Yawkey Baseball League

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.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Jonathan Matos – South End Astros – #13

The Pitcher of the Week award goes to Matos from the South End, who spun a complete game 2-hit shutout against the McKay Club on Thursday. Jonathan struck out 5 Beacons while walking only one en route to his  first win of 2016.

Fantasy Impact: This first win for Matos helps to bolster the already strong rotation for Team ‘Chicks Dig the Wongball’ (mgr: Mike Maguire). The win brought his era down to 3.59, and more production from Matos should help this team contend for top pitching staff in the fantasy league.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Billy Uberti – Brighton Braves – #6

This edition’s ‘Player’ is Billy Uberti of the Braves. In just 2 games last week, Billy  was a sizzling 6-for-7 at the plate including a double, 2 homeruns, 5 runs scored and 7 rbi (and then topped it off by starting this week with another homerun and 2 rbi).

Fantasy Impact: A 2-time defending Silver Slugger Award winner and 3-time defending Gold Glove Award winner (for 1st basemen), this hot streak couldn’t come at a better time for Team ‘Hold the Door’ (mgr: Jon Morse). Uberti is now hitting .405 with 11 runs, 17 rbi and 6 extra-base hits. Morse’s squad has been festering at the bottom of the offensive categories, so this infusion of run production couldn’t come at a better time.