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It was an ugly finish to an ugly series.
St. Jack’s relievers Scott Eyre and Derrick Turnbow were both ejected for plunking consecutive Lindenhurst hitters in the ninth inning of a devastating 7-6 loss on August 20, the final game of a four-game set that saw the Hitmen take three of four from the Demons.
The ejections outraged St. Jack’s owner/general manager Jack Flynn, who (as usual) couldn’t believe his team’s misfortune.
“I don’t understand how Lindenhurst players were allowed to continually lean into the ball like that without any repercussions,” Flynn fumed. “I thought I was watching Rudi Stein out there!”
Flynn argued that the ejections and subsequent suspensions were all the more ridiculous considering it was a one-run game in the ninth inning of the final game of the series and that there was obviously no intent involved. Eyre had just replaced Hector Carrasco, who had thrown four shutout innings of relief, and promptly plunked the first batter he faced. Because Mark Buehrle had hit batters in each of the first two innings of the game, warnings had already been issued and the umpires felt they had no choice but to run Eyre.
Things got even more comical when Turnbow was brought in to face the next batter, who rolled a 2-7 and was subsequently hit by the pitch. He was thrown out immediately and manager Earl Weaver was seen trying to restrain Flynn from running onto the field and getting in the home plate umpire’s face. Both Eyre and Turnbow, by NYLISL rules, will be suspended for three games. St. Jack's will be appealing the suspensions to NYLISL co-commissioner Chris Forster.
“Now we have a five-man bullpen – Harden, Carrasco, Fuentes, Francisco Rodriguez and Curt freaking Schilling! He’s a 30/40, for Christ’s sake! How can the league allow a travesty like this to happen?” Flynn raged. When reminded by TV analyst Rex Hudler that Flynn is the co-commissioner of the league and had actually recommended the rule changes concerning ejections at last year’s Winter Meetings, the response was swift and vicious.
“Take it out of here, Rex,” Flynn snapped, and the former utility infielder was quickly escorted from the clubhouse by Demons security personnel.
Flynn later added that he would be commissioning a blue-ribbon panel to investigate the use of the brawl charts in NYLISL games. “Something tells me that not everyone is playing by the rules here,” he said. “It’s funny how we’re nearly halfway through the season and not one other team has had a player suspended in this fashion. I know the Strat gods hate me, but I still have a sneaking suspicion that not everyone is using these charts.”
News and Notes: In all, seven Hitmen were plunked by Demons pitching. Two of those incidents led to injuries, as David Wright and Larry Walker were each forced to go on the disabled list. Not one Demon was hit by a pitch throughout the series ... Curt Schilling and Jack Wilson were recalled from Pearl River to replace Eyre and Turnbow during their suspensions … Flynn planned to scout the league for an additional reliever, as well as a third catcher once Victor Martinez and Michael Barrett are the only backstops on the 40-man roster. Lindenhurst was dangling Toby Hall, but the initial asking price of Jeff Conine was too high. On August 26, the Demons acquired Jason Kendall from New Jersey for David DeJesus.
St. Jack’s and Floral Park came together to make their second trade of the season on August 6 – an eight-player swap that saw the Demons re-acquire two former players while parting ways with the franchise’s longest-tenured position player.
Carlos Zambrano and Carlos Delgado are back in the fold for St. Jack’s, who also added Craig Monroe and Greg Maddux in exchange for Roger Clemens, Jorge Posada, Hank Blalock and Brad Thompson. Zambrano was drafted as a rookie by the Demons and spent several years with the club before he was shipped to the Crackheads in 2005.
Zambrano will take over Clemens’s spot as the ace in the Demons’ starting rotation, which has been horrible since the beginning of the season. Despite a 25-12 record, no St. Jack’s starter has an ERA under 5.00 or a WHIP under 1.500. Clemens, meanwhile, will pair with Johan Santana to form the most impressive 1-2 punch in the league and will give Floral Park two legitimate aces at the top of their rotation.
