Stanton eclipses career strikeout record, breaks into top 10 career HRs

Giancarlo Stanton supplanted Alex Rodriguez in the record books, setting a new DMBL mark for career strikeouts.

Pujols reaches 600 HRs, becomes all-time leader in games, ABs

In his final DMBL season, Pujols has settled in as primarily a platoon DH vLHP, with a few games at 1B, for Livingston, where he's had a bit of a resurgence, relatively speaking. The Dominican native also has reached some historic marks in the league's record books this year.

Pujols becomes 4th to reach 500 HRs

Albert Pujols, who compiled perhaps the DMBL's best decade by an offensive player, this season became the fourth player in league history to reach the hallowed 500 home run level, joining Jim Thome (531), Alex Rodriguez (595) and Barry Bonds (689). He's also closing in on his 500th double, a feat accomplished by just three players as well: Todd Helton (507), Manny Ramirez (538), and Chipper Jones (561).

The blast was a highlight of what's been a down year for Pujols in his first with a new franchise, the Saskatoon Shields. The historic homer came off Hopatcong's Ubaldo Jimenez, a solo shot in the 7th inning of what was eventually a 5-3 win for the Shields. The next active player is Hoboken's David Ortiz, who on Monday night tied Jason Giambi for 14th all-time with 378.

Pujols matched Manny Ramirez with 498 home runs (5th all-time) when he blasted his 12th homer of the year. That was a first-inning blow off Justin Masterson in a game Saskatoon eventually triumphed, 4-3, over Marietta in an Aug. 8 extra innings matchup. He passed Ramirez with a solo shot, his 13th of the year, off Allentown's John Lackey, in a 5-4 loss in an Aug. 13 game.

Pujols was on a trajectory for the Hall of Fame after Philly took him with the first overall pick of the 2002 draft. He was beaten out for the Pat Listach Rookie of the Year Award that season by Hoboken's Joel Pineiro, who was selected 4th overall, but routinely played 160 games a year and mashed home runs by the 40s for the next decade. Pujols averaging more than 40 a year for his first 12 seasons, including a career-high 64 in 2010 when he won his second consecutive Kevin Mitchell Award as the league's most valuable batter, the only player to do that besides Bonds.

After the Philly franchise folded this past offseason, Saskatoon grabbed him in the 14th round of the four-team dispersal draft and he hasn't been able to regain the magic yet, though he doesn't have the supporting cast he's had in previous years either.

Pujols has a respectable but mortal 17 home runs and 63 RBI for a Shields squad that scores a league low 3.7 runs per game and dealt its best hitter (Yan Gomes) at the trade deadline. He's hitting career lows of .215/.284/.365 and is on pace for his worst year by far. Only two other seasons has he not driven in 100 RBI -- 99 in his sophomore season of 2003 and 97 in 2012. He's also on pace for a career-low in home runs, which was his rookie year of 2001, when he blasted 29.

Chipper leaving his mark in final season

One of the all-time great DMBLers is making the most of his retirement tour through the league. The cornerstone of the controversial yet record-setting Newark Sugar Bears dynasty, Chipper Jones will leave the DMBL among the all-time leaders in virtually every category but triples and stolen bases.

After a sluggish first half, Jones enjoyed an unexpected power surge in the third quarter of the season. Now with 23 home runs, Jones has vaulted up the all-time home run list, becoming the 6th player to reach 450 round-trippers and passing some select company. During a stretch of only about a week or so, the Brick City third basemen passed Sammy Sosa (#9, 446), Vlad Guerrero (#8, 447) and Ken Griffey, Jr. (#7, 448). Number 6 all-time is likely where he'll finish since Philly's Albert Pujols is just too far out of reach at #5, with 484.

Alex Rodriguez is the active leader in home runs. In limited playing time this season with Las Vegas, A-Rod has slowly snuck up to near 600. The suspected PED user has smacked only 9 home runs this year but is second all-time with 594, way behind Barry Bonds at 689.

Earlier in the year, Jones broke the all-time record for most doubles, eclipsing longtime teammate Manny Ramirez, who had 538. Chipper enters the season's final weeks with 562 doubles. In a more recent career milestone a couple weeks ago, Chipper jumped ahead of Manny (1,728) for second place in career RBIs, with 1,732, trailing only Bonds (2,060).

