April 21, 2003  

Crunching and Punching

The Newark Sugar Bears led the league in offense with 49 runs scored this week -- and that's in just five games, including one where All-Star Manny Ramirez was tossed in the first inning for slugging Hoboken's Mike Mussina after getting plunked on the helmet. Newark's astounding 9.8 runs per game was more than enough to help them to a perfect 5-0 week and a six-game winning streak to reclaim the best record in baseball. The Stanhope Mighty Men, despite a 5-2 week, actually lost a game in the standings, but have opened up a comfortable 5.5 game lead in the division standings and are just a half-game behind for the second-best record in the DMBL... It wasn't a good week for the other teams in the Enron Division of Hanover. The Honolulu Sharks went 4-4 this week, but that was good enough to jump three places in the standings -- all the way into third place. The Brooklyn Bean Counters, despite losing four out of seven, are mere percentage points behind, as are the Hoboken Cutters, who squandered away a five-game winning streak by following it up with a four-game losing skid. All three teams are seven games behind the Sugar Bears... The Phoenix Dragons ended the week on a four-game losing streak and lost all but one of their six games this week... The seventh-place Harrison Rats are perilously close to last-place overall, where they finished last year with 109 losses. They lost five out of seven games this week to fall just a half-game ahead of 14th place.

The Hillsborough Destroyers jumped two places in the standings after a 4-1 week put them a game over .500 for the first time this season, but they're still just a dot in the rear-view mirror of the Arkansas Golden Falcons, who won four out of six games to open up a 3 1/2 game lead in the division... The Vancouver Iron Fist lost a game in the standings after a 3-3 week, but hung onto second in the division and fourth overall... The Carolina Mudcats split their six games this week to share third place with the Destroyers, while the fifth-place Philadelphia Endzone Animals continue to struggle with the .500 mark, ending the week 3-4... Ending the week with three straight losses, the Columbia Rattlesnakes went 2-4 and have won just three of their last 10... The season of peaks and valleys continues for the last-place Tijuana Banditos, who ended a six-game losing streak by ripping off four straight wins -- all against division opponents -- to go 4-3 this week.

It's Lieber Time

Philly's Jon Lieber was the only hurler to win both his starts this week, and both wins came against none other than the Arkansas Golden Falcons. Lieber allowed nine hits, two walks and one earned run over eight solid innings as the Animals romped at home in his first start, 9-2. On Sunday, Lieber was even better, again scattering nine hits but allowing no walks and no earned runs. Lieber even managed to corral the nigh-irresistable Barry Bonds, holding him to just two singles, no walks and no RBIs in nine plate appearances. Back-to-back wins against one of the league's toughest teams earned Lieber a well-deserved Information Clearing House Pitcher of the Week Award... Unfortunately, C.C. Sabathia drew the tough luck of facing Lieber in both those starts, and the results weren't pretty (0-2, 12.60 ERA, 1.90 WHIP). On the season, the sophomore southpaw is 3-4 with a 8.03 ERA and 1.74 WHIP, and is tied for fourth in most HRs allowed with 8... Stanhope's Tim Wakefield became the league's first seven-game winner, giving up five hits -- four of them solo home runs -- in a 9-4 win over Tijuana... Newark's Randy Johnson threw a complete-game three-hitter in a 16-1 thrashing of the Cutters. Johnson, who struck out 12 and walked just one, is 3-0 in his four starts against Hoboken this year, and the Sugar Bears came from behind to win his other start against them... Speaking of Newark and Stanhope, their respective closers -- John Smoltz and Mariano Rivera -- each notched a pair of saves this week to remain tied for the league-lead, with 10. Carolina's Jose Mesa remains one back after going 2-for-3 in save opportunities this week, giving up two runs in the ninth Wednesday against Brooklyn for his first loss of the year... Octavio Dotel has been an animal setting up Byung-Hyun Kim and Trevor Hoffman in Arkansas this season. After another overpowering week (4.1 IP, 2 H, 0 BB, 10 K), Dotel has a 1.57 ERA and 0.74 WHIP in 23 innings, with 30 Ks, and is tied for the league lead in holds with six.

