NL Notes

As we enter the final two months of the season, not many questions remain for the 2001 season. The leaders after the half way point have stayed in charge and only the NL Eastern division title seems to be the only unanswered question.

Ocala maintained and extended their lead in the West to 27 games. No one in this division has made any kind of a run at Ocala or the Wildcard spots. Ocala and Stanley now have the honor of the best records in the NL at 70-42.

Stanley stays in control of the Central but dropped to a 3 game lead over Columbus. The Buckeyes moved into 2^nd place all alone after last month being tied with Fleetwood and are charging hard. The Buckeyes and Walkers are in the playoffs at least as a Wildcard if not division winners. Both teams are more than 14 games ahead of their Division rival Bloomington for the 2 Wildcard spots.

Glen Allen lost a bit of the lead and is now only 3 games ahead of Wauwatosa. The Wizards did move up but are just about out of gas as most of their key players are about used up for the year. Long Island stays 8 games back and could make some noise but they have 2 teams to jump over to get there.

Trades

Ocala trades Greg Myers to Morris and Morris agrees to take over Myers contract.

Gem City trades Wil Cordero along with $100K to Plaza for Midre Cummings and Adam Bernero.

Columbus trades their #4 pick and John Mabry (contract already prepaid) to Gem City for Brad Fullmer.

Contract Signings

Gem City signs Midre Cummings to a contract MO-1 contract for August.

Bloomington signs Paul Wilson (M0-1), Makoto Suzuki (M0-2), Matt LeCroy (M0-2), Kevin Beirne (M0-1) and Travis Miller (M0-1) contracts.

Stanley signs Frank Menechino to his first MO-1 call-up.

Metropolis signs Mike Lamb, Luis Matos and Stan Belinda to MO-1 contracts and Darren Bragg to an MTM contract.

North Georgia signs Andrew Lorraine and Shane Spencer to an M0-2 and Everrett Stull to an M0-1contract.

Wauwatosa signs Mark Quinn to a four-year major-league contract and Morgan Burkhart, Alfonso Soriano and Mark Mulder to MO-1 contracts.

Columbus signs A. Ojeda to an MO-2 and T. Evans to an MO-1 contract.

Fleetwood signs Brad Penny to an MO-1 contract.

Fines

North Georgia is fined 1,000,000.00 for not e-mailing their All-Star ballot by the July 15^th deadline.