Week Twenty (July 30, 2001)  

Front-Runners Pulling Away

The Newark Sugar Bears have opened up a seemingly insurmountable 15 1/2 game lead in the Hanover Division. Newark's goals right now are to fend off the Vancouver Iron Fist for the best record in baseball -- they're 4 up -- and to keep everybody healthy for the playoffs... Vancouver, 5-2 this week, added another 2 games to their lead over the Vatican City Cardinals. The Iron Fist have won 8 of their last 10 games and are 25 games over .500 for the first time this season... The Cardinals lost five in a row before winning three straight, including a doubleheader sweep of the Arkansas Golden Falcons... The Morris Division champions have lost five straight and 9 of their last 10. On July 26, the Falcons routed Vatican City 15-4 to open up a two-game lead in the Morris Division. Since then, they've gone 2-10 and are now 7 games off the pace.

It's Going To Be A Wild Ride

The nose-dive by Arkansas and the Stanhope Mighty Men have thrown the wildcard race into a free-for-all! With about four weeks left in the season, only three teams are virtually guaranteed a trip to the post-season: Newark, at 82-49, has a magic number of 16 to clinch at least the #6 seed. Vancouver's is 21; Vatican City, 24.

Three other teams will make the playoffs. Arkansas is hanging onto the #4 seed, at 71-60 (.542); the Carolina Mudcats have moved up to the #5 position, at 67-63 (.515), 3 1/2 games behind Arkansas. Stanhope, at 67-65 (.508), has dropped six straight games to fall all the way to the sixth seed, 1 game behind Carolina. Just 1 1/2 games behind the Mighty Men -- lopping three games off the lead last week -- are the Phoenix Dragons at 65-66 (.496).

Then comes the pack. The Brooklyn Bean Counters are 64-70 (.478) and 4 out; the Kentucky Hillbillies, 62-69 (.473), are 1/2 game behind them. The hottest team may be the Harrison Rats (.473), winners of five straight games and now tied with Kentucky for 10th place. The Hoboken Cutters (.462) continue to tread water, 6 back and 10 games under .500; the Columbia Crusaders (.443), another team that can't seem to put a winning streak together, are 8.5 out. The Honolulu Sharks (.438) kept their slim playoff hopes alive, rebounding nicely after seven straight losses to win five in a row this week. But they're still closer to last place (7 1/2) than to sixth place (13). Not even the Philadelphia Endzone Animals, 30 games below .500 (.383), have been eliminated from the playoff picture: Their "tragic number" for mathematical elimination from the wildcard race is 14.

Eldred Is En Fuego

Just like the Phoenix Dragons themselves, starter Cal Eldred has seemingly come out of nowhere this year. Eldred (11-6, 4.96) went 2-0 this week, recording 16 K and allowing just one earned run in 15 IP for a 0.60 ERA and 0.73 WHIP, to claim the Jesus Dress Up! Pitcher of the Week Award... A former PotW Award winner, Ryan Dempster, is still mowing them down for Philadelphia. Dempster went 1-0 this week and is now 7-11 on the season after winning his last four starts... Osvaldo Fernandez moved to 17-4 on the year after beating the Phoenix Dragons on Friday. The Rats have won Fernandez's last 8 starts, and he's gone 6-0 over that span. His teammate, Derek Lowe, had a roller coaster week: The Harrison closer had five save opportunities, recording three saves, a win and a loss. He's tied for the league lead in saves, with 28, and leads the league in blown saves, with 13. That breaks Waikiki's Mitch Williams 8-year-old record of 12 blown saves in a season... Carolina's Barry Zito went 2-0 this week, allowing a 1.88 ERA and 1.12 WHIP in 14.1 IP... Honolulu's Dave Veres picked up three saves this week, allowing a 1.59 ERA and 0.88 ERA in 5.2 IP.

The Iron Fist bullpen was worked hard this week, but rose to the occasion. Bob Wells went 2-0 with a save, posting a 0.00 ERA and 0.86 WHIP in 4.2 IP; Armando Benitez was perfect in two appearances this week, recording a save, a hold, 4 Ks and no hits, runs or walks in 4 IP; Eddie Guardado also picked up a hold and a save, posting a 0.00 ERA and 0.50 WHIP in 4 IP; and Jose Jimenez recorded two three-inning saves, giving up no runs, two hits and two walks in 6 IP. One of the beneficiaries of all this fine relief work was Jim Parque, who went 2-0 despite allowing 21 baserunners in 11 innings... Arkansas's Trevor Hoffman isn't racking up the saves the way he used to, with 13 this season (and 6 blown saves). But he did have an impressive week, striking out 7 and allowing a 1.93 ERA in 4 appearances.

