News & Notes - May 10, 2019

Apparently Lars has quit, so I'll do one of these things. Moral: Never trust a Canadian to do an American's job.

Around the League this week:

- The gap between the have's and have-not's widens this season, as just 6 teams (ATL, HAL, BAL, PHI, LON and TAI) have winning records. 6 of the 8 World League teams are under .500.

- SLB's "luckiest" team is at it again; Taipei, who had the greatest positive discrepancy vs. their pythagorean record in 2018, is 15 games over .500 despite a run differential of just +24. The least lucky team? Kyoto, who is 9 games under despite having a +4 run diff.

- A lot of Kyoto's failures have come in one-run games, where they are a league worst 3-10. "We feared this would happen," said pitching coach Kazuhiro Sasaki. "We have a very young bullpen, and they just haven't stepped up in the close games." Atlanta is the league's best team in close games, posting a 10-2 record in one-run affairs.

- Taipei's Scott Kazmir had a perfect game through 6 innings this week, but after throwing just 70 pitches, was pulled. Kazmir, who was just acquired by the Tai Fong in a deal with Bedford, refused to bad mouth his new team. "Coach said he thought the game was well in hand and wanted me to rest up for my next start," said a visibly irritated Kazmir. "I've got to do what I'm told." The bullpen finished out a combined no-hitter and Kazmir won his first decision of the season (after an 0-5 start).

- Matt Porter, a rookie starter who headed to Bedford in the Kazmir deal, pitched 7 innings of 2-hit, shutout ball in his Bedford debut.

- For the first time in forever, we have a heated race for RPOY. The early front-runners for the award include Rene Delmas (ATL, 4-1, 2.98), Anthony Rodriguez (SJ, 3-1, 3.38) and Chico Salazar (SAV, 1-2, 2.88).

- Front-runners for RHOY include Morton Henrikksen (ATL, .350, 9, 28), Mike Wells (BAL, .343, 4, 20), Stan Ford (KYO, .267, 9, 22), and Ben Parker (.282, 14, 31).

- SAV's Miguel Cabrera has extended his league record career hit total past 2700 and doubles total to 834. TAI's Jose Reyes is 45 runs shy of 1500.

- Jerome Williams is the third pitcher in league history to top 200 wins. The Paris hurler stands at 206, with CC Sabathia at 209 and Mark Prior at 229. Prior is just 9 K's short of joining the 3000 strikeout club; he would join Josh Beckett (3094) and Sabathia (3074).