The Winter Leagues are rounding up their respective regular seasons:

PUERTO RICO: Carlos Baerga is putting together a monstrous season as the player-owner of the Bayamón Vaqueros.

Two weeks removed from signing a minor league deal with Boston, Baerga -- a former Cleveland and New York Mets second baseman who is fighting his way back to the major leagues -- is hitting .355 in 40 games since joining the team after returning from South Korea, where he played this summer after being cut by the Seattle Mariners in 1999.

Baerga and Carlos Beltrán, who joined the club in mid-December, led the charge for the Vaqueros in a recent five-game winning streak that put Bayamón in place to capture the fourth and final playoff berth.

If Baerga keeps this pace, it will be the highest regular season average since Edgar Martínez hit .417 for the 1991-92 San Juan Metros, now known as the Carolina Gigantes.

Meanwhile, the Ponce Leones remain atop the standings with a week to go in the regular season and have managed to hold off a challenge from the Santurce Cangrejeros.

The Leones, managed by former Houston Astros star José Cruz Sr., received good news this week when Montreal Expos second baseman José Vidró agreed to join the team for the remainder of the regular season and the playoffs -- Ponce's first postseason in three years.

Vidro will be Ponce's designated hitter for the time being, but told a local newspapaer (El Nuevo Día) he is ready to play the field "when José Cruz tells me."

Ponce's success this season has been mainly due to a balanced attack combined with solid pitching. While the team is second in the league in hitting, the starting pitching, led by Rocky Coppinger (6-0, 1.52) and Mike Johnson (3-1, 2.52), has kept Ponce atop the standings for the long haul. Miguel Correa, Jeff Inglin and Juan Lebrón have combined for 25 home runs and 71 RBI in 42 games.

The Cangrejeros, who last won a title in the 1998-99 season and were a darkhorse team entering the season, are capitalizing on pleasant surprises.

Many thought Hideki Irabu's career was all but over when he was suspended by the Expos for showing up intoxicated to a game. But this winter, Irabu is leading the Puerto Rican league in innings pitched and has 58 strikeouts in 50.1 innings on his way to a 5-2 record with a 2.24 ERA, part of the reason why the Texas Rangers are gambling on Irabu, whom they signed to a minor league deal last week.

Offensively, Santurce has relied on veteran minor leaguer Edwin Diaz, Milwaukee catcher Angel Echevarría and Ramón Castro, who have combined for 21 home runs and 64 RBI in the first 45 games. For the stretch run and the playoffs, Santurce hopes the additions of Eduardo Perez, Ben Molina and Edwards Guzmán are enough to carry them to the title.

The Caguas Criollos, defending their league-leading 14th crown, are still in third place and have held together behind the leadoff bat of Alex Cora, who knows he is under the gun. Cora is aware that the Dodgers, who traded for César Izturis from the Blue Jays, are more than willing to replace him at second base if his offensive numbers do not improve by spring training. Cora's power numbers have gone dramatically upward since Los Angeles acquired Izturis. He is leading the league in doubles, runs scored and extra-base hits.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: The Dominican League finished its regular season on Dec. 29 in a star-studded finale between long-time rivals Aguilas Cibaeñas and Licey Tigres. Aguilas, the two-time defending champions, won the game and the regular season title thanks to back-to-back home runs by Miguel Tejada and Tony Batista.

Since welcoming its big leaguers, which included Bartolo Colón, Stan Javier, Julián Tavarez, Luis Polonia, Alberto Castillo, Mario Encarnación, Felix Martinez, Raul Mondesi, among others, the Aguilas had been the team to beat.

Licey, which was led all season by Oakland A's prospect Eric Byrnes (.345-11-37), Izzy Alcántara (.284-9-31), Rangers prospect Carlos Peña and D'angelo Jiménez, slumped to a 1-3 finish in the last week of the season to end second in the standings.

The Toros del Este and Estrellas Orientales will round out the semifinal round-robin tournament, which gets underway Jan. 2. The Pollos Nacionales and Leones del Escogido were eliminated.

