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.

Six Hits For Coghlan Without a Run, RBI To Show For It

Going 6-for-7 from the leadoff spot, you'd think Chris Coghlan would have played a big part in Hoboken's 7-5 win over Sardine City in 13 innings Saturday night. After all, the rest of the team only managed 7 hits combined.

Amazingly, despite tying the league record for hits in a game (now shared by a dozen players), the Cutters centerfielder managed to not collect a single RBI or a score one measly run.

Coghlan led off the game with a double before getting stranded at third. He grounded out to second for his only out, after J.J. Hardy led off the third inning with a home run. In the fourth, he singled after another Hardy homer, this time a three-run shot off starter Ubaldo Jimenez, only to have Ian Kinsler end the inning one at-bat later.

Coghlan greeted reliever Octavio Dotel with a single to lead off the seventh before Kinsler grounded to short, forcing Coghlan at second. Kinsler got as far as second before the Cutters ended the inning.

In the ninth, Coghlan singled off Daniel Bard with one out, and the Cutters, again, quietly went away, leaving him on first.

Coghlan found himself leading off an inning again, this time the 12th, and doubling again. Jose Bautista advanced him to third with a groundout to second, but after David Ortiz was intentionally walked, Miguel Cabrera struck out to end the inning.

In the 13th, Matt Joyce broke the tie with a two-run home run to give the Cutters the lead. Coghlan then came to bat with two outs, doubling deep to left center. Kinsler followed up with a groundout to second, ending the inning. Totaling up the night, Coghlan had six hits in all -- three doubles and three singles, for nine total bases. But zero RBIs and zero runs scored!

Coghlan was selected with the 14th pick in the 4th round (62nd overall) of this year's draft. He was Hoboken's opening day center-fielder before losing his job to free agent Nate McLouth and getting sent down for part of the season. He's seen some action in left and right field but has made 81 starts in center for the Cutters. After scuffling around .220 most of the season, he's now hitting .263 for the year.

Coghlan had what now looks like a career year during his rookie campaign with Arkansas in 2010, hitting .314 with 30 doubles in 151 games. He was selected 6th overall in that year's draft, sandwiched between two Hillsborough picks: after Carlos Gonzalez and before Gordon Beckham. He tied with Homer Bailey of Philly for 4th in the Pat Listach Rookie of the Year balloting with 3 points (one second-place vote and a third-place vote), ahead of Vancouver's Ron Belisario (1 point). Kendry Morales won the award that year.

Jimenez, Motte Combine For League's 10th No-Hitter

They'll be debating this one in Sardine City for years to come. The first no-hitter in franchise history was a combined effort with starter Ubaldo Jimenez and reliever Jason Motte splitting the duties as they shut down Hillsborough 8-0 on the road Tuesday night at Front Stadium by the River.

It's the 10th no-hitter (4th combined) in league history and the first since Brett Myers of Las Vegas no-hit New Jersey in June 2011. It's the first combined no-hitter since 2004 when Arkansas shut down Westwood behind Curt Schilling, Byung-Hyun Kim, Brad Lidge and Octavio Dotel. Hillsborough is the first team to be no-hit twice in their history, first victimized in 2003 by Phoenix's John Lackey.

Jimenez struck out four in five innings of work, tossing 55 pitches (40 for strikes), but still was lifted by Straphangers skipper Joe Torre after a 46-minute rain delay. Torre turned to Motte, who went on to throw four scoreless innings striking out two but walking three and throwing 38 of his 55 pitches for strikes. He earned his first save of the year as Jimenez got the win, improving to 10-11.

The only scoring for much of the contest came on rookie Eric Hosmer's leadoff home run in the 2nd inning. Sardine City third basemen Evan Longoria walked to start the 6th inning and that's when the rains came. When play resumed, Hillsborough manager Mike Greenwell didn't come back with ace Justin Verlander. Instead, he opted for Jeff Samardzija, who would get out of the inning unscathed, despite a wild pitch and another walk.

The Straphangers put up a four-spot in the 8th, including a three-run homer by Starlin Castro, and another three runs in the 9th behind run-scoring singles from Matt Wieters and Nick Markakis off Jonny Venters.

Verlander suffered the loss, dropping to 14-6, despite allowing just one run and four hits over five innings. He struck out four and walked one and threw 55 of his 84 pitches for strikes. Verlander nearly threw his own perfect game earlier this year against Hopatcong, settling for a 2-0 one-hitter.

Spring training superstars

Spring training is complete and the regular season awaits. Let's take a look at the stars of spring training, 30 games over two weeks to determine who makes your squad.

