Strasburg returns from DL to toss no-hitter

Carolina rookie Stephen Strasburg, in his first start since a 40-day stint on the disabled list, tossed the eighth no-hitter in DMBL history, beating the Philadelphia End Zone Animals, 5-0, Saturday night at home in Bullhead Memorial Park.

It was the fifth individual no-hitter in league history (three were combined, by more than one pitcher) and first in franchise history. The last DMBL no-hitter came in April 2008 when A.J. Burnett, then with Las Vegas, no-hit the powerful Newark Sugar Bears. The last rookie to toss a no-hitter was Phoenix's John Lackey in 2003, and Joel Pineiro combined on a no-hitter with Mike Mathews for Hoboken in his rookie season in 2002.

Strasburg walked three and struck out a season-high 11 but never struck out the side. His most frequent victims were David Murphy and Ryan Howard, who both struck out three times. He outdueled Roy Halladay, who went the distance for Philly.

Murphy, recently acquired from Amityville, walked to lead off the game and J.J. Hardy walked to start the sixth inning. Hardy would reach second base when Howie Kendrick grounded to second but Strasburg struck out Murphy and got Ramon Hernandez to ground out to third to end the inning. After getting the 26th out, Strasburg walked Hernandez before retiring Nelson Cruz to complete the no-no.

Dunn da dun dun

Is this another sign that the world is about to end? Adam Dunn has been traded!

Eh... that's probably not a sign of the apocalypse, as Dunn has been swapped before and the world kept on turning. In fact, it's the fifth time Dunn has been traded! Interestingly enough, each time Dunn has been dealt, a pitcher has gone back the other way.

January 4, 2008: Hillsborough Hired Hitmen trade Dunn, Alex Rodriguez, Jeremy Bonderman, Ian Snell, and Jonathan Broxton to the Arkansas Golden Falcons for Dan Haren, Nick Markakis, a 7th round pick in 2008, 4th and 7th round picks in 2009, and their 5th round pick in 2010.

July 16, 2008: Arkansas Golden Falcons trade trade Dunn to the Philadelphia Endzone Animals for Jonathan Sanchez and their 3rd round pick in 2010.

November 4, 2008: Philadelphia Endzone Animals trade Dunn and their 9th round draft pick in 2009 and their 6th round pick in 2010 to the Hoboken Cutters for Scott Kazmir.

February 5, 2011: Hoboken Cutters trade Dunn and Hillsborough's 5th round pick in 2011 to the Amityville Ant Slayers for Matt Cain and their 6th round pick in 2012.

May 20, 2011: Amityville Ant Slayers trade Dunn and their 12th round pick in 2012 to the Blue Ridge Bombers for Cole Hamels and their 4th round pick in 2012.

Dunn was initially drafted way back in 2002 as an ineligible prospect, taken in the 4th Round (#50 overall) by the Phoenix Dragons. He had a miserable rookie year in '03 (.198/.316/.333) and the Dragons didn't protect him; he then went to Hillsborough in the '04 draft in the 2nd Round (#23 overall), but he struggled again, hitting just .170/.228/.377. But the Hitmen stuck with him and he finally broke out in '05, hitting .290/.377/.618 with 55 HRs and 150 RBIs. He's never been left off a protected list again.

The 31-year-old slugger began the 2010 season with a career .245 batting average (but .866 OPS). His 2011 season is pretty typical -- .259 BA, .860 OPS. However, Dunn's outlook for 2011 isn't promising at the moment -- he's hitting just .203 (.689 OPS), and at the moment only qualifies at DH. But there's still four and a half months left in the season, so he has plenty of time to turn it around... or be traded again!

BREAKING NEWS: Freddie Freeman Is Not Black

Outrage in Newark tonight as Sugar Bear Third Base Coach Charles Johnson discovered recently acquired Freddie Freeman is not black.

Johnson, making an impromptu visit to the Triple-A Dublin Lucky Charms, spotted the 21-year-old first baseman working out during pre-game warm-ups. Freeman had been acquired last month, along with pitcher Justin Masterson, from the Hoboken Cutters as part of the first rebuilding campaign in Sugar Bear history.