Delgado, despite an onerous contract that includes two more years and a 2009 option, was brought back to DH against right-handed pitching. He is expected to bat third in the Demons’ lineup, between Miguel Cabrera and Alex Rodriguez. St. Jack’s insisted that Floral Park take on Blalock’s contract, which is of a similar length, as part of the deal. Blalock will likely sit in Floral Park’s minor leagues until the trade deadline and has a chance to be a defensive replacement in 2007.
Posada, meanwhile, will be part of the catching picture for the Flesheaters both right now (where he will compete with Ramon Hernandez or Rod Barajas for playing time) and next year (where he will be one of the top catchers in the league). A switch-hitting catcher with one more year on his contract and a .390 OBP (over .400 against righties) is a rare and valuable commodity, which Floral Park was happy to pick up. The trade leaves St. Jack’s with only two catchers on the 40-man roster and it is believed that they will be reaching out to at least two clubs – Lindenhurst and New Jersey – to inquire about the availability of one of their four backstops.
The trade leaves St. Jack’s with just one original member on their 40-man roster – starting pitcher Curt Schilling. Posada had over 1,000 plate appearances with the franchise and is the all-team statistical leader in several categories. Before the trade, it looked as though he would platoon with Michael Barrett in 2007, giving St. Jack’s perhaps the best catcher tandem in the NYLISL. Now it appears Barrett will have the job outright next year, with the talented Victor Martinez playing the caddy’s role.
Monroe is a versatile outfielder who hits lefties hard, but appears to have no role with St. Jack’s. He is believed to be very available to any team that needs a corner outfielder to supplement the lineup against lefties. Maddux is having one of the worst seasons of his career, but still has a WHIP of only 1.26 and may be rejuvenated after a recent MLB trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Both are free agents at the end of the season and, barring a career renaissance from Maddux, neither is likely to be re-signed. Thompson will fill out the back of the bullpen for Floral Park, which had just five relievers on the entire 40-man roster before the trade.
It's the end of an era in Lindenhurst.
Looking to shake up a team that's fighting for a division championship despite being mired below the .500 mark for most of the season, GM Jason Boland parted ways with two of his franchise's most familiar faces on July 28 - Manny Ramirez and Randy Johnson. Manny and RJ will now be wearing the uniforms of cross-town rivals Wellwood, who sent David Wright, Ben Sheets and Moises Alou to the Hitmen in exchange. The Scribes also picked up Troy Glaus in the deal.
On the surface, it appears the Hitmen got the better end of the intra-city swap, at least in the short-term. Sheets is an improvement over Johnson and the upgrade of Wright from Glaus is roughly equal to the downgrade of Ramirez to Alou. However, the injury-prone Alou does his best work against lefthanders and swapping Johnson to Wellwood means that Moises will get a chance to feast on the aging southpaw a few more times this season.
However, Wellwood GM Jim Baumbach is incredibly conscious of contract implications, and it's surely no mistake that Johnson reaches free agency one year sooner than Sheets. Of course, Glaus is signed through 2009 and Ramirez has two club options that, although unlikely to be picked up, could theoretically tie Manny to Wellwood until 2010.
That said, Sheets looks like a bust for 2007 and perhaps beyond, as persistent shoulder troubles are threatening his career. Alou, a free agent after this season, has performed well in limited duty and the Hitmen will face a tough off-season decision about whether or not to resign him. Wright is, of course, a budding superstar, but this is the fifth team he's been on in 2006. In the end, the deal will likely to come down to Ramirez vs. Wright and who will be better going forward.
The deal is especially shocking to NYLISL observers, who undoubtedly remember Boland's staunch opposition to a widely-publicized plan to make over 90 percent of the league's players free agents before the 2006 draft. In the winter of 2005, a majority of the league's owners voted in favor of the controversial proposal, which was intended to place each franchise back on a level playing field that was irrevocably tilted by a midseason decision to make the NYLISL a keeper league in the summer of 2000.
The Lindenhurst ownership was especially vocal about their opposition - professing undying loyalty to the core of their team and even threatening not to field a team in 2006. Trading Ramirez and Johnson, two of the "original" Hitmen, would seem to indicate that loyalty was a little more flexible that initially avowed.
