Week 4 - April 18, 2005

Stretching The Field

As they say at the Iditarod, "If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes." And once again, the view hasn't changed for the teams in front of the DMBL: the two division leaders tied for the league's best record to further open up their lead on the pack. But behind them, things are getting exciting: just three games separates third place from eighth place, and the two teams bringing up the rear finally had winning weeks. 

The only team to keep pace with the division-leading Arkansas Golden Falcons and Newark Sugar Bears were the Columbia Rattlesnakes, who also won five out of seven games to jump all the way from 9th place overall to 4th place. The Rattlesnakes are now just a game back of the Carolina Mudcats, who had the league's second-best record last week, but went 3-3 to fall behind the Sugar Bears. But .500 was good enough to pick up a half-game on the Philadelphia Endzone Animals, who lost four straight games to start the week before reeling off three wins in a row... The Vancouver Iron Fist were able to close some ground, going 4-3... Meanwhile, the Stanhope Mighty Men are still in second place in the Hanover Division, but after going 3-4 this week, are now in seventh-place overall! That means if the post-season began today, the Sugar Bears would join five teams from the Morris Division in the playoffs. But don't count the Hanovers out yet -- the Mighty Men are just a half-game behind the Fisters, and 2½ games behind Carolina for the league's third-best record... The only other team with a winning record, the Honolulu Sharks, took a step backward this week after dropping four out of seven.

Those teams in the middle not only have to contend with each other, but also the teams behind them: the Tijuana Banditos (4-2) and the Westwood Deductions (3-2) each had winning weeks as they attempt to turn their seasons around... The only other team not to post a losing record were the Hillsborough Destroyers, who split their eight games this week to remain two games below .500... The Phoenix Dragons (2-4) and Las Vegas Rat Pack (2-6) took a step backward... It also was a tough week for the Hoboken Cutters, who dropped six out of seven games. The Cutters had been on top of the division at 12-6 just 10 days ago; since then, they've dropped 11 out of 12.

Let's go streaking! Four of this year's five longest streaks came to an end this week: Hoboken's losing streak was snapped at 10 games with Saturday's 5-3 win over Phoenix; Arkansas's eight-game winning streak was halted by their 3-1 loss Tuesday to Las Vegas; Columbia's seven-game hot streak was ended in the 10th inning Sunday, with an 8-7 loss to Honolulu; and Tijuana's seven-game schneid was snapped Tuesday in dramatic fashion, with a resounding 11-1 win over Westwood.

2005's Winning/Losing Longest Streaks
Team	Streak	Games	Began	Ended
Hoboken	Losses	10	April 9	Saturday
Arkansas	Wins	8	April 8	Tuesday
Columbia	Wins	7	April 14	Sunday
Tijuana	Losses	7	April 9	Tuesday
Carolina	Wins	7	March 22	March 28

Tuesday's win was so big, in fact, that it has propelled the Banditos to the longest active winning streak (four games); the longest active losing streak, a modest three games, is being ridden by the Endzone Animals.

Beware of Rattlesnakes

Columbia's rapid rise to contention this week came from an unlikely source: Their offense!  At the start of the week, the Rattlesnakes were second-to-last in runs scored, with 90; the only team with fewer runs, the Deductions (71), had the league's worst record. So it came as a huge shock this week when the Rattlesnakes blitzed the opposition for a 51 runs in just six games this week, a league-high 8.5 rpg average. Undoubtedly, this is a talented offense, with Rocco Baldelli (.364, 1.028 OPS) and Jimmy Rollins (.407, .874 OPS) to set the table and Ivan Rodriguez (.357, 1.150 OPS, 3 HR, 7 RBI) and Reggie Sanders (.333, 3 2B, 6 R) to clear it. But this week's biggest damage was wrought by the supporting cast -- Endy Chavez (.333, .533 SLG, 1 HR, 5 RBI), Ben Broussard (.333, 1.086 OPS, 2 HR, 8 R) and Placido Polanco (.409, 2 2B, 4 RBI). Fittingly, this week's biggest contributor this week was another who-dat: 29-year-old rookie utility-man Ryan Freel. The fourth-round pick (#50 overall) led the team in batting average (.462) and OPS (1.154 OPS) and RBIs (10), slugged three doubles and a triple, stole a base and scored seven runs to help key the Rattlesnakes' seven-game winning streak and won the rookie a free case of steaks as the OmahaSteaks.com Batter of the Week. "These will go great with a case of non-alcoholic beer," Freel said upon accepting the award.

