Week Sixteen (July 2, 2001)  

Arkansas Back on Top

The Arkansas Golden Falcons finally returned to first place in the Morris this week, despite losing four key players to injuries. The Falcons have won 9 of their last 12, including a 7-game win streak... Now in second-place by a half-game, the Vancouver Iron Fist snapped their losing streak at four by taking three straight from the worst team in baseball, the Philadelphia Endzone Animals. But the win streak ended there when Philadelphia pulled out a 4-3 win in Sunday's nightcap -- the only game the Animals won all week!

In the Hanover Division, the Newark Sugar Bears also were battered by injuries but actually managed to pick up a game on the second-place Stanhope Mighty Men. The Sugar Bears went 5-2 this week, winning series against Stanhope and Vatican City... The hottest team in baseball right now are the Brooklyn Bean Counters. The team went 6-1 this week, with the loss on Sunday to Vatican City ending a 7-game winning streak.

In the Race for Sixth Place™, the Carolina Mudcats went 4-3 this week to open up a 1/2 game lead for the final wildcard berth. Tied for seventh are the Phoenix Dragons and Harrison Rats, and one game behind them lurk the red-hot Bean Counters. The Kentucky Hillbillies are two out, the Honolulu Sharks and Columbia Crusaders trail by four and the Hoboken Cutters are 6 1/2 off the pace. The Endzone Animals, 12 games out of 6th place and 26 games below .500, appear a lock for the first pick of the 2002 draft.

Guerrero, Guerrero, Gone!

Kentucky's Vladimir Guerrero blasted 5 HRs this week, including two in the 12-inning, 11-10 win over Columbia on Sunday, and claimed the OmahaSteaks.com Batter of the Week award. Guerrero hit .454 (15-33) with 3 2B, 5 HR, 8 R and 12 RBI, and has an 11-game hitting streak... Another streaker, Newark's Jim Thome, hit .450 (9- 20) with 2 2B, 4 HR, 10 R and 10 RBI in keeping his 12-game hit streak alive... Thome's teammate, Manny Ramirez, hit .370 (10- 27) with 3 HR, 7 R and 9 RBI... With pitchers now paying more attention to teammate David Justice (.282, 31 HR, 112 RBI), Honolulu's Jason Giambi has been getting more respect and seeing better pitches: He only walked twice, but hit .462 (6-13) with 1 2B, 2 HR, 3 R and 7 RBI in just four games this week before being felled for 10 games by an injury... Phoenix's Nomar Garciaparra has fallen badly off the pace to set the single- season hits record, after hitting "just" .281 (9-32) last week. Nevertheless, he collected 3 HR, 7 R and 7 RBI during his slump... Mighty Man Jermaine Dye is making a bid to pass Nomar and reclaim the batting race lead he held for most of the first two months of the season. Dye, in the midst of a 13-game hitting streak, hit .407 (11-27) with 2 2B, 2 HR, 4 R and 7 RBI this week. His teammate, Derek Jeter, continues to battle his way out of his first-half slump, hitting .480 (12-25) with 1 2B, 3 HR, 5 R and 5 RBI this week. He hit over .300 in the month of June... Two players pressed into emergency service due to injuries performed far better than their managers could've hoped. Arkansas's Eric Owens hit .591 (13-22) with 3 2B, 4 R, 5 RBI and a stolen base, and Newark's Adrian Beltre hit .464 (13-28) with 6 2B, 1 HR, 5 R and 9 RBI. He's hit safely in nine straight games.

Mike Mussina (11-6, 4.13) helped the Carolina Mudcats claim the wild-card lead by going 2-0 with a 0.56 ERA and 0.750 WHIP this week. Mussina, who has won five straight starts, struck out 15 and allowed just 3 walks in 16 IP to win the Psycho-Ex Girlfriend Pitcher of the Week Award... Arkansas's Pedro Martinez is back in the running for his third Ben McDonald Award after going 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA, 0.53 WHIP and 20 K in 17 IP... Honolulu's Rick Helling (6-8, 5.77) picked up two of the Sharks' three wins this week, going 2-0 with a 3.24 ERA and 1.14 WHIP... Has Tim Worrell (6-2, 4.44) taken over vulture duties in Stanhope? He went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 0.82 WHIP in three appearances this week... Hoboken's Vicente Padilla (3-1, 4.42 ERA) has been toiling in obscurity for most of the season, but he picked up a win and his first save of the season last week, posting a 0.00 ERA and 1.12 WHIP... Vancouver's Jose Jimenez picked up a win and a save in four appearances this week, with a 0.00 ERA and 0.43 WHIP. Jimenez now has 10 saves and 8 wins on the season.

Comings and Goings

One week before the trading deadline (Sunday, July 15), and with less than 60 games left in the season, two teams made some big moves for the stretch drive.

The Stanhope Mighty Men made their third big trade of the year, sending OF Magglio Ordonez (.222, 7 HR, 36 RBI) and two draft picks to the Columbia Crusaders for SP Rick Reed (4-4, 3.78). Both did well for their new teams: Reed posted a 1.23 ERA but got a no-decision in his first start, while Ordonez hit .407 with 4 2B, 5 R and 2 RBI.

The Honolulu Sharks, trying to get back into the wildcard race they once led, shook up their roster by trading a second-round draft pick to the Hoboken Cutters for SP Denny Neagle (7-9, 5.74) and RP John Franco (1-5, 2 SV, 4.81), and cut prospects Britt Reames and Joe Crede.

Piling Up The Bodies

Both first-place teams endured an injury-filled week. The Sugar Bears, with OF Carl Everett already out two weeks, lost OF Cliff Floyd, OF Bobby Abreu, 2B Chris Stynes and SP Jeff D'Amico; Arkansas' SP Curt Schilling and OF Larry Walker joined RP Scott Williamson and C Gregg Zaun on the shelf.

The Sugar Bears dealt with the barrage of injuries by setting up a first-aid station in the clubhouse.

"At this point we're just doing triage," said team trainer Dr. Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce. "B.J. is taking care of the pitchers, Charles is taking care of the batters and I'm taking care of the cheerleaders."

Arkansas called in reinforcements, signing C Bobby Estalella, OF Eric Owens and SP Todd Ritchie. Newark's front office, apparently befuddled by the string of injuries, released RP Anthony Telford and signed OF Brady Anderson on Thursday, only to release Anderson the next day, and then re-sign Telford on Sunday. "Telford? I thought I released him," said GM Butch Garretson. "Hey, does anyone have Brady Anderson's phone number?" The team also brought back SP Pete Harnisch to take D'Amico's spot in the rotation. Harnisch, who lost his job when the team traded for D'Amico last month, had stayed with the team as a beer vendor in Section 218. Prospect Nick Johnson, a longshot to pass Jim Thome and Mark McGwire on the team's depth chart anyway, might be toting Harnisch's beer tray after getting his release Sunday.

In other transaction moves this week: Vatican City's Luis Castillo will miss 20 games with a wart on the back of his hand; Sammy Sosa will ride the Vancouver pine for a few days recovering from something called "scabies"; and Honolulu's Jason Giambi, on pace to shatter the single-season walks record, will miss about a week with a bad case of the bends after spending an off- day swimming in his backyard pool. "Wow, I guess we dug that pool a little too deep," he said.

Philadelphia's David Weathers, who leads the team in ERA, also leads the team in what manager Oscar Gamble called "stank." The team put Weathers on the 15-day DL to deal with the B.O. problem. "Fans with seats near the bullpen were actually passing out," Gamble said. The team signed the sweeter-smelling IF Jose Hernandez to fill Weathers' roster spot.

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.