Week 15 - July 5, 2004  

Hammerin' Hanover

Six out of seven teams in the Hanover Division had winning weeks, and six of the seven teams in the Morris Division had losing weeks. That adds up to a 17-30 (.362) record for the Morris, 32-19 (.627) for Hanover. The hot week erases an early lead for the Morris Division, and right now the Hanover leads in interdivisional play, 170-168.

Leading the charge for Hanover were the Newark Sugar Bears, who went a league-best 6-1 and scored a league-high 60 runs, and vaulted into the lead for the best record in baseball by 2 games... The Arkansas Golden Falcons remained atop the Morris Division after a 3-4 week, while the Carolina Mudcats lost a half-game in the standings after dropping four out of six... The Stanhope Mighty Men lost a game in the divisional standings after going "only" 5-2 this week, but made up 2½ games on the Mudcats in the overall standings and are now just 3 games behind the Golden Falcons for the second-best record in baseball... The Columbia Rattlesnakes were the only Morris Division team to have a winning week, going 5-3, and have opened up a five-game cushion for a wild-card spot.

Six weeks ago, the Honolulu Sharks had the fourth-worst record in baseball, 11 games under .500. Now, they're tied for 6th-place and the final wildcard spot after a 24-15 run, including a 5-3 week. Over that same stretch, the Vancouver Iron Fist  posted almost the same exact record in reverse -- 14-25 -- and after losing four out of six this week, are now tied with the Sharks for 6th... Another red-hot team, the Hoboken Cutters, have come almost as far: They're now just 10 games under .500, good enough to be tied for 8th place and just 4 games behind Honolulu and Vancouver. At that same point six weeks ago, the Cutters were 15 games under .500 (24-39) and had the second-worst record in baseball... The Tijuana Banditos were just 2 games under .500 at the All-Star Break, but since then they've gone 6-13, including a disappointing 2-5 record this week, to fall into the 8th-place tie with Hoboken... There's also a tie for 10th place, after the Phoenix Dragons moved up by going 4-3, and the Philadelphia Endzone Animals  moved down by going 1-5, and also for last place, between the Westwood Deductions, who went a league-worst 1-6 this week, and the Hillsborough Destroyers, who weren't much better at 2-5... The Harrison Rats scurried out of the basement and into sole possession of 12th place after going 5-2 this week. 

Gimme Some Sugar

The Sugar Bears' league-best 6-1 record was due largely to its offense, not its starting pitchers -- after all, they combined for a 4.56 ERA, 1.50 WHIP this week. But they were bailed out by an offense that scored 8.57 RPG, and a bullpen that stranded 7 out of 8 inherited runners. Anchoring the bullpen was  reigning Rolaids Relief Pitcher of the Year Award winner John Smoltz, who went 3-for-3 in saves this week while giving up just 1 hit -- no walks, no runs -- in 5.2 IP, enough to win the Sugar Bear the Who Wants to Smoke My Honeybear Pitcher of the Week Award. On the season, Smoltz is tied for first in relief points, tied for third in saves and is third in save percentage. This week's other top closers were Columbia's Matt Mantei (3 SV, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 3 K in 4.0 IP), Hoboken's Jason Isringhausen (3 SV, 0 R, 2 H, 1 BB, 6 K in 6.1 IP) and Phoenix's Joe Borowski (2 W, 0 R, 2 H, 3 BB, 4 K in 4.0 IP).

Smoltz previously won PotW honors in Week 6, and that week we took a look at the Relief Points Leader Board, so this is a good time to update the standings. Remember, it's 2 relief points for a win or a save, -1 point for a loss or a blown save.

