6-27 in 120 AB) and a competent 2B/SS. Valley League (VBL): The Trini Steza Angels finished on a nine-game winning steak to reach with 50 wins. They swept four out of the six major awards including the league's best domestic hitter and pitcher. It could have been five of six but P Tommy Mendoza (12-5 2.60 140K) barely missed out being named Top Foreign Pitcher. The Top Foreign Batter Award was hard to choose for the Valley League. Angels SS Jose Torres garnered only 2 first-place votes, but took the overall lead over Bees 1B Salvador Rosario (.319-23-47) and Dragons 2B Jose Ramirez (.339-17-48). The Dhje Twins fired their manager. Dhje was expected to contend with access to players on the Istamo Turtles' youth program and were tied for first place when the affiliation agreement was severed. The Twins signed .300 hitters OF Djordje Stojkovic and 2B Tista Sapunxiu to fill out the roster, but the two never hit above .250 in a Twins uniform. The team they fell to last place by the end of May and stayed there the rest of the year. ---- European leagues: The Italian Baseball League has been recognized as the top league by writers. Expectant champion Fortitudo Bologna will be the team to beat in the Euro Final Four. 1B Brad Hawpe (.237-3-15 in 29 games) is unlikely to win any awards in the Russian league to activate his bonus, but by playing in 27 games his $81K option for next year has vested. Thus it also triggered player options for 2014 and 2015. With the player (1B/OF Ivanhoe Bairov) the St. Petersburg North Stars pushed to the outfield to make room for him having hit twice as many homers (6), the deal looks quite bad. Major League Baseball: Very close contests in the AL Central and NL West. The KC Royals lead continues to shrink, from five games a month ago to 1 now over the Detroit Tigers. The Royals recently called up top draft pick P Mike Montgomery to join the rotation. The Dodgers have overtaken the Giants in the West. It's been a rough month on the Giants. The Cardinals, Nationals and Padres swept them. Their starting CF Angel Pagan also went on the DL, meaning Melky Cabrera has moved to CF and leaving all of their corner spots (except 3B with Panda) lacking of any offensive contribution. The Rockies are 3-1/2 games behind and expect OF Carlos Gonzalez to start rehabbing this week. The Red Sox, Rays and Yankees are also within a game of each other, but all three are expected to reach the postseason. The best team in all of baseball (78-43 Texas Rangers) and the last place team in the AL East (57-65 Baltimore Orioles) share at least one thing in common. They have hit over 178 home runs, 25 more than any other club. Both teams have four players a piece among the AL's top twelve sluggers. Of course it takes more than slugging to win pennants. The Rangers have the league's best ERA and second best OBP while the Orioles rank 10th and 11th in those categories. The Phillies can't seem to put away the injury-plagued Braves and restructuring Marlins. Neither team is in position to challenge for a wild card slot so the race will become very interesting over the next two months when intra-division games become the norm. Finally in the NL Central the Reds have opened up a five-game lead on the Brewers. It's hard to believe that the Brewers had control of this division from April to middle of July. Now here come the Reds and they may even lose a wild card spot to the Cardinals or Rockies. American Association: With former major leaguers Matt Stairs and Koyie Hill swinging their bats and Rich Rundles closing games, the Gary SouthShore RailCats are the class of the league. They are beating teams at over a .700 clip. Bringing up the rear are the Dallas/Ft.Worth-area and Kansas City franchises. The KC T-Bones' owners recently fired the GM and field manager and gave unlimited powers to former MLB star Cecil Cooper. He has since signed AAAA veteran Chris Lubanski and moved Mark Prior into the rotation. Nothing like a hometown kid done good. When 1B Tim Morris was cut this spring by the Mariners after two decent, but unremarkable, years in A ball he returned home. He planned to move on from pro ball. However, the baseball itch got him and he tried out for the nearby Camden Riversharks. He now leads the league in home runs with 11 in 40 games along with a .311 average and 40 RBIs. Umnyuupians abroad: Istamo youth prospect 19yo RHP Besnik Frasheri signed a minor league contract with a major league club! The sinker-slider righthander brings his raw talent to the SF Giants organization. In 52 games in Umnyuupia he had a 4.53 ERA and 9 saves. For him to succeed in America, he'll need to harness control of his pitchers. Gidrm closer P Jovan Kordic also signed with a major league club at the season's end. The 26yo righthander is with the Gulf Coast League squad of the NY Yankees. He recently saved 15 games for the Pilots and scattered 14 hits over 34 innings for a 1.85 ERA. He has a wicked sinker that drops like a brick, but will need more than that to move up in the legendary Yankees organization. Also: Italy Baseball League - Fortitudo Bologna - P Janji Naci: 3.34 ERA 28:66 W:K in 102-1/3 IP AAIPB - Bridgeport - P Agim Hajdaraga: 3.38 ERA 6:9 W:K in 16 IP AAIPB - St. Paul - 1B Martin Lamaj: .244/.312/.423 5 HR 16 RBI AAIPB - Sugar Land - P Velimir Stolic: 2.50 ERA 4:5 W:K in 18 IP __________________ please excuse my grammar, i read baseball weekly in my high school english classes.