Week Twelve (May 29, 2002)  

How Sweet It Is

The Newark Sugar Bears ended the week riding a five-game winning streak, the seventh time this season they've strung together five or more consecutive wins, moving a half-game behind the Arkansas Golden Falcons for the best record in baseball. The Sugar Bears also became the first team to cross the 500-run plateau, and boast a league-best +209 run differential. In the rear-view mirror and fading fast are the Hoboken Cutters, who endured a miserable 1-4 week to fall 16 games back and just 1 1/2 games ahead of the surging Honolulu Sharks, who have won 4 in a row and 6 of their last 7... The Phoenix Dragons, who won 4 out of 5 this week, are now just 3 games out of the final playoff spot. After opening the season at 14-29, the Dragons have gone 24-14, a .632 winning percentage... Matthew's Mighty Men of Stanhope continue to tread water, going 3-2 to stay a game ahead of the Brooklyn Bean Counters, who went 2-3... In last place and still sinking fast, the Harrison Rats went 1-4 to bury their record 40 games below .500. They're on pace to lose 122 games this year, second only to Waikiki's dismal 33-129 mark in 1993.

Are the Golden Falcons mere mortals after all? Arkansas has finally cooled off from their record-shattering pace, dropping 5 of their last 10. If this keeps up, they'll win "only" 121 games... The high-flying Wanaque Wolverines, the same franchise that came out of nowhere to grab a wild-card slot in their first year of existence as the Vatican City Cardinals, have won 9 in a row to climb into second place in the Morris and 1 1/2 games behind Hoboken for the third-best record in baseball. Two weeks ago, they were mired in 5th place, two games under .500... The Tijuana Banditos went 1-4 this week, dropping 6 of their last 7, and have fallen into third... The Philadelphia Endzone Animals (1-3) and Vancouver Iron Fist (2-2) keep flirting with .500, but haven't turned the corner yet... The Carolina Mudcats (1-3) and Columbia Rattlesnakes (1-5) continue battling it out in the division cellar.

Going Going Gado!

After being named to his first All-Star game last year, Wanaque's Carlos Delgado spent this year's mid-summer classic at home in Puerto Rico after hitting just .225 with a pathetic .397 slugging percentage over the first 10 weeks of the season. But Gado has been red-hot of late, boosting his batting average 28 points and his OPS 70 points after an incredible 22 hit, 7 HR barrage over the last two weeks. This week, Delgado led the league in hits (13), batting average (.765!), OBP (.650), SLG (1.294) and OPS (1.944) to win his first OmahaSteaks.com Player of the Week Award this season. Delgado's resurgence is having an effect up and down the Wanaque lineup, as Alex Rodriguez (.353, 1.282 OPS, 3 HR, 7 RBI), Preston Wilson (.400, 2 2B, 3 SB) and Jeff Cirillo (.353, 5 R, 3 SB) all posted fine numbers this week... Another superstar emerging from a slump is Honolulu's Shawn Green, slamming 6 HR, 16 R and 19 RBI in his last 14 games. This week, Green hit .423 with a 1.272 OPS for a league-best 10 RBIs, and David Segui hit .421 with a 1.259 OPS with 2 HRs, 5 RBI. Jason Giambi is reaping the benefits of having some protection in the lineup, hitting .435 with a 1.449 OPS, slamming 4 doubles and 2 homers for 7 runs and 10 RBIs.