A lock to make the DMBL Hall of Fame once he becomes eligible, Jones won't catch his future HOF colleague Derek Jeter of Marietta for the all-time hits record. He's safely ensconced in second place, more than 200 hits ahead of Guerrero, with 2,809, but several dozen behind Jeter (2,877).

Helton becomes 6th player to reach 2,000 games

It will be a year full of milestones if Todd Helton keeps this up. On Tuesday night, the longtime DMBLer became the sixth player in league history with 2,000 games played, and now only two other players stand ahead of him in career doubles.

Helton, drafted by the Hoboken Cutters in the 7th round this year, smacked two doubles in Monday night's win over Marietta, passing Edgar Martinez to move into third all-time. He started the year tied for sixth with Barry Bonds (487), and also passed Ivan Rodriguez (490) along the way. The only players left ahead of Helton are Chipper Jones (535), who is chasing Manny Ramirez (538).

A career-high 63 doubles in 2001 -- his first with Stanhope/Marietta -- kicked off a stretch of eight straight seasons of at least 38 doubles. That stretch also included eight out of nine seasons with at least 159 games played.

Helton has but one home run so far this year, 286 for his career, good for 26th all-time, although he recently was passed by current teammate Miguel Cabrera. The lefty slugger also overtook Jeff Bagwell (2,047) for 13th in career hits, and moved into 15th all-time in RBIs, passing Jim Edmonds (1,129), as he tries to compile a Hall Of Fame resume.

Guerrero ties Sosa for 6th all-time in home runs

In what's shaping up to be his final DMBL season, Vlad Guerrero is taking a few final swings into the record books. Even though he's on pace for a career-low in home runs, Guerrero launched his 12th of the season last week, matching Sammy Sosa for 6th in league history with 446 career homers. In the Rowdy Roddy Pipers' 5-3 home win last Saturday, Guerrero went 4-for-4, including a two-run shot in the 3rd inning off Hillsborough's Felix Hernandez.

The Rowdy designated hitter needs two more home runs in the season's final 35 games to match Ken Griffey, Jr. for 5th all-time with 448 home runs. Guerrero's pace this season has seen about one home run every 9.5 games, or more specifically, one every 34.25 at bats.

Getting to No. 4 all-time might prove difficult for Vlad the Impaler: Manny Ramirez sits almost 50 home runs away, with 498 round-trippers. But Guerrero also has a unique chance to set another all-time record, at least temporarily. He enters today's doubleheader just one hit behind Derek Jeter for most hits all-time. Guerrero started this season about 20 hits behind the Marietta shortstop and both have passed Barry Bonds, who started 2012 with the league record (2,575).

Jeter, who has 2,670 hits entering Sunday's action, overtook Barry Bonds early this season as the DMBL's all-time hits leader. Since he plans to come back for another DMBL season in 2013, even if Guerrero does pass the Marietta shortstop this year, it looks like Jeter has all of next year to regain the crown. Guerrero currently has 2,669 hits, could call it quits after this season.

The 37-year-old Dominican native hit a career-high 52 home runs in 2001 (along with a staggering 164 RBIs) with the Kentucky Hillbillies and a career-low 16 homers in 2010 with New Jersey Team Buddah. Guerrero has played for 8 franchises in his 16 seasons, his most dominant stretch with the Toledo Mutthens/Tijuana Banditos/South Boston Gang from 2002 to 2007. He posted 100-RBI seasons in six straight years between 2003 and 2008.

Pudge calls it quits

When Ivan Rodriguez announced his retirement last week, he bid farewell to the DMBL for good. He had 137 plate appearances in MLB last year, leaving him 67 short of DMBL eligibility for 2012.

He certainly will be on the ballot for the DMBL Hall of Fame by 2017, and as a longtime catcher, likely will get heavy consideration on his first try. If it's not Pudge leading catchers in a career batting category, it's Mike Piazza.

Pudge spent much of his career with his original franchise, the now defunct-Columbia Crusaders. He was the face of the franchise since being selected in the 6th round (50th overall) in the 1993 draft and spent 12 seasons with the Crusaders/Rattlesnakes. He was a two-time all-star (1996 and 2001) and appeared in a DMBL-record 18 seasons.

After Columbia left the DMBL, Pudge was a bit of a vagabond catcher -- left unprotected but usually being drafted -- playing for five different teams in his final six seasons. Much of his final three years was spent as a part-time player, logging 190 games with three different squads.

