It’s the midseason, July 1^st, 2006, in the land of Monti Bizarro Baseball. After a somewhat disastrous start to May, the Daly City Montis have rebuilt themselves into dominant form. Fresh off a 15-game winning streak (and 21-4 overall June), the Montis are now 59-22, .728, and leading the 2^nd place Apple Septic Tanks by 9 games. The team is once again in dominant form, with a league-first 3.23 ERA, and 2^nd-place 468 runs scored (trailing the Canon Image Stabilizers’ 497 runs).

Daly City seems to have regained its form, and appears to be cruising to another Division Championship, although their 9-game lead is more tenuous than in any year past. What’s more, for the first time the Montis are looking at some formidable competition all around in the league. While they top the league in almost all pitching statistics, as expected this year, the offensive machine has been more mortal, though still good. They’re 2^nd in runs, but whether that’s sustainable is a legitimate question – they top the league in OBP, but lag behind a lot in SLG, with only .439 (which ranks 5^th out of 16 teams). Most importantly, the rival top-team Canon Image Stabilizers of the Shinto-World league, who faced Daly City in the finals last year, has far and away the top offense in the league, although their pitching doesn’t hold a candle to Daly City’s.

It’s been an exciting half so far, and with three months to go, anything can happen.

On the Daly City homefront, the pitching staff has settled into a strange mellowness – the staff as a whole has been performing fine, but no one, outside of Yan, of course, has shown much signs of dominance. The bullpen has been in taters all year, except for one surprise standout. On the offensive front, things have gone pretty much as expected, with the lineup barely hanging on together and eking out just enough offense to get those wins.

Tina “Experimental Error” Quach, Catcher: After a slow start in April, Quach has come around to her usual production levels, hitting a combined .317-.379-.411 over May and June, filling in nicely in the OBP department, with a surprisingly high AVG as well. What Quach is lacking, however, is true run production – she has 27 RBI and 39 Runs, mostly due to a poor .269-.354-.299 line with runners in scoring position, which thus far has kept her in the bottom of the order, besides otherwise decent stats.
Stats:

Marco Paz, Backup Catcher: The power-hitting prospect has been off to an abysmal start so far in the season. His meager .250-.317-.515 numbers in AA last year might have indicated he wasn’t yet ready for the big leagues, and so far at least, those projections have born out. In 71 plate appearances he’s .132-.141-.206, not really finding any kind of groove. As a result, he hasn’t seen that much time behind the plate, either, logging only 111 defensive innings. Hopefully his power numbers come along as the season progresses, as Paz is one of the few power-hitting prospects the Montis have got.

Derek Lew, First Baseman: After a promising April, Lew has been bashing away at a steady clip and seems to be demonstrating a full comeback from his injury-riddled 2005 (he also hasn’t missed a game). He knocked in a tremendous 36 RBIs in May, and is, like before, hitting towards record doubles numbers – he’s hit at least ten every month, and is on pace for 74, which would tie his 2004 record (although in less at bats). He also has 10 triples, which leads the league and already breaks his previous career high of 6 in 2005 and 2003) With a .552 slugging percentage, he’s by far the best hitter on the team, and the only one to remain consistently good all throughout the first half.

Rudy Puzon, Designated Hitter: Puzon got off to a blazing hot start, and didn’t let up at all in May, going .330-.403-.563. Puzon dipped significantly just before the all-star break, however, with a disappointing .247-.330-.443 start. Puzon nonetheless leads the team in OPS, and is second in OBP, SLG, and AVG, and hitting from the #3 spot, has the highest RBI+Run total of any player on the team. While his June cool-off seems to be temporary, Puzon seems to have solidified himself as the real deal in 1 ½ seasons of playing time.

Cristian Ortiz, Second Baseman: Ortiz has been hot and average this season – after starting the season off with a mediocre .265-.312-.393 April, Ortiz hit .318-.381-.482 in May, and then dipped down to .258-.348-.340 in June. His numbers are in line with his 2005 season, except that his ability to hit for power seems to have disappeared . While his numbers have been fluctuating, his patience at the plate seems to be improving – he’s increased his walks drawn every month, and the one constant for Ortiz has always been speed – this season he’s faster than ever, with 42 steals that seems set to obliterate not only his previous career high (58 in 2005), but Cubilo’s league record as well.

Joanna Maung, Saung-gah-basewoman: After three seasons under the shadow of former superstar Joey Wong, Maung has proven herself, well, sufficient at third base. After she started out with a hot April that somewhat concealed an alarming lack of power (.333 AVG, but only 2 extra base hits for a .354 SLG), Maung had a rough May (.247-.319-.329), before bouncing back to the kind of solid, consistent numbers that she’s showed the previous three years: .293-.375-.424. If she can continue hitting at that level, she’ll have played out the team’s most optimistic expectations from Maung’s first full year. Defensively, Maung hasn’t fared so well at third base – her fielding percentage of .935 is disappointing, especially compared to the rest of the infield (Nghe, .963, Ortiz, .979, Lew, .999).

