SJL:
In the ever shifting middle of the pack of the SJL, our game of the week, from Thursday afternoon, featured a team heading in the wrong direction- the Milwaukee Cadets- and a team trying to make a move up the pack- the San Antonio Keys. In this one it was the Keys' 29-year old staff #1, Ramon Garduno who led his team to an easy win. Garduno is a journeyman starter who entered professional baseball as a 10th round draft pick by Philadelphia in the 1966 draft. His best big league season, prior to this one, was when he went 10-13 with a 4.40 ERA for Detroit in 1973. For reasons not entirely clear, Garduno has emerged as one of the winning-est pitchers in the league in 1977, currently sitting at 15-5 with a 3.85 ERA. And it doesn't appear that undue luck has had a large influence in his success as his BABIP against is above his career average at .310, his FIP is 3.66 and his FIP- 82. The biggest factor is probably that in spite of very poor movement he thus far hasn't been abnormally prone to giving up the long ball this season. Now, whether the Keys can rise all the way to the top of the SJL with a guy like Garduno as their #1 starter is questionable but for now they are at least trying to make that league's pennant race even more interesting and crowded.
MGL:
Okay, we are going to cheat a bit and show you the Series of the Week instead of the Game of the Week in the MGL. Not that it was pretty. But I guess this is what you get when you pit the bashing Baltimore Lords against the slugging Phoenix Speed Devils at cozy, homer-friendly Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Look at what happened:
That's right, no game in which either team scored fewer than 10 runs, a combined total runs of 74- 38 for the home club and 36 for the visitors. Phoenix clubbed 14 homers in the series to Baltimore's 10. Both teams even saw starting pitchers, ones not known for their hitting prowess, swat home runs. Yikes. Phoenix' team ERA now sits at 7.18 while Baltimore's is a less gaudy, but second worst in the league, 4.66. Two of Phoenix' homers in the series came off the bat of first baseman Devin Schwisow, who has hit one more since, and now sits at 41 on the season to put him on pace for 62 for the season, which would easily shatter the previous single-season record of 50 (held by Jamison Bash and Eric Brakeall.)
As the season continues we will begin to follow that more closely.