Week 3 - April 10, 2006

Shaking Things Up

Last week had most teams staying right where they were in the standings; this week, the league was thrown into a KitchenAid Ultra Power Tilt-Head Stand Mixer set on full blast! Every team in the Morris Division, and the three atop the Hanover, are in new places this week, scrambling the standings. Let's take a look at how it happened.

The Las Vegas Rat Pack won a DMBL-best five out of six games this week to scurry into the league's best record, finally passing the Newark Sugar Bears on Sunday after they dropped both ends of a double-header to drop their record to 3-3 on the week. The Hoboken Cutters, who were tied with the Rats last week, remained a game behind Newark after going 4-4... The Marietta Mighty Men slipped back to .500 after dropping four out of seven games, as did the Honolulu Sharks. Sandwiched between them in the standings, but not for long at this rate, are the Phoenix Dragons, who went 1-5... Believe it or not, the only other team to join the Rat Pack with a winning record in the Hanover were the last-place Westwood Deductions, who went 4-3 to crawl from last place overall to 13th.

The Philadelphia Endzone Animals rode a 5-3 week to a first-place record in the Morris Division, leap-frogging the Carolina Mudcats (3-5) and Vancouver Ironfist (3-3). Also jumping over those two teams -- and one other one -- were the Arkansas Golden Falcons, who went a division-best 5-2 to soar from 5th to 2nd in the division. The Falcs have won 9 out of 14 since opening the season at 3-6. The 'Cats, Fists and Falcs are now all tied for second in the division, half a game behind Philly... The other team passed by Arkansas, the D.C. Bushslappers, tread water with a 3-3 record... The Hillsborough Hired Hitmen went 4-2 to move up from last in the division and 13th overall, improving to 6th and 10th respectively... The South Boston Gang had their third straight losing week, going 1-5 to fall into last place overall.

Power Pack!

This week's Batter of the Week Award is going to Las Vegas -- the only problem is figuring out which member of the Rat Pack deserves the cheese. There's Chone Figgins, who hit an even .500 (12-for-24) with 6 runs scored and 4 more stolen bases -- giving him 15 in 20 games, a pace that would give him 121 for the season and obliterate the old record of 78 set by Kenny Lofton way back in 1997. Then there's Tony Clark, who hit .360 with a 1.370 OPS, leading the league in runs batted in (14) and tying for the league lead in home runs (5), extra base hits (6) and total bases (25). Those two make it almost impossible to consider other Rats who had very good weeks, including Ryan Freel (.429, 1.071 OPS), Jhonny Peralta (.348, 1.075 OPS) and Mark Teixeira (.333, .929 OPS). But while Chone and Tony had exceptional weeks, there's a third candidate who is most deserving of all: Rookie catcher Joe Mauer, who led the league in batting average (.542), on-base percentage (.560), runs created (12.2), runs created/27 outs (29.9), total average (2.091) and tied for the league lead in hits (13). Mauer added a 1.435 OPS, 3 2B, 7 R and 5 RBI, and has yet to make an error behind the plate this season. Add it all up and it looks like the rest of the Rats will be nibbling on hamburgers while Mauer savors some delicious prime cuts courtesy of our good friends at OmahaSteaks.com. It's been a long time coming for the 23-year-old catcher, who was drafted as an ineligible prospect in the 5th round (#58 overall) of the 2004 draft. The Rats had to protect Mauer twice before finally getting to use him this season, but so far he's paid off on their investment, hitting .371 (.986 OPS) with 2 HR, 14 RBI and 3 SB. 

It was a frustrating week for the Sugar Bears, who scored a league-high 7.3 runs per game -- yet went just 3-3. Nick Johnson had a monstrous week, hitting .391 (1.568 OPS) with 5 HR, 7 R and 7 RBI, while team captain Chipper Jones chipped in with 3 HR and 9 RBI (.286, 1.340 OPS)... The Cutters also had to settle for a .500 record, going 4-4 despite being the only team to break the 50-run plateau this week. Leading the charge were Geoff Jenkins (.381, 1.220 OPS, 2 HR, 7 RBI), Larry Walker (.423, .983 OPS, 1 HR, 5 RBI), 5 H, 0 BB, 8 K) and Mike Sweeney (.370, 1.248 OPS, 3 HR, 9 R).

This week's other top batters: Arkansas's Lance Berkman (.318, 1.392 OPS, 4 HR, 8 RBI); Carolina's Travis Hafner (.318, 1.405 OPS, 5 HR, 10 RBI); D.C.'s Alfonso Soriano (.333, 1.153 OPS, 3 HR, 5 R, 1 SB); Hillsborough's Robinson Cano (.435, 1.350 OPS, 4 2B, 5 RBI); and Marietta's Jorge Posada (.429, 1.187 OPS, 1 HR, 4 RBI).

