Week 4 - April 19, 2004  

Standings Still

Just one team moved up in the standings last week -- the Arkansas Golden Falcons, who went from 5th-place to 4th-place (and from 10th to 7th overall) after a 4-2 week, and swapped places with the Tijuana Banditos, who went 1-4. Otherwise, the divisional standings were the same as they were a week ago, with the Vancouver Iron Fist remaining in 1st place overall after winning four out of six this week. But the league's hottest team are the Carolina Mudcats, who shaved 1½ games off Vancouver's lead by winning six out of seven games this week and now have the league's second-best record, two games back... The surprising Columbia Rattlesnakes kept pace with Vancouver, also winning four out of six to remain four out... Bringing up the rear, the Philadelphia Endzone Animals began to climb back to .500 by winning four out of seven, while the Hillsborough Destroyers split their six games.

The Newark Sugar Bears were the only team in the Hanover Division to post a winning week, winning four out of six -- despite dropping two out of three to the arch-rival Stanhope Mighty Men, who went 3-4 to remain one game under .500... The Harrison Rats went 3-4 to fall into a 2nd-place tie with the Sugar Bears in the standings, keep pace... The Phoenix Dragons went 3-3 to hold onto first place in the division, 3rd overall... The Honolulu Sharks had their second-straight awful week, losing five out of seven. The Sharks have gone 5-10 over the last two weeks to fall from 6th place overall to 9th... The Westwood Deductions and the Hoboken Cutters continue to struggle, remaining the only teams with a winning percentage under .300. The Ducks dropped four out of five, while the Hobos lost five out of seven.

Haven't I seen you before? Lots of teams are going to get sick of each other next week as the schedule-makers stuffed the slate with inter-divisional head-to-head match-ups. Everybody faces off six times: Banditos vs. Cutters, Deductions vs. Rattlesnakes, Destroyers vs. Dragons, Endzone Animals vs. Mighty Men, Golden Falcons vs. Rats, Iron Fist vs. Sharks and Mudcats vs. Sugar Bears.

He's DuBest

Sugar Bears' pitching guru Mike Grace made his reputation the same Bob Vila did -- rehabilitation projects! John Burkett (.633 with Newark, .333 elsewhere), Pete Harnisch (.676/.461), Darryl Kile (.617/.327) and Woody Williams (.737/.268) all came to the Sugar Bears as washed-up journeymen and all flourished under Grace's careful tutelage. But while he has the midas touch with retreads, Grace hasn't shown the same success with developing arms: the Sugar Bears have never had a pitcher among the finalists for the Pat Listach Rookie of the Year Award. But that could change this year as 27-year-old rookies Eric DuBose and Scot Shields have claimed spots in the starting rotation and have thus far outshown the veterans. Shields, who is likely to miss at least two more starts due to the recent chicken pox epidemic, is 2-2 with a 3.31 ERA, 9.1 R/9 and a stellar 20:2 K:BB ratio, while DuBose is 3-1 with a 2.17 ERA, 10.1 R/9 after a dominating week (2-0, 1.06 ERA, 7.4 R/9), including an impressive complete game win in Stanhope on Sunday that the Sugar Bears had to have to stave off the sweep. DuBose's two-win performance was enough to win him the Britney's Naked Cat-a-phone Pitcher of the Week Award. Grace, meanwhile, rejects the claim that he's never successfully developed a rookie starter, pointing to several hurlers -- "including Mike Grace!" Grace was a 26-year-old rookie in 1997 when he went 15-10 with a 3.91 ERA and led the Sugar Bears to their first-ever DMBL title. He also boasts about the rookie stats put up by Mike Cather (3-3, 5 SV, 2.24 ERA in 1998), Runelvys Hernandez (11-8, 3.64 ERA in 2003) and Mike Mantei (7-2, 3.28 ERA, 1 SV in 1999), as well as Keith Foulke (8-2, 2 SV, 2.35 ERA in 1999), who is -- so far -- the best home-grown pitcher in franchise history. But Grace admits he often has a better rapport with the veterans. "These young guns think they're good enough to blow it by anybody in the league," he said. "They have to go around the block a few times, give up a few 400-foot home runs, before they start listening to what their coach is saying."

