Around the League - 4/30/10

April is wrapping up, and we're starting to see the division take shape.

EAST

- Atlanta won all 5 games this week (and 9 of 10 overall) to stake themselves to a 16-5 record, best in the league. The power keeps coming, and the pitching is there.

- Jersey City went 3-2 this week, but is just 2 games back (and the 2nd best record in the league). Mauer is still batting over .400 and the lineup has a nice power distribution. The Jackals don't play their first division game until May 7.

- Columbus went 5-2 this week, scoring 45 runs while posting a 1.74 team ERA. Josh Anderson (10 game hit streak) is filling in nicely for the injured Brett Gardner, and 7 of the 8 regular hitters batted over .300 for the week.

- Miami is heading south (2-5 record), despite Brian Roberts' 22 game on-base streak (he's reached in every game this season). There have been some good performances, but overall, the team is pretty average thus far.

- New York is the only East team with a losing record, thanks (in part) to another power outage; the Knights were one of two teams (Brisbane) to hit no home runs this week. The pitching staff posted a 2.25 ERA this week, but the result was just a 3-2 record.


WEST

- La Brea and OKC are deadlocked atop a closely contested West Division. Both teams went 4-3 this week with very similar numbers (4.45 vs 4.27 team ERA, 33 vs 31 runs scored).

- The Dire Wolves mixed up the order this week, moving Matt Wieters up in the order. He responded by tying teammate Ryan Howard for the team lead in HR.

- The Bisons are keeping their heads above water despite low power numbers and three pretty bad starting pitchers. How long can it last?

- Kansas had a great week offensively, but went just 3-4 to fall to .500. The top half of the batting order is kicking tail right now, but the bottom half is dragging the team down. The bullpen is keeping the team in games, even when some of the starters aren't.

- Sioux Falls has lost 5 of their last 7 to fall to fourth place in the West. The pitching is too young, maybe? Too inexperienced? They strike out a lot of batters, but the ERA's are pretty ugly.

- Springfield had a (relatively) good week, going 3-4, but still sport the worst record in the league. But hey, Tim Lincecum won a game! The failures of this pitching rotation are really inexplicable, and management (and fans) have to hope that the long season will see the ugly numbers balance themselves out.


WORLD

- Brisbane holds onto first place with a .500 record in what is easily the least dominant division in SLB. The offense forgot to show up this week, as the team went 2-3 despite a 1.65 team ERA. This offense needs some thump.

- Quebec was in a good position to take over first place, but matched Brisbane's 2-3 mark. One bright spot was Jim Thome, who was signed out of retirement to plug the injury plagued first base position, and responded with 3 HR and 8 RBI.

- Caracas is the one World team on an upward swing, posting a 5-2 record for the week thanks to improved pitching and some big power. A-Rod hit his league leading 12th HR, while Ellsbury and Coghlan are raking at the top of the order.

- Fremantle's hitting woes continue as the team went 0-5 on the week. The Cormorants hit a dismal .135 (!!!!) this week, scoring just 10 runs over the 5 game span. That's ugly.