Micro Conference: Third base

It's another horse race for the starting 3B in the Micro Conference. Unlike the Diamond Conference, where there's a clear front-runner, in the Micro, it's a neck-and-neck race, or heavyweight slug fest, depending what your sports metaphor you prefer.

2019 Kevin Mitchell Award winner

Mike Trout has done it again.

2019 Kevin Mitchell Award candidates

It could be a wide open race for the 2019 Kevin Mitchell Award, or it could very well be a cakewalk, who knows.

2019 batting leaders

The battling title came down to the final weekend of the season, Allentown got another monster season out of Mike Trout plus rookie Max Muncy and Manny Machado, and two batters reached the 50-homer mark.

Tucson comes back to even series

Nolan Arenado's two-run homer tied the game and four batters later Kurt Suzuki's two-out single completed an 8th-inning comeback off the Marietta bullpen to give Tucson a 6-5 win in Game 2 of their 1st round Wild Card series.

11th inning wild pitch gives Marietta Game 1 win

Ben Zobrist raced home on a wild pitch in the 11th winning and Marietta held off a Tucson rally in the bottom of the inning to preserve a 4-3 win on the road in Game 1 of their 1st round Wildcard matchup.

Turner powers up yet again to force Game 5

Justin Turner continued his power surge, going yard for the fourth consecutive game, and Luis Severino pitched into the 7th on short rest for Marietta, lifting the Mighty Men to a 5-0 win on Tuesday, to force a decisive Game 5 back in Tucson on Thursday.

Bumgarner quiets Mighty Men for Game 3 win

Justin Turner hit another leadoff homer run - his 3rd straight game with a long ball - but Madison Bumgarner settled in after that to tame Marietta's offense as Tucson beat the Mighty Men 8-3 in Game 3 on Monday.

Marietta powers to Game 2 win

Justin Turner and Giancarlo Stanton homered for the second straight game and Mike Clevinger overcame 5 walks to earn the victory in Marietta's 8-4 triumph at Tucson on Saturday night.

Tucson overcomes Marietta power display to take Game 1

Justin Turner opened the 2018 postseason with a home run, one of four by fifth-seeded Marietta to build a Game 1 lead in Tucson.

Turner snares batting title

Marietta's Justin Turner snagged the DMBL batting title, qualifying in the final week to jump past Tucson's Jose Altuve.

After the all-star break, Altuve overtook Pablo Sandoval of Arkansas in the batting race and was enjoying a comfortable lead down the stretch. But a handful of extra at-bats may have pushed Turner across the finish line. He went 3-for-10 (probably getting an extra 6 at-bats) in a record-setting, 22-inning win over Vancouver last week and qualified for the batting crown within days, jumping into the race at .340, ahead of Altuve's .334.

With five more starts to finish the year, Turner ultimately finished with 510 plate appearances -- 8 more than the minimum to qualify for the batting race (3.1 plate appearances per games played by the team, or 502). He ended the season hitting .337 to Altuve's .330; Sandoval finished third at .320.

Turner's situation is sort of the opposite of what happened last year when Sardine City essentially benched Christian Yelich for the final month of the season. Despite hitting .352, the rookie first-rounder eventually failed to qualify for the batting title, ceding the crown to San Francisco's Hanley Ramirez, who hit .346.

Turner made 112 starts at shortstop for Marietta, splitting time with Didi Gregorius and Derek Jeter. He also had a stint on the disabled list but batted lead off for the Mighty Men against right-handers. Jeter meanwhile made just four starts for Marietta in his final season, collecting 5 hits, and finishing his career as the all-time DMBL hits leader with 2,994 -- just 6 short of 3,000.

While Altuve has to settle for second place in batting average he was far and away the leader in hits (236) along with a league-high 763 plate appearances in 162 starts at second base for the Scorpions. Victor Martinez of San Francisco (194) and Empire City's Daniel Murphy (191) finished behind Altuve in hits.

Turner also finished as the league's leader in on-base percentage (.396), jumping head of Livingston's Jayson Heyward and Poovey's Freddie Freeman (.385).