Third Place

The Cigar Makers finished in third after fighting hard in September. Tulo and Cargo kept the team afloat, but the pitching cost us the title. Two closers went down with injuries during September. (Bailey and Street)

We made a push, but we finished 105 points behind the Dogs. The draft for next year is in March. I will update more at that time.

The Makers are in Third

The Mud Dogs are still in first by 500 over your Makers, but we are still plugging along in September. The Makers' bats are still mashing with Tulo and Cargo. Shields struggled last night against the Orioles, and Vazquez struggled against the Jays.

Standings: (Sept 4)

1. Dogs 9365

2. Steamers 9017

3. Makers 8895

4. Bars 8883

5. Shockers 8878

10. Lightning 8588

18. Machine 6645

The Makers need their pitchers to turn it on in September to stay in the top three. De La Rosa hopes to pick up the win today, and hopefully Street will notch another save.

Go Rockies! (Tulo and Cargo are leading our team)

Still in It

The Makers made a big push through the month of July thanks to Garza's no-hitter, Carlos Gonzalez mashing and hitting for the cycle, Delmon Young hitting for 30 RBI's, and Shields returning to form. The Makers traded for Andrew Bailey and Huston Street to try to get closer to the lead.

The Standings on August 3:

Posse 7130

Blumpkins 7102

6. Makers 6860

May 1

The injury bug bites the Makers again. Madson, my only potential closer, kicked a chair and broke his toe. Kelly Johnson, who hit nine homers in April, leads the Makers along with Paul Konerko, who hit eleven homers in April.

The Makers will need Jorge De La Rosa to get healthy as soon as possible in order to have a strong five-man rotation. James Shields struck out twelve in seven innings this week, and Matt Garza picked up another win this week.

Standings after the month of April:

1. Russ 1609

2. Steamers 1601

4. Makers 1575

17. Plan 1195

18. Deep 1193

I will try to update again before the end of May.

Monday April 13

Matt Garza and Matt Thornton led the Makers charge back into second place with two wins last night. Wandy got rocked by the Cardinals and he only lasted for 4.1 innings. Garza looked good against the Orioles again, but he struck out less batters in last night's outing. Ryan Madson picked up his second save of the year and scored 15 points. Juan Pierre scored seven points with a SB and Lind scored nine points.

Standings:

1. Russ 545

2. Makers 539

6. Steamers 495

18. Finest 322

Saturday

The Makers failed to perform well yesterday and my team only scored 15 points yesterday. I took out Howie Kendrick and started Kelly Johnson, but Kendrick outscored Johnson by five points last night.

Tulo is off to another slow start and he only has 11 points on the week. Hopefully he can start to score more points next week. Paul Konerko and Delmon Young have been bargains for my team.

Russ and Jim Ed took over the lead, but the Makers send James Shields to the mound today against the Yankees to try to close the gap.

Standings:

1. Russ 415

2. Crawdads 400

3. Makers 385

5. Steamers 365

18. Finest 207

The last round of the Masters should be great today if it is anything like the back 9 yesterday. Phil Mickelson came within a few inches of making three straight eagles. Westwood is in the clubhouse at 12 under par and Phil is one shot behind Westwood. Enjoy the final round.

Day 5

David Price pitched well last night and he threw strikes early as the Rays defeated the Yankees 9-3. Jorge De La Rosa showed out for the Makers and he struck out nine Padres in seven innings while only giving up one hit. He accounted for 51 points yesterday and he has the Makers in the lead.

Austin Jackson continues to show promise as he went 1-3 with a SB,RBI, and two runs last night against Cleveland.

The Makers need Ryan Madson to pick up some more saves before Lidge returns later this month.

Standings:

1. Makers 370

2. Crawdads 358

3. Baggers 350

6. Steamers 291

18. Finest 172

Day 4

Delmon Young hit a three-run homer last night for the Makers. Hopefully this a sign of good things to come from the once highly-touted prospect. Brian Matusz picked up the win after giving up two runs in five innings, but he struggled to find his control. He did strike out seven, but he walked five. Matusz scored 36 points for the day and Young scored 13 points.

