Connie Mack Midseason

Did a midseason Connie Mack story today on the unusual parity in the league this year. The coaches seem to think there are six teams that have a legit shot, but I say four:

1) Thunder
2) Yankees
3) Bandits
4) Cardinals

Yankees coach Daniel Clark brought up several salient points.

A.) The automatic World Series berth awarded to the winner of the city tournament is nice, but it isn't the be-all, end-all. The real point of the league is to continue to develop and mature players over a two-month summer period.

B.) Coaches scout, but it's difficult because teams play each other once or twice, not enough to get reliable data or collect insight.

C.) He plans to treat the city tournament like the high school playoffs, using his best pitchers early and often. Why save them to achieve something when you're not guaranteed to advance, especially with parity? Lose and you're relegated to the loser's bracket, where you'd have to win six games.

Here are the league standings heading into Tuesday:

                        W    L    Pct
Thunder            4    0    1.000
Yankees             6    1    .857   
Bandits              6    2    .750
Sting                 3    2    .600
Naataanii          3    2    .600
Dodgers            3    4    .429
Panthers           3    6    .333
Cardinals          1    2    .333
Wind Talkers     0    6    .000
Braves               0    6    .000

* Bandits coach Mark Varley agreed with Clark's sentiments on the purpose of the league. Varley said high school state championships have a longer historical shelf life than a spot in the World Series, but didn't downplay the significance a berth would have in the lives of his players:

"The Connie Mack World Series is definitely a huge event for these local players. They grow up here in Farmington and they're around the Connie Mack World Series from the time that they're little kids. Most of them have been runners or ball boys in the Connie Mack World Series at some point during their life.

"It's a huge spectacle in Farmington and all these kids want to play in the Connie Mack World Series and it's a great thing. Unfortunately you can't have all of them play in it. It's kind of a double-edged sword. Yeah, you get to play in the Connie Mack World Series, but unfortunately Farmington's history is that we've never really done very well in it."

* Clark's explanation on why scouting is difficult during Connie Mack:

"We would like to have a pretty decent idea of what most hitters and pitchers in the league tend to do. Scouting is really only useful in the event that you're going to play a team more than a few times. Anybody on any given day can go 3-for-4 with a bomb.

"The idea is to coax tendencies out of people which is something that takes more than just a game to do. No matter what we're doing scouting-wise, it's only going to be a very base set. It's not gonna be a terribly in-depth scouting chart because for one game a terribly in-depth scouting chart is almost a waste of time.

"That's why big-league clubs will send lead scouts out months in advance to try and coax tendencies out of a hitter over the course of a prolonged set of data. It doesn't really help in a city league where you play under 20 games total."

* The Connie Mack schedule specifies that the top six teams get automatic entry into the city tournament while teams seven through 10 have to play a single-elimination game to make the field. Varley said Monday that he believes after some rules clarification that is no longer the case and that every team will participate in the double-elimination tournament.

Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher