Category Archives: Players of the Week

PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Sam Cummings – Stoneham Sabers – #23

Sammy “The Bull” Cummings takes home the final weekly pitching award with an 8-inning performance over the Maddogs. Sam allowed only 2 hits and 2 walks with no earned runs and 10 strikeouts in his final regular season outing. This performance helped him just edge out a solid performance from teammate and Cambridge product Tommy Lenane who threw 6 innings in a win over the league-leading Athletics.

Fantasy Impact: Selected to be part of Team Dziuba Squad (mgr: none other than Teddy Dziuba himself), Cummings has the makings of being an ace on just about any team in the league. After averaging just shy of 44 innings pitched over the last 3 seasons, he only managed to log 28 innings in 2016. Over those innings, Sammy gave up only 17 hits and 8 walks against 29 strikeouts. And the 7 earned runs he gave up actually increased his career era to 1.16.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK:  Ted Dziuba – Somerville Alibrandis – #22 / Kevin Higgins – McKay Club Beacons – #4

Our final installment of weekly Players will be a shared award, spreading the love to end the season.

Amidst another week of keeping an eye on the moral compass of the Yawkey League, Teddy Dziuba had a hype week for the 6 time defending champs Somerville. With 4 games on the calendar, Teddy helped his Alibrandis close the season and lock up the #2 seed with 4 straight wins. In those games, he went 7-for-11 with two doubles, a triple, 10 runs and 5 rbi. He finishes the year with hits and runs in 12 of his last 15 games.

Fantasy Impact: A first-round selection also by the Dziuba Squad, Ted has put together yet another solid year in line with his YBL career averages: .357/.492/.500 – 24 rbi and 7 steals. He also set a personal best with 34 runs scored….which was just 2 off the league lead. After all, if you want to be in the Dziuba Squad, you gotta be smart. And don’t pick on Mags….its not his fault he can’t read.

Sharing the honors is rookie Kevin Higgins of the Beacons. At the time of this posting some stats are not yet in, however as Kevin channeled his inner Zeus and Apollo for 3 HRs on the week, that was enough to do the trick and earn him the worldly acclaim of a POW award.

Fantasy Impact: Yet another rookie making waves, Higgins looks to be an additional building block for the McKay Club franchise after showing some skills with a near-.300 average and some power with all 3 taters coming at Ronan Park.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Adam Del Rio – Revere Rockies – #10

With some strong pitching performances to pick from last week, the POW committee had some options. Smitty had another brilliant performance shutting out the Beacons. Rookie Sam Bennett for EBK shutout the Astros carrying a late no-hit bid. And Chris Dion tossed a complete game win over the Alibrandis. However this week’s award is going to tilt towards quantity in addition to quality. The Rockies’ Adam Del Rio threw 12 innings over 2 starts, giving up only 1 run apiece in wins over the Knights and the upstart Townies. Over those 2 starts, the Donkey allowed 8 hits and struck out 9 batters…..but perhaps most impressively not walking a single batter.

Fantasy Impact: Inexplicably, Adam was not selected as a pitcher in the fantasy league. Must have been something to do with only throwing 5 innings last season. But he has matched innings pitched in 2015 with wins in 2016 and is now the proud owner of a 5-0 record. Over 34.1 innings, Del Rio has delivered a 1.63 era and .961 whip…..and a superb 27:3 k:bb ratio. Managers, take notice.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK:  Ted Downing – South Boston Saints – #14

Apparently displeased with being relegated to a mere ‘honorable mention’ for his efforts last time around, Cambridge product Ted Downing kept the pressure on and forced our hand this week. The Saints’ rookie has kept up a torrid pace as of late, his hat now securely in the ring for a potential ‘Rookie of the Year’ award. After a 5-for-9 performance 2 weeks ago, Ted improved on that last week going 7-for-12. Over these 5 games where Downing has been turning it on, the Saints have run the table. It appears at this point that the Saints and Rockies will be doing battle in the first round of the playoffs, and the Saints could win out and put pressure on the Rockies for home-field advantage. For good measure, TD also contributed a W with 2 innings of work against the Maddogs on Thursday.

Fantasy Impact: A big time rookie who projects to be a early/middle-round target on draft boards in 2017, Downing has improved to a .429/.587/1.059 slash line. Worth noting, he is now 2-0 in 5 relief appearances with a 1.11 era.