The Makers will send Jorge De La Rosa to the mound this afternoon against the Padres. Hopefully he can continue his dominant form that he had last year.

Fred Couples is currently -6 at the Masters and I hope that he stays in the hunt for the weekend.

Standings:

1. Makers 294

1. Baggers 294

17. Shox 150

18. Finest 89

Day 3

The Makers had another big day and actually I left more points on the bench as well. Kelly Johnson hit two homers on my bench and accounted for 22 points while Juan Pierre went 0-3, but stole two bases.

Matt Garza kept the Rays in the game last night and picked up the win after throwing well for eight innings. He struck out nine and walked two against the Orioles as the Rays won 4-3 again. He scored 48 points for the team and Evan Longoria hit a key two-run double for the Rays in the sixth and he hit a homer in the eighth inning to give the Rays an insurance run. (16 points total) Ryan Madson picked up his first save for the Makers. (16 points) Hopefully Lidge is out for a month or two.

Brian Matusz makes his first start of the season tonight against Jeff Niemann. At one point last night I had the lead for an hour in Rod Delmonico Land and hopefully Matusz has a great start tonight to push the Makers to #1 again. It is only Day 3, but my team is off to a good start. I hope that Kelly Johnson continues to bat leadoff for the Diamondbacks.

Standings:

1. Martin: 252

2. Makers 241

18. Finest 92

Enjoy the opening round of the Masters today and more afternoon baseball.

New Music

Princeton, a band from Santa Monica, is opening up for Camera Obscura on their North American tour. People should check out this band and see what they think. They put on a great live show and they are nice guys as well.

http://www.princeton-band.com/

Rays Game 1 and Day 2 (MLB)

James Shields gave up three homers, but the Rays came back in the ninth inning to beat the Orioles 4-3 last night at Tropicana Field. Shields looked dominant at times, but his fastball was up too high on most of the homers. Shields scored 19 points for the Makers.

Evan Longoria hit a monster blast at 473 feet and it was only the second ball to reach the highest point at the Trop. Shoppach came up big in the bottom of the ninth when he hit a ball off the wall and Carl Crawford drove in the winning runs. Longoria scored seven points in his first game of the season.

Wandy Rodriguez looked dominant during the first five innings, but then he gave up some walks and hits in the sixth. He only scored eight points after he took the loss in his first start. The Makers will need better starts to stay in the race this year.

Howie Kendrick is hitting (3-8), but the Makers need him to run more.

Day Two Standings:

1. Martin: 161

9. Makers 115

18. Tony B's 44

Opening Day 2010

The Makers had a huge day at the plate and I enjoyed watching the games at Murphy's in Chicago.

Highlights:

1. Konerko took Westbrook to right field for a homer

2. Jason Heyward rocked a fastball to right field in his first MLB at-bat.

3. Tulo made an error in game one

4. Delmon Young showed out and hit a homer.

5. Brian McCann's vision looks good with a great day at the plate.

The Makers scored 70 points on the day (63 on offense) and we are in the middle of the pack. Hopefully most of the young guys can keep it up.

2010 Draft

We held the 2010 Rod Delmonico Draft at Tony's house on Saturday and most of the owners were in attendance. My team, the Lima Cigar Makers, should be able to compete in most categories this year, but I did not draft a closer until late.

My 2010 Opening Day Roster is the following players:

C B. McCann

1B P. Konerko

2B H. Kendrick

SS Tulo

3B Longoria

OF A. Lind

OF C. Gonzalez

OF J. Pierre

UT Delmon Young

SP Wandy Rodriguez

SP Matt Garza

SP James Shields

SP Jorge De La Rosa

SP Brian Matusz

RP Ryan Madson

RP Matt Thornton

RS C. Davis

RS K. Johnson

RS A. Jackson

RS D. Bard

RS B. League

RS B. Wallace

RS R. Ohlendorf

RS K. Medlan

I will update this blog on my team's progress throughout the season.