At least 10 pitchers can make a case for the Ben McDonald Award, the prestigious award presented to the DMBL's most outstanding pitcher. Last week, our panel of baseball experts discussed Kris Benson, Kevin Brown, Pedro Martinez, Mike Mussina and Mariano Rivera as candidates; this week's panel will look at the chances for Osvaldo Fernandez, Randy Johnson, Ray King, Greg Maddux and Kazuhiro Sasaki. The award winner will be determined by a vote of the league's owners and announced after the World Series.

Bill Handleman, sports columnist, Asbury Park Press
Osvaldo Fernandez won his 18th game of the season on Aug. 18, a complete game five-hitter to beat Greg Maddux and the Vancouver Iron Fist, 4-1. He had four more starts to go for Harrison, and if he won all four he'd tie with three other pitchers -- guys named Brown, Johnson and Martinez -- for second on the single-season wins leader board. No other starter had a shot at 20 wins this season.

In his next start, he gave up 3 hits and one run -- and lost, 1-0, to Stanhope. Five days later, he was pulled in the 8th inning with a 3-2 lead over Honolulu, only to see closer Derek Lowe blow his 15th save, then pick up his 7th win when the Rats came back in the bottom of the 9th. In his next start, he was pulled in the 6th inning of a 1-1 tie, with the Rats finally winning in the 13th. And in his last start, he was cruising with a 5-3 lead, only to see the bullpen blow another one, losing 6-7. In the four starts that probably cost him the chance for an uncontested Ben McDonald Award, Fernandez went 0-1 with a 2.00 ERA and 1.15 WHIP; the bullpen went 2-1 with two blown saves, a 3.97 ERA and 1.76 WHIP and the batters pushed across just 10 runs. Overall, the bullpen cost him five wins this season, and his offense probably cost him a few more: He lost four games by one run.

But enough about Ozzie's bad luck, because even without catching any breaks, he still put up remarkable numbers. He finished tied for 1st in wins (18), 2nd in ERA (3.41) and 3rd in winning percentage (18-6, .750), the only starter this season to finish in the top 3 in these three categories. In fact, his winning percentage was .269 better than his team's .481 mark, which is the biggest such gap in baseball. Replace Fernandez with a .500 starter and the Rats are 1 1/2 games away from being the worst team in baseball. (And finding a .500 starter isn't a sure thing: No other Harrison hurler with more than 5 starts broke even this season.) He didn't have the best WHIP in baseball (1.41), but he did tie for the league lead in inducing double plays (36).

All this and in Fernandez's debut season in the DMBL. Although he isn't eligible for the Rookie of the Year Award, there's no doubt this minor league journeyman is going to stick around in the majors for quite some time. His season didn't rank with the all-time immortals, but Fernandez put together the best season of any pitcher in 2001, even with such spotty offensive and relief support. His teammates cost him enough this season -- he shouldn't lose the McDonald Award, too.

Mike Lopresti, USA Today columnist
Randy Johnson has never won the Ben McDonald Award. Last year he came close, finishing second in the balloting to Pedro Martinez. Will this be the year he's finally recognized as the DMBL's best pitcher?

Johnson lead the league in strikeouts (308), Ks per 9 (12.5) and fewest HRs per 9 (0.6) and tied for the league lead in wins (18) and shutouts (3). He also posted a 3.58 ERA (5th), 21 quality starts (2nd), 221 innings (6th) and 7 complete games (tied for 3rd). His .643 winning percentage was 12th, better than Martinez, Greg Maddux or Mike Mussina.

The Big Unit is baseball's premier big game pitcher. He struck out 10 or more batters in half of his 32 starts, including 15 strikeouts in 7 IP against Harrison on Aug. 1. In head-to-head competition, he beat archrivals Maddux and Martinez, 8-3 and 3-1. He went 8-2 against playoff teams. In his final four starts of the year, he went 3-1 with a 1.14 ERA.

Perhaps the most memorable stat: The Sugar Bears scored 3 runs or less in all 10 of his losses.

