Week 21 - Aug. 12, 2007

Wild About the Wild Card

One division race is over and the other soon will be. But the battle for the four wild cards is one of the most exciting in recent memory. In fact, Cecil Fielder may have spoken too soon in his recent Number Crunch when he said there were five teams fighting it out for three spots -- after another wild week, even the 10th place team is still just 5½ games out of the playoff picture! It's going to make for a wild August as we head into the final two weeks of the season.

The Newark Sugar Bears certified this week what had seemed inevitable for most of this season, going 5-1 for a second straight week to clinch their seventh straight Hanover Division title. Their magic number to clinch their third straight Commissioner's Cup is 4. The Sugar Bears haven't been taking it easy as they head down the stretch, winning 12 out of their last 14. In fact, after going 58-23 over the first half (.716 W%), they've been even better over the second half, going 48-16 (.750). As hot as they've been, they'd have to go 15-2 the rest of the way to beat the all-time best single-season record of 120-42, set by Arkansas in 2002. If they can maintain their current pace (.731 W%), they'd tie Vancouver for second-best all-time at 118-44... Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Endzone Animals are on cruise control as they stroll to their first-ever Morris Division crown. The Animals went just 3-4 this week, but even that was good enough to reduce their magic number to clinch the division all the way to 3... Matthew's Mighty Men of Marietta had a second straight losing week, going 3-4, but they've still got the league's third-best record. Their magic number to clinch a playoff spot is 12... The Hoboken Cutters went 7-1 this week to jump up from a 7th place tie into a 4th place tie, just 4 games behind Marietta for the league's top wildcard spot... The Honolulu Sharks also moved up in the standings, jumping from 6th into the tie with Hoboken after going 5-2. The Sharks have gone 7-4 against the Cutters this year, and they only face each other twice more, so if they finish the season tied, the Sharks will be the higher seed... The D.C. Bushslappers dropped from 4th to 6th after going 1-5 this week. The Slappers haven't had a winning week since Week 17.

There's less than 20 games left in the season, but the next four teams are still very much in the playoff hunt. The Hillsborough Hired Hitmen were in 6th place last week, but they took a big step backward after going 2-5 and now find themselves in 7th place, a game behind D.C.... Right behind them, 2½ games out of the post-season, sit the Vancouver Iron Fist, who went 3-5 to fall from a 7th place tie into 8th place... The Carolina Mudcats split their 8 games this week to remain 4½ games out of 6th place... The Arkansas Golden Falcons were all but out of the race last week, but winning 7 out of 8 can change your attitude. The 10th-place Falcs are now 5½ games out of the post-season -- a lot of ground to make up in 17 games, but a lot closer than they were a week ago. In fact, at this time last year, they were also in 10th place, but then went 14-4 and won two play-in games to claim the 6th playoff spot. Can they do it again this year?

We can cross off another team from post-season contention, and the clock is running out on two more. The South Boston Gang went 3-4 to remain in 11th place, 12½ games out of the post-season. Their tragic number to be eliminated is 5... New Jersey Team Buddah also went 3-4 to remain in 12th place, 14 games behind D.C... The Sardine City Straphangers went a respectable 3-5 but that wasn't enough to stave off the end. The Hangmen could win out and they'd still finish no better than 11th place... The Las Vegas Rat Pack, who were eliminated last week, are still involved in another race -- the race for the best chance at the first overall pick in next year's draft. The Rats went 2-5 for a second straight week to cross the 100-loss barrier; at their current pace, they'll lose 113 games, which would tie them with the 2000 Hawaii Volcanoes for the 5th-worst record of all time. They are now 6½ games worse than the Straphangers, and can clinch last place with any combination of 12 losses and/or Straphanger wins. (And with New Jersey's next win or Vegas's next loss, it will officially become a two-team race to the bottom as no other team will be able to lose more games than the Pack this year.)

The Playoff Picture

Let's take a closer look at how the wild card race will shake out.