Stanhope's Jermaine Dye has been on an unbelievable tear, hitting .519 (14-27) with 7 HR, 10 R and 11 RBI to win the OmahaSteaks.com Batter of the Week Award. Dye's offensive flurry raised his batting average to .344, pulling himself into second place for the batting crown. In five games spanning the last two weeks, Dye hit 16-24 (.667) with 13 R, 7 HR and 15 RBI, raised his batting average 16 points, and homered in all five games. His teammate Derek Jeter continues to slowly emerge from his season-long slump, hitting .391 to lift his batting average to .255 this season... Vancouver's "Murderer's Row" has been killing opposing pitchers. The 3-4-5 hitters, Edgar Martinez, Jeff Kent and Sammy Sosa, combined to hit .370 (30-81) with 14 HR, 22 R and 31 RBI this week. Sosa led the charge, hitting .481 with 6 HR, 9 R and 12 RBI, good enough for free steaks in almost any other week... Despite having caught 119 games, Columbia's Ivan Rodriguez appears to be getting stronger as the season goes on, hitting .450 with 5 R and 8 RBI last week. His teammate, Frank Thomas, got his batting average back to .300 by hitting .375 with 3 2B, 2 HR and 8 RBI.

Harrison's Edgardo Alfonzo extended his 8-game hitting streak by going 5-12 with 4 R and 3 RBI in Sunday's doubleheader sweep of Kentucky. He hit .375 (12- 32) with 8 R and 7 RBI for the week... With David Justice on the shelf for the next few weeks, someone else will have to provide Jason Giambi with some protection. The Honolulu first baseman had another blistering week, hitting .360 with 3 HR and 11 RBI, but he drew six more walks -- putting him on a pace for 167 free passes and a .463 OBP, both short of league records. Maybe Dmitri Young will take Justice's place in the lineup: He hit 9-25 with 3 2B, 2 HR, 7 R and 7 RBI last week, leading the Sharks to series wins over division leaders Newark and Stanhope... Vlad Guerrero is doing everything he can to keep Kentucky within striking distance of the final wildcard slot. He hit .387 (12-31) with 12 RBI this week, pushing him into the lead for the RBI crown. He's finally getting some support in the lineup: Sean Casey, acquired last month from the Vancouver Iron Fist, collected 10 hits and 8 runs last week, boosting his batting average with his new team to .350... Philadephia's iron man, Scott Rolen, collected just six hits last week: Two singles, a double, a triple and two home runs, good for 10 RBIs... Jorge Posada has given Phoenix another powerful bat in the lineup, hitting .391 with 3 2B, 2 HR, 5 R and 8 RBI last week... The Carolina Mudcats have been playing .700 baseball since the All-Star Break behind a balanced offensive attack that's seen every player rise to the occasion. This week it was Randy Velarde hitting .500 (13-26) with 6 R and 10 RBI and Brad Fullmer hitting .467 (7-15) with 3 HR and 8 RBI. "Don't call me MVP. This team doesn't have an MVP," said Jim Edmonds, who leads the team in batting average, HRs and RBIs. "When I don't get it done, somebody else steps up and gets it done."

I've Got Three Aces!

Finally, some good news for starting pitchers. This week, three big guns came back: Pedro Martinez returned to action for Arkansas, Jeff D'Amico was back on the hill for Newark and Orlando Hernandez came out of hiding for Hoboken. It wasn't all good news for the Cutters though: The team nurse recently instituted a "lice check" and found 3B Chris Truby is crawling with them. He has to shave his head and get special shampoo and stay away from the other children for about a week... The cause for David Justice's recent slump has finally been determined: Honolulu's RBI machine has tennis elbow. "Playing 10 sets a day was the best cardio-vascular workout I ever experienced. Who knew you were supposed to hit the ball with a racquet and not your elbow?" He'll be back around the second week in August... Stanhope's Bernie Williams made one little joke about his wife retaining water when her "Aunt Flo was visiting" and now he's in the doghouse... literally, his wife won't let him out of the doghouse. He hopes to return to baseball before the end of August.

As if the last-place Philadelphia Endzone Animals didn't have enough to worry about, young slugger Geoff Jenkins (.224, 19 HR, 73 RBI) could miss the rest of the season after running over a gypsy's dog in the parking lot. Now he's losing weight and can't stop, no matter what he eats! How can he overcome this awful curse? See Stephen King's Thinner for the dramatic conclusion! (This injury brought to you by Paramount).

Oft-injured Carl Everett is on the shelf again for the Newark Sugar Bears. The All-Star slugger has been putting up impressive numbers (.272, 36 HR, 111 RBI in 97 games), but his inability to stay on the field has just about guaranteed this Newark team won't match the 1998 squad's 109-53 record. "Who cares how many games we win? We all win as long as we help our brother man," said Everett, who took two weeks off from baseball to work with paranoid schizophrenics at an area mental hospital. "The only one keeping score is the big umpire upstairs, and let me tell you, I'm not going to take a called third strike when it's my turn at-bat!"

This Wednesday, league rosters expand to 30, giving more flexibility to teams in the playoff hunt and giving some young players an audition for teams that are out of the running. Some possible callups this August include: Arkansas' Alex Gonzalez and Octavio Dotel, Brooklyn's Rafael Belliard, Columbia's Michael Tucker, Todd Jones, Matt Anderson, and Chris Singleton, Harrison's Damian Jackson and Peewee Reese, Hoboken's Richie Sexson, Honolulu's Travis Miller, Kentucky's Julio Lugo, Newarks's Jose Cabrera, Vancouver's Rich Garces, and Vatican City's Brian Daubach, Rey Sanchez, and Al Martin.

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.