Week 9 - May 24, 2004  

Crunch Time

The Newark Sugar Bears rampaged through the DMBL this week, winning seven out of eight games to break out of the pack and claim a 2-game lead for the best record in baseball. The Crunch With Punch exploded for a league-high 53 runs, with a .325 team BA and a .943 team OPS... The Stanhope Mighty Men, who were tied for 1st with Newark last week, could "only" manage a 4-2 record and are now two games back, but now have a half-game lead on the second-best record in baseball... The only other teams in the Hanover to post winning records were the division's two worst teams -- the Hoboken Cutters and the Westwood Deductions, who each went 4-3. Each team has won six out of its last 10 games and are slowly moving out of the league basement... The Harrison Rats split their eight games this week to remain two games under .500 and 5½ games out of a playoff spot... The Phoenix Dragons and the Honolulu Sharks each went 2-5.

The Arkansas Golden Falcons played just four games this week, but they won them all. So not only did the team get a chance to rest up, but they also moved to 10 games over .500 and leap-frogged from 4th place in the division to 2nd. They're 1½ games behind the Carolina Mudcats for the Morris Division lead after the 'Cats dropped four out of seven... The Vancouver Iron Fist swapped places with the Golden Falcons, dropping from 2nd to 4th after going 3-5 this week, including dropping three out of four to the Sugar Bears... Amidst all that action, the Columbia Rattlesnakes quietly hung onto 3rd place in the division, going 4-3... The Philadelphia Endzone Animals and Tijuana Banditos each went 3-5, while the Hillsborough Destroyers are just a half-game out of 13th place overall after going 2-4.

The week ahead: The schedule-makers gave us a treat this week with several key divisional match-ups. The Sugar Bears head into Stanhope for a two-game series that could decide who is sitting atop the Hanover Division, while second-place Arkansas hosts a three-game series with third-place Columbia in a Morris Division show-down. Meanwhile, the Sharks and Dragons will try to rekindle their early-season success, facing off for a two-game series in Phoenix. Note that there are no games scheduled for Saturday or Sunday, but the action resumes Monday with a Memorial Day doubleheader, including the Mighty Men at Vancouver and Hoboken hosting Arkansas.

The Mighty Hudson

Carolina managed to stay atop the Morris Division this week largely thanks to the efforts of Tim Hudson. It's easy to see why: Without Hudson, the team would have given up 6.0 runs per game while scoring just 5.3 runs per game. To quote Dan Dierdorf, "You won't win many games if you give up more points than you score." (Well said, Dan!) While the rest of the pitching staff combined to go 1-4 with a 6.00 ERA, Hudson went 2-0 while giving up no runs in 16 IP, allowing 11 H, 4 BB and 13 K, to handily win The Kaleidophone Pitcher of the Week Award. The two scoreless starts cut a quarter-run off Hudson's ERA, jumping him to 1st place on the DMBL leaderboard in ERA (1.88), shutouts (2) and fewest HR/9 (0.3). The two wins  improved his record to 9-1, just one behind the DMBL leader in that category (10). He also ranks second in winning percentage (.900) and quality start percentage (.769)... This week's other top pitchers: Arkansas's Curt Schilling (1-0, 0 R, 4 H, 1 BB, 12 K in 7 IP) and Roger Clemens (1-0, 0 R, 5 H, 1 BB, 6 K in 7 IP); Newark's John Smoltz (4 SV, 0 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 6 K in 5 IP); Phoenix's Kaz Ishii (1-0, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 10 K in 7.2 IP); and Stanhope's Wilson Alvarez (1-0, 1 R, 5 H, 2 BB, 7 K in 6.2 IP).

Vancouver's Ben Sheets must have a guardian angel. The former phenom remains a perfect 10-0 despite getting absolutely pounded by Columbia this week. Sheets could only get one out -- on an RBI sac fly, no less -- and was tagged for 6 hits and 6 earned runs, including back-to-back home runs, before finally getting yanked in the first inning. The awful outing skyrocketed his ERA from 2.80 to 3.43. But the offense bailed Sheets out, pounding out 10 runs to take a 10-9 lead, only to see the bullpen blow it in the 9th. Sheets, after opening the year with 10 wins in his first 10 starts, has gone winless in his last two outings.

Listach Watch: Sheets is just 25 years old, but he's not a rookie, having made his debut with Carolina last season (and getting lit up for 10 H and 5 ER in 4.1 IP). But there were some strong performances by rookie pitchers this week, including Hoboken's Jae Seo (1 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 3 K in 8 IP); Newark's Eric DuBose (1-0, 3 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 K in 8 IP) and Scot Shields (2-0, 6 ER, 16 H, 6 BB, 16 K in 14 IP); and Phoenix's Brandon Webb (3 ER, 8 H, 4 BB, 6 K in 7 IP). But which rookie pitchers are looking like the favorites to win the coveted Pat Listach Rookie of the Year Award? Find out in our upcoming edition of Rookie Watch with Phil Plantier!

