Tossing Darts...

For the first week this season, the top batter decision wasn't so easy to make. There weren't too many eye-popping numbers to choose from this week - at least not all on the same player's stat line. We're just going to toss a dart at the board and pick Arkansas' Lance Berkman as this week's JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week. Berkman led the league with a .536 batting average and .581 on base percentage. He was second in slugging (.821) and also scored 7 runs and drove in 7. Hi stop competition this week was Hoboken's Hank Blalock, who was the leader in slugging (.840), but with a .360 average and .429 on base. Blalock did have 11 RBIs and 3 homers this week.

The top home run hitter was Hoboken's Miguel Cabrera (4), but his other numbers were ordinary (.323 OBP, 7 R, 7 RBI). D.C.'s Jose Reyes had a good week as well, hitting .406/.432/.625 with 3 doubles and 2 triples, plus 7 RBIs and 6 runs. Albert Pujols led the league with 12 RBIs while hitting .462/.559/.769 with 5 doubles.

Some part timers were solid in limited action - Hillsborough's Ron Belliard (7-11 .636, HR, 2B, 5 RBI), Vancouver's Adam LaRoche (.400/.478/.750) and Sardine City's Lyle Overbay (.500/.529/.563).

This week's top hurler is a tossup as well. We'll stick with the faithful dart and take aim at Las Vegas, which features our top two contenders. On one side we have Tim Lincecum who was 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA in 16 innings. Lincecum struck out 12 and had a WHIP of 1.06. Sounds pretty good, huh? Well hold on a second. His teammate Derek Lowe was also 2-0 with a slightly higher 1.80 ERA in 15 innings. Lowe had the lower WHIP at 0.87, but only struck out a measly 4 batters. Well we all know that chicks dig a strikeout so we'll give our Fantasy Darts Competition Pitcher of the Week Award to Timmy and better luck next time, Derek. Some others that had a shot at the golden dartboard were Marietta's Scott Baker (1-1, 1.93, 1.00 WHIP) and Blue Ridge's Justin Duchscherer (1-1, 1.15, 0.77 WHIP).

Top relievers this week included Jonathan Papelbon of D.C. (save, 0.00 ERA in 5 IP, 6 K), Octavio Dotel of Philadelphia (2 saves, 0.00 ERA in 3 G, 9 K in 4.2 IP) and Hoboken's Craig Breslow (1-0, 2.70, 0.90 WHIP in 6.2 IP).