The Dog Days of August are here. And that can mean only one thing. It’s time for the 3rd annual Races and Chases.

Sovereign League Pennant Races 

Great Lakes:

The Crystal Lake Sandgnats have a firm hold on the division with a 12 game lead over the Duluth Warriors with the Kalamazoo Badgers, Canton Longshoremen and Fargo Dinosaurs all 20 plus games back. Duluth gave the Sandgnats a run early on but have been fading from the Sovereign Leagues best ball club at a gradual pace. With 74 wins and 39 losses Crystal Lake also holds the best record in all of PEBA. But as we all know the best team in PEBA gets decided in October against the equally tough Imperial League. Crystal Lake has a stout pitching staff which ranks 2nd in starter ERA and 4th in bullpen ERA. Along with their 3rd best team batting average ranking and 2nd best in runs score, you can see why they have PEBA’s best win/loss record.

Desert Hills:

The Yuma Bulldozers hold a three game lead over the Aurora Borealis. They just completed a crucial 3 game series together in which the Bulldozers took 2 games to 1. The two teams will square off against each other again later on in August for a 3 game set. Then they will be scoreboard watching since they will not face each other again in the regular season. The Tempe Knights and Bakersfield Bears are further back at 10 and 11 games behind. While the Reno Zephers and Palm Springs Codgers are both 17 plus game back.

Rising Sun:

The Shin Seiki Evas have command over the rest of the Rising Sun division. The Okinawa Shisa, Lupin Cliffhangers and Niihama-Shi Ghosts battle it out for the 2nd spot. All three teams are 14 plus games back with Neo-Tokyo Akira at a distant 30 games back. The Evas got off to somewhat of a slow start for them with a 14-11 record in April but have been on the ring of fire here as late with a 23-8 record in the months of July and August.

Wild Card:

Aurora, Duluth and Tempe are in the Wild Card cat bird seats at the moment. Aurora has a 7 game cushion over the rest of the field. Duluth has a 3.5 games lead. Tempe is holding on in the final Wild Card spot by 1 game over Bakersfield. Okinawa trails by 2.5 games, Lupin by 4 and Niihama-Shi by 5. Other than the close race between Yuma and Aurora for the Desert Hills crown the Wild Card will be a good one to watch.

Chases

Batting Champion:

Canton’s OF-Gabriel Martinez leads the batting crown chase with a .340 average. Martinez has been on a terror as of late. He’s hit safely in 14 out of his last 16 games. Which has boosted his average by 11 points since July 22nd. Yuma’s C-Danny Burke is trailing the leader with a .332 average and Tempe’s 3B/1B-Javier Padilla and SS-Brian Coleman round out the top 3 tied. Both are hitting at a .328 clip.

Home Run King:

In the home run chase Shin Seiki’s OF-Ryozo Takeuchi has come out of power hitting obscurity to lead the Sovereign League with 33 bombs thus far. Injuries have short his previous PEBA seasons but this year he’s stayed on the field while the balls he’s been hitting have not. Fargo’s 1B-Jarrod Wright trails closely with 32 homers and Reno’s 2B-Ramon Leach is in the 3rd spot with 30 dingers.

RBI Crown:

Shin Seiki’s OF-Ryozo Takeuchi also holds the lead in the RBI chase with 100. Trailing him is Crystal Lakes 1B-Wilson Munoz with 94 ducks and Fargo’s 1B-Jarrod Wright with a distant 84 in the 3rd spot.

Cy Young:

We use wins for this chase. A great ERA, WHIP, opp avg etc..yada-yada-yada is all fine and dandy, but the most important thing is that big W at the end of the day. So here it goes. Crystal Lakes Francisco Robles leads the Sovereign League with 15 wins. With a 15-5 record and a good 9-10 more starts he appears to be a shoe in to be a 20 game winner this season. Trailing him is Yuma’s Gunner MacGruder with a 13-4 record. Just a little tid bit, but did you know that MacGruder has never been a 20 game winner? He has a good shot at changing that this year. Shin Seiki’s Yakamochi Suitani also boasts a 13-4 record. Niihama’-Shi’s Koki Watanabe is at 13-5. And to note, none of these 4 pitching leaders have won 20 games. I’m betting we will see at least a couple new 20 game winner when it’s all said and done.

Strikeout King:

Fargo’s Ernesto Molina leads the strikeout chase with 150. He has stuckout 7 or more batters 10 times this year and 10 or more 3 times. Duluth’s Julian Thomas trails by two with 148 whiffs and Shin Seiki’s Yakamochi Suitani has 138.

Fireman:

Duluth’s Julio Gonzalez leads the way with 31 saves. Gonzalez is 6-3 with a 3.44 ERA, a 1.09 WHIP and a 11.69 k/9 inn ratio. He is having his best season of his young career. Tempe’s Raul Cruz trails with 28 and Kalamazoo’s Robert Vincent with 26.

That’s it for this edition of SL Races and Chases. It looks like we have some classic ones shaping up. Will we hit the 50 home run mark? How many 20 game winners will we end up with? Is 150 RBI’s out of the question? It should be fun to watch.

We’ll catch that can of corn when we return for the next edition of SL Races and Chases.

Good Night Everybody