Oh yeah -- and he threw the first true no-hitter in league history on May 10, shutting down a Kentucky lineup that included Vladimir Guerrero, Ellis Burks and Andruw Jones. His line: 9 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 2 BB, 17 K.

Baseball's top pitcher deserves baseball's top award.

"Roc" Emerson, Baltimore sanitation engineer
You don't get a lot of respect being a garbage man. People throw something out and they think that's the end of it. They wake up in the morning and if they don't see a mound of garbage outside their driveway, they don't say, "Oh, thank the lord for the garbage man." It's only when the garbage man doesn't show up that they start thinking about him.

You could say the same thing about middle relievers. Ray King was the best garbage man in baseball this year, picking up 15 wins that no one else wanted. Without those 15 wins, the Stanhope Mighty Men are 10 games below .500, with the third-worst record in baseball. Critics will say, "Someone would've picked up those wins." Just like someone will pick up the garbage, right?

King's 15 relief wins tied him for second place on the all-time leader board, just one behind the single-season record of 16 wins. He also led the league in winning percentage (15-4, .789), tied for fifth in holds (16) and posted a respectable 2.89 ERA, 1.23 WHIP in 93.1 IP.

Three facts stand between King and McDonald. One, after a phenomenal first-half (10-0, 1.87 ERA, 1.04 WHIP), he didn't do much after the All-Star Break (5-4, 4.54 ERA, 1.54 WHIP). Two, he did blow seven saves, and to some people that means he "stole" seven wins from Stanhope's other pitchers. But in three of those blown saves, King was hung with the loss -- meaning he didn't hurt anybody but himself. And three, no reliever has ever won the McDonald Award -- let alone a middle reliever. Last year, Jeff Zimmerman went 16-5 with 8 saves, a 2.90 ERA and 0.99 WHIP in 124 IP. Where did he finish in the balloting? He didn't even get one vote.

Mike Maddux, former DMBL reliever
My little brother is the only pitcher in league history to win the McDonald Award three times, let alone three years in a row. Greg Maddux's reign ended after 1998, but 2001 should be the season he reclaims his crown.

Greg ranked among the league leaders with a 3.65 ERA (6th), 17 wins (tied for 3rd), 11.2 runners per 9 (2nd) and two shutouts (tied for 4th). He was the most durable pitcher in baseball this year, leading the league in innings (244), complete games (10) and batters faced (1,017). He was one of 13 pitchers to make 33 starts this season.

Supporters of other candidates will point to Mad Dog's 11 losses -- the most of any pitcher on the wins leader board. But his .607 winning percentage is still better than Pedro Martinez's .583 (14-10) mark.

Greg ended the season with a 151-56, leaving him as the career leader in wins and in winning percentage (minimum 150 decisions). Next season he has a shot at becoming the first pitcher in league history to go 100 games over .500. He will go down in history as one of the league's greatest pitchers; and although 2001 wasn't his best season, it was all-around a better season than any other pitcher this year.

Tetsuya Chikushi, Tokyo News 23
Kazuhiro Sasaki, Vatican City's surprise first pick in the 2001 draft, at one point this season looked like he could win the Listach, the Eck and the McDonald, but a ho-hum stretch run may have put those dreams to rest

With 42 games left in the season, Sasaki had a league-leading 28 saves and 63 relief points, with an outside chance at setting single-season records in both categories. But he finished the season with just two more saves, a loss and a blown save, for 65 points. He also posted a mediocre 4.09 ERA and allowed 17 HRs in 70.1 IP.

However, it's tough to blame Sasaki for Vatican City's 19-23 finish, or for his sudden lack of saves. In the first 120 games of the season, Vatican City had 53 save opportunities; in the final 42 games, only 8.

In fact, his only loss (and blown save) down the stretch came in a meaningless game on the last day of the season against Stanhope, after the playoff match-ups had been determined. If Sasaki had been interested in preserving his stats and sat out the game, he would've finished the season with a 3.76 ERA and just two blown saves. As it was, he still posted the league's best save percentage (.909) -- and deserves some consideration for the league's top pitching honor.