"Who the hell is that white dude and why is he wearing Freeman's jersey?" a perplexed Johnson asked Lucky Charms manager John Thomson.

Even after being told the "white dude" was indeed Freeman, Johnson wasn't convinced, and ordered security to throw Freeman out of the ballpark. It was only until he was shown Freeman's driver's license, passport, and certificate of live birth (long form) that Johnson was finally convinced of the player's identity.

He was clearly disappointed.

"Here I thought we got a young Fred McGriff, and instead it's a young Ryan Klesko," Johnson sniffed.

Not that Johnson should complain about that -- Klesko had a pretty good career as a Sugar Bear.

Still, he intends on filing a complaint with the Commissioner's Office for "false advertising."

"I haven't been this faked out by a player's non-blackness since Khalil Greene," Johnson said. "In fact, I'm still pretty sure that dude is a brother -- just really pale."

Delgado calls it quits, but will he get the call?

Carlos Delgado announced his retirement from baseball last week after trying to come back from a hip injury that kept him out of the DMBL last season.

A native of Puerto Rico, Delgado last appeared in the DMBL in 2009 with the Carolina Mudcats, which means he'd be eligible for the DMBL Hall of Fame beginning in 2014. The 38-year-old could make a compelling case for enshrinement, ranking among the all-time leaders in home runs and runs scored. Only 11 players have appeared in more DMBL games.

Delgado played 14 consecutive seasons, breaking in with the Norfolk Ewes in 1997. The converted catcher played in no fewer than 128 games from 1997 until 2007. He played for five different franchises  in the DMBL, mostly with the Hillsborough (two different franchises, the Destroyers and Hit Men), though he won his only Kevin Mitchell Award in 2001 with the Vatican City Cardinals when he put career highs with a monster season: .345/.455/.653, 208 hits, 41 home runs, 138 RBIs, 59 doubles, 153 runs, 122 walks. He matched his career high in home runs the previous year when he was with Hillsborough, and hit 39 homers when Vatican City relocated to Wanaque in 2002.

Taken in the second supplemental round in 2008 by Sardine City but released before the start of the season, Delgado signed later that year with Carolina. He contributed somewhat to the Mudcats that year, appearing in 25 games, but had one more season in him. In 2009, he had 34 home runs and 98 RBIs (to put him over 1,000 for his career, only the 22nd player to do so) while batting .280 and slugging .502.

A look at Delgado's career stats, with all-time ranking in parentheses -- do they read "Hall of Fame"?

Games: 1,701 (12th)
Batting: .265
OBP: .355
SLG: .516 (17th)
OPS: .871
AB: 6,035 (28th)
H: 1,597 (35th)
2B: 361 (20th, tied with Ray Durham)
HR: 370 (16th, recently passed by Albert Pujols)
RBI:  1.075 (21st)
Runs: 1,027 (11th, soon to be passed by Pujols)
Strikeouts: 1,571 (10th)
Walks: 844 (18th)

No. 400 for Chipper

Newark's Chipper Jones continues to fill out his ballot for a spot in the DMBL Hall of Fame, launching his 400th career home run Thursday night. His 8th inning solo home run off J.J. Putz tied the game at 5-5 but the Sugar Bears eventually lost, 8-5, at Miller Park in Carolina. He's the ninth player in league history to reach 400.

Chipper entered the season with 396 home runs, good for 9th all-time, and now trails former teammate Mike Piazza by six homers for the 8th spot. The longtime Sugar Bear ranks in the league's all-time top 10, if not top 5, in most major hitting categories.

Pettitte moves into 6th all-time in career starts

New Jersey's Andy Pettitte very nearly had his 40th career complete game Monday night but settled for passing Mike Mussina into 6th place in career starts with 394. He now trails Curt Schilling (399) by five starts for 5th and is approaching 1,600 career strikeouts, which would put him just outside the top 10 in all-time strikeouts. David Cone ranks 10th with 1,601 K's and and after Monday's start Pettitte is just four away.
Johan Santana of Arkansas is the active leader in strikeouts, and sits 9th all-time with 1,647.

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.