Most impressively, between breaking into the DMBL in 1993 and 2008, Pudge played no fewer than 130 games a year with the exception of one season (2002, 102 games, and of course, the strike-year of 1995). He leads catchers in career hits, at-bats, doubles and games played (tantalizingly close to 500 doubles, and 2,000 "official" games), and trails Piazza in most other categories.

Entering the 2012 season, he ranked 6th all-time in games played with 1,991 -- only Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Chipper Jones, Manny Ramirez and Vlad Guerrero have "officially" played more. He also finishes 4th in doubles with 490 (surpassed only by Edgar Martinez, Chipper and Manny).

(Games played wasn't an official stat in the early days of the DMBL and many old-timers have incomplete records for the category. Rodriguez certainly played more than 2,000 games but the 1994 and 1996 seasons are incomplete, and he likely played as many as 300 games in those two years considering his number of at-bats.)

Other career stats for Pudge:

Batting average: .282
On-base: .313
Slugging: .439
OPS: .752
AB: 8,318 (7th)
H: 2,370 (7th -- ahead of Roberto Alomar, 2,207, behind A-Rod, 2,436)
HR: 263 (30th -- ahead of Javy Lopez, 260, behind Bobby Abreu, 264)
RBI:  1,100 (18th -- ahead of Rafael Palmeiro, 1,099, behind Larry Walker, 1,103)
Runs: 821 (29th)
Strikeouts: 1,359 (19th; only 378 career walks)

Jeter Matches Bonds For All-Time Hits Mark

Longtime Marietta shortstop Derek Jeter tied Barry Bonds for the all-time DMBL lead in career hits, with 2,575. The record-tying hit came Friday night in the seventh inning on a groundball between first and second off Rowdy Roddy's Pipers rookie Guillermo Moscoso. Jeter came around to score what would be the winning run on a sac fly to give the Mighty Men a 6-5 decision at Home Depot Stadium.

The Captain will look to own the record today at home against the Roddy Pipers and scheduled starter Tim Hudson.

Jeter started 2012 campaign with 2,566 hits but certainly is no lock to keep the all-time hits record. He has company from a number of other active players who began the year within striking distance:
* Rowdy's Vlad Guerrero (4th/2,543)
* Newark's Chipper Jones (5th/2,537)
* Alex Rodriguez of Las Vegas (6th/2,436)

There's also Manny Ramirez, who began this season 3rd all-time with 2,545 hits (and just two HRs from 500), is sitting out the year but plans a comeback in 2013 DMBL; Jones and Guerrero already have pushed him to 5th all-time in hits since the season started.

Whether a DMBL player will stick around long enough to reach 3,000 hits remains to be seen, but it would seem the Magic 8 Ball would say, "Not likely." Chipper already has announced that he will retire after next season, so he would need about 225 hits this season and next. Meanwhile, a sizzling start in his first dozen games (18 hits in his first 42 at-bats) has moved Vlad within 14 hits of Bonds and Jeter through Friday night's games.

A-Rod, Jeter pass Manny

First it was Alex Rodriguez of Las Vegas and then it was Marietta's Derek Jeter, but both players passed Manny Ramirez for the all-time lead DMBL at-bats, during the first week of the 2012 campaign.

Ramirez was No. 1 with an even 8,800 at-bats and may eventually add to his total as he sits out 2012 to make a comeback in 2013. After Saturday's matchups, A-Rod and Jeter now rank 1-2, with 8,812 and 8,804 at-bats. The duo also started the season 1-2 in all-time games played, with Jeter at 2,267 and A-Rod at 2,260. Newark's Chipper Jones wasn't far behind at 2,243.

Jeter also looks to make history early this season, needing just 9 hits to surpass Barry Bonds as the all-time hits leader, with 2,575. He enters Sunday's doubleheaders with 4 hits on the year, sitting on 2,570.

Time running out for Manny's 500th

Manny Ramirez's walk-off home-run off Joel Peralta on Sunday kept alive Marietta's playoff hopes against Carolina, but also his own chance at reaching 500 career home runs.

Heading into the final three-game series at Arkansas on Wednesday, Ramirez now has 12 homers on the year and 497 for his career (while Marietta sits three games behind Carolina for the sixth and final playoff spot). Ramirez is assured to finish his career 4th on the all-time home run list (behind Thome, 410; A-Rod, 555; and Bonds, 689), and would be the 4th player to reach 500 home runs.

