Week 2 - April 4, 2005

Shaking Things Up

As will often happen in the first few weeks of the season, the standings have almost completely changed since last week. Just five of the 14 teams are in the same place they were last week, with teams jumping two, three or even four places in the standings based on the outcome of a handful of games.

The hottest team in baseball were the Honolulu Sharks, who won six out of eight games, including four in a row, to jump from sixth place to a tie for third place in the Hanover Division. Almost as hot were the Hoboken Cutters, who continue to astound the experts after going 5-2. The Cutters were picked by both the sims and the Swami to finish near the back of the pack this season, but they tied for the division lead after two weeks of Spring Training and now they're tied for the division lead after two weeks of real baseball... Once again, the upstart Cutters find themselves neck-and-neck with the World Champion Newark Sugar Bears, who won five out of eight this week... Tied with the Sharks in third place, the Mighty Men went 4-3 to reverse their first week's performance and climb back to .500... The Phoenix Dragons continue to struggle, losing four out of six, and the Las Vegas Rat Pack hasn't made a very good impression on their new fan base after going 3-5. The Westwood Deductions still have the worst record in baseball, but they're moving in the right direction: They went 2-5 this week, one win better than their performance in Week 1. 

The Vancouver Iron Fist have made a 180-degree turn -- after suffering the ignominy the division's worst record last week, they climbed right back in it by posting the division's best record, jumping from 7th place to 3rd. But they're still 3 games behind the high-flying Carolina Mudcats, who "cooled off" after a 7-1 start by going 4-2 this week... The reigning division champs, the Arkansas Golden Falcons, jumped two places in the standings despite a 4-3 week. Don't look now, but they're in second place... The Columbia Rattlesnakes were the only team to break even this week, going 4-4... The Tijuana Banditos went 3-5, but that was bad enough to drop them all the way to last place in the rough-and-tumble Morris Division... The Philadelphia Endzone Animals jumped out to the league's second-best record at 6-2, but gave it all back after dropping five out of seven this week... The same goes for the Hillsborough Hired Hitmen, who opened the year with a surprising 5-2 record, but went 2-6 this week -- including a four-game losing streak -- to fall all the way to sixth place.

Next week: It'll be a wild weekend in the Hanover Division as the two teams tied for first (Newark and Hoboken) and the two teams tied for third (Stanhope and Honolulu) cap the week with big three-game series. As a mid-week warm-up, Hoboken heads to Stanhope, while Newark hosts Honolulu... In the Morris, the high-flying Mudcats look to continue their winning ways with series against lowly Phoenix and Columbia. But they'll have to prove they're for real when Arkansas visits for a three-game series beginning Saturday.