Wild Cards	Rank	GB	Games	Opponents
Marietta (81-64)	3rd	+5½	17	VAN (1), HIL (3), NWK (3), @ NJ (3), @ HBK (1), SAR (3), ARK (3)
Honolulu (78-69)	4th*	+4	15	DC (2), CAR (2), @ NJ (2), NWK (2), @ HIL (1), @ HBK (2), VAN (3)
Hoboken (77-68)	5th*	+4	17	HIL (2), ARK (3), SAR (3), LV (3), MAR (1), HON (2), SB (3)
D.C. (76-70)	6th	0	16	@ HON (2), @ SAR (3), HIL (2), SB (2), @ NJ (1), NJ (2), @ NWK (4)
Hillsborough (74-70)	7th	-1	18	@ HBK (2), @ MAR (3), @ DC (2), CAR (3), HON (1), @ PHI (3), @ LV (4)
Vancouver (73-72)	8th	-2½	17	@ MAR (1), @ LV (3), @ PHI (3), SAR (1), @ SAR (2), CAR (1), @ SB (3), @ HON (3)
Carolina (71-74)	9th	-4½	17	@ LV (1), @ HON (3), @ SB (3), @ HIL (3), @ VAN (1), @ ARK (3), @ SAR (3)
Arkansas (70-75)	10th	-5½	17	@ NJ (2), @ HBK (3), LV (1), @ LV (2), @ PHI (3), CAR (3), @ MAR (3)
*Honolulu leads Hoboken in the head-to-head tie-breaker (7-4)

Marietta has 12 games remaining against playoff hopefuls, but if they can split those games and take care of business against 12th-place New Jersey and 13th-place Sardine City, they're virtually assured of a playoff spot if not the top wild card seed... Honolulu has perhaps the toughest schedule remaining of the current wild card teams. All but two of their 15 games remaining are against teams with at least an outside chance of playoff contention... The Cutters, on the other hand, have a far easier schedule as they have 12 games left against the bottom four teams -- and all 17 of their remaining games are at home... D.C. has to survive four crucial games this week -- two against the Sharks in Honolulu and two at home against Hillsborough. They also have eight games remaining against three non-contenders (Sardine City, South Boston and New Jersey). They need to bury those teams and hope to have a playoff spot clinched before the final four games of the season, when they face the Sugar Bears in the Cereal Bowl.

Hillsborough can take control of its own destiny if they can win the two games at home against the Bushslappers. Their best-case scenario might be to head into the final four games of the season tied with D.C. for the final playoff spot -- while the Bushslappers are in Newark, the Hitmen are in Vegas against the last-place Rats...  It's a good news, bad news situation for the Iron Fist. The good news is just four of their remaining 17 games are against other wild card contenders. The bad news is that means they need to rely on other squads to beat the teams ahead of them in the standings... All 17 of Carolina's remaining games are on the road, where the Mudcats are a woeful 26-38 (.406 W%). If there's a silver lining, it's that 10 of those remaining 17 games are against teams behind them in the standings... The Golden Falcons have to make up 5½ games in 17 games, which won't be easy. Even if they go 13-4, D.C. can eliminate them by just going .500 the rest of the way.

Frankie and Johnny... again!

