Week 9 - May 21, 2007

From the Out House to the White House

What an amazing three weeks it's been for the D.C. Bushslappers. Shooting up all the way from second-to-last place, D.C. won a league-high 7 of 8 this week, including a six-game winning streak, and are now sitting in 5th place overall. Since Week 6, the Slappers have gone an astounding 19-3, jumping over nine teams in the standings! D.C.'s sudden rise has shaken up the rest of the standings, aside from the front of the pack, where the Newark Sugar Bears went 5-3 to remain in 1st place overall and the Morris Division-leading Philadelphia Endzone Animals kept pace by also winning 5 out of 8. Newark has a 5-game lead on Philly and a 11-game lead in the Hanover Division, while Philly enjoys a 5½-game lead in the Morris... The Honolulu Sharks (3-4) and Vancouver Iron Fist flip-flopped in the standings again, with the Iron Fist claiming 3rd place overall after going 4-3. The Sharks went 3-4 to fall a half-game behind the Fisters and 1½ games ahead of high-flying D.C... The Arkansas Golden Falcons went 4-3 to claim sole possession of 6th place, breaking out of a three-way tie last week with D.C. and the Hoboken Cutters, who went 3-5 to fall all the way to 8th place, a game behind Matthew's Mighty Men of Marietta, who dropped from 5th to 7th.

Despite a 2-5 week, the Hillsborough Hired Hitmen held onto 9th place, but they're now 2½ games out of the final playoff berth and just a game ahead of New Jersey Team Buddah,  who posted the league's second-best record (5-2) to move up one spot in the standings to 10th place... The South Boston Gang went 2-5, exchanging places with the Buddahs in 11th place... The Carolina Mudcats keep trying to swim in the right direction, but at least they tread water this week, going 4-4... The Sardine City Straphangers continue to struggle, going 2-5 to remain in 13th place. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Rat Pack went 3-4 and are now just 2½ games worse than the Hangmen.

The week ahead: It's a playoff preview as the 3rd-place Iron Fist take on the 1st-place Sugar Bears, the 6th-place Golden Falcons battle the 4th-place Sharks, and 8th-place Hoboken hopes to turn the tables on 5th-place D.C. Remember there will be no games on Saturday or Sunday due to the holiday weekend, but the games will resume with a special Memorial Day doubleheader on Monday.

Beltin' Beltran

The Bushslappers continue to win the weekly awards -- and hey, when your team goes on a 19-3 run, that's to be expected! Last week starter John Maine got the honors, and the week before that it was closer Jonathan Papelbon. So why not complete the trifecta and give the JRCigars.com Smokin' Batter of the Week Award to D.C. as well? No one can argue with the selection of Carlos Beltran, who hit .394 (1.504 OPS) with 4 2B, 5 HR, 8 R and 12 RBI. The switch-hitting centerfielder led the league in total bases (34), extra base hits (10), secondary average (.758), isolated power (.636), tied for the league lead in home runs (5), and delivered the game-winning hit in two games this week. After getting off to a rough start this season -- he was hitting .223 just three weeks ago -- the Bushslappers' rise in the standings has been fueled by Beltran's resurgence -- he's had 14 HRs and 28 RBIs over that span! On the season, he's now hitting .266 (1.023 OPS) with 45 R and 51 RBI, and is tied for the league lead in home runs with 24. He's also riding the league's longest active hit streak at 15 games. Beltran credits the team's amazing turn-around to a team meeting with motivational speaker Matt Foley. "We were really freaked out by all his talk about how he has to live in a van down by the river," Beltran said. "We figured if we didn't start winning games they'd bring him back to bother us some more."

Several other batters also had huge numbers this week: Arkansas's Lance Berkman (.409, 1.231 OPS, 5 2B, 3 RBI); Carolina's Rocco Baldelli (.400, 1.306 OPS, 4 HR, 8 RBI); Hillsborough's Robinson Cano (.500, 1.250 OPS, 2 HR, 4 RBI); Hoboken's Mike Cameron (.531, 1.509 OPS, 4 HR, 10 RBI); Honolulu's Jermaine Dye (.370, 1.415 OPS, 5 HR, 13 RBI); Las Vegas's Shawn Green (.393, 1.092 OPS, 2 HR, 9 RBI); New Jersey's Yuniesky Betancourt (.643, 1.488 OPS, 2 2B, 11 RBI); Newark's Marlon Anderson (.583, 1.732 OPS, 2 HR, 15 RBI); Philly's Albert Pujols (.472, 1.403 OPS, 4 HR, 11 RBI); and Sardine City's Joe Crede (.429, 1.163 OPS, 2 HR, 6 RBI).

Arkansas's Jose Cruz Jr. had himself quite a week: The left fielder, used almost exclusively in a platoon role with rookie Nick Markakis, went 7-for-7 with a double, a home run and 5 runs batted in -- in just two games! The switch-hitting Cruz, who has been used against southpaws to this point in the season, had hoped to steal some more playing time from the struggling Markakis (.245, .682 OPS), but now it appears he'll be sharing the left field job with another rookie, as the Golden Falcons signed Gabe Gross. But so far the results haven't been too impressive, as Gross went 1-for-8 with 4 Ks in his first two games.

That's a three-bagger! Marietta's Wes Helms continues his assault on the modern triples record, with 2 more this week (.440 BA, 1.502 OPS, 3 HR, 8 R).  Helms now has an astounding 13 triples in 66 games, a pace that would give him 32 on the season -- eight more than Jose Reyes had last year, when he set the DMB Era record. Alas, Helms would need to double his pace to have a shot at the all-time record of 62 triples in a season, set by Deion Sanders in 1993. If Helms keeps up his triples pace, it would be the third consecutive year the DMB Era record has fallen; Reyes's 24 nipped the record Carl Crawford had set in 2005 with 23 triples, three more than Juan Uribe had in 2002.

