Week 7 - May 10, 2004  

Flying High

The Arkansas Golden Falcons bounced back from dropping six out of eight last week with a league-best 6-1 performance this week, including four straight wins. The defending league champions are now in 6th place overall, up from an 8th-place tie a week ago and 10th last month... The Vancouver Iron Fist are clinging to their half-game lead in both the division and the league after splitting their six games this week -- three wins, followed by three losses at the hands of the Golden Falcons... The Carolina Mudcats kept pace by also splitting their six games, but now find themselves in a tie for second in the division and for third overall with the surprising Columbia Rattlesnakes, who have won three out of five, and 14 out of their last 20... The Tijuana Banditos fell back to .500 after going 3-4, while the Philadelphia Endzone Animals won four out of seven to remain in 10th overall, and the Hillsborough Destroyers split their six games to remain at the bottom of the Morris Division.

This could be the year the Morris Division breaks its three-year losing streak at the All-Star Game: Five out of the seven DMBL teams that are under .500 are in the Hanover Division, including the league's two worst teams. But maybe things are starting to turn around, as two of the division's worst teams are heating up: The Honolulu Sharks finally showed some life after a dismal 7-21 stretch, winning five out of six this week including four in a row; and the Hoboken Cutters won four out of seven -- their first winning week this season! But the class of this division remains the Newark Sugar Bears and the Stanhope Mighty Men, who are a half-dozen games ahead of anyone else in the Hanover. Not only are they the only teams in the division with winning records, but they are neck-and-neck for the best record in baseball with the Iron Fist, Mudcats and Rattlesnakes in a virtual five-way tie for first place. The Sugar Bears split their six games this week, while the Mighty Men crept up to within a half-game of them by winning four out of seven... Just three weeks ago, the Phoenix Dragons had a 19-12 record and were sitting atop the Hanover Division, tied for the second-best record in baseball. Now, after another disastrous week (1-7), they're a game under .500 and they've fallen all the way to eighth-place overall. They've gone 4-12 over the last two weeks... The Harrison Rats also were among the league leaders in the first month of the season, but they've fallen off the table after dropping five out of seven this week and 14 out of their last 20... The Westwood Deductions continue to lock up their position in the lottery draft with another miserable week, dropping five out of seven. They're now 20 games under .500.

Two U's, Four Saves

Honolulu went 5-1 despite posting just a +3 run differential this week (25 runs scored, 22 runs allowed). That's not much of a margin for error, but closer  Ugueth Urbina was just about perfect, going 4-for-4 in save chances while allowing just one hit, one walk and one run (1.69 ERA, 3.4 R/9) over 5.1 IP to lock up the the Presidential Knock-Out Pitcher of the Week Award. Urbina was the only closer with four saves, twice more than any one else this week. Shark relievers Erasmo Ramirez, Kelly Wunsch and Scott Sullivan also were sharp, combining to give up 0 R, 1 H and 6 K in 6 IP in five appearances...  Arkansas's Byung-Hyun Kim had a win and two saves (1 R, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K) in 6.1 IP and stranded eight inherited runners in helping Arkansas to their 6-1 record... This week's other top relievers: Carolina's Francisco Cordero (1 W, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 5 K in 4.2 IP); Columbia's Joe Nathan (2 W, 0 R, 0 H, 3 BB, 5 K in 2.2 IP); Tijuana's Eric Gagne (1 W, 1 SV, 0 R, 1 H, 0 BB, 7 K in 4.1 IP); 

Vancouver's Ben Sheets is now a perfect 9-0 after a thrilling 6-4 win over Phoenix. Sheets, who went 0-3 in spring training, has won all nine of his regular season starts, with a 3.00 ERA and 10.3 R/9. The most amazing stat? He's allowed just 4 walks against 40 strikeouts... Carolina's Tim Hudson had this week's only shutout, a dominanting 4-0 blanking of the Banditos in which he scattered just five hits and two walks. The effort was particularly clutch for the Mudcats because they had burned through their entire bullpen the night before after starter Ron Villone had to leave after just 17 pitches in the first inning... Another key contributor for the Sharks this week was Roy Oswalt, who picked up the win in a 2-1, 10-inning nail-biter over Westwood... Speaking of the Deductions, why would they send Runelvys Hernandez to Triple-A? The 25-year-old right-hander got the bad news after going 7 strong innings (3 H, 3 BB, 1 ER) for his third win on the season. "Elvis" may have a mediocre 4.76 ERA and 13.4 R/9, but he does lead the team with a .750 quality start percentage, and with a .500 winning percentage -- which is .217 points better than the team's winning percentage!

