Quentin making up for lost time

Remember when Carlos Quentin was struggling for the Sardine City Straphangers, barely hitting over the Mendoza line? Yeah, the same Carlos Quentin who missed several weeks with a seemingly minor injury. Well since returning from the disabled list, Quentin has been a top contributor in the mostly anemic Sardine City lineup. He's raised his average to a respectable .265 with an .883 OPS, 18 HRs, and 46 RBIs. This week, Quentin may have had his hottest week yet - hitting .448 with a 1.416 OPS, 4 HRs, 7 R, and 12 RBIs. Needless to say, Quentin is this week's JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week.

His competition: Arkansas' David Wright (.565/.600/1.087, 3 HR, 6 RBI), Hoboken's Miguel Cabrera (.400/.464/.920, 4 HR, 6 R, 7 RBI), Las Vegas' Carlos Pena (.444/.565/.722), Marietta's Josh Hamilton (.452/.485/.677, 10 RBI), Philly's Alex Rios (.484, 6 R), and New Jersey's Elijah Dukes (.438/.591/.563).

This week, the two best pitchers were on the same team. The Newark Sugar Bears were 5-2 this week and 3 of their wins came from these two pitchers. Chien-Ming Wang has had a great season for Newark so far. He's leading the league in wins with 15 (against only 2 losses) and has a nice 3.13 ERA and solid 1.22 WHIP. This week, Wang was 2-0, with a 1.80 ERA and 1.20 WHIP in 15 IP. His teammate, Justin Duchscherer, recently acquired from Blue Ridge, has been a solid contributer in the Newark rotation. This week, Duch was 1-1 with a 1.72 ERA and 0.83 WHIP and 11 strikeouts in 15.2 innings. Being teammates, we're sure that they won't mind sharing this week's Flip Flop Fly Ball Pitcher(s) of the Week Award.

Other notables: New Jersey's Andy Pettite (2-0, 0.61), Hoboken's Jeremy Guthrie (1-0, 1.93, 1.07 WHIP), D.C.'s Erik Bedard (0-0, 0.00 in 11.1 innings, 1.06 WHIP), and reliever Frank Francisco (1-0, 1 save, 0.00 ERA in 4 appearances).

When the going gets Huff

Aubrey Huff is having one hell of a comeback season. Huff hasn't had a full DMBL season since 2005 with Carolina. It looked likely that he was done as a full-timer, as he barely contributed in 2006 and 2007, totalling 46 at bats in the two seasons. But Hillsborough took a chance at what looked like a washed up veteran and gave him a part-time role last year. Although Huff only had 251 at bats with a .725 OPs, the Hitmen protected him for the 2009 season and soon Huff earned a full-time role again. And he's been tearing it up ever since. Huff currently leads the league in slugging (.732), runs (35), extra base hits (27), and is tied with Ryan Howard for the home run lead (14). He's already won Player of the Week honors once and has finished in the honorable mentions as well. This week he led all players in the statistical triple crown categories: average (.500), on base percentage (.567) and slugging (1.000). He also hit 3 home runs with 8 RBIs and 6 runs scored to capture his second JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week award.

Hot on Huff's heels is Newark's J.D. Drew, who led the league with 5 home runs this week and 14 RBIs, and sported a hefty 1.416 OPS. If not for his weaker .387 batting average, Drew may have been smoking some Belinda Vintage Coronas instead of Huff. Other top batters this week: DC's Jose Reyes (.433/.469/.633, 3 stolen bases, 2 2Bs, 2 3Bs) and Carlos Beltran (.414/.414/.655), Carolina's Grady Sizemore (.500/.524/.900), Hoboken's trifecta of Blake DeWitt (.455/.538/.636), Mike Napoli (.423/.545/.808, 3 HRs), and Denard Span (.414/.469/.621), Las Vegas' Matt Holliday (.414/.471/.897, 10 runs, 9 RBI), Marietta's Josh Hamilton (.407/.448/.741, 3 HR, 7 RBI), Philadelphia's Jimmy Rollins (.424/.441/.636, 10 R) and Albert Pujols (.387/.457/.774, 3 HR), and Vancouver's Victor Martinez (.450/.522/.800).

With all that offense, you know that the pitchers were going to suffer this week. The pickings were slim for Pitcher of the Week candidates, but our esteemed panel decided to select Blue Ridge's Justin Duchscherer as this week's OffensiveParking Pitcher of the Week award. A big park of the Bombers' 5-game winning streak that propelled the team back into the mix, Duchscherer was 2-0 on the week with a 2.87 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in 15.2 innings. Duchscherer, as you may remember, was the first round pick for Blue Ridge in this year's draft, but had gotten off to a rough start, losing his first three decisions and posting a 6.75 ERA after three starts. But since, the Duke seems to have straightened out the ship and now has a respectable 4.44 ERA and 3-4 record. Other pitchers of note this week: Jeremy Guthrie of Hoboken (1-1, 2.19, 0.97 WHIP), Ryan Dempster of Marietta (2-0, 2.19, 1.46 WHIP, 15 K), Scott Kazmir from Philadelphia (1-0, 3.46, 1.08 WHIP), and Las Vegas' Tim Lincecum (2-0, 3.65, 1.70 WHIP, 17 K).

Division Contenders Clash

Honolulu took round one against the Sugar Bears yesterday. The two teams' bullpens battled it out after both starters were chased fairly early in the game. Adrian Gonzalez broke the tie in the top of the ninth with a solo homer to give the Sharks the 7-6 lead. Tom Gordon, who was traded to the Sharks from the Sugar Bears in the offseason, got the victory and nailed down the bottom of the ninth. Jeff Francis and Javier Vazquez face off in tonight's game.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia also squeaked out a victory against the Golden Falcons last night in extra innings. Philly was clinging to a 4-3 lead for most of the game until the Falcons scored a trifecta in the eighth to bring the score to 6-4 in favor of Arkansas. But Justin Duchscherer couldn't hold the lead and gave up a two-run homer to Albert Pujols to tie the game. In the tenth Khalil Greene hit another homer off Duchscherer to give the Animals a 7-6 lead. Francisco Rodriguez retired the Falcons in order to earn his seventh save of the season. Tonight it's Erik Bedard against Daniel Cabrera.

Jose Contreras pitched a shutout for Team Buddah against the Mighty Men. Contreras allowed ten hits and struck out seven to earn his first victory of the season.

From the Blog Bits file: Mike Piazza hit his 300th career double Wednesday, the 24th player in DMBL history to achieve the milestone. Bobby Abreu's next double will also be his 300th...We are all waiting for Barry to hit #600, but Jim Thome of Marietta will hit #400 when he hits his next home run... Kevin Millwood is now one shy of 1000 strikeouts on the season...