Hillsborough sweeps Weekly Awards

This week it was a close call for the JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week Award. In the end, we gave it, by a nose, to Hillsborough's Casey McGehee. McGehee batted .500 this week (15-30) with 2 homers and 8 RBIs and 10 runs scored. He also had a 1.298 OPS. His biggest rival this week was Las Vegas' Matt Holliday, who batted .440, but had a 1.356 OPS with 4 doubles, 2 homers, 10 runs, and 7 RBIs. Both players' teams finished the week riding a 3-game winning streak, and both are either in second or tied for second place in their respective divisions. Also, Hillsborough had a secretary named Lincoln and Vegas had a secretary named Kennedy.

A few other candidates that were close, but...ahem...no cigar: Bridgewater's Erick Aybar (.524/.583/.714), Amityville's Matt Kemp (.435/.500/.696), Carolina's Magglio Ordonez (.419/.441/.742, 2 HR, 8 RBI), and Marietta's Derek Jeter (.440/.481/.560, 7 R).

This week's Superuseless Superpowers Pitcher of the Week prize goes to Hillsborough's Dan Haren. Haren won both games he started this week and held his opponents to an 0.61 ERA and 0.82 WHIP, while compiling 17 strikeouts in 14.2 innings. Oh yeah, he also pitched a complete game shutout of Sardine City on Saturday.

Haren had to fight off not one, not two, but THREE Bridgewater pitchers to take this week's honor. Luckily for him, the Bridgewater vote got split up between the three candidates. Andrew Bailey is on pace to challenge John Smoltz's save record. This week he was a perfect 5-5 in save opportunities and didn't give up any runs in his 5 appearances. Teammate Chris Carpenter was 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP, including a complete game and 12 Ks in 17 IP. Finally Josh Beckett was 1-1 with a 1.69 ERA and 1.06 WHIP.

Newark's Brad Bergeson also deserves an honorable mention, going 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA and 2 complete games. His 1.11 WHIP and only 9 Ks fell below Haren's marks, but a stellar week for the Sugar Bear nonetheless.