Who's Hot / Who's Not

WHO's HOT

Ryan Howard

Power surge (nine homers in 11 games) from a powerful man (6'4", 250 pounds) gave the Phillies first sacker a big-league-best 53 home runs and-check this out-134 RBIs through Monday. Last year's NL Rookie of the Year may have an MVP trophy coming his way. Teammate David Dellucci : "He's a freak of nature."

New Mexico State football

It's over! O.K., they were playing Division I-AA Southern Louisiana , but the Aggies, helped by RB Justine Buries (right), snapped a 13-game losing streak with a 30-15 win. "Considering where we were at," said QB Chase Holbrook , who passed for 381 yards and two TDs, "we were just happy with what we got."

Penguins

Happy days. Superprospect Evgeni Malkin , freshly bolted from Russia , should soon join Sid the Kid, and the phenoms may have a neat place to play: The city approved spending that by next month could land space for a new arena.

Roy Oswalt

Sittin' pretty. Five days after inking a five-year, $73 million contract, Astros righty was perfect for six innings en route to shutting down the Mets-the team that coveted him at the trade deadline.

WHO's NOT

Joey Gathright

The anti-Howard (through Sunday he'd had a big-league-high 312 at bats without a homer) is also a freak of nature-the Devil Rays drafted him after seeing him jump over a car. But the speedster has three SBs since Aug. 1, is hitting .218 and has spent the year with Tampa Bay and (now) K.C.-the AL's worst teams.