Blasting Off With Surhoff

The Golden Falcons can count on huge numbers from Barry Bonds (.346, 1.356 OPS, 5 HR, 11 RBI), but it's just not fair when they also get monster production from the likes of B.J. Surhoff. The 38-year-old DH/1B/OF joined the team on April 29 when Adam Kennedy went on the D.L., and he's been raking like an All-Star ever since. This week, Surhoff led the league in batting (.480), OBP (.552), SLG (1.000), OPS (1.552), RBIs (12), runs created per 27 outs (22.6), and total average (1.933) to win his first-ever OmahaSteaks.com Batter of the Week Award. Surhoff also had 4 HRs, 6 R and 25 total bases, making it the best B.J. performance since Vito Spatafore.

This week's other top performances:  Carolina's Jim Edmonds (.263, 1.229 OPS, 3 HR, 7 R); Harrison's Melvin Mora (.357, 1.114 OPS, 3 HR, 7 RBI); Hoboken's Ryan Klesko (.316, 1.172 OPS, 2 HR, 5 R); Newark's Hideki Matsui (.421, 1.345 OPS, 2 HR, 8 RBI) and Manny Ramirez (.379, 1.316 OPS, 4 HR, 8 RBI); Philly's Albert Pujols (.419, 1.344 OPS, 12.8 RC, 4 2B, 3 HR, 9 R, 9 RBI); Stanhope's Derek Jeter (.370, 9 R, 1 SB); Tijuana's Hank Blalock (.433, 1.133 OPS, 6 2B); Vancouver's Edgar Martinez (.435, 1.438 OPS, 4 HR, 9 RBI); and Westwood's Matt Stairs (.333, 1.147 OPS, 3 HR, 8 RBI).

Take Three: Phoenix's Ichiro Suzuki hit just .152 in 36 plate appearances this week, but two of his five hits were three-baggers, which led the league this week. In fact, Ichiro has 7 triples this season, tying him with Hoboken's Dmitri Young for the league lead. At their current pace, Ichiro and Young will eclipse the DMB Era (1997-present) record of 20 triples in a season, set in 2002 by former Dragon Juan Uribe (now with Stanhope). Young, with 7 triples in 49 games, is on a pace to leg out 23 triples; Ichiro, with 7 in 47, is on track for 24. We don't even need to speculate if they'll touch the all-time record -- a mind-boggling 62 triples, smacked by Cheyenne's Deion Sanders in 1993.

So Close and Yet So Far

Tijuana's Edgar Renteria came within one game of tying one of the most elusive records in baseball: Jim Eisenreich's 32-game hitting streak. Renteria hit safely in 31 straight games, but was denied the record when he went 0-for-4 in Saturday's 7-3 loss to Carolina.

Renteria didn't put wood on the ball in four of his five plate appearances that day, walking once and fanning three times. But the one ball he put into play -- and his only chance at tying the record at 32 games -- had some unusual circumstances. In the top of the 4th inning, Mudcat third baseman Aramis Ramirez felt his hamstring tighten up and came out for a pinch runner. The team doesn't have a back-up third baseman, and Carolina manager Lenny Dykstra put outfielder Richard Hidalgo at the hot corner for the first time since Little League. The ball has a way of finding a guy playing out of position, and sure enough, with Austin Kearns on first base after a two-out single, Renteria smashed a two-hopper that smacked off Hidalgo's chest and then clunked off his glove for an error. (The inning would end on the next batter, when Craig Wilson grounded out to second.)

Should the error have been ruled a hit? Renteria doesn't think so. "Aramis makes that play with his eyes closed," Renteria said. "I don't want the record on a play like that, especially the one that's going to tie the record. That's the replay they show on SportsCenter 'til I'm 90 years old." Renteria did have a safety in his next game, but went hitless in the game after that. But he was philosophical about the end of the streak. "Hey, I have over 100 games left to play this season," he said. "That's just enough games to break the record three times over!"

The DMBL record of hits in 32 straight games was set by Eisenreich with the Sugar Bears in 1997. Eisenreich, now Newark's hitting coach, wished Renteria well during the streak, but after it was over, admitted he was pleased to see his cherished record survive another onslaught. "(Expletive deleted), that's (expletive deleted) one of the (expletive deleted) most (expletive deleted) in the (expletive deleted) of the (expletive deleted) league. I'm really (expletive deleted) happy for (expletive deleted) Edgar and I'm (expletive deleted) sure one (expletive deleted) day the (expletive deleted) record will fall, but for (expletive deleted) now I'm glad to have the (expletive deleted) for at least (expletive deleted) (expletive deleted) day."