Vancouver's Ben Sheets is not a rookie, but he is just 24 years old and finally living up to the hype he garnered as a phenom in the Carolina farm system. Sheets had another perfect week (2-0, 3.95 ERA, 10.5 R/9) and has to be counted among the front-runners for the Ben McDonald Most Valuable Pitcher Award with a league-best 6-0 record, with a 2.78 ERA and 10.5 R/9. He also leads the league in fewest walks per 9 IP (0.4), with an astounding 25:2 K:BB ratio... Speaking of the Mudcats, one of the youngsters who made Sheets expendable -- 22-year-old sophomore Carlos Zambrano -- was the only other two-win starter this week, including a dazzling four-hit shutout Sunday against Hillsborough. On the week, Zambrano gave up just 6 hits and 1 earned run, though he did walk 8 in 16.1 innings... The Destroyers' Kirk Rueter had this week's only other shutout, giving up 5 hits and 1 walk in his only start.

This week's top relievers: Carolina's Rod Beck (1 W, 2 SV, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 3 K in 5.1 IP); Columbia's Joe Nathan (1 W, 1 SV, 1 hold, 0 R, 3 H, 1 BB, 7 K in 5.2 IP); Harrison's Shigetoshi Hasegawa (2 SV, 0 R, 1 H, 0 BB in 1.1 IP); Vancouver's Billy Wagner (2 SV, 0 R, 3 H, 1 BB, 4 K in 4.1 IP).

Two years ago, Hoboken's Jarrod Washburn nearly set one of the league's most ignomonious single-season records: Most starts without a win! In 1991, Kevin Appier -- splitting his season between Austin and Arkansas -- went 0-8 over 11 starts. In 2002, Washburn went 0-9 in his first 12 starts, but finally won a game over his last six starts, to finish the year at 1-13 -- still the worst year in franchise history. But wait! Darrell May, a 31-year-old southpaw, dropped both his starts this week to take over the league lead with an 0-5 record (6.17 ERA, 14.7 R/9) in six starts.Tijuana's Hideo Nomo is 0-4 in five starts, while Westwood's Al Leiter is 0-3 in five starts (plus a no-decision in his only relief appearance this year).

Huff Enough

Carolina's 6-1 record this week was helped by a league-best 49 runs scored, and much of that offense came courtesy of RF Aubrey Huff, who led the league in home runs (7), RBIs (15), runs (10), OPS (1.704), slugging percentage (1.233), extra base hits (10), total bases (37), runs created (18.0), isolated power (.800), secondary average (.900), all while hitting .433 (13-for-30) with three doubles to win the OmahaSteaks.com Batter of the Week Award. This week's barrage comes last week's, when Huff hit .393 with a 1.202 OPS, 3 HR and 7 RBI. Huff's impressive week included a 4-for-5, 2 HR, 5 RBI performance in a brutal 15-0 smackdown of Harrison. On the season, Huff is hitting .360 (1.123 OPS) with 9 2B, 11 HR, 23 R and 26 RBI, and ranks among the top 10 in just about every offensive category... Last week's winner, Arkansas's Barry Bonds, put up amazing numbers again (.440, 1.373 OPS, 2 HR, 6 R, 5 RBI). He hasn't had an off week yet this season... Newark's Bobby Abreu led the league in hitting this week, going 9-for-16 (.563) with a 1.557 OPS, 7 R and 7 RBI. Last year's Kevin Mitchell Most Valuable Batter Award winner Jim Thome had been off to something of a slow start, but made up for it this week by hitting .429 with a 1.312 OPS (2 HR, 7 RBI). Meanwhile, rookie Hideki Matsui has hustled his way into the starting lineup, hitting .389 (1.198 OPS) with 3 2B and 7 RBI this week; on the season, he's hitting .409 with a 1.207 OPS. Other strong rookie performances this week: Arkansas's Sean Burroughs (.444, 1.278 OPS), Newark's   Stanhope's Larry Bigbie (.450, .900 OPS),  Vancouver's Aaron Guiel (.400, 1.371 OPS).

