Fiers fires 8 1/3 perfect innings

Mike Fiers nearly fired the league's first-ever perfect game Sunday night, going 8 1/3 innings before surrendering a hit. He had to settle for his second consecutive shutout, carrying Hopatcong to a 3-0 win at Allentown.

It's the closest anyone has come to a perfect game since Homer Bailey went 8 2/3 last year. It also would have been the 15th no-hitter in league history and the 2nd for the Hopatcong franchise (the first was Josh Tomlin in 2012). Last year saw DMBL pitchers toss a record three no-hitters.

Fiers struck out Matt Kemp to lead off the 9th before Dioner Navarro broke up the perfect-o with a single to left field. The 29-year-old still managed to face the minimum 27 batters though as Erick Aybar next grounded in to a double play. Fiers finished with 5 strikeouts and dispatched an imposing Mules' lineup that includes Mike Trout, Giancarlo Stanton, Adrian Gonzalez and rookie Jose Abreu with just 90 pitches.

The third overall pick in this year's draft, Fiers improved to 3-2, lowering his ERA to 2.77 and his WHIP to a league-leading 0.77. He also leads the league in R/9 (6.9), on-base percentage (.205), and of course, shutouts (2).

In his previous start, Fiers gave up 4 hits to Marietta but struck out 10 and walked none on 123 pitches in a 2-0 shutout. In case you're wondering, he went 7 innings in his previous start, lifted after surrendering a lead-off home run in the 8th inning.

Fiers broke into the DMBL in 2013 as a 4th-round pick of Sardine City. He had a respectable showing for the Straphangers, going 13-11 in 32 starts, logging 196 innings and 194 strikeouts.

Fiers will look to extend his 18-inning scoreless streak Thursday against Poovey Farms.

2015 Draft Lottery

While the Draft Lottery usually takes place soon after the season is over, the 2015 lottery has been delayed by numerous difficulties. First it tested positive for illegal supplements, then it was held captive by Russian mercenaries, and then finally hacked by Eric Snowden... but I digress. The Lottery was held last night in a secret, secure chamber deep in DMBL headquarters. Only four teams moved around much, though the many of the first few teams did get a draft-wide bump up one place from Saskatchewan folding.

The Winners

The biggest winner was the Arkansas Golden Falcons who moved up from number 4 to number 2. This is the highest the Falcons have ever picked without making a trade. Another winner is newcomer Charlotte Webbs, who also move two slots up from the #6/#7 position. The two new teams will swap positions in the draft every other round.

The Losers

With two winners, there must be two losers. The steepest fall belongs to the Hillsborough Hired Hitmen, who fall all the way to #6 from #3. Surely owner Brent Campbell is penning a hateful diatribe to the commissioner even as we speak! Also falling are the Hopatcong Floating Fish, who fall merely to #3 from the #2 spot. However, the Floating Fish would have picked #3 anyway if the Shields hadn't folded.

Two New Owners Claim Vacated Franchises

Before the New Year, two owners notified the league that they would not return for the 2015 season. Jamie Landsman, previous owner of the Bridgewater Mallers since 2006 and 2010 World Series champion decided to call it quits after a 9-year run. Robert Rund, who had run the Saskatchewan Shields for one season, was one of the four replacement owners after last year's Great Exodus of 2013.

Taking their places are Stephen Webb and Chris Lios who recently finished up their dispersal draft picks. Webb has named his squad the Charlotte Webbs and Lios' crew will be known as the El Paso Chihuahuas. The Webbs have been assigned to the Drabek Division alongside last year's champion San Francisco Experience. Meanwhile the Chihuahuas will vie for the Van Slyke Division title with 2013 champion Hoboken Cutters.

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.

Curious qualifications in batting race

Fewer than 20 games to go in the 2014 season and only a few playoff spots and seeds remain to be determined but a few individual races are still more or less up for grabs.

Heading into Sunday's doubleheader action, Hanley Ramirez currently leads the league in batting at .346, a healthy lead over teammate Matt Carpenter (.335). Outside of Vancouver's Michael Brantley, third in the batting race hitting .330, the rest of the top five consists of San Francisco Experience batters: Brandon Belt (.326) and Joe Mauer (.325).