Who hit .369 with a .436 OBP and .642 SLG this week? The Newark Sugar Bears, who scored an incredible 9.4 runs per game! Leading the way was superstar Chipper Jones (.571, 1.878 OPS), who hit 3 HRs for 8 R, 9 RBI, and Hanover All-Star MVP Manny Ramirez (.368, 1.113 OPS, 1 HR, 3 RBI). Cliff Floyd hit .304 and slugged .739, scoring a league-best 10 runs, and his hitting streak is alive at 19 straight, fourth-best in the league this year... Arkansas's Phil Nevin hit .368 with 2 HRs, 5 runs and 6 RBIs, good for a 1.139 OPS while teammates Barry Bonds hit .450 with a 1.392 OPS, slamming 2 HRs for 5 RBIs, and Lance Berkman (.400, 1.178 OPS) drilled a double, triple and a homer for 4 runs and 4 RBIs... Sammy Sosa (.313, 1.263 OPS) slammed 2 more HRs and knocked in 4 RBIs for Vancouver... Brooklyn's Mark Grace rapped out 12 hits for a .545 batting average (1.363 OPS), while shortstop Ricky Gutierrez hit .316 with a .579 slugging percentage, scoring 4 and knocking in 4 more... Carolina's Rondell White is starting to heat up, hitting .500 (1.439 OPS) with 1 HR, 5 runs, 4 RBIs... Columbia's Cristian Guzman (.435, 1.284 OPS, 7 RBI) rapped out two more triples this week, giving him 9 on the season -- one behind Newark's Mark McLemore and Phoenix's Juan Uribe, who each legged out another this week to reach an even 10... Uribe's teammates, Luis Gonzalez (.444, 1.489 OPS, 2 HR, 5 R), Ichiro (.409, 1.045 OPS, 1 HR, 4 R) and Paul Konerko (.368, 1.139 OPS, 2 HR, 6 RBI), also swung the lumber this week.

Red-Hot in Phoenix

Oh, what a relief it is! The league's firemen gave heroic efforts this week, but no one was more impressive than the Phoenix bullpen, with five relievers combining for a 0.00 ERA. Closer Troy Percival (3 games, 0.00 ERA, 0.00 WHIP) picked up his second Geek Quiz Pitcher of the Week Award of 2002 by picking up a league-best three saves, with three perfect outings. Percival retired all seven batters he faced, two by strikeout, to preserve the three victories. Jose Cabrera, Jim Mecir, Jeff Nelson and Scott Sullivan combined to allow one unearned run, 10 hits, 5 walks and 11 Ks in 10 IP, picking up two holds and another save... After four of five Hoboken starters couldn't make it out of the fourth inning this week, reliever Mike Buddie proved to be a pitching coach's best friend, giving up 7 hits, no walks and just one run while striking out 8 in 9.1 IP, appearing in four of five games. Reliever Danys Baez picked up the team's only win this week, and gave up 1 hit, 1 walk and no runs in 3 appearances. All told, the bullpen ate up 25.2 innings in five games this week... Columbia middle man Juan Moreno was nearly perfect in four appearances this week, giving up just one hit, one walk and no runs, while fanning 5, in 4.2 innings... Wanaque's Antonio Alfonseca picked up his league-leading 7th relief win and dropped his ERA to a team-best 1.79 ERA after giving up no runs in two appearances, while Kazuhiro Sasaki claimed two saves and gave up no runs in three games and Cory Bailey went 2-0 with a save in three games, giving up no runs and one hit; pitching in garbage time in a 21-12 win over Philadelphia, he was tagged for three earned runs and two walks... Three Newark relievers -- Steve Karsay, Arthur Rhodes and John Smoltz -- combined for a 0.00 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 8 Ks in 4 appearances. Stanhope's relief corps was even better, with Matt Herges, Al Levine and Ricardo Rincon combining to give up no runs, no hits and no walks in three appearances.

Arkansas's Kevin Brown dropped his ERA to a league-leading 2.38 after allowing no runs and just one hit in 7 IP against Tijuana last week, picking up his 11th win on the season. Brown hasn't allowed an earned run over his last 14 IP... Honolulu's Roy Oswalt scattered 8 hits and a walk in a complete-game, 3-1 win over Columbia last week, improving to 7-5 on the season... Every Newark starter picked up a win last week, with John Thomson and Eric Milton going the distance to join Randy Johnson with 11 wins... Talk about winning ugly: Wanaque's Jeff Weaver improved to 9-3 despite giving up 9 hits and 6 earned runs in Harrison's Wade Miller combined with two relievers for a 1-0 win over Stanhope last week, the first time the Rats have blanked an opponent in over two months. Miller gave up seven hits and a walk over 7 1/3rd innings before Derek Lowe and Mike Magnante closed it out. The team hadn't held anyone scoreless since Shane Reynolds threw a 3-hit shutout March 24.