Hoboken's offense has been sputtering along, with a second-worst 83 runs scored so far this season, due to astoundingly poor starts by Brian Giles (.161, .517 OPS), Roberto Alomar (.133, .434 OPS), Dmitri Young (.170, .523 OPS) and Kevin Millar (.180, .496 OPS). But hitters of their caliber are bound to start producing, and imagine what kind of numbers they'll produce if 37-year-old journeyman catcher Greg Myers keeps hitting the way he has been. Myers hit .417 (10-for-24) with a 1.356 OPS (.481 OBP, .875 SLG) with 5 2B and 2 HR, but for just 4 R and 6 RBI because the rest of the team combined to hit .187 (37-for-198) with a .279 OBP, .308 SLG. On the season, Myers is hitting .327 (.926 OPS) with 4 HR, 10 R and 14 RBI; the man he replaced, Mike Piazza, is hitting .236 (.647 OPS) for the Sugar Bears.

Bawk Bawk!

The fierce pox epidemic that has been ravaging the DMBL for two weeks finally appears to be waning. The pox claimed four more victims this week -- a total of 15 since the epidemic began -- but all four were diagnosed with the irritating but usually non-lethal form of the varicella zoster virus, better known as chicken pox. Falling victim this week were Honolulu's Jacques Jones and Johnny Damon, Stanhope rookie  Larry Bigbie and Arkansas's Ronnie Belliard, who had just returned to the team after a two-week hiatus to "get in touch with my Inner Ronnie." Apparently, Inner Ronnie hadn't been vaccinated, and just 24 hours after re-joining the Golden Falcons, he was back on the Disabled List. Another middle infielder who will miss some time this week is Carolina's Mark Grudzielanek, who is hoping to avoid the outbreak by quarantining himself on a desert island in the South Pacific. "I'm bringing along a professor, a millionaire, two sailors and three hot broads," Grudz said while packing his suitcase. "Look me up when people start getting regular injuries again."

Hi, Jack: In this week's ridiculous 18-13 slugfest between Newark and Tijuana, Banditos' middleman Jack Cressend was tagged for 3 earned runs in two-thirds of an inning. The outing earned him a blown save, a loss and his release from the Banditos. But Jack wasn't out of work very long. Three days later, he was suiting up -- for the Sugar Bears, who released lefty reliever Scott Schoeneweis to make room for him. Ironically, Schoeneweis also was smacked around in that game, giving up 4 hits, 2 walks and 3 earned runs in 1.2 innings. Outside of that one appearance against Newark, Cressend had yielded just 2 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 K in 7.1 IP, for a 2.45 ERA, 0.68 WHIP.

The Banditos had released Cressend in order to sign Danys Baez, who had been with the team briefly last year, but is best known for his dominant rookie year with Hoboken in 2002 (6-2, 4 SV, 2.81 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 92 K in 96 IP). Making his first appearance on Thursday against Brooklyn, Baez gave up 2 hits, 3 walks, a hit batsman, a wild pitch and 2 earned runs in 3 innings, but this time the Banditos came out on top by a score of 13-7. After starter Odalis Perez was shelled for 8 runs, 8 hits and 3 homers in 2.1 IP, manager Davey Johnson ran through seven Westwood relievers -- including starters John Lackey and Al Leiter -- before the game mercifully ended. Johnson said that if Leiter hadn't been able to close out the game, his next pitcher would've been utilityman Shane Halter. "I don't think he could've done any worse than some of the other guys we had out there tonight," Johnson said -- which was technically true, as Steve Reed and Jason Kershner each posted an infinite ERA and WHIP as they combined to give up 3 ER, 2 H and 1 BB without getting an out.

This week's other moves: Arkansas cut 2B Marlon Anderson and 3B Brandon Larson and signed 3B Chris Stynes; Harrison added SS Jack Wilson; Newark re-signed OF Bobby Kielty; Philadelphia inked pitchers Pat Hentgen and Brad Radke and cut prospect Adam LaRoche; Tijuana released 2B Brian Roberts and signed SP Claudio Vargas.

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.