Welcome back to what seems to be a regularly scheduled feature, "Francisco Liriano and Johan Santana vs. all the other pitchers in the DMBL." It seems just about every other week one of these two is winning the Pitcher of the Week Award. Though some other starting pitchers did have excellent numbers this week, once again it came down to Marietta's Liriano (2-0, 1.10 ERA, 6.1 R/9, 3 BB, 22 K in 16.1 IP) or Philly's Santana (2-0, 2.81 ERA, 8.4 R/9, 3 BB, 17 K in 16.0 IP). Each had awesome weeks but the clear winner this time was Liriano, who for good measure also had his first shutout of the season this week. Santana's numbers were almost as good as Liriano's, but to be fair he did notch his two awesome outings against the league's two weakest teams, Las Vegas and Sardine City. Liriano, on the other hand, did his damage against two teams still fighting for playoff spots. His first start was one of the most dominating performances of the season -- a one-hit, 14-strikeout shutout of the Bushslappers. Liriano had a no-hitter until there were two outs in the 6th inning, when he gave up a double to Esteban German; that was the only hit of the game. The only other baserunners were Alfonso Soriano, who reached on a two-out walk in the first inning; and German again, who led off the game by reaching on an error, but was then thrown out stealing. Between the walk to Soriano and the double by German, Liriano retired 15 in a row; after the double, he retired the final 10 baters of the game as the Mites won, 3-0. Liriano's second outing also was impressive as he stopped the Iron Fist for a 5-2 win. Liriano allowed 2 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks while striking out 8 and inducing a pair of double plays. topped the Iron Fist in a 5-2 win. Francisco's two strong outings this week earned him the Kings of the Beach Pitcher of the Week Award and may have put him back in the lead in the see-saw race for the Ben McDonald Pitcher of the Year Award; he already looks like a lock as the Pat Listach Rookie of the Year. Liriano is now 15-2 with a 2.29 ERA and 10.0 R/9; Santana is 17-2 with a 3.42 and 10.0. Liriano leads the league in ERA, K/9, QS% and OPS allowed, and is in the top 5 in strikeouts, wins, winning percentage; Santana leads the league in strikeouts, wins, winning percentage, shutouts, complete games and innings pitched, and is second in ERA, OPS allowed and K:BB ratio. The two are tied in R/9.

So who were the starters who had the tough luck of running into the two-headed monster of Liriano/Santana this week? These pitchers all had outstanding numbers but no Pitcher of the Week Award to show for it: Arkansas's Dan Haren (3.38 ERA, 9.6 R/9, 1 BB, 13 K in 16.0 IP) and Curt Schilling (1-0, 1.80 ERA, 13.2 R/9, 0 BB, 15 K in 15.0 IP);  Hoboken's Jon Garland (2-0, 1.08 ERA, 8.6 R/9, 0 BB, 12 K in 16.2 IP) and Vicente Padilla (2-0, 2.25 ERA, 6.8 R/9, 3 BB, 20 K in 16.0 IP); Honolulu's Jered Weaver (1-0, 2.25 ERA, 7.3 R/9, 3 BB, 14 K in 16.0 IP); New Jersey's Brad Penny (1-1, 2.45 ERA, 10.4 R/9, 2 BB, 12 K in 14.2 IP); and Newark's Chien-Ming Wang (2-0, 3.38 ERA, 12.1 R/9, 3 BB, 4 K in 13.1 IP).

Can't Get Enough of Super Golden Crisp...

Speaking of what seem to be regularly scheduled features, once again the Sugar Bears decided to maul opposing pitchers again this week. Newark scored 69 runs this week -- in just 6 games! That's 9 more runs than was scored this week by the combined totals of 3rd-place Marietta, 6th-place D.C. and 7th-place Hillsborough. Newark had four players in double-digits in runs scored, four in double-digits in runs created and two in double-digits in RBIs; five batters hit over .500 and nine had OPSs over 1.000. In fact, the top 6 guys in OPS and RC/27 this week were all on Newark! OK OK, everybody hit, who gets the stupid box of cigars as the JRCigars Batter of the Week Award winner? You could give it to Jim Edmonds (.591, 1.633 OPS, 5 2B, 11 R, 8 RBI in 22 AB), who led the league in BA,  OPS, total average and RC/27 (47.0); Carlos Guillen (.571, 1.600 OPS, 2 HR, 13 R), who led the league in hits (16), runs (13), runs created (17.4) and total bases (28); or Mark Teahen (.333, 1.282 OPS, 4 HR, 8 RBI) who led the league in HR, isolated power and AB/HR. You could even make a case for Bobby Abreu (.417, 1.201 OPS, 5 2B, 10 R), Nick Johnson (.346, 1.241 OPS, 3 HR, 15 RBI) or Marlon Anderson (.407, 1.117 OPS, 6 2B, 7 RBI). But we polled the team and almost to a man they said, "give the cigars to the captain!" Chipper Jones had another stellar week (.519, 1.462 OPS, 3 HR, 12 RBI, 13.5 RC) in what just may be the best year in his Hall of Fame career. The switch-hitting third baseman is hitting .365 (1.094 OPS) with 34 2B, 37 HR, 127 R and 122 RBI. But as usual, Chipper downplayed his own accomplishments this year and focused the attention on the squad. "Another division title, another Commissioner's Cup, another 100-win season," Jones said with a wave of his hand. "All that matters is the ring!"

