Week 16 - July 8, 2007

How Sweet It Is

The Newark Sugar Bears continue to steamroll opponents on their way to what would be their seventh straight division title and third straight Commissioner's Cup (awarded to the team with best regular season record). The Sugar Bears won all seven of their games this week and have won 12 games in a row, which is tied for the fourth-longest winning streak in league history. They now have a 15½ game lead for the best record in baseball and a 20½ game lead in the division... The Philadelphia Endzone Animals could only manage a 2-4 record, but that actually was good enough to pick up a game on the D.C. Bushslappers, who went 2-6, their second straight losing week... The Marietta Mighty Men moved up one place in the standings after going 5-3, and are now just a half-game behind the Bushslappers for the league's third-best record... The Hoboken Cutters took sole possession of 5th place after a 4-3 week, and are now a game behind D.C. for 3rd... The Honolulu Sharks dropped two rungs in the standings after going 2-6.

The Hillsborough Hired Hitmen posted the league's second-best record this week, winning 7 out of 8 to jump from an 8th place tie into 7th place, and just a game behind Honolulu for the final playoff spot... The Vancouver Iron Fist finally had a winning week, just barely. They went 4-3, their first winning week since May 21. Over that stretch, the Iron Fist went 13-22 -- but are still just 2½ games out of the post-season... Arkansas Golden Falcons remained a game below .500 after going 4-4... The Carolina Mudcats continue to make a late surge at the post-season, going 5-3. They've now won 10 out of their last 15 and are just 6 games out of a wildcard berth... No one else has been eliminated, mathematically speaking anyway, but it's just about all over for New Jersey Team Buddah (1-6), the South Boston Gang (2-6), the Sardine City Straphangers (5-3) and the Las Vegas Rat Pack (3-5).

Ryan's Hope

Half-way through the season, it didn't look like the Hitmen would factor into the playoff race. They entered the All-Star Break in 9th place, six games under .500 and 4 games out of the final wildcard berth. But since then Hillsborough has gone on a tear, going 21-10 (.677 W%), including an active six-game winning streak, to climb to 7th place and within a game of 6th place. The Hitmen live up to their billing with plenty of stars on offense (Alex Rodriguez, Carlos Lee, Robinson Cano, Carlos Delgado...), but their MVP this season just might be last year's Rookie of the Year, Ryan Howard. The All-Star first baseman had a huge week to lead the Hitmen to a 7-1 record, hitting .344 (1.239 OPS) with 28 total bases and 5 HRs and an astounding 17 RBIs to jump into a tie for the league lead with Newark's Manny Ramirez (110 RBIs). He also leads the league in homers with 44 and is among the league leaders in runs scored, runs created, total bases, SLG, isolated power and AB/HR. But he laughed off any suggestion he could be this year's Kevin Mitchell Award winner as the league's top batter. "I'm just the baby around here," the  enormous 27-year-old slugger laughed. "I have to wait my turn until after A-Rod gets his!"

Another slugger trying to carry his team into the post-season is Carolina's Travis Hafner. The DH had a monster week, hitting .444 (1.571 OPS) with 5 HR, 11 R and 10 RBI... Also hot: Arkansas's Lance Berkman (.423, 1.175 OPS, 4 2B, 5 RBI); Marietta's Jim Thome (.407, 1.469 OPS, 4 HR, 11 RBI); Newark's Chipper Jones (.519, 1.330 OPS, 2 HR, 6 RBI); and Sardine City's Joe Crede (.486, 1.100 OPS, 4 2B, 11 R).