An Encore for Giambi

As usual, the weekly batter award must begin with a check of Barry Bonds' awesome numbers. And yes, he did hit .368 (7-19) with a 1.414 OPS, 3 HR, 8 R and 7 RBI, plus a league-leading nine walks. But once again, Barry goes hungry as Honolulu's Jason Giambi wins his second OmahaSteaks.com Batter of the Week Award this season, beating Bonds in just about every category except free passes: Giambi hit .476 with a league-leading 1.536 OPS and 12.5 runs created, tied for the league lead in runs (9) and slugging percentage (1.000), and slammed 3 HRs and 2 doubles for 8 RBIs. Shawn Green (.353, 1.065 OPS, 3 HR, 10 RBI) and Jacques Jones (.324, 1.054 OPS, 2 HR, 6 R) also put up steak-worthy numbers... Jason's little brother, Jeremy Giambi, had almost as big a week for the Sugar Bears. Little G hit .381 (8-21) with 3 HRs and a 1.290 OPS for 6 R, 6 RBI, but he wasn't the only one crushing the ball out of Newark this week. The Sugar Bears had a team OPS of 1.058, led by Jim Thome (.333, 1.500 OPS, 4 HR, 9 R, 9 RBI), Manny Ramirez (.286, 1.310 OPS, 2 HR, 4 RBI), Bobby Abreu (.353, 1.066 OPS, 1 HR, 6 RBI) and Jose Hernandez (.364, 1.046 OPS, 1 HR, 7 RBI). The only down note for the Sugar Bears was the end of Ramirez's hitting streak, snapped at 24 games after going 0-for-4 (with a walk and a hit-by-pitch) in Tuesday's 7-1 win over Honolulu... Mike Piazza had just four hits for Hoboken this week -- all dingers, for a .941 slugging percentage... Philly's Rafael Palmeiro (.417, 1.333 OPS, 3 HR, 6 R, 7 RBI) and Magglio Ordonez (.333, 1.190 OPS, 4 HR, 5 R, 11 RBI), Phoenix's Garret Anderson (.394, 1.206 OPS, 2 HR, 7 R, 10 RBI) and Stanhope's Bernie Williams (.429, 1.305 OPS, 2 HR, 5 R, 8 RBI) also drew consideration.

Comings and Goings

Tijuana continued shuffling their roster in the hopes of climbing out of last-place, releasing infielder Jerry Hairston Jr. and relievers Dennis Cook and Paul Quantrill to sign pitchers Jeff D'Amico, Antonio Osuna and Carlos Silva... Philadelphia cut Andy Ashby and activated Paul Byrd, while Columbia released Robert Person and activated Kevin Appier... The Mudcats, 10th in offense (.243, .719 OPS), made some organizational changes, releasing minor leaguers Sean Burroughs and Jason Lane to add veteran sluggers Raul Mondesi and Rondell White to the 40-man roster.

The Party Was Too Hearty

Honolulu's Jason Giambi was so elated with his second case of free steaks from the good people at OmahaSteaks.com that he decided to throw a big picnic for all his teammates. Second baseman Eric Young got a little too into the festivities, however, and by 2 a.m. was wearing Freddy Garcia's underwear on his head and had pounded down so much Goldschlager that he was burping up gold-plated puke. He'll miss about a week trying to sleep it off... Hillsborough's Carlos Delgado will miss most of the rest of the month while vacationing in Egypt. "I know we're in third place, but I'm hitting .187 with 2 homers," Delgado said. "I've got to clear my head and there's no where else on earth I'd rather do it than in beautiful Egypt."... Columbia reliever Mike Lincoln missed most of this week after an IRS audit... Phoenix's Javy Lopez got a scare when he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease, but luckily he has a very mild strain of the condition. Known as Sid Bream's Disease, he'll likely miss only two weeks.

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.