Believe it or not, some guys who don't play for the Sugar Bears had pretty good offensive weeks, too: Arkansas's Lance Berkman (.500, 1.583 OPS, 3 HR, 5 R, 9 RBI); Hillsborough's Ryan Howard (.320, 1.099 OPS, 3 HR, 6 RBI); Hoboken's Miguel Cabrera (.429, 1.143 OPS, 3 HR, 8 RBI); Honolulu's Eric Chavez (.438, 1.524 OPS, 3 HR, 5 RBI); Marietta's Derek Jeter (.382, .874 OPS, 2 2B, 2 SB); New Jersey's Adam Kennedy (.417, 1.023 OPS, 2 2B, 6 RBI); Sardine City's Gary Matthews Jr. (.406, 1.066 OPS, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 1 SB); South Boston's Prince Fielder (.333, 1.067 OPS, 2 HR, 9 RBI; and Vancouver's Jason Bay (.344, .963 OPS, 2 HR, 6 RBI).

Another Broken Wing

Another week, another missing player for the Golden Falcons. This time it was ace Pedro Martinez going down for the count. Pedro didn't get injured but rather didn't abide by the team's strict policy of requiring all players to have their G.E.D.'s. Pedro, who is just a few credits shy, skipped summer school last week and has been suspended for the rest of the season. "Maybe if Pedro apologizes and promises to do his homework for the rest of the summer we'll let him come back and make one last start before the end of the season," team tutor/pitching coach Bret Saberhagen said. Martinez wasn't having one of his Big Ben-caliber seasons but was still one of the team's most reliable starters (11-9, 3.77 ERA, 12.0 R/9). In the last few weeks, the Golden Falcons have resurrected their playoff hopes, despite injuries to Roger Clemens, Chris Coste, Bob Wickman, Eric Hinske and Orlando Cabrera. "Maybe everyone is playing better because they're scared of getting whacked next," manager George Brett said. "We should have started taking people out months ago!"

Also suffering a key blow this week were the Bushslappers. Not only have they dropped from fighting for the division title to clawing just for a playoff spot, now they have to do it without Carlos Beltran. The center fielder, who is hitting .263 but with a .965 OPS this season, read about how Arkansas's Hinske had tried out LASIK@Home "do it yourself" laser vision surgery. "That sounded like a good idea, but it's really hard to aim the laser just right," Beltran sighed as he toyed with his white cane. Doctors are confident he will regain his sight if the team makes the playoffs. "We might have to do an eyeball transplant, but  we won't need Matt Morris until next year," the team trainer said... Meanwhile, New Jersey's Jacque Jones decided, with his team almost out of the playoffs, he might as well take a week off. "I won't be back next year anyway, so what's the worst they can do to me?" As punishment, the team is considering making Jones sit between Bobby Jenks and Freddy Garcia on long flights.

Shuffling the Deck

It's too late for players signed now to be part of the playoff roster, but if you're still fighting just to get into the big dance, there's no rule stopping you from adding reinforcements. The Golden Falcons -- one of this year's busiest teams when it comes to signing free agents -- again shook up the clubhouse by bringing in some new faces. The Golden Falcons dumped Aaron Hill -- just a week after signing him -- and also Gabe Gross, and signed veteran outfielders Bernie Williams and David Dellucci. They also put Eric Hinske on the D.L. and activated Bob Wickman. "We needed a veteran presence on the club," bench coach Dan Wilson said. "We only have six guys over the age of 35!"

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.