Jose Can You See?

There's two schools of thought when it comes to building a franchise from the ground up. Some owners prefer throwing their young talent right into the fire. The team may suffer through a few tough seasons at first, but those youngsters could form the core of a future champion. The flipside is protect those young players in the minors for as long as possible by signing a bunch of veterans. The new franchise will be competitive right away, which will help build up the fan base, while the future stars are allowed to mature at their own pace. Of course, most owners prefer a combination of the two approaches, but lean toward one direction or the other. This year, we have two new franchises and each appears to be favoring one theory. Sardine City appears to be following the "play for the future" model, with 21 of the 30 players on their roster age 29 or less -- including 11 who are under age 25. New Jersey appears to be taking the opposite approach. Sixteen of their 30 players are at least 30 years old, including five who are over age 35. One of those old-timers is Jose Contreras, who -- supposedly 35 years old -- led the team to a 5-2 record this week. Contreras won both his starts while allowing just 4 earned runs (2.51 ERA, 9.4 R/9, 6 BB, 10 K in 14.1 IP). Both wins came against tough teams seen as playoff contenders -- his first start was an 8-inning gem against Hoboken in which he allowed just 3 earned runs on 6 hits and 1 walk in a 14-3 blowout. He also pitched with a comfortable lead in his second outing, holding the Mighty Men to just 1 run on 3 hits (but 5 walks) in 6.1 innings for a 7-1 win. Contreras was the only starter this week to win both his starts while keeping his ERA under 3 and his R/9 under 10. His two terrific starts earned him The Angry Old Wizard Pitcher of the Week Award. Contreras may be an angry old man himself, but he's in just his third year in the DMBL, and so far he's having his best season by far (3-4, 3.73 ERA, 11.8 R/9, .545 QS%); in his previous two seasons, both with Phoenix, he was 16-29 with a 5.80 ERA, 14.6 R/9 and .400 QS%. "We're closing in on that sixth playoff spot," Contreras said through a translator. "Both seasons with Phoenix we finished in 13th place. I am going to carry this team to the post-season -- or maybe get traded to a better team, whichever."

Arkansas has had a tough time nailing down victories this season -- their bullpen has allowed 38 percent of inherited runners to score, which is second-worst in the league, and they're tied for 3rd most blown saves (11) and tied for 5th for fewest holds (15). After watching the struggles of youngsters Fernando Rodney (6.02 ERA, 15.4 R/9, 2 W, 6 SV, 3 L, 3 BSV), Justin Duchscherer (5.58 ERA, 14.3 R/9, 3 W, 12 SV, 5 L, 6 BSV), Aaron Heilman (7.15 ERA, 15.6 R/9, 0 W, 2 SV, 4 L, 1 BSV) and Brad Lidge (11.51 ERA, 21.4 R/9, 0 W, 0 SV, 1 L, 0 BSV), the team went out and found a veteran closer on the waiver wire. Bob Wickman was perfect in his first save chance for the Arks, retiring all three men he faced to nail down a tough 7-6 win over Hoboken. "I'm just happy to be part of a winning team again," said Wickman, who was released -- oddly enough -- by New Jersey. Wickman had 1 win, 1 save, 3 losses and 3 blown saves (9.00 ERA, 18.0 R/9) in six ugly games for Team Buddah. "That's a weird place, man. Everytbody's all, 'noble truth this, precept that.' Huh? I just want to pitch and eat cheese."

Pap Smeared?

D.C.'s impressive march from the bottom of the standings to the top may have to take a brief hiatus, as closer Jonathan Papelbon is missing. The rookie, in the midst of a stand-out freshman campaign (1 W, 10 SV, 1 L, 3 BSV, 2.00 ERA, 9.0 R/9, 11 BB, 33 K in 27.0 IP) was in the midst of an interview with a morning zoo crew when he said he wanted to donkey punch the daughter of a certain Mafioso. Paps hasn't been seen since.

Philly's had a tough time filling its middle infield spots so far this season -- six different players have had at least 10 games at second and/or shortstop for the team so far thsi season. It looks like a seventh player will soon join that list as starting shortstop David Eckstein is out until next month after coming down with a bad case of acne. He hoped to play through the facial outbreak but burst into tears as fans in Arkansas started throwing slices of pepperoni pizza at him. "Don't look at me!" Eckstein sobbed as he ran off the field... The only other notable injury came to South Boston's Dave Roberts, who has a hangnail. Surprisingly, he has decided to "rehab" the injury in Aruba. "Hey man, we're in 11th place. No one will miss me," Roberts said.

Comings and Goings

After last week's big trade of Chris Carpenter for Prince Fielder, this seemed like an anti-climactic week, but there were some interesting moves.

Sardine City was the busiest team, making three moves: They activated Josh Barfield and signed Yorvit Torrealba and Juan Pierre (claimed off waivers from Hillsborough), cutting Julio Lugo, Henry Blanco and Bernie Williams... Arkansas also was busy, signing a lefty bat in Gabe Gross and a veteran reliever in Bob Wickman. To make room, the Falcs cut Ryan Shealy and Hank Blalock... Las Vegas gave up on erractic reliever Taylor Tankersley and signed Ryan Franklin... D.C. released prospect Andy Marte and picked up Casey Blake... Vancouver released Scott Podsednik and activated Maicer Izturis... Hillsborough released Pierre after activating C.C. Sabathia... Philly continued its on-again, off-again relationship with Khalil Greene, cutting the golden-haired shortstop and signing Bobby Crosby. The Animals also put David Eckstein on the D.L. but, surprisingly, didn't immediately re-sign Greene. Instead, they picked up rookie pitcher Scott Baker.

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.