Relief Points Leader Board
Reliever	ERA	W	SV	L	BS	Pts
Kim, ARK	2.09	4	24	1	6	49
Smoltz, NWK	1.37	6	21	3	2	49
Mantei, COL	0.87	1	22	1	3	42
Percival, PHX	2.25	3	16	1	0	37
Wagner, VAN	4.40	2	21	4	6	36
Gagne, TIJ	1.02	8	11	0	2	36
Beck, CAR	2.95	2	19	3	4	35
Izzy, HBK	3.47	3	18	6	1	35
Rivera, STP	4.07	2	20	7	4	33
Hasegawa, STP	0.94	4	10	0	0	28

Hasegawa, the "other guy" in the big Harrison-Stanhope trade, has proven to be no throw-in: After going a perfect 10-for-10 in save opportunities as the Rats' closer, he's gone 4-0 with 3 holds as Rivera's set-up man in Stanhope.

Honolulu's charge into contention has been greatly helped by Roy Oswalt, who has reeled off five straight wins, including a 2-0 record this week (2 ER, 13 H, 6 BB, 13 K in 15.0 IP). After going 3-9 with a 4.52 ERA in his first 14 starts, Oswalt has gone 5-0 with a 2.16 ERA over his last six... This week's other two-start winners: Columbia's Livan Hernandez (2.81 ERA, 10.1 R/9 in 16.0 IP), Hoboken's Mark Redman (1.93 ERA, 10.3 R/9 in 14.0 IP).Newark's John Thomson (4.70 ERA, 11.7 R/9 in 15.1 IP) and Stanhope's Tim Wakefield (3.60 ERA, 12.6 R/9 in 15.0 IP). 

Can You Smell What Sheff Is Cookin'?

Of course, Hasegawa wasn't the headliner in that Harrison-Stanhope deal, which landed Alfonso Soriano and Freddy Garcia for Harrison. No, the top name was definitely Gary Sheffield, and he continued to prove that this week by winning his second OmahaSteaks.com Batter of the Week Award. Sheffield was a hitting machine, leading the league in OPS (1.664), runs (10), total bases (29), extra-base hits (8), runs created (16.8), RC/27 (32.3), slugging percentage (1.115), total average (2.538), tying for the league lead in batting average (.500) and ranking second in on-base percentage (.548). Sheffield had 13 hits -- 4 doubles and 4 home runs -- and knocked in 11. On the season, Sheffield is hitting .303 with 82 R, 87 RBI, 30 HR and a .992 OPS. Also having big weeks for the Mighty Men: Cliff Floyd (.529, 1.579 OPS, 2 HR, 6 RBI); Mike Lowell (.350, 1.336 OPS, 3 HR, 6 R, 8 RBI) and Milton Bradley (.385, .846 OPS).

If there was an award for the best brother combination, last year's definitely would have gone to Honolulu's Jason Giambi (.308, .972 OPS, 40 HR, 128 RBI) and Newark's Jeremy Giambi (.243, .859 OPS, 36 HR, 112 R). Jason, coming off an impressive week (.261, 1.471 OPS, 5 HR, 9 RBI), is having perhaps an even better season for the Sharks this year (.292, 1.134 OPS, 33 HR, 70 RBI), but wouldn't be eligible for the award this year as Jeremy gave up baseball to become an onion grader. This week the award would have to go to the Giles brothers, Newark's Marcus and Hoboken's Brian, who made opposing pitchers rue Momma and Poppa Giles this week. Marcus, having an outstanding rookie campaign for the Sugar Bears, hit .467 (1.315 OPS) with 3 HR, 9 R and 10 RBI this week. Big brother Brian hit .346 (1.200 OPS) with 3 HR, 5 R and 6 RBI, and drew six walks to move into 2nd place in bases-on-balls this season (75). But with little protection in Hoboken's offense -- third-worst in baseball -- walking is all Brian has been able to do this year, hitting just .225 (.740 OPS) with 13 HR and 47 RBI. Meanwhile, Marcus has benefitted from hitting in the two-hole in the league's most potent lineup, and leads the league in batting average (.332), on-base percentage (.387), hits (139), runs (80), RBIs (76), doubles (36), extra base hits (55), runs created (89.7), total bases (231) and OPS (.939).

