Final Regular Season Players of the Week

Whoops, looks like I missed a post yesterday, but no fear, we have the selections for Players of the Week today!

Hitter of the Week

It was pretty hard to find good candidates this week - few had eye-popping numbers despite having two extra days to accumulate stats. Nevertheless, Philadelphia's Adam Dunn looks lik ea runaway winner for the final regular season JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week Award. Dunn led all hitters with a 1.095 slugging percentage and was second with a .538 on-base percentage. He was second in the league in RBIs (10) and tied for first in home runs (4).

It was a good offensive week for Vancouver. Mike Lowell led all batters with 13 RBIs and Andre Ethier was second in the league in slugging (.862) and tied for the lead in doubles (7). Curtis Granderson led the league in triples (3) further extending his DMBL-era record. David Ortiz had another good week, tied for the league lead in walks (10).

Other notables...Shane Victorino of New Jersey led the league in batting with a .472 average and had 3 stolen bases to boot...Las Vegas' Vlad Guerrero was one of four players tied for the lead in home runs with 4, but also put up a 1.217 OPS, 10 runs, and 8 RBIs on the week.

Pitcher of the Week

Unlike the hitters category, there were several deserving pitchers for top honors this week. Las Vegas, in particular, seemed to have the top stable of arms for the week. Old man El Duque pitched a complete game and went 1-1 with a 1.80 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in his 15 innings. Chris Young, who has been a disappointment this year, put together a solid 1-1, 1.29 ERA week with an 0.71 WHIP and 13 strikeouts in 14 innings. But the cream of the crop was the much-maligned Josh Beckett who finally fulfilled some of his promise. Beckett was 2-0 with a 1.23 ERA, including a complete game shutout and 16 strikeouts in 14.2 innings. Beckett takes this week's Drama Prairie Dog Pitcher of the Week Award.

Beckett has some seriously stiff competition from Hillsborough's C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia kept pace with Beckett, winning both his starts, including a complete-game shutout. C.C. put in another 8 innings in his other start and totalled 18 strikeouts with a 1.59 ERA and 0.71 WHIP - both just slightly higher than Beckett. Sabathia's teammate Justin Verlander also had a good week preparing for the playoffs (1-1, 2.76 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, CG, 10 K, 16.1 IP).

The top reliever had to be Tampa Bay's Lee Gardner. Gardner pitched in 6 scoreless appearances, earning a tie for the league lead in saves (3) with an 0.63 WHIP.

Other top performers: New Jersey's Brad Penny led the league in ERA with 1.29 and was 2-0 with a 1.21 WHIP...Vancouver's Jake Peavy notched two more wins to extend his league lead in the category, but also had 17 Ks to go with it...Sardine City's Fausto Carmona was another 2-0 pitcher with a 2.08 ERA in his 13 innings of work...Finally Hoboken's Jeremy Guthrie deserves some kudos for his 1-1, 1.93 ERA, 1.07 WHIP week which includes a 7-0 shutout of D.C.