Ramirez has said this will be his 16th and final season in DMBL, meaning he would be eligible for the Hall of Fame starting in 2016. He's played at least 132 games every year but one since 2000 and has never played fewer than 104 games in a season since breaking in with Toledo in 1996. He joined Newark in 1997 and was a key cog in the Sugar Bear dynasty until being dealt to Marietta this season, after which he announced his impending retirement.

Chasing Bonds

When the season started, it looked all but certain that Barry Bonds would lose his grip on the league's all-time hit record (2,575). With roughly 30 games to go in the 2011 campaign though, it looks more likely that Bonds will hold on to the mark for at least one more season. And depending on how off-season personnel moves play out, it could be longer than that.

Marietta's Derek Jeter and Manny Ramirez, Vladimir Guerrero of New Jersey and Newark's Chipper Jones are the active leaders in hits, ranking second through fifth. Going into the season, Jeter looked like the surest shot, as the only other player above the 2,500 mark (2,507). But the majority of playing time as the Marietta shortstop this year has gone to Cezar Izturis, leaving Jeter with just 40 starts, 78 games in all, and a measly 45 hits, putting him at 2,553 -- 22 hits from Bonds with 31 games to play.

The other three players all went over 2,500 career hits within the past few weeks but the numbers don't seem to add up for a legitimate run at Bonds in 2011. Ramirez has no more than 31 games remaining in his DMBL career and entered the week with 2,517 hits -- 58 behind Bonds. Guerrero and Jones currently are separated by just five hits, 2,516 for Vlad (trailing Bonds by 59), 2,511 for Chipper (64 behind Bonds). Guerrero's Team Buddah has 29 games to play while Chipper's Sugar Bears has the fewest of the quartet -- 27.

For 2012, only Jeter currently stands a shot at finding some playing time, and that's likely only against lefties. Ramirez already has announced his retirement at the conclusion of 2011 while Guerrero and Jones need to get hot if they don't want to avoid hoping for sentimentality to find a roster spot in 2012.

As long as we're looking toward 2012, it might be safe to say that another player might reach Bonds at some point next year. Alex Rodriguez of Las Vegas has 103 hits so far this season, 6th all time with 2,414 hits -- 161 behind Bonds. Ivan Rodriguez, getting some playing time with Amityville of late, is the only other active player in the all-time top 10, at 2,367.

Manny sets all-time mark for doubles

In what's been a historically bad start for Newark, Manny Ramirez has given Sugar Bears fans something to cheer about with some history of his own.
 The longtime Sugar Bear passed Edgar Martinez as the all-time DMBL leader in doubles with 494 when he smacked a two-bagger off Bridgewater's Joel Pineiro Monday night. Ramirez matched Martinez two games earlier with his 493rd career double, off Philly's Matt Garza. Earlier this season, he became the fourth player in league history to appear in 2,000 games.

Ramirez likely will soon become the first DMBLer to hit 500 doubles and is also closing in on 500 career home runs, a mark reached by only two others (Alex Rodriguez  and Barry Bonds). He'd be the first to hit 500 doubles and 500 homers.

In other all-time categories, Ramirez ranks 1st in strikeouts (the only one with 2,000+), 2nd in RBIs, 4th in runs, 4th in games played, 5th in hits and 7th in walks.

Sugar Bears rain on Sardines' parade

The Sugar Bears scored quickly in yesterday's Game 2 and took an early 2-0 series lead heading back to Newark. The Sugar Bears tallied 4 runs in the first inning after Will Venable hit a 2-run homer and Manny Ramirez tripled in a run and later scored. Venable hit his second homer of the night in the 3rd to extend the lead to 5-0. Sardine City finally got on the board in the 4th on a Nyjer Morgan single. Manny Ramirez regained the run for the Sugar Bears with an RBI single in the 7th. The Sardine offense woke up in the bottom of the 7th when James Loney hit a 3-run double to bring the score to 6-4. Travis Hafner led off the 9th with a double, but was left stranded after the next three batters were retired on easy popups by Kiko Calero.

The Vancouver-Philadelphia series resumes today in Philadelphia where the Endzone Animals will try to get back into the series after falling down 2-0. Vancouver will send Randy Wells to the mound to face Jered Weaver. Philadelphia is 1-1 against Wells, while Vancouver is 1-2 against Weaver. Both starters faced each other way back in July with Weaver outpitching Wells in a 4-2 win.

Ramirez family reunion?

