Ankiel, Wagner streak to awards

This week's JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week is easily Rick Ankiel. Ankiel's first 6 hits of the season were all home runs, until he was held to only a double in the second game against Sardine City. He came right back the next day though and hit his 7th home run of the season (along with his first 2 singles), then hit his first triple of the season in the second match of Sunday's doubleheader. For the week, Ankiel hit .391 with a ridiculous 1.174 slugging, 5 home runs, 15 RBIs, and 8 runs scored.

Remember last week's batter of the week, Aubrey Huff? Well he hasn't slowed down since winning the award. In fact, if not for Ankiel's historic feat, Huff could have been an early repeat winner. This week, Huff hit .519 with a 1.148 slugging, 4 home runs, 11 runs scored, 8 RBIs, and 5 doubles. Other notable batters: Marietta's Milton Bradley (.429/.529/.821, 10 R, 10 RBI), Carolina's Dustin Pedroia (.441/.486/.647, 2 HR, 6 R), Philly's Mark Teixeira (.429/.568/.786, 6 RBI, 2 HR), and New Jersey's David DeJesus (.407/.500/.704, 10 R, 2 HR).

This week, we award the ShamWow® Pitcher of the Week Award to Vancouver's Billy Wagner. Wagner saved 5 games in 5 appearances, more than doubling his league lead over the rest of the DMBL relievers. Wagner now has 7 saves on the season. In his 5 appearances, Wagner struck out 6 in 6.1 innings, and allowed only one hit. That's as automatic as you get.

Wags faced some pretty stiff competition, not just from the rest of the league, but from his own teammate. Jake Peavy was 1-0 in two starts, with a 1.50 ERA and 11 strikeouts. The unluckiest pitcher this week has to be Ted Lilly of Blue Ridge who only gave up one run in 13 innings, but only has one loss to show for it. Cliff Lee (0-1, 2.35 ERA in 15.1 innings, 15 K) had a similar fate in Arkansas. Some two-game winners this week: Felix Hernandez of Hillsborough (1.38, 14K), Hoboken's Matt Garza (1.93 ERA), Newark's Chien-Ming Wang (2.30), and New Jersey's Kevin Slowey (1.84, 16 K).