Our next installment of the Players of the Week features a pair of stalwarts who have been terrorizing the league for years…..two of the most feared competitors in the YBL.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Mike Smith – Brighton Braves – #17

In his lone start of the week, Mike Smith straight dominated the South End Astros with a complete game shutout. Smith allowed only 3 hits….to the team leading the league with 14 HRs on the year….and struck out 10 (with no walks) along the way.

Fantasy Impact: A shutout to go along with a nice WHIP-dip should help Dirty Sandinis (mgrs: Nate Laliberte / Chris Santosuosso) make up a little ground. Following up this effort with another shutout against the Beacons this past Monday, the first pitcher taken in the draft has proven his worth. Smitty is now 5-3 with a 1.17 era and 1.106 whip on the season, and leads the league in innings pitched and strikeouts.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK:  Freddi Carrera – Al Thomas Athletics – #4

Yet another ho-hum week for Carrera, as he goes 10-for-17 (.588 avg) with a triple, 6 runs, 5 rbi and 2 steals over 5 games in the midst of an 8 game winning streak for the Athletics.

Fantasy Impact: Another first-round selection, Freddi has not only been the table setter for the Athletics, but has also been the meat and potatoes for the Deane Street Hooligans (mgr: Travis Adams). With just a few games left, the Hooligans have been trouncing the YBL Fantasy League in most offensive categories, most of the credit due to Carrera’s stat line: .440 avg, .571 slg, 1.119 ops, 28 runs, 29 rbi and 17 steals. At this point of the season, Freddi is arguably (and I use the word ‘arguably’ somewhat loosely) the front-runner for 2016 YBL Most Valuable Player. As of this posting, the Athletics have clinched the #1 seed in the YBL playoffs.

Honorable Mention: Rookie Ted Downing is making a name for himself in YBL circles, and had a solid past week going 5-for-9 in 2 games for the South Boston Saints as they make their playoff-positioning push down the stretch. In those 2 games, Ted collected an extra-base hit of each variety to go with 3runs and 4rbi. On the season, Downing has thrown his hat into the ring for Rookie of the Year consideration, boasting a .392 avg, 1.017 ops and 15 runs in 15 games.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Dan Shaw – South Boston Saints – #14

Earning this edition of the Pitcher of the Week is Dan Shaw from the Saints, who threw his first career YBL shutout with a 3-0 win over los Bravos last Wednesday. Shaw (could be him above) improves his record to 3-2, giving up only 4 hits and 4 walks with 2 strikeouts as the Saints look to lock up a playoff spot over the next few games.

Fantasy Impact: Shaw becomes yet another player added to the list of rookies submitting their names to future YBL Fantasy draft boards as he is currently unowned. A rough outing earlier in the year has skewed his stats a bit, but he’s been getting the ball on a regular basis for the Saints (and batting a grotesque .500 on the season).

SABERS OF THE WEEK:  Derek Pizzaro – #5 / Tommy Lenane – #22 – Stoneham Sabers

Our initial Player of the Week goes to Derek Pizzaro from the Sabers, following a week where had had multiple hits in 4 straight games. On the week, Derek was 9-for-15 with 6runs, 6rbi and 3 steals, helping the Stahls plow through the Rockies, Knights, Braves and Maddogs in the midst of a 7-game winning streak.

Sharing the honors is Tommy Lenane, also of the Sabers. In the same set of games, Tommy batted 7-for-15 but with a jolt of pop. Providing the driving force of his 6 runs and 6 rbi, Tommy belted home runs in the Stoneham wins over the Knights and Maddogs. However his most important statistic for the season will be the arrival of his new baby boy Thomas Patrick. Congrats to Tommy and Mommy!!

Fantasy Impact: It has become increasingly apparent that the YBL Fantasy League needs to install some form of waiver system. For every injured Wong or lost somewhere in the Green Mountains Graham, there’s a handful of Rodriguez, Zavolas, Pizzaro and Lenane waiting to be picked up.  With this latest binge, Pizzaro has picked up to a .333 avg to go with 25 runs and 10 steals. So many stats to be had………and his name is like pizza, which can only be a good thing. Lenane has made his own improvements, boosting his season average to .371 with 8 extra-base hits, 18 runs, 18 rbi and is currently the 2016 league leader in child production.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Blaine McLean – Malden Maddogs – #16

With the EMass Classic taking place, we had another short week but a big performance to highlight. The Maddogs accomplished what the rest of the league has been unsuccessfully trying to do so far in 2016, and that is hand a loss to the Al Thomas Athletics. Blaine McLean earned POW honors by throwing a complete game, scattering 5 hits and allowing only one run while striking out 6 As batters.