This week's other top performers: Carolina's Aubrey Huff (.435, 1.239 OPS, 1 HR, 7 R) and Richie Sexson (.333, 1.344 OPS, 4 HR, 6 RBI), Harrison's Melvin Mora (.500, 1.245 OPS, 3 2B, 7 RBI) and Mark Teixeira (.308, 1.438 OPS, 6 HR, 12 RBI), Hillsborough's Alex Rodriguez (.321, 1.251 OPS, 5 HR, 7 RBI), Newark's Carlos Guillen (.474, 1.144 OPS, 2 2B, 6 R) and Bill Mueller (.357, 1.192 OPS, 4 2B, 13 RBI), Phoenix's Luis Gonzalez (.375, 1.298 OPS, 5 2B, 5 R) and Vancouver's Alex Cintron (.364, 1.326 OPS, 4 HR, 6 R).

Hoboken Express

After all the excitement last week on the transaction page, it figures that this week would be almost completely silent. But watch this space for excitement as the DMBL Trading Deadline is July 18, just two weeks away! In the meantime, the top news seemed to be coming out of Hoboken, where GM Mark Hrywna is trying to decide which is the real Cutter team: The one that went 17-33 over the first 50 games of the season, the one that has gone 30-24 since, or -- perhaps worst of all -- somewhere in between? The team will have to try to figure it out this week without the services of Joel Pineiro, who can't pitch until he finds his missing shoes. Pineiro, pictured here questioning a Cutters' clubhouse attendant, says it won't be hard to find the culprit. "Not many guys can wear size 18 triple-Es," Pineiro said. Not only that, but Pineiro caught a glimpse of the shoe-thief as he bolted from the locker room. "He was a big, tall hairy dude," Pineiro said. "Smelled awful, too. I can only assume it was Randy Johnson trying to play a prank on me." The Cutters replaced Pineiro in the rotation with Jarrod Washburn, who never lived up to the hype after being selected in 2001 with the team's first regular draft pick (#7 overall). Washburn was a respectable 15-10 with a 4.65 ERA, 1.35 WHIP for the first-year franchise, but then completely fell apart, going 10-28 with a 5.69 ERA, 1.68 WHIP in his next two seasons. Sent to Triple-A Weehawken to work on his mechanics, Washburn was recalled the day after Pineiro went shoe-hunting and was understandably rattled in his first DMBL action on the season, giving up 5 runs on 10 hits and 5 walks (and 3 HR) in 6.2 IP against Tijuana. But he settled down nicely in his next start, scattering 7 hits and just 1 walk (with 5 K) in 8.1 IP to pick up the win, and it remains to be seen if he will replace without Darrell May (4-13, 5.31 ERA) or Jae Seo (5-10, 5.83 ERA) in the rotation even after Pineiro finds his shoes... In other news out of Hoboken this week, the team broke up the All-Ramon platoon at shorstop, releasing Ramon Vazquez and giving the full-time job to Ramon Martinez. The lefty-swinging Vazquez had been seeing the majority of the at-bats against righties, but his struggles were so great (.208 BA, .584 OPS vs RHP) that the Cutters decided to abandon the strategy and just go with the slick-fielding Martinez full-time. While certainly an improvement for the Cutters' defense, the move also has worked out, so far, at the plate: Martinez is hitting .298 vs RHP, .288 vs LHP, more than good enough to keep his bat in the lineup. The freed-up roster spot also allowed the Cutters to sign 28-year-old catcher Rod Barajas, who has been tearing it up in the Mexican League (.274 BA, .567 SLG in 164 AB).

This week's only other roster move was made by the Iron Fist, who released OF Ruben Sierra after activating rookie Aaron Guiel from the disabled list. Sierra, who went 1-for-6 with 2 Ks in his week with Vancouver, has no hard feelings about being released from the team that drafted him in the 4th round (#18 overall) in the inaugural season of 1991. With tears in his eyes, Sierra packed up his bats but hopes he will be able to return to the franchise, either as a player or as a coach: "In my heart I will always be an Iron Fist."

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.