Ramirez won a close game against Ramirez last night, although Ramirez was 0-4 and didn't factor into the result. Well, that's one way to put it. Brian McCann's solo home run in the 9th off reliever Edwar Ramirez gave D.C. the 3-2 win over the Mudcats. Taking the loss was another reliever, Ramon Ramirez. A third Ramirez, Aramis was 0-4, and Manny and Hanley were involved in other games.

John Lackey won his 10th game as Hillsborough eked out a 3-2 win over Blue Ridge in 10 innings. Lackey went nine innings in the game, watching as the Hitmen tied it up in the top of the 9th on a Carlos Lee single. Lackey ended his 9 as the score was tied 2-2, but in the top of the 10th, Shin-Soo Choo doubled in the winning run. Mike Gonzalez struck out 2 of the 3 batters he faced to earn his 20th save. By the way, this is the only game of the day without at least one Ramirez...

Ok, we're going to continue the Ramirez Report. Manny Ramirez only went 1-5, but his team, Newark, won 5-3 against the Straphangers. In defeat, Alex Ramirez was 2-5 with a double. Yeah, we forgot about Alex, but not about Horacio, who just plain sucks and is a free agent anyway. He's already gotten more press than he deserves...

The Final Ramirez, Hanley, was 2-5 with a double and an RBI in leading his Cutters to a 7-4 win over New Jersey. Aaron Cook held the Buddahs to just 4 hits and one earned run in 6 innings to improve to 8-7 on the season.

Frustrated Fist fall to Buddah

The 2009 DMBL All-Star Ballot has been posted. The game less than a month away, so get those votes in!

How the heck did Vancouver lose to New Jersey yesterday? Vancouver outhit Team Buddah 17-6, yet still lost 4-3 in extra innings. The Buddahs got on the board quickly with a first-inning Fernando Tatis home run. The Fist got in trouble with some walks and a passed ball, leading to another run. Vancouver quickly tied it up in the 2nd with a pair of runs. Vancouver took the lead in the 7th on a Troy Glaus single, but Buddah tied it up the next inning. Buddah finally won it in the 10th on a hit by Casey Blake. So how do you get 17 hits and score only 3 runs? Well, let's examine that 7th inning, which should have been a huge inning for Vancouver. Jerry Hairston led off the inning with a single, but was thrown out trying to steal second. Vancouver followed up with back to back singles. Adam Jones smacked a liner for a base hit, but Chase Headley was thrown out trying to score. The next hit finally scored a run, but Victor Martinez struck out to end the inning. The club left 13 batters on base and also hit into a double play in the later innings.

The day's other extra inning affair was an offensive battle. Sardine City built up ay 7-3 lead on Philadelphia but Jimmy Rollins hit a grand slam in the 8th to tie it up. Raul Ibanez then hit a 2-run shot in the 11th to give the Sardines a 9-7 lead, but Mark Teixeira came through with a 2-run double to tie it up. Marco Scutaro gave the Straphangers the lead for good in the 12th when his base hit scored Stephen Drew. The Sardines had 20 hits in the game, including Carlos Quentin (4-6) and Raul Ibanez (3-6, 4 RBIs). Quentin has been on a bit of hot streak lately, hitting .340 in his last 12 games with a 1.154 OPS.

Hillsborough won their 3rd straight and took a 1/2 game lead in the Morris Division. The Hitmen edged the Ant Slayers by a 6-5 margin. Shin-Soo Choo was 4-4 with 3 doubles and Freddy Sanchez was 3-5 with 2 RBIs.

Manny Ramirez was 3-4 with 2 home runs and 6 RBIs to lead the Sugar Bears to an 8-4 win over archrival Arkansas. The Sugar Bears scored 4 runs in the 8th to break a 4-4 tie and even the series at one game apiece. Yadier Molina was 3-3 with 2 doubles in a losing cause.

Joba is Hott - Manny is being Manny

There was a lot of hype surrounding Sardine City rookie Joba Chamberlain, even as he was drafted as an ineligible prospect with the 3rd overall pick in the 2008 draft. The Sardines eased the rookie into a starter role last year in the minors, first starting him out as a reliever, then giving him some starts. Now thrown into the DMBL, Chamberlain hit a few bumps in the road. Despite starting out 2-6, Chamberlain showed some glimmers of a bright future. This week, Chamberlain began by losing a heartbreaker to Vancouver in which he only gave up 2 hits and an unearned run while striking out 10. Chamberlain rebounded with an even better effort against Amityville where he earned a win for pitching 8.2 shutout innings, striking out 11. That's a total of 21 strikeouts in 15.1 shutout innings this week! Joba takes this week's Joe Loves Crappy Movies Pitcher of the Week Award and will no doubt enlighten us with his review of the new Star Trek movie.