Meredith Is Hot

How exactly are the Sugar Bears running away with the league's best record with a rotation that includes Chien-Ming Wang (5.50 ERA, 15.1 R/9), Randy Johnson (5.67 ERA, 14.6 R/9) and John Smoltz (5.91 ERA, 15.3 R/9)? Well, giving up less than 6 runs per game actually is pretty good, as long as your offense scores more than 8 runs per game, as Newark's usually does. But Newark's secret weapon just may be its bullpen. This season, Newark's starters have a 5.44 ERA and 14.7 R/9, but the bullpen has a far more respectable 3.16 and 11.7. Making Newark's relief corps all the more interesting is the fact that nobody really has an assigned role; manager Don Mattingly tends to use whoever's been hot at the moment. In previous years, the team had gone a more traditional route, using John Wetteland and later John Smoltz as conventional closers -- in fact, each twice won The Eck as the league's top reliever by racking up so many relief points. Now the only guy with even a remote chance at the award is Cla Meredith, who leads the team in relief wins (10) and saves (14); however, unlike most closers, he also has 50 appearances and six holds. Meredith has a 1.62 ERA and 8.9 R/9 this season, and a K:BB ratio of nearly six (8 BB, 47 K). This week, the side-arming right-hander won the Tell Me Your Secrets Pitcher of the Week Award as he did a little bit of everything, picking up two wins, two saves and a hold in five appearances (0 R, 7 H, 0 BB, 4 K in 6.0 IP). "The way our offense scores runs and the way our rotation gives up runs, you never know what you're going to need from our relievers," Mattingly said. "Our bullpen is like our special teams unit and Meredith is our Steve Tasker."

Usually relievers who don't rack up a bunch of saves aren't in the running for the PotW Award, but it was an odd week as eight guys -- including Meredith -- picked up two wins this week, and eight guys -- including Meredith -- had two saves. In fact, the only guy with more than two wins or two saves was Marietta's Mariano Rivera, who led the league with 4 saves (but also gave up 2 earned runs, 6 hits and 2 home runs in 6.2 innings). The two-start winners were Arkansas's Curt Schilling (1.62 ERA, 7.0 R/9, 16 K, 1 BB in 16.2 IP); Hillsborough's John Lackey (3.00 ERA, 8.4 R/9, 12 K, 2 BB in 15.0 IP); Hoboken's Scott Kazmir (6.55 ERA, 16.4 R/9, 14 K, 7 BB in 11.0 IP); Sardine City's Tom Glavine (3.77 ERA, 9.4 R/9, 6 K, 3 BB in 14.1 IP) and Vancouver's Chris Carpenter (3.86 ERA, 9.6 R/9, 4 K, 2 BB in 14.0 IP). And the two-win relievers, in addition to Meredith, were Marietta's Rafael Betancourt (3.86 ERA, 9.6 R/9, 6 K, 1 BB in 4.2 IP) and Newark's Ruddy Lugo (1.42 ERA, 8.5 R/9, 4 K, 1 BB in 6.1 IP).

I Guess He'll Be Happy When He Comes To

It was another busy week for team trainers as the injuries keep piling up. There appears to be a strange pattern to the injuries but nobody can quite seem to figure out what it is. Last week, it was Hillsborough's Carlos Zambrano getting hypnotized, South Boston's Alex Rios suffering from radiation poisoning, and Las Vegas losing Jeremy Hermida to an arrest and Corey Hart to a bad haircut. This week, South Boston's Edgar Renteria checked out after a bar fight, Carolina's Jason Jennings has mysteriously vanished, Las Vegas's Kaz Matsui has seen his head grow to gigantic proportions and Philly's Brandon Webb is off fighting a fire.

"We have no idea what the pattern is," said the league's assistant to the commissioner, Waylon Smithers. "What's next -- pinch-hitting for some superstar player with a drunk fat guy because some billionaire owner insists on 'playing the percentages'?" We'll have to wait and see what happens next.

In an unrelated story, this week's injury report is brought to you by The Simpsons Movie.

Comings and Goings

It was a quiet week as we await the Trade Deadline (July 15 at midnight). Last year, there also was a lull in the week before the deadline -- and then 11 trades were made (involving 22 players and 14 draft picks) in the seven days leading up 'til the deadline, including two deals made on the final day.

In the meantime, this week's signings weren't exactly front-page stuff. Arkansas signed Eric Hinske and also claimed Tim Wakefield off waivers from New Jersey, releasing Juan Cruz and Randy Wolf. A few days later, Philly signed Cruz, releasing Gavin Floyd (who they'd signed just two days earlier after releasing Trot Nixon). And Vegas dumped Manuel Corpas in order to sign Wandy Rodriguez.

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.