Man Oh Manny

Newark's Manny Ramirez was having a relatively quiet season before he broke out this week, hitting .444 (12-27) with a 1.409 OPS to lead the Sugar Bears to a league-high 53 runs scored this week. Ramirez smashed 3 HRs for 9 RBIs and also led the league in OBP (.595), runs created per 27 outs (25.5) and total average (2.133) and was tied for the league lead in runs created (14.2), walks (8) and intentional walks (3) to win his first OmahaSteaks.com Batter of the Week Award this seaon. Meanwhile, Newark's tandem of Rookie of the Year candidates, Marcus Giles and Hideki Matsui, had big weeks again. Giles hit .441 (1.254 OPS) and led the league in hits (15) and total bases (27), while Matsui hit .421 (.924 OPS) with 1 2B and 3 RBI. Speaking of hot rookies, Vancouver's Aaron Guiel (.286 BA, 1.073 OPS, 5 2B, 6 RBI) and Tijuana's Hank Blalock (.464 BA, 1.020 OPS, 1 HR, 6 RBI) aren't conceding anything to the "baby Bears." Another rookie, Hoboken's Larry Bigbie, was hoping nobody would notice he also did something newsworthy this week: He tied the league record for most strikeouts in a game, fanning five times against Stanhope, his former team. For the week, Bigbie hit .233 with a pathetic .515 OPS, and struck out 9 times in 30 AB. The record for Ks in a game, initially set by David Justice of the San Antonio Gunslingers in 1992, has been tied at least twice over the years.

If he had any kind of support in the lineup at all this week, Philly's Albert Pujols surely would have been chewing some delicious Internet steaks. Pujols led the league with a 1.448 OPS (.556 OBP, .893 SLG), and also had a .464 BA, 3 2B, 3 HR and 6 RBI, and is riding a 23-game hitting streak, the second-longest of the year. But the rest of the team combined to hit .256 with a .416 SLG... The Stanhope Mighty Men again lived up to their name, with Cliff Floyd (.353, 1.391 OPS, 3 HR, 8 RBI), Carlos Lee (.368, 1.211 OPS, 3 HR, 6 RBI), Todd Helton (.360, 1.127 OPS, 2 HR, 9 R) and Derek Jeter (.440, 1.102 OPS, 4 R), putting on a hitting exhibition that included a 15-2 drubbing of Hillsborough on Sunday. In that beat-down, Floyd went 1-for-3 with 2 RBI and 2 BB, Lee went 4-for-5 with 3 R, Helton went 5-for-6 with 4 R, and Jeter went 3-for-5 with 2 R.

Also en fuego: Carolina's Aramis Ramirez (.333, 1.120 OPS, 3 HR, 10 RBI); Columbia's Troy Glaus (.429, 1.412 OPS, 4 HR, 8 R) and Trot Nixon (.360, 1.265 OPS, 4 HR, 9 RBI); Harrison's D'Angelo Jimenez (.303, .940 OPS, 2 HR, 5 RBI); Phoenix's Javier Lopez (.355, 1.149 OPS, 4 HR, 8 RBI); and Tijuana's Edgar Renteria (.382, .991 OPS, 3 2B, 2 SB, 7 R).

A Quiet Week... Finally!

After all the excitement last week, with two trades and several waiver-wire claims, this week was fairly tame, with no trades and  no notable transactions. This week's top news was made by Tijuana's Josh Beckett, who announced he will refuse to pitch until the Banditos get better food in the clubhouse. "I'm sick of tacos, man. Every game it's tacos. I mean, I know it's Mexico, but at least give me some enchiladas or burritos or something. Even when we're on the road, all they give us are tacos!"... Interestingly enough, Philly's Jose Vidro also has also gone on strike, saying he stick to a "liquid diet" of vodka and Slurpees until the team serves something other than cheesesteaks. The Endzone Animals, hoping to nip the revolt in the bud, did some roster shuffling and replaced suspected ringleaders Rich Aurilia, Pat Hentgen and Carlos Silva with Adam Kennedy, Scott Schoeneweis and Paul Wilson. "These guys are so happy to have jobs, they'll eat whatever we tell them to eat," said a team spokesman... In more ordinary news this week, Honolulu released C Tom Wilson and activated Einar Diaz.

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.