Other top pitchers this week: Vancouver's Chad Billingsley also didn't get a lot of love from his team's offense (1-0, 1.17, 0.78 WHIP, 16 K in 15.1 innings). Other notables: Marietta's Ervin Santana (2-0, 2.12, 0.76) and Jon Danks (1-0, 1.23, 0.95), Amityville's Chris Volstad (2-0, 1.20, 0.73) and Roy Oswalt (1-0, 2.81, 0.81, 19 K), Hillsborough's John Lackey (1-0, 2.25, 0.88), and Las Vegas' Tim Lincecum (1-0, 2.35, 1.04).

This week, we have to make a special mention of the Anti-Pitcher of the Week, Darren Oliver of Vancouver. Oliver felt it was his duty to personally lose all three games of Vancouver's series with Hillsborough over the weekend. First, Oliver gave up a run in the 10th Friday to lose the first game, then topped himself by giving up TWO runs in the 10th Saturday. Finally, to shake things up, Oliver gave up a run in regulation time to break a 5-5 tie in the 7th inning of yesterday's finale.

The Sugar Bears offense set several records last year as they blew out opponent after opponent. After custom stadiums were abolished this year, Newark's offense has fallen back a bit, but it's still one of the most potent. This week, one of the Sugar Bears takes the JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week prize - Manny Ramirez. Manny hit 4 home runs this week with 12 RBIs, 6 runs scored, while batting .407/.452/.926 for the week. Some of this teammates noticed that Manny had an extra "spring in his step" this week and others eyed him suspiciously when he got a special delivery of Flintstones vitamins. "Sure he's got a stash of 'vitamins' and 'health foods', but that's just Manny being Manny" said one clubhouse official. Others noted that Manny seemed to be watching the Lifetime Channel a lot lately and kept trying to get teammates to go see Ghosts of Girlfriends Past with him this week. Well, anyway, Manny can enjoy his case of cigars while curling up with a good book.

Other top hitters: Philly's twin killers this week - John Baker (.476/.522/.810) and Mark Teixeira (.438/.514/.813), Amityville's Garrett Atkins (.464/.464/.821, 3 HR, 11 RBI), Carolina's Mike Aviles (.464/.500/.714), Marietta's Josh Hamilton (.406/.424/.844, 5 2Bs), and part-time hero Joe Crede (.529/.526/1.118, 3 HR, 7 RBIs in 17 AB).

Ramirezes passed over, but Prince rises again

It was a good week to be a Ramirez this week. Newark's Manny Ramirez had an outstanding week for the Sugar Bears, smacking 5 dingers to go with his .429 average and 13 RBIs and 9 runs. He might just have something to do with that 8-game winning streak the Sugar Bears have. Hoboken's Hanley Ramirez may have had an even better week - Hanley hit .520 with a .625 OBP and .960 slugging. He also scored 7 runs and hit 3 doubles and 2 homers. Those were both impressive lines, but we had to give this week's JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week honors to Blue Ridge's Prince Fielder. Fielder also hit 5 home runs this week, but batted .469 with a .541 on base percentage. He drove in 11 runs and scored 7. The other top candidate for hitting this week was Marietta's Josh Hamilton (.440/.548/.920, 4 HRs, 12 RBIs).

Other top batters this week: Marietta's Adrian Gonzalez (.435/.552/.826 10 R), Vancouver's Ryan Spilborghs (.480/.533/.560), Hillsborough's Carlos Delgado (.355/.364/.774, 4 HR, 8 RBI), Las Vegas' Joe Mauer (.476/.571/.714) and Arkansas' Ryan Ludwick (.417/.440/1.000 4 HR, 7 RBI).

This week's Omodern Pitcher of the Week prize goes to Tim Hudson of Carolina. Besides Monday's historic victory, Hudson had a very good week, going 1-0 witha 1.15 ERA and .083 WHIP. He ptiched in 15.2 innings and struckout 10. Hudson's main competition came from Hillsborough's Felix Hernandez, who's enjoying a great season. Felix went 2-0 to raise his season record to 5-1, with a 1.29 ERA and 0.93 WHIP this week. He also struck out 14 batters in 14 innings.

