| SBL END OF SEASON REPORT CARDS |
| HOOSIER DADDY roster: mikey moroco * bryan frankovich *X dennis lackey * seth salcedo mark tarkanick brandon mckendry Y amber hoover phil jones jeremy battyani david mcclelland * all-star X poy finalist Y roy finalist record: 11-9 (2nd in sbl) total runs scored: 273 / 13.7 (2nd) total runs allowed: 257 / 12.9 (5th) team leaders: games played: frankovich (20) homeruns: mckendry (26) at-bats: frankovich (199) average: tarkanick (.600) runs batted in: frankovich (72) assists: frankovich (6) double plays: frankovich (32) psyche-outs: lackey (18) dumb things: frankovich (10) any time a team makes the finals, they've had a solid year. when they do it under the new playoff format, it's a good year. when they manage all that without the top overall pick in the draft, they've had a stellar season. when they do it with a handful of rookies or second year nobodies, they've had a phenomenal year. after the draft, bryan frankovich and mikey moroco's hoosier daddy team looked bad. not only were frank and mike the youngest captains in the league, they had made picks that were head-scratching at best. they locked up mark tarkanick with the first pre-draft selection, but it was nearly a consensus that tark would come little if at all. and trading pat lackey and nolan vujovic for butt-ass-bad dennis lackey? what the shit? somehow, someway, this team worked, and they worked well. after upsetting the double bluffs in week one, hoosier spent most of the first half of the season in frst place before the rest of the league began to take them seriously. and they did it all without one real big-name player. moroco, frankovich, lackey, rookie phenom brandon mckendry and fan favorite seth salcedo all played equal and important roles in hoosier's run to a second place finish. offenively, 273 runs is huge. in fact, had they not run into the buzz saw that was the sj2b, this team could have been the one shattering records. every member of the h.d. roster could hit any shot on the board, and not many teams in the sbl can make that claim. while not flashy, they were efficient, boasting 3 of the top 5 run producers in the league in frank, lackey and mckendry. this team gets an A+ for doing so much with what seemed like so little. defense was this teams weakness. while talented, it was just impossible to ask all these underdeveloped, underpubed children to hang in there with jon biddle, nat tokmo and co. frank and b.mac busted into the top ten in double plays, but neither was anywhere near the big guns. C-. the intangible fairy left about a trillion dollars under this teams pillow. they seemed to get all the breaks for the first 3/4's of the season and somehow got the magic back in the first 2 rounds of the playoffs. A for that category. scrumming wasn't a strong point, but this team proved how good they are by winning most of their games from the visitor slot. mckendry was the only good scrummer on this squad, so he alone takes them from an F to a D. the postseason really shoots this team into the stratosphere. they outlasted two teams that were at least as good, dispatching grizzled vets pj & the ladies and rookie but talent-laden xdx in the playoff finals. in fact, it wasn't until the middle of the first championship game against the sj2b that this team finally got overwhelmed, meaning they lasted about 4 innings longer than anyone else would have. A-. when it was all said and done, one could argue that, based on the raw materials they had at thier disposal, hoosier daddy had the most successful sbl season ever. i, however, base things on what was won in the season, and finishing second is B, at best. so B it is. TEAM AWARDS: MVP- BRYAN FRANKOVICH (tho anyone could be here) LVP- MARK TARKANICK (#1, #1...) ROOKIE OF THE YEAR- BRANDON MCKENDRY (so solid...esenwein w/ attendance) |
| THE SHORT BUS ALL-STARS roster: teddy ballgame billy weisberg* lee nespor chris mclaughlin jeff pallini todd miller katie burger * all-star X poy finalist Y roy finalist record: 8-12 (5th in sbl) total runs scored: 198 / 9.6 per game (5th) total runs allowed: 229 / 11.5 per game (4th) team leaders: games played: weisberg (20) homeruns: gilliland (21) at-bats: weisberg (220) average: mclaughlin (.531) runs batted in: gilliland (57) assists: weisberg (10) double plays: weisberg (55) psyche-outs: gilliland (3) dumb things: gilliland (11) honestly, 8-12 is a lot better than i thought this team would do. and honestly, they probably should have done better. both teddy ballgame and lee nespor had coming out parties in '04. neither cracked superstar status, mind you, because neither is any sort of defensive threat, but when you're getting 20 homer/50 rbi numbers from either of them, things are clicking. billy whiteshoes did was he's been doing since year one, playing his heart out on an inferior team and being pound for pound the best player in the sbl. it's unfortunate that ted drafted his sister some 6 months ago. tragic, actually. had he not pissed away that pick at #17, he could have had any number of solid supporting castmembers including jon olsavsky, billy picciotto, dank elly and brandon mckendry, top name a few. any of those all-star calibur players could have been enought to push short bus over the top, but ted chose to take a guarantee instead of taking a chance, even though the guarantee was a "no way in hell". chris mclaughlin was both the brightest and darkest spot for teddy's charges in 2004. his .531 average was solid, especially considering how many outside shots he tossed up. however, .531 doesn't do short bus any good if it's sitting at home for 11 games, and that high-average hitting was exactly the clog the big blue homer machine was missing. of short bus' 8 wins, 6 came in mclaughlin's 9 games. offensively, i give this team a C. 9.6 runs per game is season 1, and that's just sad. especially when you have 2 players in the top 10 in the sbl in homeruns. if they had mclaughlin.... or katie kelly or aryn christman or olsavsky (all taken after ted's sister), they score at least 4 more per as those solo homers become 2-run jacks. defensively, short bus gets a B- for effort. they weren't a good defensive team in any sense of the word, but what do you espect when you're big guns are 5'1 and 5'5 and weigh 200 lbs. combined and the largest player on your team (or in the league, for that matter) is garbage in the paint. as when ted's 3 unfunny psyche-outs are tops on the team, that ain't saying much. at least billy and mighty mouse tried their tiny little hearts out. this game lost too many games it should have won. not just based on their weak-ass defense and one and done offense, but on stupid penalties, things that can't happen to a team that, on paper, is an underdog almost every week. as far as intangibles, this team gets an F- for the drafting, captainship and overall moronity. as for scrumming, we'll give them a D for billy's heart and the handful of times steroid miller showed up. that kid was a tank, and apparantly he managed to dodge the random drug testing the few times he showed up. and finally, the postseason. while they didn't play well at all, they were still in both games against lower-seeded pj & the ladies. unfortunately, you can't get props for losing in the first round no matter what. gotta go F on that one. (it would be a D, but i just know ted is sitting at home putting the blame on me for allowing stud to play instead of himslef for his 2 for 20 showing) overall, short bus gets a C- for the season. they came, tried hard for the most part, and did just about everything they should have as members of the sbl. though i'm still waiting for ted to give me the 25 bucks he owes me... TEAM AWARDS: MVP- BILLY WEISBERG (so much heart...so little support) LVP- TED'S SISTER (seriously ted, what the fuck?) ROOKIE OF THE YEAR- JEFF PALLINI (and maybe he'd have come more had you not benched him all the time) |