Say It Ain't So!

Vancouver GM Yaro Zajac was burned in effigy in the parking lot of the Iron Dome after Wednesday's announcement that founding franchise player Ken Griffey Jr. (.304, 14 HR, 38 RBI) was traded to the Stanhope Mighty Men with a 5th-round draft pick for outfielder Moises Alou (.269, 6 HR, 37 RBI), catcher Shawn Wooten (.315, 3 HR, 47 R) and a 9th-round draft pick. Everything you wanted to know about this historic trade will be detailed in an upcoming edition of Did You Know?.

A day after landing Griffey, "Trader Dave" sent struggling outfielder Jermaine Dye (.218, 12 HR, 43 RBI) to Brooklyn for a 6th-round draft pick.

A baker's dozen of players, including several veterans and two former All-Stars, were handed their walking papers this week as general managers around the league decided it was time to fish or cut bait. Perhaps the biggest name to get "red tagged" this week was three-time All-Star Todd Hundley, released by Vancouver. Hundley was the first player in DMBL history to hit for the cycle back in 1998. Hundley, who entered the season with a career .258 batting average, .518 slugging percentage and 163 HRs, was a five-year veteran who topped 30 HRs four times, but was hitting just .190 with 3 HRs in 42 games for the Iron Fist... Former Newark All-Star Carl Everett, hitting .192 with 5 HRs for the Triple-A Raleigh Crawdads, exercised an escape clause in his contract that said he could declare himself a free agent if not on the major league roster by the All-Star break. Everett said he expects Newark GM Butch Garretson to be calling by the end of the week... Raul Mondesi, a star with the Jerusalem Rabbis in the late 1990s, was released by the Brooklyn Bean Counters after hitting .179 with 3 HRs in 67 ABs. The six-year veteran smashed 108 doubles, 16 triples and 81 HRs in his three years with Jerusalem.

Other comings and goings: Say hello to Tony Batista, Paul Byrd, Steve Cox, Elmer Dessens, Ryan Franklin, Carlos Guillen, Ted Lilly, Esteban Loaiza, Mike Matheny, Tomokazu Ohka, Ruben Quevedo, Kenny Rogers, Kip Wells and Tim Worrell, all signed this week; and good-bye to James Baldwin, Jason Christiansen, Juan Cruz, Benji Gil, Gary Glover, Derrek Lee, Gil Meche, Alex Ochoa, David Ortiz and Paul Wilson, all sent packing.

Wanaque's Walking Wounded

Wanaque's run at the top wildcard seed may be derailed by the injury bug, with Richard Hidalgo and Ray Durham out until early next week after an unfortunate incident involving water skis... Hoboken's Joel Pineiro got more than he bargained for at the National Aquarium in Baltimore's acclaimed jellyfish exhibit. "I thought it was one of those dolphin things where you jump in the tank and swim with the jellyfish," Pineiro said. "It... wasn't." Pineiro will miss three starts... Stanhope's Mike Lowell (.240, .684 OPS, 5 HR, 22 RBI) was so incensed that he was passed up for the All-Star Game that he filed a class-action lawsuit against Hanover Division fans who voted for Chipper Jones (.358, 1.106 OPS, 25 HR, 72 RBI). But Judge Judy found the case so outrageous she instead gave Lowell two weeks in jail for contempt of court. "And if I find out who voted for Joe Randa (.230, .582 OPS, 4 HR, 33 RBI), he's going to get the death penalty," she said... Carolina's Kevin Millar will be out a week after being attacked by Vancouver's famed "Killer B's" lineup of Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio and Jay Buhner. The three were reunited before Monday's All-Star game to commemorate the five-year anniversary of the famed 1997 squad that set the league record with 118 wins, only to lose in the World Series to the Newark Sugar Bears. "I just asked them if they had Mel Rojas's phone number, and the next thing I know I'm catching a beat down," Millar sobbed.

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.