Week 13 - June 21, 2004  

Flying Fish

The Carolina Mudcats swam into a tie for the league's best overall record with a perfect 5-0 record this week, and are now riding a six-game winning streak. The Arkansas Golden Falcons were almost perfect, winning three out of four... The Columbia Rattlesnakes remained in 3rd place in the division, 5th overall, after splitting their first four games of the second half, while the Vancouver Ironfist  remained in 6th place overall despite dropping four out of five... The Tijuana Banditos dropped three out of five and are now 3 games under .500, while the Philadelphia Endzone Animals went 1-4... The Hillsborough Destroyers held onto the league's worst record despite winning three out of five this week.

The Newark Sugar Bears could only manage one win this week, dropping three games, and have fallen from a tie for 1st place overall to 2 games behind Arkansas for the league lead. The Stanhope Mighty Men took advantage of the Sugar Bears' woeful week, making up two games in the standings by winning three out of four, including a 5-4 win on Friday in Newark... The Honolulu Sharks won three out of five this week, and seven out of their last 10, to move four games under .500, while the Phoenix Dragons went 2-3 this week to fall 3½ games behind them... The Hoboken Cutters continue to sneak up in the standings. They're now in 11th place overall after winning three out of five this week, trading places with the Harrison Rats, who dropped four out of five. The Rats, who were two games under .500 six weeks ago, have gone 10-24 (.294) since. The Westwood Deductions, who were 8½ games behind the Rats at that point, are now just 1 game behind them and threatening to climb out of last place in the division, 13th place overall, after winning three out of five.

Twice As Nice

For the second week in a row, Honolulu's Jason Giambi gets a case of free steaks as the OmahaSteaks.com Batter of the Week. Giambi led the league in OBP (.667), SLG (1.154), OPS (1.821), runs created (11.2), isolated power (.692), secondary average (1.308) and AB/HR (4.3). He also was tied for the league lead in HRs (3) and walks (8). Giambi also led the league in runs created per 27 outs (43.3) and in total average (3.286) -- second place in those categories went to Stanhope's Gary Sheffield, who posted a 20.1 RC/27 and a 1.889 total average. Overall, Giambi hit .462 (6-13) with 6 R and 8 RBI in Honolulu's five games this week. Teammates Miguel Tejada (.409, 1.095 OPS, 2 2B, 1 HR, 5 R) and Shawn Green (.400, .978 OPS, 2 2B, 8 R) were Giambi's supporting cast.

Sheffield finished second in the balloting, hitting .438 (7-16) with a 1.444 OPS, 3 HR, 4 R and 6 RBI, backed up in the lineup by Milton Bradley (.400, 1.433 OPS, 3 2B, 3 RBI), Mike Lowell (.400, 1.471 OPS, 3 HR, 6 RBI) and Jorge Posada (.500, 1.248 OPS, 1 HR, 3 R)... Meanwhile, Sheffield's former team, the Rats, have been struggling ever since they traded him away, but the offense may be coming around behind Melvin Mora (.450, 1.172 OPS, 1 HR, 4 R) and Carlos Beltran (.375, 1.208 OPS, 1 HR, 4 RBI)... Arkansas's Barry Bonds is leading the league in both the conventional Triple Crown (.360 BA, 34 HR, 85 RBI) and the sabermetric Triple Crown (.461 OBP, .752 SLG, 111.4 RC) after hitting .333 with a 1.067 OPS (2 HR, 6 RBI) this week. Bonds is the only player in league history to win either Triple Crown, taking both titles during his record-breaking 2002 Kevin Mitchell Award campaign.

This week's other top batters: Hillsborough's Carlos Delgado (.333, 1.256 OPS, 2 HR, 5 RBI); Hoboken's Dmitri  Young (.391, 1.373 OPS, 3 HR, 10 RBI); Phoenix's Todd Walker (.615, 1.667 OPS, 2 2B, 4 RBI); and Tijuana's Bret Boone (.333, 1.354 OPS, 3 HR) and Edgar Renteria (.450, 1.050 OPS, 2 2B, 5 RBI).

