BoS Week 5 & Week 6 (Condensed)

The latest news in the Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League (BoS)

"DERAILED!"

The Urbana Locomotives find themselves in unfamiliar territory as they go from N.L. East Champions (104-58) to cellar-dwellers, a short off-season later at 8-27. The rest of the division improved immensely (particularly, Traverse City & Holland). Also part of this has to do with the improving of players on other teams in the divisions, while Urbana decreased in practically all the positions among starters on their team.

As you will witness below, the lineup in total of OPS (On Base + Slugging) practically lost the equivalent of a last season's version of Adrian Beltre (a .920 difference in OPS; Beltre had a .921 MLB OPS) & 19 total grade points in the rotation, just slightly more of that of a last season's version of David Price (who was a 18-X). Funny thing, Beltre outperformed his MLB counterpart with a monster season for Urbana, with a .990 OPS! Beltre is still playing well for Urbana in 2014, while Price's grade is notably different at 11-YZ.

The most notable difference is in players such as Carlos "Chooch" Ruiz, dropping from a steroid-induced .935 OPS to his suspension year that produced a .688 OPS for the Phils in 2013 -- Welington Castillo is winning more playing time with his .746 OPS; Ruiz is actually out-performing his MLB counterpart, with a .766 OPS for Urbana.

The first base position is down .096 with Mitch Moreland taking over for Garrett Jones, Jones appeared to have been playing most of the DH until Urbana's recent trade for Yoenis Cespedes (from Seattle, in exchange for Christian Yelich). The team was unable to replace the DH production of last season in Tyler Colvin.

Nick Markakis is probably the next biggest drop in production, going from a .834 OPS to .685!

We'll have to see if there are more trades & changes on the horizon for the Locomotives, although it's early, it does not appear that Urbana will repeat as division champs or even make the playoffs. Plus when will we see some of their future stars in Tanner Roark & Jedd Gyorko make their debuts?

We'll have to wait and see...

"INTO THE WILD"

The Traverse City Panthers have to be excited about their start, they recently put together a 11-game winning streak (from April 14th to April 25th), while owning a 4.5 game lead over second-place Hannibal. A big part of it has a lot to do with the improvement to their lineup with the emergence of players such as Josh Donaldson, Matt Carpenter & Brandon Belt -- but their leader has been the young pitching phenom Julio Teheran.

Teheran is 6-1, with a spectacular ERA of only 1.26! He has thrown for 71 K's in 50.1 innings (leading league with 12.9 K's per nine innings) & holding opponents to a .128 batting average -- plus three shutouts (including a one-hit*, 16 K dominant performance of offensive power San Diego)!

* - The possible no-hitter was broken up in Game 4 of the series by Edwin Encarnacion in the Top of the 7th inning.

Teheran has been on a roll -- since his bad first outing of 7 hits allowed in 1.1 innings on April 2nd.

Teheran is among the early favorites for N.L. Cy Young in 2014. He has pitched three one-hit shutouts for the season. We'll have to see if he can keep this early-season intensity throughout the season, the Panthers will have to watch the youngster's innings though.

BoS Series RE-CAPs (Series record) of last two weeks

AMERICAN LEAGUE

SOUTH SHORE (7 - 5): 
5-1 series win over Boston; 2-4 series loss to Buffalo.

SWATARA (6 - 6):
4-2 series win over Bronx; 2-4 series loss to Brooklyn.

BRONX (6 - 6):
2-4 series loss to Swatara; 4-2 series win over Chicago.

BOSTON (1 - 11): 
1-5 series loss to South Shore; 0-6 series loss to Fairgrove.

FAIRGROVE (9 - 3):
3-3 series split with Chicago; 6-0 series sweep of Boston.

BROOKLYN (9 - 3):
5-1 series win over Buffalo; 4-2 series win over Swatara.

BUFFALO (5 - 7):
1-5 series loss to Brooklyn; 4-2 series win over South Shore.

CHICAGO (5 - 7):
3-3 series split with Fairgove; 2-4 series loss to Bronx.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

TRAVERSE CITY (8 - 4):
4-2 series win over Holland; 4-2 series win over San Diego.

HANNIBAL (9 - 3):
6-0 series sweep over Urbana; 3-3 series split with Seattle.

HOLLAND (5 - 7):
2-4 series loss to Traverse City; 3-3 series split with King Road.

URBANA (0 - 12):
0-6 series loss to Hannibal; 0-6 series loss to Portland.

PORTLAND (9 - 3):
3-3 series split with Seattle; 6-0 series sweep of Urbana.

SAN DIEGO (6 - 6):
4-2 series win over King Road; 2-4 series loss to Traverse City.

KING ROAD (5 - 7):
2-4 series loss to San Diego; 3-3 series split with Holland.

SEATTLE (6 - 6):
3-3 series split with Portland; 3-3 series split with Hannibal.

"THE STARS WILL SHINE IN SEATTLE"

The BoS has just announced that this season's 2nd Annual BoS All-Star Game will take place in Seattle, Washington, home of the Seattle Rainiers. The National League won last season's All-Star Game in Washington, D.C. as they won 7-1. Carlos Beltran (of the Washington Filibusters) hit a Grand Slam to help drive the American League in front of the home crowd to win MVP honors, who will be this year's hero?

Seattle's All-Star Game Logo.

"PORTLAND IS ON FIRE!"

Mike Trout & Portland is off & running!

Brad Stark has his Portland tearing it up, they were already heating up from going a combined 9-3 during Weeks 5 & 6, while we just got word from out west that they now swept the Kings, for Portland's second consecutive sweep in Week 7. The Portland Microbrewers have now won 14 straight & have a chance in Week 8 to tie the BoS League Record of 15 consecutive wins, set by the Boston Bravos last season, during the team's second-half.

*** This concludes the BoS Highlights of Weeks 5 & 6 (and a little sneak peak of Week 7) ***