Last week it was Chipper Jones; the week before that was Jim Thome; and now it's J.T. Snow and Carlos Guillen making opposing pitchers cry. Snow led the league in runs created (14.1), hits (15), runs (10) and total bases (26), and ranked third in batting average (.517) and OPS (1.442); while Guillen hit a league-high .600 (12-20) with a second-best 1.536 OPS (.636 OBP, .900 SLG). Joining the Sugar Bear hit parade were Bill Mueller (.429, 1.234 OPS, 2 HR, 6 R) and Gregg Zaun (.389, 1.222 OPS, 3 2B, 8 RBI)... Arkansas's Barry Bonds is still drawing a ton of walks (eight this week, including three intentional passes, plus two free bases on hit-by-pitch), but he proved this week he can still mash anything close to the strike zone (1 2B, 2 HR, 10 RBI)... Bonds's former teammate, Hillsborough's Phil Nevin (.333, 1.326 OPS) led the league in home runs (5), AB/HR (5.4) and isolated power (.593), with 9 R and 9 RBI.

Carolina's Randy Winn, splitting the left field job with Eric Byrnes, got into just four games this week -- but he made 'em count, leading the league in OBP (.667), SLG (1.125) and (of course) OPS (1.792). He also led the league in total average (2.667) and secondary average (.813) despite having just 16 AB. Teammate Travis Hafner, platooning at first base with Paul Konerko, also made the most of his limited action this week (.429, 1.119 OPS in 14 AB). This week's other top batters: Stanhope's Todd Helton (.345, 1.165 OPS, 3 HR, 7 RBI); Vancouver's David Ortiz (.345, 1.084 OPS, 3 HR, 10 RBI); and Westwood's David Bell (.474, 1.419 OPS, 2 HR, 7 RBI) and Mark Bellhorn (.375, 1.274 OPS, 3 2B, 5 RBI).

Schilling and Able

Curt Schilling won his first Ben McDonald Award two years ago and he vowed -- at age 37 -- that it would not be his last. The way he's opened up this season, he might be right. The big right-hander won both his starts this week, posting a 1.88 ERA, 9.4 R/9 (3 ER, 14 H, 1 BB, 12 K in 14.1 IP) to win The American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society Pitcher of the Week Award. On the season, Schilling is tied for the league lead in wins (5-1), quality starts (5) and quality start percentage (.833) and ranks second in ERA (2.68) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (13.3), and has won four starts in a row. But while he's off to a great start, last week's award winner, Philly's Johan Santana, is having an even better one. Santana remained undefeated on the season (4-0) after giving up just 3 hits and 1 earned run in a 8-1 win over Hillsborough. Santana's league-leading ERA is now a microscopic 1.65, and he also leads the league in fewest baserunners per 9 IP (7.2)... The flipside of that coin is Honolulu's Mark Mulder, who finally won his first start in grand fashion Saturday, with a 3-hit shutout over Carolina. Three other hurlers twirled shutouts this week: Columbia's Zach Day (5 H, 2 BB, 7 K); Newark's Wilson Alvarez (4 H, 1 BB, 6 K) and Philly's Brad Radke (6 H, 1 BB, 8 K)... This week's other two-win starters are both on the Destroyers: C.C. Sabathia (2.02 ERA, 9 H, 3 BB, 12 K in 13.1 IP) and Victor Zambrano (2.57 ERA, 7 H, 6 BB, 11 K in 14.0 IP).

Schilling got some great support this week from his bullpen, particularly Octavio Dotel, Brad Lidge and Travis Harper. The trio combined to allow 0 R, 3 H and 2 BB in 11.0 IP -- and struck out 15 batters! Lidge notched two saves and Dotel picked up two wins... Not to be outdone, Vancouver's bullpen actually had four guys with 0.00 ERAs this week: Juan Cruz (1 W, 3 H, 2 BB, 4 K in 5.0 IP); Eddie Guardado (3 H, 2 BB, 6 K in 6.0 IP); Brian Shouse (0 H, 2 BB, 3 K in 2.2 IP) and Billy Wagner (2 SV, 1 H, 1 BB, 6 K in 2.2 IP). It's a good thing the relievers were on top of their game, because the lowest ERA turned in by a starter was Greg Maddux's 5.68.