Brick City's Bomber

In a big offensive week -- five teams topped the 40-run plateau, and two scored at least 50 -- no team came up bigger than the Sugar Bears, who scored a league-leading 55 runs. As a team, the Sugar Bears hit .331, with a .393 OBP, .574 SLG! With numbers like that, you can make a case for almost any member of the Crunch With Punch to win this week's  OmahaSteaks.com Batter of the Week Award: Carlos Guillen (.500, 1.639 OPS, 4 HR, 7 RBI), Bobby Abreu (.424, 1.002 OPS, 3 2B, 9 R), J.T. Snow (.400, 1.139 OPS, 2 HR, 9 RBI) or Hideki Matsui (.360, 1.105 OPS, 2 HR) would all be fine candidates in a typical week. But you have to take your hat off to Jim Thome, who led the league in just about everything this week: .520 BA, .581 OBP, 1.160 SLG, 14 RBI, 8 extra base hits, 17.9 runs created, 37.2 runs created per 27 outs, .640 isolated power, 2.833 total average, 29 total bases, 1.741 OPS, .840 secondary average, etc. etc. (He also tied for first in runs, with 9; in home runs, with 4; and in doubles, with 4.) Not a bad week for "The Thom-e-nator," who ranks in the top three on the season in BA, OBP, SLG, hits, RBIs, doubles, home runs, extra base hits, runs created, OPS and a host of other statistics, and is tied for the league's second-longest active hit streak (14 games)... Last week's steak winner, Hillsborough's Carlos Delgado, cooled off dramatically (.200, .654 OPS), but teammate Jason Varitek more than made up for it (.448, 1.211 OPS). Meanwhile, speedster Juan Pierre exemplifies the "down and hard" strategy, legging out 11 hits this week to extend his hitting streak to a league-best 15 games... Arkansas is getting a terrific one-two punch in the heart of the order from Barry Bonds (.346, 3 HR. 9 RBI) and Adrian Beltre (.393, 2 HR, 11 RBI), but the big surprise of the early going has to be Barry Larkin. After spending the last three seasons as a coach, Larkin returned to the field as a player this season to mentor young Bobby Crosby and is off to a terrific start, hitting .429 (.976 OPS) with 6 runs and a stolen base this week... Other top batters: Carolina's Aramis Ramirez (.462, 1.406 OPS, 4 HR, 11 RBI); Honolulu's Jeff Bagwell (.357, 1.155 OPS, 3 HR, 7 RBI); Las Vegas's Frank Thomas (.455, 1.493 OPS, 3 HR, 7 RBI); Tijuana's Vlad Guerrero (.406, 1.066 OPS, 3 2B, 4 RBI); Stanhope's Damian Easley (.450, 1.126 OPS, 4 2B); and Vancouver's Jason Bay (.346, 1.217 OPS, 4 HR, 11 RBI). 

Mad about Madritsch

Despite all the offense, there were some truly great pitching performances turned in this week: Four starters won both their starts, two closers racked up three saves, and four setup guys notched two holds. But this week's top pitching award goes to Vancouver rookie Bobby Madritsch (2-0, 1.00 ERA, 11 H, 4 BB, 13 K in 18.0 IP). The southpaw threw two complete games this week, including a five-hit shutout of the Dragons -- made all the more impressive by the fact that it was just his second DMBL start, made less than a week after he was smacked around by Hoboken in his DMBL debut (3.2 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 3 BB). Madritsch's quick turn-around earns him a Do-It-Yourself Tattoo Removal Kit as our Pitcher of the Week!  This week's other top starter candidates were Columbia's Mark Buehrle (2-0, 2.25 ERA, 13 H, 3 BB, 10 K in 16.0 IP); Honolulu's Jason Schmidt (2-0, 1.72 ERA, 10 H, 3 BB, 18 K in 15.2 IP); Stanhope's Tomokazu Ohka (2-0, 2.93 ERA, 14 H, 4 BB, 7 K in 15.1 IP)... Newark's Carl Pavano was brilliant in his start Friday night, giving up just one unearned run and two hits in a complete game win over Columbia. But the lead story on SportsCenter instead went to Hoboken's Jeff Weaver, who allowed just one base runner -- a one-out fifth inning double to Derrek Lee -- in a dominating 6-0 blanking of Westwood. Weaver's performance was truly shocking considering how he'd pitched in Week 1 (0-2, 20 H, 12 ER in 15.1 IP). 

Out of the 'pen, closer Danny Kolb also played a key role for the Sharks, picking up three saves and a win in five appearances (1.13 ERA, 10.1 R/9). Other top relievers were Arkansas's Brad Lidge (2 SV, 0 R, 1 H, 2 BB, 6 K in 3.1 IP); Columbia's Joe Nathan (3 SV, 0 R, 3 H, 1 BB, 3 K in 3.0 IP); Newark's Keith Foulke (1 W, 1 SV, 0 R, 1 H, 0 BB, 5 K in 4.2 IP); and Vancouver's Billy Wagner (2 SV, 0 R, 1 H, 0 BB, 2 K in 2.0 IP).

What Have You Done For Us Lately?

