Hitting in what I'm sure he would agree were "hitter's conditions" to say the least, Matt erupted for eight homeruns on the day. He went 12-27 on the day with 13 RBIs. Not bad, considering he only had two homeruns coming into the day. Not only that, but four of those homeruns were off Matt Plummer, who is still considered an excellent pitcher.

Some people may want to take the wind into account for some of the homeruns, and those of you may be justified. If you put the bat on the ball at all at The Byrd House, you were in good shape, especially if you were getting under the ball. But Smith also tossed six innings and only gave up one run, a homerun to Jeff Morrison. When you get to the rookie rankings below, remember that Smith was 6th (of 7) coming into the games on the 18th. He WAS ranked 18th in hitting and 15 in pitching. Now we all get to find out if the result was really the work of the wind or if it was Smith breaking out to be an impact player. He'll have his hands full this coming Sunday against Carmichael and the Holy Whites.

On a related note, the Playerz took advantage of Smith's day (and Robins' 7-23 day) to go 2-1 and improve to 5-10 on the year. Let me just say this: WIth Matt Holmberg pulling an Eberhardt/Carriere/Holt, and Carlson MIA, it's a good thing (for the league) that the other two guys playing for the Playerz are near 100% in terms of coming out. They'll struggle to get wins, but they'll be WAY up there in ABs if things continue the way they are. I never thought anyone would get a shot to top Carmichael's 262 from 2001. Now I'm not so sure.

The Horsemen are 7-8, but they're 4-2 in their last 6 games, thanks in part to the coming together between teammates. Ian seems like a good fit with the rest of the squad after a couple gamedays of "settling in." He's been getting hit, but he's also hitting above expectations. Yoder's hitting about the same as last year, but his pitching's been arguably even more dominant. Creighton's hitting and pitching are about on par with last year, and EC is there, not embarrassing anyone too greatly. The bottom line is, this team WILL be in the playoffs. The question now is who they'll be facing, since I'm not convinced they have enough juice to earn the bye to the finals. Still, the postseason is a whole different beast. Players who hit .150 in the regular season can rip it up at about a .375 pace in the postseason, and sometimes that's a all a team needs.

Which reminds me. Many people didn't want to see Yoder's name on the Cy Young ballot last season since, even though he qualified in terms of playing time, he only picked up 16 IP. Which is a justifiable argument. Still, I made a mental note to combine Seth's pitching numbers from this year and last year when he hit last year's IP total. As of Sunday, he's at 15, which is close enough for me. The table at the right is what I found out, and it's evidence that Yoder could be called the second-best pitcher in the league. I seriously think only Carmichael is capable of bettering those numbers after having pitched 31 IP. If only he could hit over .250!! Well, the season isn't even half over, so who knows?

Pat Plummer had a game typical of what the Road Warriors expected from him when they drafted him. Against the Playerz in Game 3 Sunday (after going 0-8 with 7 Ks against the Horsemen to start the day), Pat went 2-6 and scored two runs off homeruns from batters who followed him. Both hits were opposite way, and despite the team picking up 12 runs, Pat knocked in none of them. Slapping singles and scoring runs doesn't necessarily make for a great showing in the league's "rating" department, but it's obviousl that all members of the Warriors are above personal numbers and more about getting in the playoffs. So this is exactly what the Warriors want to see. He's also struck out 19 batters in only 12 IP (and against only thee BBs).