Diamond Conference: Shortstop

The only thing keeping the Diamond shortstop race from being a runaway is eligibility at multiple positions.

Corey Seager is putting up an all-star season as Sardine City's full-time shortstop. but Loudon's Marcus Semien has seen the bulk of his time at shortstop as well, in addition to some second base. And don't look now but Javy Baez of Empire City has made a big push with multiple dongs over the past few weeks.

The Diamond Conference is comprised of Arkansas, Empire City, Hoboken, Hopatcong, Loudon, Newark, Sardine City, San Francisco, Tucson, and defending champion Vancouver.

Semien has been among the Diamond Conference leaders in HR (23) and RBI (54) to say nothing of only Diamond SS or 2B. He's tops among this SS crew in extra base hits (42) and total bases (169) and second in RC (56.0).

While Semien has provided the power for Loudon, Seager has been the pace setter in Sardine City. He can be found among the league leaders in batting (.315), OBP (.384), hits (106), RC/27 (7.1) and RC (63.7). His 7.1 RC/27 leads Diamond SS although if Brandon Crawford of Arkansas had played in more than 36 games at SS, his 7.6 RC/27 would qualify as first among the group. Crawford has split time at SS (36) and DH (18) for the Golden Falcons and appears on the ballot at DH with Kyle Farmer at SS. Defensively, Seager leads DMBL SS in putouts (105), just ahead of San Francisco's Trevor Story (104) and Newark's J.P. Crawford (102). Story, meanwhile, has a league-high 270 assists and total chances (377). On a per-game basis, Willy Adames (1.26) edges Story (1.25) so far.

Baez has slugged his way into the league's top 10 in SLG (.567), trailing only Rafael Devers of Arkansas in the Diamond Conference, which has also pushed his OPS (.879) just ahead of other Diamond SS like Semien (.865) and Seager (.859). His 5 triples also ranks 4th in the DMBL. He might be the best shot at an all-star selection for Empire City (31-53, .369). Baez and Seager at one point were tied at 160 total bases, not far behind Semien. Baez's recent power surge pushed his RC/27 to 6.2, just ahead of Semien's 6.1.

But for some flashes here and there, the rest of the shortstop field in the Diamond Conference this year isn't really up to snuff for the All-Star consideration, at least offensively.