Three former phenoms were sent packing this week. The first casualty was shortstop Cristian Guzman, a 2001 second-round draft pick (#20 overall) who had a terrific sophomore year for Columbia in 2002 (.282, 18 triples in 607 AB), but fell on his face the next season (.214, .522 OPS in 612 AB), was used sparingly last year (4 hits in 24 at bats) and now finds himself released Monday by Arkansas just a week into his fifth DMBL season. Guzman, who went 0-for-8 with two Ks in his brief time with the Golden Falcons, is still only 26 years old and hopes to catch on somewhere this season. "There's some teams out there with some really crappy shortstops. I'm not going to mention any names, but... ah, what the hell. Royce Clayton? Are you kidding me, Westwood? You got my agent's phone number. Use it." Clayton -- hitting .136 with a .328 on-base plus slugging and a .915 fielding percentage as Westwood's every-day shortstop this season -- could not be reached for comment.

A day later, the Rat Pack cut two other former blue-chippers: Ben Grieve and Toby Hall. Grieve, now 28, was once so highly coveted that he was drafted as an ineligible 21-year-old outfielder by Hillsborough in the third round of the 1998 draft (#32 overall). Grieve looked like a terrific investment, hitting .283 with a .802 OPS (26 2B, 17 HR) in 1999 and .278 with a .843 OPS (24 2B, 28 HR) in 2000, and was off to another great season in '01 (.263, .890 OPS in 57 AB) before his season was derailed by injuries. He never really came back after that, hitting .2still managing to contribute during an injury-plagued '01 campaign (.263, .890 OPS in 57 AB). But he never really came back after that, hitting .234 with a .703 OPS over the next two seasons. After spending the entire '04 campaign in Japan, the 28-year-old Grieve came back to the DMBL this season with the Rat Pack. Despite showing plenty of patience at the plate (.381 OBP), Grieve's inability to make contact -- 4 hits, all singles, and 7 Ks in 17 AB -- made him expendable.

A similar fate befell Hall, taken by Vancouver as an ineligible prospect in the third round (#41 overall) of the 2002 draft. But unlike Grieve and Guzman, Hall didn't even make a splash when he first entered the DMBL; it was more like a ker-plunk (.194, .449 OPS in '03). But scouts continued to drool over his potential, and Hall was given another chance by Philly last year and again he tanked (.238, .584 OPS in '04). Las Vegas grabbed the 28-year-old catcher in the 15th round this year, but saw enough in five games (.118 BA, .368 OPS) to abandon the experiment. Hall is reportedly heading to Vancouver to make a personal plea to GM Yaro Z. Zajac. "C'mon Yaro, we shared some special times together," Hall said. "Remember that night in Spokane? Call me..."

The benefactors of those cuts? Arkansas signed veteran southpaw Rheal Cormier, who immediately began impressing his new teammates (3 games, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 2 K in 2.1 IP), while Las Vegas picked up 36-year-old catcher Brent Mayne, who also got off to a quick start (2 H in 5 AB). But all's not lost for the prospects of the world: The Rats also picked up Josh Phelps, who was once regarded as one of the top prospects of the decade. Phelps, drafted when still ineligible in 2002 and stashed away in Tijuana's farm system, finished fourth in the Pat Listach Rookie of the Year voting in 2003 after hitting .290 with an .817 OPS (42 2B, 24 HR, 97 RBI) in 160 games. But Phelps's stock crashed in '04 after a disastrous season with Westwood (.236, .680 OPS). Will he be able to bounce back in Las Vegas this season, or is he merely the latest former "future star" to be picked up and discarded? It's too early to tell, but sources say "Phelps" jerseys are selling well at the Rats' concession stands.

TWIB may have Ozzie Smith, but we have the better Smith! Zane Smith, former pitcher for the San Antonio Slingers and Sacramento Seahawks, now writes this column exclusively for the Diamond Mind Baseball League. Click Here for past articles.