Week Seven (April 22, 2002)  

Zane Smith is away for the next two weeks. This week's guest columnist is former Waikiki infielder, Andy Stankiewicz.

Movin On Up

Week seven was a good week for the bottom feeders in the two divisions. Let's take a closer look...

In the Morris Division, the Arkansas Falcons continued their winning ways. The Falcons went 5-2 this week, opening up a nine game lead on the second-place Vancouver Iron Fist. The last-place Carolina Mudcats had a good week, going 6-2 and actually moving up into sixth place for a short time. The Columbia Crusaders won five and lost two this week to climb over the .400 mark. Meanwhile, the middle of the pack teams sputtered this week. Vancouver managed only a 3-5 record and fourth-place Wanaque Wolverines only managed a 3-4 record. The Philadlephia Endzone Animals, last week's hot team, ended the week 2-4, clinging to fifth place. The Tijuana Banditos moved to within a half game of second, thanks to a 5-3 week.

Meanwhile in the Hanover Division, the Newark Sugar Bears struggled to a 2-5 finish this week, yet are still comfortably in first place by 5 1/2 games. The second-place Hoboken Cutters managed to hang on in second with a 3-4 week. The Honolulu Sharks got some breathing room after finishing the week 4-3, thanks to the Brooklyn Bean Counters' poor 2-6 week. The Stanhope Mighty Men moved closer to challenging for a playoff spot with a 4-4 week, pushing their record to the .400 mark. The Phoenix Dragons finished the week on a three game winning streak, salvaging a 4-3 week, while the last-place Harrison Rats put together a three game winning streak over the weekend and finishing at 3-4 on the week.

Familiar Face

Arkansas' Barry Bonds seems to be this season's poster boy for the Batter of the Week Award. Bonds certainly didn't disappoint this week, batting .429 with four homers and 11 RBIs, collecting his third OmahaSteaks.com Batter of the Week Award this season. Bonds posted a ridiculous 1.661 OPS this week, thanks to 10 walks... Narrowly missing out on the award, Harrison's Gary Sheffield hit .474 this week in five games, with three homers and seven RBIs...Philadelphia's Scott Rolen had a great week, hitting .500 (11-22) with three taters and 8 RBI...Bonds' top competitor this year, Vancouver's Sammy Sosa continued his hot hitting and stayed atop the batting leaders with a .400, 3 HR, 9 R, 11 RBI week... Wanaque's Jeff Cirillo hit .429 this week... Vancouver's Ken Griffey hit .500(7-14) and had two homers this week, while teammate Jeff Kent had a .353 week with 7 runs and 5 RBIs, and Roger Cedeno had three stolen bases...Tijuana catcher Ramon Hernandez also hit .353 this week...Stanhope's Bernie Williams collected 11 hits over the week and hit .355 over the week...

Phoenix third bagger, Corey Koskie hit .409 with 2 SBs and Paul Konerko hit .357 with 10 hits and HR this week... Philly got some hot hitting from Carlos Beltran (.391, 2 3Bs, 4 2Bs) and Rafael Furcal(.381)... Chipper Jones of Newark stayed atop the leader board with a .419 average and 6 RBIs... Honolulu's Miguel Tejada collected 10 hits and batted .400...Hoboken's Garret Anderson hit five homers, but all five were solo shots...Carolina's Homer Bush hit .419 over the week, with four doubles and 7 runs scored.

Halladay Cheer

The Carolina Mudcats had great week, possibly turning around their miserable start to the season. The biggest reason for the turnaround was what most experts predicted would be the team's biggest strength -- pitching. A lot of the credit goes to Roy Halladay, who went 2-0 this week and allowed only one unearned run over two starts, including a complete game shutout of Brooklyn earlier this week. In 17 innings, Halladay struck out 17 and only allowed two walks and 10 hits, earning him The Sports Cliches List Pitcher of the Week honors. Also in the Carolina camp, closer Bob Wickman had a strong week with four saves in four appearances and a 0.00 ERA, while starters Corey Lidle and Mike Mussina combined for a 2-0 record and 2.77 ERA...Arkansas closer Octavio Dotel had a nice week, picking up three saves and winning a game, while posting a 1.86 ERA...Kevin Brown compiled a 1-0 record and 2.13 ERA in two starts this week... Columbia relievers Josias Manzanillo and Juan Moreno pitched 12 innings without allowing a run and only yielding one hit, while starter Aaron Sele had a fantastic 2-0, 1.42 week in his two starts...Harrison's Ramiro Mendoza pitched five scoreless innings this week...

Hoboken reliever Jason Isringhausen collected three saves to stay atop the leaders...Honolulu's Mark Mulder and Paul Abbott of Brooklyn showed signs of turning their poor seasons around. Abbott pitched lights out, with a 1-0, 1.38 week, while Mulder went 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA...Phoenix's bullpen was tough this week - Jeff Nelson(0.00 ERA in 5 1/3 innings), Scott Sullivan(1-0, 0.00 ERA in two appearances), and Jim Mecir(1-0, 1.69 ERA in 5 1/3 innings) set up reliable Troy Percival(0-1, 2 saves, 2.70 ERA)... Phoenix's starters weren't too shabby either, with Hideo Nomo(1-0, 2.45) and Jamie Moyer(1-0, 1.29) giving strong efforts... Stanhope's Mariano Rivera had a great week, going 1-0, and accumulating 3 saves to go with a 0.00 ERA...Mighty starter Erik Hiljus had a 2-0, 2.77 ERA week...Tijuana's Jeff Fassero put together a 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 2 saves week, while ace Javier Vazquez went 2-0, 0.59, while hard luck Ramon Ortiz collected only one loss to go with a sparkling 2.31 ERA in two starts... Vancouver's Brandon Lyon had a nice week at 1-1, 2.51. Teammate Jeff Zimmerman compiled a 2.45 ERA in four appearances...

Of Wolf and Man

Tijuana's Randy Wolf took advantage of an off-day to trace his family roots. He ended up on a trip to Transylvania where he was bitten by his Uncle Ulysses Wolf, and learned that his surname had a literal meaning. After being chased by a mob of torch-bearing citizens and being shot at with silver bullets, Wolf narrowly escaped but checked into the Lon Chaney Clinic and will miss his next two starts...Hoboken starter Brandon Duckworth had a bad reaction to his sister's cat, which he was babysitting while she was out of town. Duckworth, off to a 6-0 start, will miss his next two starts...Since acquiring rookie catcher Paul Lo Duca from Brooklyn, Lo Duca has swung a hot bat. However, for the second time since the trade, Lo Duca will miss time. Apparently he's been rushed back because Lo Duca reaggravated his injury and may miss up to a month of action. "They keep telling me to run and I think I finally got that part down, now they want me to take something they call 'batting practice'" said Lo Duca. Lo Duca injured himself when teammate Randy Johnson threw a 100 MPH fastball during batting practice that snapped his bat in half. The splinters from the bat exploded and embedded themselves in Lo Duca. "He seemed like he was slacking, so I wanted to wake him up" said Johnson.

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.