Week Seventeen (July 10, 2001)  

Vatican City: On a Mission From God?

The Vancouver Iron Fist and Arkansas Golden Falcons are virtually tied for first place in the Morris Division, with Vancouver ahead by the tinest of fractions -- one-one-thousandth of a percentage point! But the hottest team in the Morris this week were the Vatican City Cardinals, which lost just one game this week to make up 2 1/2 games in the standings. The Cardinals ended the week on a four-game winning streak to win 8 of their last 10 games, and they're now back to within 1 game of first place.

The Newark Sugar Bears have opened up an 8 1/2 game lead on the Stanhope Mighty Men, who managed just one win this week and are now closer to third place than to first. The Mighty Men have dropped three straight and 8 of their last 10... Grabbing onto third place are the high-flying Phoenix Dragons, who opened the week at 0-3 before reeling off four straight wins. The Dragons, who opened the week tied for third place, now have a 1 1/2 game lead on the fourth-place Harrison Rats and trail Stanhope by 6 1/2 games.

With two-thirds of the season behind us, it's still too close to call the race for the final playoff spot! The Carolina Mudcats held onto sixth place for a third straight week, but the Dragons are just a half-game back. Harrison is 2 games behind, the Kentucky Hillbillies are 2 1/2 behind and the Brooklyn Bean Counters are 3 out. Still within striking distance are the Columbia Crusaders, Hoboken Cutters and Honolulu Sharks, all within 5 games. The Philadelphia Endzone Animals, losers of five straight, haven't won two games in a row since beating Stanhope, 6/19-20. Since that series, the Animals have lost 21 of 25 games.

Give It To Giles

For much of the season, Hoboken's Brian Giles has been the bridesmaid but never the bride. His weekly production is usually good enough to get noticed, but the weekly honor always goes to some other slugger. This week, there was no doubt about it as Giles thumped his way to six pounds of free meat as the OmahaSteaks.com Batter of the Week. Giles hit .542 (13-24) with 4 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 8 R and 10 RBI, including a 3-3, 2 HR, 6 RBI effort against Stanhope on Saturday, to lead Hoboken out of the cellar for the first time in four weeks... Vatican City's Carlos Delgado did his usual bang-up job on opposing pitchers, hitting .387 (12-31) with 3 2B, 2 HR, 10 R and 10 RBI, but this time his partner-in-crime wasn't Alex Rodriguez -- who hit just .235 with 1 HR this week. Instead, it was Matt Lawton busting out the whupping stick, hitting .333 (12-36) with 4 2B, 1 HR, 7 R and 9 RBI... Jason Giambi was red-hot before hitting the bench last week with an injury. He got healthy just in time for Sunday's doubleheader and picked up right where he left off, leading the Honolulu Sharks in a two-game sweep of the Vancouver Iron Fist by pounding out a 3 HRs in just 9 ABs. In his last six games, Giambi is hitting .500 (11-22) with 2 2B, 5 HR, 7 R and 16 RBI... Not to be outdone, Vancouver's Edgar Martinez hit .419 (13-31) with 2 2B, 4 HR, 9 R and 9 RBI... Jorge Posada hit .357 (10-28) with 2 HR, 6 BB, 7 R and 7 RBI to help the Phoenix Dragons return to the playoff picture... Brooklyn's John Vander Wal often gets overlooked, but the outfielder hit .417 (10-24) with 11 R and 6 RBI last week.

Kazuhiro Sasaki (5-1, 23 SV, 4.38) racked up 3 saves in 4 appearances, yielding no earned runs and striking out 9 in 5.1 IP to lead the Vatican City Cardinals in a 7-1 week. Sasaki picked up the Japanese Engrish Pitcher of the Week Award, but some attention should also go to teammate Kevin Millwood (8-6, 5.51), who is starting to turn around his mediocre season after going 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 14 K in 15 IP... Kentucky's Danny Patterson (4-0, 1 SV, 2.52) picked up two wins in five appearances, posting a 3.18 ERA and striking out 5 in 5.2 IP... Hoboken's Jarrod Washburn (10-7, 4.66) went 2-0 with a 4.15 ERA and 1.23 WHIP in two starts... Carolina closer Bob Wickman (4-4, 25 SV, 2.31) went 1-0 with 2 saves and is now just one save behind Stanhope's Mariano Rivera, who didn't see any action this week... Arkansas's Roger Clemens went 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA and a 0.68 WHIP in two starts... Brad Radke (9-2, 3.97) continues to be Vancouver's iron man. Despite a miserable 2.2 IP, 5 ER performance against Honolulu on Sunday, Radke is averaging 7.1 innings per start, and picked up his third shutout (tied for first) and sixth complete game (tied for second) this week with a masterful 5 H, 3 BB blanking of Stanhope on Tuesday. The man Radke replaced in Vancouver's starting rotation, rookie Brian Tollberg (2-2, 5.98), appears to have righted the ship after three months in Triple-A. Tollberg, who was banished to Tacoma after going 1-2 with a 7.99 ERA in his first seven starts, had two strong outings this week, going 1-0 with 14 IP, 8 H, 3 BB, 2 ER, 10 K.

Starter Trouble

Five frontline starters are down for extended periods: Stanhope's Rick Reed (due back July 17), Arkansas's Curt Schilling (July 21), Newark's Jeff D'Amico (July 23), Arkansas's Pedro Martinez (July 28) and Harrison's Andy Ashby (July 30).

With Martinez and Schilling already out, Arkansas fans let out a collective groan when Roger Clemens hobbled off the field in the second inning of Sunday's game against Columbia. But Clemens assured reporters after the game that nothing will keep him from pitching in Thursday's show-down against the second-place Vatican City Cardinals.

Maybe it's because they're so fragile: Starting pitchers have been the hottest commodity in the DMBL this season, with 12 traded a week before the July 15 trading deadline. The Vancouver Iron Fist and Harrison Rats brought the total to an even dozen this week when they swapped starters Tom Glavine and Wade Miller in a deal that also involved draft picks.

Comings and Goings

In addition to the trading deadline, July 15 is the last day teams can sign free agents (except in cases where a player is injured 4+ games). Teams have been busy honing their rosters for the last 50 games of the season.

The Carolina Mudcats signed former DMBL star Reggie Sanders to a minor-league contract. Sanders, who played for Waikiki, Toledo and Kentucky during his seven-year career, hit .301 with 39 HR, 32 SB, 114 R and 132 RBI for Kentucky last year, but the Hillbillies released him after an undisclosed off-season arrest that allegedly involved a two hookers, a kitten, and a whole lot of vaseline. The Mudcats also released 1B/OF Kevin Millar, who was intentionally walked in his only DMBL at-bat this season.