Henry “Mr.” Nghe, Shortstop: Perhaps the fairy-tale story for the sophomore shortstop is over. After surprising everyone by winning the rookie of the year award in 2005, Nghe picked up right where he left off with a sizzling April, quieting many critics who said he was overrated. In the two months since, however, Nghe has fallen back to Earth, hard. While he hasn’t been bad, Nghe’s numbers have been very average – .278-.346-.364, most shocking of all being his complete power outage (last year he had a SLG of .545)., fueling many of those same critics who have said all along that Nghe has outperformed his ability.

Jonathan “The Cheet” Chee, Leftfielder: Following up on last year’s breakout season, Chee is once again having an awesome season – he’s batting .318-.413-.449, about in line with last year’s numbers. In fact, Chee leads the team in both AVG and OBP, and has been a run machine at the top of the order. A trivially alarming sign, however, is Chee’s low hit-by-pitch rate – he’s got 20 this year, compared to his record-shattering 49 from 2005. While he still leads the league, #2 Jabba Desilijic Ture has 19 HBP, trailing Chee by only one.

Tiffany Ho, Centerfielder: After a typical first two months, Ho seems to be showing signs of blossoming into a strong contact hitter – in June she hit .337-.378-.446, and overall is .294-.323-.391, already improving on her rookie season, with half the year still to go. She seems to love the home crowd, where she has a .327-.361-.442 home split against .263-.285-.342 on the road. Defensively, Ho’s been showing great improvement – Ho’s zone rating of 1.96 dwarfs that of the other outfielders (1.40 for Chee in leftfield and 1.58 for Chen in right), although she still can’t cover quite the same range that Cubilo did (2.35 in 2005). Nonetheless, Ho seems to have grown into a very capable replacement at centerfield, a slightly better hitter and slightly worse fielder than her predecessor.

Francis Chen, Rightfielder: Just when you thought Chen was back, it turns out he’s… not. Chen followed up his huge April with another flashy, although not quite as spectacular, May, going .195-.340-.524, hitting another 7 homeruns and winding up with the league lead. Chen faltered in June, however, putting up the ugly .212-.303-364 numbers of the Francis of old. Interestingly, like Ho Chen has a noticeably home-road split. At home he’s hitting like the all-star Francis Chen – .264-.391-.568, but on the road he’s an abysmal .162-.289-.385. This actually somewhat mirrors his 2005 splits – hm… maybe a platoon is in order?

Jason Liu, Backup Outfielder: Things just haven’t been bright for poor Jason Liu. After being “swiftly” ousted from his starting job by old-fashioned politics, Liu struggled out of the gate, while his rival Francis Chen had a monster season, further eliminating any hope of Liu regaining his starting role. Since then, Liu doesn’t seem to have found his groove anywhere – he had a good .275-.351-.549 May, but hasn’t really found a groove anywhere else otherwise – so far he’s .226-.273-.481 on the season, although his 9 HR is actually not that far off of the mark.

Nathan Yan, #1 Starting Pitcher: In a season that hasn’t gone so well for the pitching staff, everything is going right for Yan, who seems to be on an extended fire streak – in three months he hasn’t registered an ERA over 1.00, or a WHIP over 0.60. In addition, Yan’s maintained his amazing 18 K’s per 9 innings rate and is all set on actually breaking the 500-K mark (right now he’s projected for 572 K’s!) Since his two 20-K performances in April, he’s hit that mark another three times, hasn’t struck out less than 14 batters, and on June 24^th, threw a 21-K NO-HITTER. Things look better than ever for Yan, who just may have reached god status with his now 0.08 CERA.

Whitney Anne Esguerra, #2 Starting Pitcher: It’s been a weird, trying season for Esguerra. After an extremely promising April, she’s now had an abysmal May, highlighted by a 4 2/3 inning, 11 run (8 earned) start. She seemed to come into her own in June, however, going 2-0 in five games with a 2.84 ERA and 0.92 WHIP, garnering her first shutout. She’s also second on the team in K’s, 2^nd in ERA, and 3^rd in WHIP.

Terrence Zhao, #3 Starting Pitcher: Zhao has been perplexingly average all season this year, and has only a 66.7% quality start rate, compared to his 87.1% last year. His complete games (2), and shutouts (1) also indicate that Zhao is far from the dominating form he’s had the past two years. His CERA, however, still indicates a dominating 2.69 (despite his 3.44 actual ERA).

