September 5, 2022 Edition

Races

Pennant Races

With a month to go in the 2022 season, we don’t see that little “x” next to any teams name as of yet. But they are coming quick. With the Crystal Lake Sandgnats magic number at 5 and Shin Seiki Evas at 11, that “x” could be showing up any sim now. The Aurora Borealis have lengthened their lead over the Yuma Bulldozers in the Desert Hills. There is now a 6.5 game separation between the two. That magic number is at 20.

Wild Card

The Bulldozers have a firm grip on the number one wild card spot with an 8.5 game cushion over the rest of the field. With the Tempe Knights and Duluth Warriors holding down the second and third positions. The Niihama-Shi Ghosts are coming on strong and only trail the Warriors by 2 games. The Ghosts have won 16 of their last 24 games including 7 of their last 10. They’re currently on a 3 game win streak. Also in the hunt are the Okinawa Shisa who trail by 3.5 games, Bakersfield Bears by 4 games and the Palm Springs Codgers who are 5.5 games back.

Chases

Batting Champion

Canton Longshoremens OF-Gabriel Martinez opened up a big gap in the chase to be crowned the 2022 Sovereign League Batting Champion. Since August 20th, he has increased his batting average by 11 points. He is now hitting .344 and has hit safely in 12 out of his last 14 games. Trying to keep pace is Aurora’s OF-River Pope who is hitting .336 and Tempe’s 3B/1B-Javier Padilla who is at the .334 mark.

Home Run King

Even with Ryozo Takeuchi’s being out with a broken finger, the Shin Seiki Outfielder hangs on to the number one spot with 38 home runs. Both Fargo Dinosaurs 1B-Jarrod Wright who is at 36 bombs and Yuma’s OF-Jarrod Ricks who is at 35 taters have not taken advantage of Takeuchi’s misfortune. The Reno Zephers 2B-Ramon Leach has taken advantage to jump into the race by hitting 3 home runs in his last 4 games.

RBI Crown

Crystal Lakes 1B-Wilson Munoz wasted little time taking advantage of Takeuchi. He grabbed the lead with 117 RBI’s Evas Takeuchi hangs on to the second spot 115 and at a distant 3rd is the Bulldozers Ricks with 104.

Flying Shoe

I’m gonna add another award that I feel is worthy, which is the stolen base title called the “Flying Shoe”. We have an excellent chase going on for this addition to end of the year PI award.(PEBA Illustrated) The Duluth Warriors OF-Joe Kenny leads the pack with 42 stolen bases on the year. He’s been shot down only 10 times and if this 23 year old kid can increase his .317 OBP, that would spell R-U-N-S for the Warriors in the future. He currently has 67 runs scored so the boys hitting behind him would love to see that. Trailing Kenny at 41 steals is the Ghosts OF-Roman Suarez . He’s only been caught 8 times on the year and carries a .306 AVG, .347 OBP and 64 runs scored. Aurora’s OF-Mike Hale is in the 3rd spot with 40 swipes. Hale has been caught 16 times has a .275 AVG, .331 OBP and scored 71 times this year. Last year the 26 year old stole 62 bases which led the league and was caught 16 times.

Cy Young

The Sandgnats Francisco Robles increased his wins total to 18 games and leads the pack by 2 games. Robles is 18-5 with a 3.19 ERA, 106 WHIP and 114 strikeouts. There’s a log jam behind him at the 16 and 15 game mark. But Robles appears to be Sovereign League’s only chance seeing a 20 game winner in 2022. Although at 16 wins each, Crystal Lakes Manuel Corona and  Shin Seiki’s Yakamuchi Suitani have an outside shot.

Strikeout King

Duluth’s Julian Thomas leads the chase to be PEBA’s Strikeout King with 183. Thomas is 9-7 in 28 starts on the year with a 3.21 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP. Trailing Thomas is Aurora’s Mike Provost and the Shin Seiki’s Suitani with 174 K’s each. Aurora’s Jiminez and Fargo’s youngster, 24 year old Ernesto Molina are still in the hunt with 165 each. Although Molina is currently sitting in the minors waiting for the call back up.

Fireman Award

Duluth’s Julio Gonzalez has stalled out at 34 saves. He’s been stuck there since August 21st. He’s pitched well since then but with the Warriors struggling he hasn’t had the opportunities. Tempe’s Raul Cruz has failed to take advantage and has only closed the gap by 1 game and sits at 33 saves on the year. Cruz has struggled as of late. He only has 1 save since August 23 in a stretch where he’s seen his previously blistering ERA sore 90 points to a now 1.92. Meanwhile, Crystal Lakes Roman Contreras, Aurora’s Bryant Burris and the Kalamazoo Badgers’ Robert Vincent are saying, we got this if you boys don’t want it. Contreras who sits at 32 has 6 saves since August 17th. Burris is at 31 saves with 3 of them coming since August 21st and Vincent with 4 straight save since August 28th also sits at 31.

With the divisions all but sewn up the races to watch is with the wild card. Although the Bulldozers still have an outside shot to claim the desert hills, their fate is no longer in their own hands. The do not face Aurora again in the regular season. They do hold their fate in the wild card race and have a firm hold of it. Tempe and Duluth are one the outside edge trying to hang on while a hand full of teams are close enough to make a charge and Niihama-Shi is doing just that. The Home Run King chase should get interesting along with the Flying Shoe which has 3 guys fighting each other in a close battle. Both the strikeout and Fireman battle are good ones. Were down the home stretch. Who will rise up and take their perspective awards?

til next time,

We’ll catch that can of corn in the next edition of Races and Chases.

Good night everybody