Fit to be Mantei'd

In the first week of the season, Columbia's Matt Mantei won the RandomURL Pitcher of the Week Award. Now, in the first week of the second half, Mantei again won the PotW award after recording two perfect appearances. Mantei retired all nine batters he faced this week, picking up two saves in two appearances to jump into the third place on the saves leaderboard. On the season, Mantei is 1-1 with 18 SV (3 BS) with a 0.78 ERA, 9.6 R/9 and 8.6 K/9. Teammates Dan Miceli and Ben Weber also each picked up a win, without allowing an earned run... Other top performances from relievers this week: Arkansas's Byung-Hyun Kim (1-0, 1 SV, 0 R, 1 H, 0 BB, 3 K in 4.0 IP); Carolina's Brendan Donnelly (2-0, 0 R, 3 H, 2 BB, 4 K in 5.1 IP); Hillsborough's LaTroy Hawkins (0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 8 K in 4.0 IP); Honolulu's Rafael Soriano (1 SV, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 4 K in 4.2 IP); Newark's John Smoltz (0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K in 2.2 IP); Phoenix's Rafael Betancourt (1-0, 0 R, 3 H, 1 BB, 2 K in 5.2 IP); Stanhope's Shigetoshi Hasegawa (2-0, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K in 3.2 IP); and Tijuana's Guillermo Mota (0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 7 K in 6.0 IP). 

With most teams playing just a handful of games this week, no pitcher made more than one start. The only shutout of the week was recorded by Hoboken's Joel Pineiro, who gave up 8 H and 0 BB (and 9 K) in 9.0 IP. Other great starts were turned in by Arkansas's Kevin Brown (1-0, 1 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 7 K in 7.0 IP); Tijuana's Javier Vazquez (1-0, 1 ER, 8 H, 4 BB, 7 K in 7.1 IP); and Westwood's Vicente Padilla (1-0, 0 R, 7 H, 2 BB, 6 K in 6.1 IP).

When the Shark Bites...

Honolulu has battled to remain in contention, 2½ games out of the final playoff spot, despite having little margin for error with the league's second-worst offense. But, with 3B Joe Randa and RP Scott Sullivan already on the shelf, the Sharks will now have to make due without OF Johnny Damon, who lost control of his bodily functions after this harrowing head-over-heels tumble last week, and IF Mark DeRosa, who was so sickened by the sight of Damon's soiled uniform pants that he won't return to the locker room... The Ironfist also have had a rough few weeks, dropping from a commanding lead in the Morris Division to, this week, just one game above .500. The news just got worse for the Vans this week, as two key members of the squad are going to be out for awhile. Rookie Aaron Guiel, hitting .281 (.833 OPS) with 12 2B, 9 HR and 30 RBI in 192 AB, will take off about two weeks to celebrate high-school graduation. The 31-year-old rookie graduated 13 years ago, but he said it's a tradition he never misses. "Dude, I'm going to party like it's 1991," Guiel said before funneling a six-pack of Miller Genuine Draft. Meanwhile, catcher Chad Moeller (.200, .539 OPS in 215 AB) has refused to put on his catcher's mask after finding a spider crawling in it. "No way man. I saw Arachnophobia," Moeller said. While psychoanalysts try to find a way to get Moeller back behind the plate, the Ironfist re-signed minor-league phenom Brian Schneider and will have him split the catching duties with Miguel Olivo.

In other news this week, Arkansas signed C Tom Wilson and 2B Adam Kennedy and released 1B B.J. Surhoff; Phoenix released SP Mike Hampton; Philly signed OF Eric Byrnes and released OF Alex Sanchez; Phoenix signed SP Mike Hampton; and Vancouver signed OF John Vander Wal.

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.