Samantha Chin, #4 Starting Pitcher: Chin has followed her spectacular start to the season with an equally impressive May – she went 4-0 yet again in 5 games, with an even lower 2.68 ERA and 1.03 WHIP, and seemed to be well on her way to becoming one of the game’s elite. She somehow got derailed in June, however, with a 5.40 ERA, although a somewhat more forgiving 1.20 WHIP. Perhaps the best indicator is that her CERA, at 2.93, is third best on the team and 8^th best in the league. All in all, Chin seems well on her way to developing into one of the best pitchers on the team, and yet another cornerstone of the Daly City rotation.

Sean Wade, #5 Starting Pitcher: Wade’s fall from grace continues to spiral. While Wade hasn’t been as bad as in April, he hasn’t done much to turn his season around – his May and June ERA was 4.39, with even worse WHIP numbers (1.50 and 1.35 in May and June), along with a rapidly disappearing ability to strike batters out (5.96 K’s per 9 in May, 5.40 in June, off from 7.3 in 2005). With a 5.18 ERA and a 4.92 CERA that doesn’t give much cause for hope, the season only looks to drag on for Sean Wade.

Miguel Pardo, #6 Starting Pitcher: What can be said about Miguel Pardo? The sporadically brilliant pitcher is once again on his good side, and so far this season, he’s achieving – dare I say it? – consistency. After a good April, Pardo has gone 3-1 in five starts (including a shutout), achieving a decent 3.85 ERA and 1.23 WHIP. So far in the season, Pardo’s 3.47 overall ERA ranks fourth on the team, and were he to have enough qualifying innings, 11^th in the league.

Alfred Vong, Long Reliever: It hasn’t been a good sophomore follow-up for Vong. While he’s pitched a lot of innings (39, putting him on pace for 78), he hasn’t been particularly effective. His K’s per 9, ERA, WHIP – almost everything is worse than his first season. He’s blown two out of two save opportunities (last year he blew none in 7 chances) and has allowed 4 out of 9 inherited runners to score (compared to 3 of 17 in 2005). What’s happening to Vong? Is it mechanics? Tiredness? No one seems to know, but at this point he’s got to be thanking Wade for providing those mopup long relief situations to pitch in.

Helen Yamamoto, Mopup Reliever: Color this a surprise. After an abysmal 9+ ERA 2005, and coming back to start the season with a 7.72 April ERA, Yamamoto has somehow transformed herself into the second best reliever on the team with a 0.96 ERA since May and 3.21 ERA overall. Her WHIP, however, is still a scary 1.43, so the mopup reliever’s newfound brilliance may not last for long.

Angel Poon, Middle Reliever: After a nasty April, Poon didn’t seem to improve a whole bunch in May, when she threw a nasty 10 innings of 5.40 ERA ball. She’s begun to show signs of life in June, however, when she had a 1.69 ERA and 0.56 WHIP over 5 1/3 innings. Perhaps Poon is back to form? Despite a high ERA, her 1.15 WHIP is back to her career average, and actually lower than last season.

Zubeda Khan, Middle Reliever: Talk about lights-out brilliance. Like the rest of the bullpen, Khan came out with an abysmal April start, but has flourished in the time since then. While none of the other relievers really were, Khan proved to be a rock of consistency in May, throwing 7 1/3 innings with a 3.68 ERA and 1.09 WHIP. Since then, however, Khan has just been other-worldly brilliant – she’s currently on an 8-inning shutout streak, during which she’s also carrying an 0.25 WHIP. Maybe removing her from the closer’s role was a bit premature… or maybe it was just the ticket she needed to rebuild her confidence.

Alvina Chu, Setup Reliever: Chu pitched and struggled again in May, with a 4.82 ERA and 1.61 WHIP over 9 1/3 forced innings. With June has come some glimmer of improvement – her 1.50 ERA and 1.00 WHIP harkens back to the Alvina of old, although her season numbers are still at an ugly 4.50 ERA and 1.27 WHIP. Chu does, however, have six reliever wins, leading the league and setting her on pace for a career-high twelve.

Josiah Leong, Closer: From the category of sheer brilliance comes Josiah Leong, who after struggling a bit with a white-knuckle April, has settled into one of the most dominant closers in the league. Leong saved 5 games with a 1.00 ERA and 1.11 WHIP in May, and then vaulted into the leaderboard with 10 saves, a 0.47 ERA, and 0.88 WHIP in June. He’s striking out batters at an amazing 12.9 K’s per 9 innings, and he seems to have been particularly thorough with right-handers, who have a .069-.213-.069 line against Leong. With 23 saves, Leong leads the league by two, and has 1.71 ERA ranks 4^th best, and best in the Universe League.