Jim Froio has lead the surging RBI Steaks to five straight wins with gamechanging offense and resilient pitching.
Cool, rainy conditions somehow favored the offense in four slugfests on Sunday. 24 home runs had pitchers suffering whiplash and batters boosting their stat lines. Speaking of stats, the league average and OBP are now identical to 2020’s final regular season numbers at .433 and .528 respectively. Since we know you’re wondering, slugging is still down 48 points from .749 from last year. We have a feeling it’ll catch up.
Power Rankings After Week Six
1. Bilabial Stops (9-1)
Last Week: T-1
The 9-1 Stops bent but didn’t break on Sunday against Wiffle House, winning 18-13 (5) and 17-7 (4). Nick Usoff teed off, going 8 for 12 with four home runs while gutting out a 170+ pitch performance to earn the win. Greg Nyssen added three home runs including a grand slam and Ben Burkhardt continued his offensive breakout going 7 for 8 with three walks. The Bilabials sit now sit four wins above 5-1 WCW and RBI Steaks. They’ll sit out week seven before playing Chicken’n’Wiffles in on June 20th.
2. West Coast Washout (5-1)
Last Week: T-1
WCW had a bye in week six. Their upcoming schedule seems favorable having already faced the Stops and 100% Real Juice, but there’s still a lot of wiffleball to be played. They’ll face the South Side Sliders this Sunday.
3. RBI Steaks (5-1)
Last Week: 3
The Steaks find themselves winners of five in a row after sweeping Chicken’n’Wiffles on Sunday 14-1 (4) and 22-14 (5) on Sunday. Their 87 runs scored trail only the Stops who have played four more games and look even more impressive against their 46 runs allowed. We won’t laud Jimmy Froio’s offensive performance this week and will instead point out that he’s sixth in the league with a 5.54 ERA.
Matchups against the Sheryl Crows and Wiffle House figure to push the Steaks in the coming weeks, and a tough July schedule against WCW, the Bilabial Stops, and rivals 100% Real Juice will test the grizzled vets down to the end of the regular season.
4. Mighty Knucks (3-1)
Last Week: 4
The only team with less than six games played will face Chicken’n’Wiffles in week seven after two weeks off. Brandon Wallach’s short mound knuckler will need to continue to dance in the heat with many of their games coming in the warmer months. 100% Real Juice and South Side Sliders round out their June schedule.
5. Sheryl Crows (3-3)
Last Week: 5
An unexpected postponement gave Eric Sanford’s crew an additional week to regroup after a rough series against the Stops in which they were outscored 26-2. Their Sunday matchup with RBI Steaks figures to be a competitive one. Their games last year were extremely close - a 6-5 win and an 11-10 loss. Paul Rogers figures to start game one, but game two is anyone’s guess. Connor Donovan’s numbers aren’t pretty, but outings against the Juice and the Bilabial Stops can do that to anyone’s stat line. On the other hand, Grant Bronsdon has only had a single outing in which he shined against the 1-9 Wiffully Ignorant.
6. 100% Real Juice (3-5)
Last Week: 8
The Juice got a much needed boost on Sunday, dispatching Wiffully Ignorant 16-0 (3) and 12-1(4). Epo Olivares struck out 8 while only allowing a single walk - a very good sign for as he rebounds from control issues in the early season. Adam Brickett went 5 innings, striking out 10 and walking none as he rebounds from a few rough outings of his own. Each threw less than 70 pitches in mercy-shortened games, a welcome change from their 150 pitch outings in previous weeks. Another bye in week seven precedes a key matchup against the Mighty Knucks as they try to climb the ladder.
7. Wiffle House (1-5)
Last Week: 9
The Thomases and Reed McFeely gave the Bilabial Stops a run for their money in game one on Sunday, leading until the fifth inning and scoring in all five frames before their pitching ran out of gas. Running a four man lineup, they got a lot of looks and adjusted quickly. In the field, they were as tight as any shorthanded defense we’ve seen, covering nearly the whole field and catching almost everything that didn’t leave the park. As for the pitching ... well, the pitching is a work in progress. That being said, if they figure it out, watch out. They’ll face Wiffully Ignorant in week seven. Expect high scores.
8. South Side Sliders (2-4)
Last Week: 6
An unexpected postponement gave the Sliders a bye in week six. They’ll face WCW in week seven, a matchup that was much closer than expected last year when John Selivanoff limited them to six runs and they touched up Dan Rish for 11 runs in defeat.
9. Chicken'n'Wiffles (2-4)
Last Week: 7
The RBI Steaks pummeled CNW’s pitching for 36 runs on Sunday in a sweep. A 14 run offensive outburst in game two was a positive, with Andy Siegel going 6 for 10 with two home runs. Still their pitching will need to perform better against the similarly offensively-minded Mighty Knucks this Sunday and moving forward to get them into the playoff picture.
10. Wiffully Ignorant (1-9)
Last Week: 10
Ya’ll got any more of that……Noah Jaffe? It ain’t easy facing seasoned vets like 100% Real Juice, and Jaffe’s absence on the mound was felt. Matt Erickson had a nice week against tough pitching, going 3-4 with a homer. They’ll give it another go against Wiffle House this Sunday.
Looking ahead
Are there teams interested in playing an early-ish series on Sunday, July 4? If so, reach out to the league and we’ll try to find a matchup. Any opportunity to keep the action going will help us schedule the second half of the season as the remaining matchup combinations and available Sundays decrease. Thank you, League Office