Fantasy Impact: Aside from a bad inning in his first outing, McLean has settled into a groove for Team ‘Leez Nutz’ (mgrs: Jay Shatto / Matt Grimes) and now has a 2-1 record with a 2.08 era in 36 innings pitched. Leez Nutz has one of the better staffs in the league, if only stud wing Chris Foundas would get his lazy can out of the pool and back on the bump.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK:  Chris DiGiacomo – Al Thomas Athletics – #17

And bursting onto the scene with his first weekly award, Chris DiGiacomo is our new player of the week. In 3 games, Chris was 6-for-9 with a double, triple, 4 runs and 3 rbi…..and a stolen base thrown in for good measure.

Fantasy Impact: Yet another new jack on the scene, this rookie has been infected by the AT offensive frenzy with a .370 avg, 7 extra base hits, 18 runs and 16 rbi. He will surely be on draft boards in 2017, along with the rest of the ATBC roster, Joe O’Hara’s goatee, and the bricks under the plate at Healy.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Jon Morse – Somerville Alibrandis – #27

With America’s Birthday shortening the schedule of games last week, there was no shortage of pitching performances deserving of POW notoriety. After some deliberation, the award goes to Jon Morse of the Somerville Alibrandis. Jon has been almost unbeatable in 2016, and last week he threw a complete game shutout of the Maddogs. Only giving up 3 hits and 2 walks, Jon recorded another 6 strikeouts…..one of which put him over the hump of 500 career Ks!

Fantasy Impact: In a move so bold, so brazen, so downright villainous that it has nearly torn apart the Red Army, Morse was the first pitcher selected by ‘Chicks Dig the WongBall’ (mgr: Mike Maguire). And while it ruffled some feathers, the WongBall would do it all over again as Morse has gone 5-1 with a sub-1.00 era and a 37:10 k:bb ratio.

Honorable Mention: While Morse took home the ‘hardware’, we would be negligent to not commend the efforts of Sam Kennedy-Smith of the Brighton Braves for his efforts before the holiday. Sam came in on Tuesday for 2.2 innings of relief, giving up no hits or runs and striking out 5 batters to pick up the save against Charlestown. Only a couple days later he was called on again, this time for an emergency start on Thursday against Stoneham. In that game he went 5.2 innings, yielding 3 hits and 3 runs for the win.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Matt Rodriguez – Al Thomas Athletics – #23

And although it was a shortened week, you wouldn’t know it based on the production of Matt Rodriguez from the still-undefeated A’s. In only 2 games, Matt went 6-for-9 with a triple, homerun, one run and 9…..NINE rbis. Another big output from a guy who has been putting up lots of crooked numbers on his own lately.

Fantasy Impact: NONE. In a shocking development, Rodriguez wasn’t drafted in the YBL fantasy league this year, but that will change in the future. He is currently riding a 7-game hitting streak, and has hit safely in all but one of his 16 appearances on the year. He has 3 hits in each of his last 4 games, and currently leads the YBL with 30 rbi. He also leads the league in hits, doubles (tie), slugging and OPS…..and is 2nd in the league with a .483 avg.

GAME OF THE WEEK: McKay Club Beacons @ Charlestown Townies

While we are unable to honor as many players as we’d like, a shout-out has to be given to the performances of the Townies and Beacons this past Thursday. The linescore might look like two teams struggling to put anything together at the plate, and that would be true. But only because of monster pitching performances from DeLochrey (MCB) and Zavolas/Souza (CT). Since I’m too lazy to comb through the archives, I’m going to go out on a limb and mark this game as the highest combined strikeout total between 2 teams in a single game in YBL history. DeLochrey threw a complete game (8 innings) striking out an astounding 18 Townie batters in a tough loss. On the other side, the rookie squad threw Zavolas (7 ip for the win) and Souza (1 ip for the save) who combined to set down 18 hitters from the Beacons lineup with no walks allowed. Suffice it to say, we’ll be checking the box scores this week for follow-up performances.