St. Jack’s is planning one final road trip to Suffolk before the end of August, to play their remaining games with the Hitmen and the Wellwood Avenue Scribes of Lindenhurst. The final four months of the season will be spent completing the schedule with division foes Floral Park and New Jersey (who the Demons are a combined 5-6 against), as well as the independent West Side Stories. Although the Demons boast a 5.5-game lead at the moment, one has to think that the Bandits and the Flesheaters will start cutting into that lead once they get into the meat of their interleague schedule.
For nearly three months, the phones were silent. The seven general managers of the New York Long Island Strat League went along at a tranquil pace, playing a few games here and there, but not even the hint of a trade rumor was heard. But everything changed on Sunday, June 3, when the first trade of the young season was finally consummated. For Floral Park, it was definitely worth the wait.
The Flesheaters acquired two huge left-handed bats for their lineup, importing Carlos Delgado and Brian Giles from Wellwood/Lindenhurst, and in the process made themselves an extremely dangerous proposition for the right-handed starters in the Molloy Divison. Floral Park also added Melvin Mora and Ryan Freel to the mix, while sending David Wright, Moises Alou, Geoff Jenkins and Chone Figgins to the Scribes.
The trade dramatically alters the look of both teams, but the Flesheaters have to be very excited about the looks of things. With Delgado playing first and Giles taking over in right field, the Crackheads now boast four starters over 54 against righties (with DH Papi Ortiz and LF Adam Dunn also in the mix. Mora is a downgrade from the young phenom Wright, but provides slightly better defense and gets on base almost as often against right-handers.
The Achilles’ heel for Floral Park will be left-handed pitching. Sunday’s trade means that six of the Fleasheaters’ nine projected starters are worse against lefties. What’s more, the lefty lineup is almost completely punchless, with only three projected starters having more than 10 points of home runs against righties. One of those starters, C Rod Barajas, is only a 35 overall against lefties.
Still, the trade makes sense for Floral Park when you consider that there’s only one left-handed starter they’ll have to face in division play – St. Jack’s Mark Buehrle. Both the Demons and the New Jersey Bandits are going to have to consider beefing up on left-handed pitching to keep up – expect Barry Zito to be a frequent topic of conversation in the coming weeks, as he languishes in the Lindenhurst farm system. With Ortiz and Delgado now in the mix at first base, Floral Park is now free to shop 1B Ryan Howard to address other needs. Think Owner/GM Jason Varvaro is regretting protecting Darin Erstad now?
Meanwhile, the Scribes sacrificed in both the power and the on-base department by replacing Giles and Delgado with Jenkins and Alou. The trade of Delgado is particularly surprising, as he was the franchise leader in a number of categories, including games, home runs, RBIs and on-base percentage (although the reported career .463 OBP coming out of Suffolk sounds like a miscalculation of Tim Walsh-ian proportions).
However, the team is off to a slow start this season and the key to the deal on the Wellwood/Lindenhurst side is obviously Wright, who undoubtedly has a world of potential. Word on the street is that Owner/GM Jim Baumbach is now looking for a corner outfielder who can hit left-handed pitchers.
Wellwood Avenue team officials have already announced they will retire Delgado's number when the Flesheaters come to town again, similar to what the Chicago White Sox did for Harold Baines aftrer trading him to Texas in 1989. It will be called “Carlos Delgado Night at The Grumman Complex,” and the tickets are already going fast.
Flesheaters Add Garland and Gomes: The Floral Park makeover continued when Johnny Gomes and Jon Garland were imported from St. Jack's, in exchange for Doug Davis, Adam Dunn and Brian Fuentes. The addition of Gomes adds some sock to the Floral Park lineup against lefties, while Davis and Fuentes add two left-handed arms to the Demons' staff.
Pedro Martinez poses for pictures on Derek Bell's former houseboat in Jamaica Bay last weekend. Martinez abruptly left the Mop-Ups last week and wants the team to change its name.
Jack Flynn, Jason Varvaro and Chris Forster pose for pictures during the Stanner Division Winter Meetings (aka Jay's wedding) in Long Island last month.