Old Man Rivera keeps moving along - the future Hall of Famer saved three games and picked up a victory by pitching 5.1 perfect innings and striking out 7 for the Mighty Men.

Other top pitchers: Newark's Chien-Ming Wang (2-0, 2.25, 0.56 WHIP) and Gil Meche (2-0, 2.84, 15 K), Philadelphia's Brandon Webb (2-0, 1.23), Marietta's Mike Mussina (2-0, 2.87, 1.09 WHIP), and Hoboken's Craig Breslow (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.19 WHIP in 5.1 IP).

D.C. loses game, third bagger

C.C. Sabathia improved to 4-1 on the season with a victory over Blue Ridge yesterday. The Hitmen won their third straight to stay atop the Morris Division. Sabathia lasted 8 innings, striking out 9, and holding the Bombers to 3 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks. Carolina kept pace, taking out the O-Bombers 5-1. Vernon Wells was 3-4 and Ben Molina had a 2-run homer to lead the Mudcat offense, while Daisuke Matsuzaka held D.C. to only 2 hits in his 5.2 innings of work, striking out 9 in the process. The news got worse for D.C. as third baseman Ryan Zimmerman was lost for almost two months due to injury.

Team Buddah added insult to injury to the Cutters with a 6-3 victory. Mike Jacobs was 2-4 with 3 RBIs and Casey Blake hit a two-run homer that gave the Buddahs a 3-0 lead in the 4th. Hanley Ramirez was 3-3 in the team's defeat.

Manny Ramirez hit a 3-run bomb to propel the Sugar Bears to a 6-3 victory over Sardine City. Ramirez singled in another run to give him 4 RBIs on the night. The Sugar Bears only had 7 hits in the contest, but they also walked 7 times. Newark starter Joe Saunders pitched 6 solid innings, giving up only one run. The Sugar Bears have now won 4 in a row.

Philly edged Arkansas 6-5 yesterday behind Chris Young (2-3, 3 runs) and Jimmy Rollins (3-4, 2 RBIs). The Endzone Animals kept their transaction streak alive by cutting Aaron Miles and signing Kyle Davies.

Sugar Bears roar to 3-2 lead

Game five was all Sugar Bears as Newark jumped out to an early 7-4 lead and never looked back. One bright spot for the Mighty Men was the work of their bullpen. With the exception of Rafael Betancourt, the other four relievers held the Sugar Bears to one unearned run over 4 2/3 innings and struck out eight. With the Mighty Men facing a choice of once again going with a tired Francisco Liriano or A.J. Burnett, the bullpen may play a big factor in game six.

Meanwhile, it was the bottom half of the order that lifted the Sugar Bears yesterday. The 1-4 hitters combined to go 3-17 in the game, while the bottom five went 14-22. Manny Ramirez has been one of the few low spots in the Sugar Bear lineup. Since opening the series with a 2-4, 3 RBI night, Ramirez has gone just 2 for his last 16. Mark Teahen finally broke out of his 1-13 slump with a 3-5 night.

Look for a new Rookie Watch article later tonight.

First-place trade

Big trade yesterday between the two first place teams. Newark gave up Jimmy Rollins and Brandon Lyon and Philly gave up their second round pick and Rafael Soriano. Rollins immediately took over for the injured David Eckstein and started contributing: 1-3 with a stolen base in game one and 2-4 with a homer in game 2. Eckstein may return from the DL and find that he has no job left. In fact Eck's locker was temporarily moved to the janitor's closet when Rollins arrived. "They got no respect for me. Don't they know that I'm a scrappy fan favorite?" said Eckstein.

Pedro Martinez shutout Vancouver this morning on three hits, beating fellow legend Greg Maddux. Pedro improved to 9-3 on the season. Maddux and Pedro rank #1 and 2 on the all-time wins list. By the way, the loss was Vancouver's fifth in a row, sending them into fifth place overall.

Manny Ramirez's double in yesterday's game against Vancouver was his 400th, becoming only the sixth player in DMBL history to reach the feat. He is only a few behind Jeff Bagwell (406) and Larry Walker (407), both retired, so expect Manny to climb ahead to fourth by the end of the year. The all-time leader is Edgar Martinez (493).

Don't forget, we'll be off for the weekend and return Monday with a doubleheader.