No other player has ever had a 31-game hitting streak, though it should be noted that Hillsborough's Delino DeShields ended the 1998 season riding a 30-game hitting streak. (The Ironically, Hidalgo also has one of the league's top-10 hitting streaks, with a safety in 25 straight games when played for Vatican City in 2001). And an Eisenreich protegè, Newark's Manny Ramirez, is the only player with two streaks on the top 10 list. (Note that league historians are fairly certain that Eisenreich's 32-game hitting streak is the all-time league record, but data for hitting streaks isn't available for the Microleague Era.) It will be a few weeks before anyone else can qualify for the top 10: The longest active streak at the moment is just eight games, by Honolulu's Joe Randa and Tijuana's Shannon Stewart.

Deal One Is Done

The Rats and Deductions pulled off the first trade since Draft Day with a blockbuster swap that could herald a busy trading season in the DMBL. Westwood gave up OF Carlos Beltran, a 3rd round pick and a 5th round pick and got back SP Vicente Padilla, 1B Derrek Lee, 3B Corey Koskie and prospect Kazuo Matsui. The Ducks had to cut RP Robb Nen -- out for the year with a shoulder injury -- and 3B Edgardo Alfonzo to make room on the 30-man roster for the new players, while the Rats freed up enough room under the salary cap to sign RP Jose Mesa, OF Matt Lawton and SS Jack Wilson.

For analysis, we turn to ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. "Beltran is a 26-year-old stud with good power and great speed," Kiper said. "He'll really help Harrison's secondary. Lee is a big target with nice hands and he'll be the tight end the Ducks have been looking for since they moved out of Brooklyn. I like Padilla as their starting QB, and I think this Matsui kid will be the starter in their backfield by the middle of 2005." Uh... huh? I guess we should've asked Scott Burnside.

The Iron Fist released SP Kris Benson after team owner Yaro Zajac got a look at his wife's home page -- not because he thought it was dirty, but because Benson wouldn't make his wife go out with him. Benson was replaced by Lyle Overbay on the roster. Overbay said his wife is "ready, willing and able" if it means a chance for him to play every day... The Endzone Animals had a busy week, cutting pitchers Mike Hampton and Pat Hentgen and 3B Wes Helms, and signing pitchers R.A. Dickey and Joe Kennedy. But starter Adam Eaton got hurt just two days later, so Hentgen was "back" even before he cleaned out his locker. Helms also didn't have much of a vacation -- the Golden Falcons claimed him off the waiver wire, releasing pitching prospect Ryan Wagner. 

This week's other moves: Carolina signed RP Scott Sauerbeck; Harrison released 1B Paul Konerko and signed SP Kenny Rogers; Hoboken signed RP Felix Rodriguez and released prospect Kevin Youkilis; Honolulu signed C Tom Wilson; Newark dropped 3B Robin Ventura and added  SP Jeff Suppan; Stanhope added catcher Brandon Inge and middle infielder Juan Uribe and released pitchers Jon Garland and Dan Plesac.

Lay 'Er Down an' Smack 'Em Yack 'Em

First it was smallpox. Then chicken pox, followed by bubonic plague. Now the league is faced with its most dire plague yet: The dreaded ebonic plague. At least nine players have been struck down by the virus so far, making it the worst outbreak since they took What's Happening Now!! off the air. Among the infection's victims are Stanhope's Jorge Posada, Westwood's Al Leiter, Carolina's Ron Villone and Hillsborough's Carlos Pena, but the most severe case was detected in Columbia's Zach Day, who could be out until sometime in June. "S' mo-fo butter layin' to th' bone," Day said. "Jackin' me up... tightly." The latest plague was enough to keepHillsborough's Marlon Byrd up nights thinking about it, and send Phoenix shortstop Nomar Garciaparra off on an impromptu vacation. Tijuana's Chris Hammond was so moved by the plight of teammate Shannon Stewart that he donated him his kidney, but doctors later determined Stewart didn't need it. Hammond will be out about a week as doctors try to put his kidney back in.

In other news, tragedy struck the league this week when Carolina middle reliever Paul Shuey died away after watching The Ring. Flags were flown at half-mast across the league and the Mudcats will wear a patch with Shuey's number on it, as soon as someone can remember which number he wore. Our offices at This Week in DMBL were flooded with letters of sympathy for Shuey's family. This fan writes: "I'm Paul Shuey and I'm not dead. You can't die from watching that stupid movie, and anyway, I didn't even watch 'The Ring', I watched 'Lord of the Rings'. Signed, Paul Shuey." And this letter from another fan: "Seriously, this is Paul Shuey again. Please stop printing this awful rumor about me. I am not dead. Signed, Paul Shuey." Fans, we hear your pain and our heart goes out to all of you.

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.