Félix José, making a bid for a second straight MVP season with the Estrellas, fell short of the regular season triple crown. José led the league in home runs, but hit .338, good enough for fourth behind Bernie Castro (.353 with the Aguilas), Byrnes and Polonia, who batted .338. José finished sixth in RBI behind Giants prospect Juan Melo (Azucareros), Byrnes, Pittsburgh's Mendy López (Aguilas), Guillermo Garcia (Aguilas) and Houston's Morgan Ensberg, who also was tied for second in home runs.

Odalys Pérez, trying to work his way back into the Atlanta rotation, proved he is still worthy of a shot. Pérez led the Dominican League in ERA with a 1.96 in 46 innings while amassing a 2-2 record with the Estrellas Orientales.

VENEZUELA: Since the insertion of Richard Hidalgo into their lineup and the continued, albeit unexpected, offensive output from Robert Machado, the Magallanes Navegantes have clinched the playoffs and look to be the only worthy challenger for the defending champion Lara Cardenales.

Since jumping into the fray for the last 11 games, Hidalgo is hitting .293 with three homers. Machado, who is vying for increased playing time with the Chicago Cubs next spring, has had a wonderful winter, batting .310 with 29 RBI in 46 games. Machado, who has had brief major league stints with the White Sox, Expos and Mariners before playing 51 games for the Cubs last season, is going into spring training as the third catcher behind Joe Girardi and Todd Hundley.

The resurgence of the Navegantes, Venezuela's oldest team, has also seen the contributions of the likes of Luis Landaeta, who is batting .444 over the team's last 16 games with six doubles and three homers, and Carlos Guillén, who after struggling upon joining the team on Dec. 15, has gone 6-for-10 in his last two games.

Heading into the final stretch of the regular season, the Caribes de Oriente, who have remained atop Venezuela's Eastern Division since opening day, are primed to challenge the Lara Cardenales' hold on the championship trophy.

Oriente is led by Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Tike Redman and Phillies second baseman Tomás Pérez. Redman, who spent most of 2001 with Pittsburgh´s Triple A affiliate in Nashville, has been brilliant, starting every game in center field while hitting .303. For his part, Pérez has driven in 34 runs in 47 games while hitting .312 through Friday's games.

Oriente and Magallanes look to be Lara's main challengers, but the Cardenales are still the team to beat in this league.

Led by Robert Pérez (.329-5-25) and Raymond Cabrera (.319-2-19) and with a supporting cast that includes César Izturis, Luis Sojo, Ryan Freel and Miguel Cairo, Lara has already clinched its playoff berth by winning the Western Division outright. Lara expects to have closer Kelvim Escobar in uniform for the playoffs

MÉXICO: It has not been an easy month for the Hermosillo Naranjeros. Despite welcoming the power of Vinny Castilla and Erubiel Durazo, the veteran pitching of Fernando Valenzuela and Angel Moreno has failed to push Hermosillo, which is on the brink of elimination with a week left in the regular season. To add insult to injury, the press has jumped all over Durazo for refusing to grant interviews, accusing the Diamondbacks slugger of having a "big head" after his home run against the Braves put Arizona in the World Series.

Hermosillo was expected to have no trouble defending its title. After all, it was to return most of its core of players -- including Durazo and Castilla, who had promised to play after their participation in the Caribbean Series, which was held in Mexico.

The lack of consistent pitching, and the resurgence of the Culiacán Tomateros has stopped Hermosillo short.

Led by Anaheim Angels shortstop Benji Gil, Culiacán has roared in the second half of the season and together with the Maztlán Venados are expected to challenge for the league title.

Unlike the three other Winter Leagues, U.S. players in Mexico are having solid offensive seasons, as four of the top five hitters are U.S. reinforcement players.

Scott Samuels (.309-12-49) and Bubba Smith (.297-19-49) are one reason why the Mexicali Aguilas are playoff bound.