Ramirez is putting together a serious candidacy for the Kevin Mitchell Award as the league's most valuable batter. In addition to leading the batting race, he also enjoys a commanding lead in the RBI race with 158 to 126 for Livingston's Paul Goldschmidt. Though he's in the top 10 in home runs with 34, Ramirez has a steep hill to climb to catch Goldschmidt, who has a league-leading 45 homers, to truly threaten for the league's first-ever Triple Crown.

Sardine City rookie Christian Yelich has a few points on Ramirez and could very well be a stronger challenger than other Experience batters for the batting crown -- but he lacks enough plate appearances to qualify.

The 2014 first-rounder earned an All-Star selection and had been in contention for the batting race all season. He's currently hitting .352 but has been riding the pine for the past month.

Yelich started 87 games primarily in a platoon, going just 1-for-30 against lefties while batting a scintillating .380 versus right-handers. His last start was Aug. 12 versus Hoboken and he's since been relegated to primarily a pinch-hitting or pinch-running role.

Under Major League Baseball rules, a player must have 3.1 plate appearances in each of his team's games to qualify for a batting title. Yelich heads into Sunday's games with 420 plate appearances, short of the 446 plate appearances he'd need in Sardine City's 144 games. For the season, a player would need a minimum 502 plate appearances in 162 games.

With just 18 games remaining for the Straphangers, Yelich would need to average more than 4 plate appearances per game to reach the 82 necessary to qualify. Otherwise, only Carpenter seems close enough to Ramirez to give him a serious run.

Who will get the nod to start for Micro?

A number of the Micro Conference's No. 1 starting pitchers will have a chance to make their case for the 2014 All-Star Game in Durham, with some final jockeying to possibly determine who will be named the starter (which is based on the number of votes cast).

Brick City's Jose Fernandez has been living up to the billing so far in the first half of 2014. Heading into his final start on Saturday before the All-Star break with an 8-3 mark, this year's first overall pick leads the DMBL in ERA (1.79), WHIP (0.94), batting average (.194), hits/9 (5.9), and R/9 (8.6), to go with 4 complete games, which ranks third in the conference. He trails a number of other starters in wins (8) but will his peripherals be enough to convince voters to make him the starer for the Micro Conference?

Hoboken ace Clayton Kershaw leads the Micro's in wins (10-3) and is likely to add to his leading 130.7 innings in his final start before the break on Saturday. He's also the conference co-leader with 5 complete games, ranks fourth in the league with 117 Ks, trails only Fernandez in ERA (2.76), and sports a sterling 1.05 WHIP.

With Kershaw, fellow left-hander Cliff Lee (8-6) leads the league with five complete games but is alone in quality starts (14) and within the Diamond Conference is tops WHIP (0.97). He's currently tied with teammate Hisashi Iwakuma for second in the conference with 120 innings and should add to the total as he's scheduled to start Saturday in the final game before the All-Star break. Lee is second only to Fernandez in R/9 (8.7) and has registered 108 Ks.

"I've got your All-Star vote? Exxxcellent..."

Yu Darvish's 146 strikeouts easily leads the entire league, far head of the 122 of Hillsborough's Max Scherzer, and 11.8 K/9. The Brick City hurler can be wild (evidenced by a 9K, 8 BB performance this year) but warrants consideration for the final five (7-4, 3.31 ERA, 1.14 WHIP), especially for votes who favor strikeouts.

Matt Harvey (8-3, 2.82) is putting together a fine sophomore season for Arkansas. He's second in the conference in quality starts (13), innings (124.7) and strikeouts (119).

'Hey Stump -- catch this!"

There are others who might garner attention for the five starting spots on the Micro Conference, if you're looking for under-the-rader candidates to fill out your ballot. Not to be overlooked is Allentown's Iwakuma (6-6, 3.45). The .500 record could be a turn-off (as well as the league-high 26 home runs), but in addition to logging 120 innings he sports a 1.07 WHIP, third-best in the Diamond and is tied for 4th overall in the league in R/9 (9.8), with Kershaw and Scherzer.

If you're only looking at wins, there's Hoboken teammates Mike Leake (9-6) and Hiroki Kuroda (9-5) but you'd have to overlook some things, like Leake's 5.01 ERA/1.39 WHIP and Kuroda's only slightly better (4.80/1.40) but does have three complete games. Left-hander Madison Bumgarner has a losing record (4-7) but has been solid for Blue Ridge (3.71 ERA, 1.33 WHIP), striking out 102 in 104.3 innings. Others who might go unnoticed judging only their records are Sardine City's Nathan Eovaldi. Just 6-5, Eovaldi has a 3.50 ERA in 110.7 innings but also a 1.33 WHIP. Hey, at least they're not Zach Greinke, who's suffered through a 1-12 first half with Saskatoon.