All Hail Santana!

The reigning Ben McDonald Award winner got off to a rough start this year, going 1-1 with a 6.18 ERA and 12.9 R/9 in his first three starts. But this week, Johan Santana threw a couple gems for the Endzone Animals, helping to lead them to first place in the Morris Division. One of only four pitchers to win both his starts this week, Santana picked up a crucial win against the division rival Ironfist, scattering four hits over 7 innings while striking out 10. In his next start, the 27-year-old southpaw took care of the Dragons, holding them to just one run on one extra base hit -- a solo shot by Ichiro Suzuki -- while striking out 8. On the week, he posted a 2.40 ERA and 7.8 R/9 with an astounding 9:1 K:BB ratio and led the DMBL in strikeouts (18). Santana's terrific week earned him the 1986 World Series as Played on RBI Baseball Pitcher of the Week Award.

This week's other two-start winners: Carolina's Andy Pettitte (3.00 ERA, 9.6 R/9, 5 BB, 4 K in 15.0 IP); Honolulu's Kenny Rogers (1.93 ERA, 9.9 R/9, 6 BB, 7 K in 13.2 IP); and Las Vegas's Freddy Garcia (2.25 ERA, 9.0 R/9, 3 BB, 10 K in 16.0 IP).

Las Vegas's bullpen didn't give up an earned run all week, though Chris Hammond was still handed a loss thanks to an error by Ryan Freel. Overall, the five relievers combined for 1 R, 0 ER, 6 H, 2 BB and 6 K in 9.0 IP... This week's other top batters: Marietta's Trevor Hoffman (0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K in 3.0 IP); Newark's Scot Shields (W, 0 R, 3 H, 1 BB, 7 K in 4.0 IP); and Philly's Francisco Rodriguez (3 SV, 0 R, 0 H, 1 BB, 5 K in 3.0 IP).

Where Have You Gone, Mike Sweeney?

The following day, another ace went down -- Hillsborough's C.C. Sabathia, who complained of a strained neck. Considering in his first three starts he's given up 23 hits and 15 earned runs, including 5 home runs, it's likely the neck strain was caused by turning around to see where all those balls were landing. He'll be joined on the trainer's table by Carlos Delgado, who also is off to a rough start (.213, .673 OPS, 3 BB, 23 K in 19 G). Hillsborough manager Mike Greenwell denied speculation that the team is coming up with excuses to bench the two high-profile stars. "That's ridiculous. If we benched every player on this team that sucked, we wouldn't be able to field a squad," Greenwell said... Also taking a seat is Marietta's Ken Griffey Jr., sidelined after eating some lo mein he found in the back of Wily Mo Pena's locker. Unfortunately, as he discovered later, that wasn't lo mein. Until the lab tests get back, the veteran outfielder will be in the ICU.

Given the success of Bonds on Bonds, it was only a matter of time before some other player tried to follow in the footsteps of the Arkansas slugger and get a reality TV show of his own. But Joe Randa? The DMBL veteran, now in his 10th year, says it makes perfect sense. "I've played for six different organizations. I have fans all over the country," the 36-year-old third baseman said. "Untitled Joe Randa Project" could be coming soon to a basic cable station near you.

Juan Gone

The pick used by the Cutters to take Jae Seo actually belonged to Marietta -- acquired in 2004 as part of a blockbuster trade that sent Brian Giles, Mike Mussina and Rheal Cormier to the Mighty Men. The same week that Seo disappeared from the team, so did the last player the Cutters got back in that deal -- infielder Juan Uribe, released after hitting just .217 (.575 OPS) in 8 games this season. (The other two players acquired, Vinny Castilla and Charles Johnson, were gone before the start of the 2005 season.) Uribe had been platooning at shortstop with Omar Vizquel, hitting .250 (.400 OBP) against southpaws this season; now those duties fall to J.J. Hardy, a 23-year-old rookie once compared to another Hoboken shortstop -- Miguel Tejada, who himself was traded to Honolulu for Ryan Klesko. (Klesko also is gone from the Cutters.) Hardy hopes he can measure up to these lofty expectations. "It's every young Cutter's dream to put up the kind of numbers that will get you traded for some old guy," he sighed wistfully.

Other hellos and good-byes this week: Philly released OF Bobby Kielty after activating Frank Catalanotto from the Disabled List; Hoboken signed SP Adam Eaton to replace Seo; Hillsborough inked SP Ryan Madson after putting C.C. Sabathia on the D.L.; and Carolina released pitching prospect Anibal Sanchez to sign OF Cory Sullivan.
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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.