Think Arkansas's Jerome Williams was ticked off about ending Arkansas's eight-game winning streak on Tuesday? The hot-headed 23-year-old set a league record by plunking four batters in Tuesday's 3-1 loss to Las Vegas. First he drilled Melvin Mora, knocking him out of the game; then he plunked Mora's replacement, Chad Tracy. He also tagged Alfonso Soriano and Sammy Sosa. The four hit batsmen broke the record set by Rheal Cormier of Austin in 1997 and later tied James Baldwin of Phoenix in 2000. That same day, Honolulu's Jason Schmidt also got nailed -- by the Vancouver offense, which tagged him for five home runs in the first four innings of a 13-5 loss. Setting the tone from the start, Michael Young led off the game with a home run; that was followed, three batters later, by a two-out, two-run home run by David Ortiz. In the third, Victor Martinez and Ortiz had back-to-back dingers, and Moises Alou got into the fun with a two-run blast in the 4th inning. The Iron Fist would add two more round-trippers, both off reliever Julian Tavarez, to make it seven home runs in one game. That's not a record, though -- Newark crushed 10 home runs, including six off starter Orel Hershiser, in a 21-2 rout in 1998. Interestingly enough, that onslaught also came against the Sharks.

Not So Mighty?

Ever since hitting coach Ryne Sandberg found a weird-looking tiki idol on a road trip against the Honolulu Sharks, the Mighty Men have run into some bad luck. On Monday, starting pitcher Kerry Wood went on a hike with catcher Charles Johnson and hasn't been seen since. Johnson came back alone and counting a huge amount of money, and refused to say what happened to Wood -- only that he was going to spend the couple weeks at Foxwoods. On Saturday, Gary Sheffield went after a ball near the stands and got clocked by a fan. And now the Mighty Men have dropped two games in a row and six out of their last 10, and find themselves in seventh place overall.  But Sandberg says all the bad luck isn't the idol's fault. "Don't blame Tiki," Sandberg said. "He has to get used to his new surroundings. Remember, he spent the last six or seven centuries in some Hawaiian king's burial chamber. It's going to take some time to adjust." In the meantime, the Mighty Men will use veteran Paul Byrd in the starting rotation, and signed a very nervous Brad Ausmus to serve as the back-up catcher until Johnson gets back. "Dude, I'm not sure what's going on with Ryno's weird necklace," Ausmus said, "but there is no way I'm going surfing until he gets rid of that thing."

Tijuana's Josh Beckett will miss at least one start as he goes to testify in the Michael Jackson trial. Beckett refused to say why he's on the witness list, except that it involves "a can of whipped cream and Bubbles the Monkey."... After giving up five home runs in Tuesday's loss to Vancouver, Honolulu's Jason Schmidt says he's going to give up baseball. "I spent all these years trying to develop a slider and what I should have been trying to develop is my soul," a tearful Schmidt said. "But it's not too late for me to get started. I just heard about this cool new group called Heaven's Gate and I really think they're on to something. Hale-Bopp here I come!"

Comings and goings: After getting torched for 47 runs in three games by the Sugar Bears, the Cutters' burned-up bullpen got some reinforcements with the signing of Duaner Sanchez. The 25-year-old rookie righthander was immediately thrown into action, giving up 3 earned runs and 4 hits (but no walks and 7 strikeouts) in 6.0 innings this week. To make room, the Cutters released back-up infielder Miguel Cairo, who hadn't gotten into a game all year... The Endzone Animals also cut a forgotten bench-warmer, Aaron Miles, who had just one at-bat over the first 29 games of the season. Miles was cut to make room for Brian Roberts, who is off to a terrific start in Triple-A (.444, .528 OBP, .933 SLG, 5 HR, 5 SB)... Despite an 0-1 record, reliever Greg Aquino was having a decent year for the Rats -- 3.38 ERA, 9.3 R/9 and 9 K in 10.2 IP -- but someone had to go to make room on the 30-man roster after the team signed former prospect Brett Myers (1-0, 0.73 ERA, 0.97 WHIP in two minor league starts this year).

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.