Diamond Conference all-star starting pitcher possibilities

The leading vote-getter among starting pitchers on All-Star ballots will be awarded the distinction of starting the midseason classic. Who will that be? Let's look at the contenders for the Diamond Conference's five starting spots:

"I might start the All-Star Game?!?"

If your ballot goes straight up by most wins, you're man would be Durham's Sonny Gray (11-3). No one can catch him and he has a chance to add another W in Friday's scheduled start versus Hillsborough. So far, he's also struck out 108 in 108 innings.

Ivan Nova (10-4) of Marietta and San Francisco's A.J. Burnett (10-4) both won their final starts before the break on Tuesday but you'd have to overlook their respective 3.38 ERA/1.41 WHIP and 5.08 ERA/1.50 WHIP. For Burnett, you'd also have to take the extra step of writing him in on the ballot.

Your ballot does include two San Francisco starters worthy of consideration: Chris Sale (8-5) and Anibal Sanchez (9-4). Sanchez is headed toward the break leading the Diamond in ERA (2.35), with 111 Ks (3rd) through 111 innings and second only to Gray (.572) in OPS (.605). Sale has the better WHIP (1.05) than Sanchez (1.19), if not the better ERA (3.56) while throwing more innings (113.7) and fewer strikeouts (102). Sanchez is tied for the conference lead with 13 quality starts.

If a classic power pitcher is what you're looking for, Hillsborough's Max Scherzer (9-5, 3.15) leads the conference in strikeouts with 119. He's also among the conference leaders in innings pitched (114.3), and second only to Bartolo Colon in WHIP (1.08). He's scheduled to face Durham on Friday night.

Sorry Bartolo, it's just too darn easy

In Livingston, the safe bet is to cast a ballot for the always reliably stellar Felix Hernandez (8-4, 3.82), however, he just hit the DL for almost a month. But he might not even have the best numbers on his team as the Lords of Swing boast three 8-game winners.

The ageless Bartolo Colon (8-2, 3.12), who's made 13 starts, ranks first in the conference in WHIP (0.99) and third in OPS (.608). He also has the best runs created ERA (2.30) if that's what you're into and a league-best 1.0 BB/9. There's also Chris Archer (8-3, 3.53) and Tyson Ross (7-3, 3.82) who join King Felix with more than 100 innings. Hernandez also already has reached the century mark in Ks. Where Colon really separates from this group is WHIP, where the trio's numbers don't appear all-star like: Hernandez (1.35), Archer (1.38) and Ross (1.43). Ross tops them all with 11 quality starts, good for fourth in the conference but Archer and Colon are scheduled to start Friday and Saturday, respectively, in their last chance to impress voters.

Gray isn't the only Bull enjoying a good first half in Durham. Kris Medlen (8-4, 3.55) leads the conference in innings pitched at 119 and with Sanchez in quality starts. Another 8-game winner for the Bulls is Stephen Strasburg (8-3, 3.79) though his 1.32 WHIP is a few notches higher than Medlen's 1.24.

Two-time first-round pick C.C. Sabathia of Empire City improved to 9-5 with a win Wednesday night in his 17th start, though his ERA (3.94) and WHIP (1.48) might scare off some voters. Teammate Chris Tillman is a respectable 7-5 but sports slightly better stats (3.76 ERA/1.31 WHIP). Hopatcong's James Shields has always been a workhorse and his 117.3 innings in the first half show it. It's his 9-7 record, 3.99 ERA and 1.27 WHIP that could keep him off ballots.

When healthy, Marietta's Clay Buchholz (8-2, 2.76) looks like he's been strong in only 10 starts, with 64 Ks in 68 innings but has a 1.35 WHIP. He'll have a chance to add to those numbers Saturday versus San Francisco. Teammate Adam Wainwright, a former McDonald Award winner, has powered the Mighty Men's rotation with 116 innings but is only 6-5 to show for it with a 4.32 ERA and 1.30 WHIP.

Tomorrow: A look at the possibilities for Micro Conference starting pitchers.