PITCHING

Five starting pitchers earned five victories but only Alexi Ogando of Bridgewater and Sardine City's Ubaldo Jimenez were unbeaten. Among five-win starters with just one loss were Marietta's Colby Lewis and the Blue Ridge odd couple of 38-year-old Bartolo Colon (thanks to 9.3/game in run support) and heralded rookie Jeremy Hellickson.

Lewis, a 7th-round pick by Marietta, was tops in ERA at 1.79, followed by Hopatcong's Josh Tomlin (2.11), Carolina's C.C. Sabathia (2.33) and Doug Fister of Bridgewater (2.42). Lewis and Fister also led the league in quality starts (5) along with Hellickson and Newark's Justin Masterson and Hellickson. Behind four complete games, Fister logged a league-high 48.1 innings, followed by Homer Bailey of Sardine City (47.1), Sabathia (46.1) and Lewis (45.1). Carolina's Tim Hudson tied Fister for the league lead in complete games.

Ogando tied for the league lead in strikeouts at 31, with Tommy Hanson of Las Vegas who had a league-best 8.1 K/9.
 
Philly's Joakim Soria, acquired in a mid-season deal from Arkansas last year, had the most saves, with 11, just better than Jonathan Papelbon of Hopatcong, who finished with 10. Both blew just one save. Daniel Bard of Sardine City was the only perfect closer, going 8-for-8.

BATTING

Blue Ridge's Hunter Pence overtook Nyjer Morgan of Marietta and Carolina's Prince Fielder in the final days to take the spring training batting crown with a .395 clip. Fielder also was second in the league in RBIs, with 31 (with Sardine City's Evan Longoria), behind only teammate Troy Tulowitzki, with 32. Fielder also led the league in OPS, at 1.038, ahead of Tulowitzki (1.003) and Philly's David Wright (.995).

Livingston's Mark Reynolds mashed 11 home runs in the spring to lead the league, ahead of Adrian Beltre of Marietta (9), and five others with 8. Beltre led the league in total bases, with 73, thanks to a league-high 12 doubles (tied with Guzman).

Pence also led the league in hits, with 51, a healthy lead over Bridgewater rookie Jesus Guzman (43). Emilio Bonifacio of Hillsborough's first-round pick, tied Matt Kemp of Bridgewater for the league lead in steals with 8, but was caught 5 times while Kemp was perfect in the spring.

Reigning Mitchell Award winner Joey Votto of Hopatcong showed no signs of slowing down, boasting the longest hitting streak (18 games) to end the spring.

Marietta and Philadelphia finished with the best spring training record, at 19-11 (.633), just slightly better than Amityville at 18-12 (.600) and Newark at 17-13 (.567). All but four squads finished with a record of .500 or better.

Comeback kids

Vancouver blew an 8-0 lead against the Falcons yesterday and ended up losing in extra innings 9-8. The Fist jumped all over starter Johan Santana early, but he settled in nicely after the 2nd, pitching 6 scoreless innings before departing. The Falcons' 4-run 8th inning tied the game up, then in the 10th Chris Coghlan hit a walkoff double, winning the series for the Falcons. Skip Schumaker ended the game 5-6 with 3 doubles.

Hoboken also came back against the Rat Pack, though a 2-0 lead is much more forgiveable. The Rats held the lead until the 9th inning. Adam Kennedy started it off with a one-out single and an error by Gary Sheffield. The next batter struck out and it looked like the Rats would be able to shut the door on the Cutters, but Denard Span hit a triple to score Kennedy. Dallas Braden was called in to take over - the Rats bullpen was exhausted with Rich Harden leaving the game early due to injury. Braden walked his first batter, then gave up the game tying single to Miguel Cabrera. Finally, Mike Napoli hit a 3-run homer to win the game for Hoboken.

Sardine City's Ubaldo Jimenez continued his breakout season. Jimenez limited the Mighty Men to just 4 hits in a complete game victory. He struck out 5 and walked 3 while allowing only 1 earned run, improving his record to 8-4.

Amityville and Philadelphia made a curious trade yesterday, giving themselves back their own draft picks and exchanging two players. Amityville sent outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury to Philadelphia along with their 9th round pick back. Meanwhile Philly gave up young pitcher Clayton Richard and gave Amityville back their 2nd round pick. Philadelphia also took the opportunity to do a little housecleaning, getting rid of Tony Gwynn and Kris Medlen and taking on George Sherrill and Jhonny Peralta.