Moose, McCann, claim honors

This week featured a pretty light schedule for most teams. Only two teams played every day this week - Marietta and Carolina - while other teams barely played at all - Blue Ridge only had 3 games this week. Some of the favorites for the JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week prize were already mentioned in last week's Blog entries. Sentimental choice Ken Griffey had a good week for Vancouver, hitting .368 with a 1.113 OPS and a home run. We all read about the hot streak that Lance Berkman and David Wright had for Arkansas. Berkman was the clear winner between those two - .409/.480/.955 with 4 homers, 7 runs, and 10 RBIs, though most of that was done in two games. But this week's prize will go to D.C.'s Brian McCann who hit an astounding .435 with a .567 on base percentage and 1.130 slugging. He led the league with 5 home runs this week and scored 10 runs while driving in 8. Enjoy your Fonsecas, Brian!

Other top batters this week: Carolina's Xavier Nady (.433/.419/.500), D.C.'s Dan Uggla (.381/.435/.905, 3 HR), Las Vegas' Joe Mauer (.464/.464/.679), Philly's Mark Teixeira (.368/.429/.684) and Sardine City's Conor Jackson (.375/.407/.583). We have to give a special acknowledgement to Jason Kubel who, although he only got into 3 games this week as a part-timer, hit 3 home runs in 7 at bats. Maybe we need to make a new award for Bench Guy of the Week?

It was a close race for this week's pitcher prize, but Marietta's Mike Mussina gets the nod for this week's Weird Graves Pitcher of the Week Award. Moose won both his starts and holding his opponents to only 3 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks in 15 innings, while striking out 16 batters. He ends the week with a 1.80 ERA and 0.67 WHIP. His closest competition was Las Vegas' Josh Beckett, who also won both his starts, including a complete game shutout of Amityville. Beckett also struck out 15 batters in his 16 innings of work, but his 1.31 WHIP cost him the prize this week.

Other top pitchers: Carolina's Daisuke Matsuzaka (0-0, 2.45 in 2 games) and Carlos Zambrano (1-0, 3.29, 11 K, in 13.2 IP), D.C.'s Jonathan Papelbon (1-0, save, 1.50 in 6 games), Marietta's Ervin Santana (1-0, 3.18, 16 K), and Hoboken's Aaron Cook (1-1, 3.00). Two more one-game wonders of note: Amityville's Roy Oswalt, who pitched a 4-hit shutout and Blue Ridge's Adam Wainwright, who pitched a 3-hitter.

Players of the Week

Since we forgot to give out the awards last week, we'll include last week in our considerations.

Hitter of the Week

Our top two candidates for the Mitchell Award had a monster week...er weeks. Newark's Chipper Jones was huge, leading the league in average (.500), on base percentage(.615), and slugging (1.067) (and of course OPS) while also hitting 3 homers and 6 doubles, scoring 12 runs and driving in 11. Meanwhile, Vancouver's David Ortiz tried to keep pace with a 1.180 OPS week (.462 on base, .718 slugging), with 4 homers and 12 RBI.

Meanwhile, D.C. had a huge offensive week, hitting .320 as a team with a .828 team OPS. Matt Kemp (.460, 13 runs, 1.081 OPS) and Jeff Kent (.412, 1.027 OPS, 9 RBI) were big parts of that surge, but the main cog, and this week's JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week is Brian McCann. McCann hit .571 over the past two weeks with a 1.523 OPS and 13 RBIs.

Other considerations... Hoboken's Miguel Cabrera hit 6 home runs for the Cutters and drove in 15...Marietta's Josh Hamilton crushed the opposition with a 1.489 OPS, 5 HRs, and 14 RBIs...Philly's Jorge Posada had a solid week (.404, 4 HR, 11 RBI) and Tampa's Pat Burrell did his best to keep the Plunkers' playoff hopes alive (1.435 OPS, 4 HR, 9 RBI).

Pitcher of the Week

D.C. almost made it a sweep of the awards this week as both Shawn Marcum (1-0, 1.15, shutout) and Derrek Lowe (3-0, 1.21, shutout, 1.16 WHIP) had great weeks, not to mention a superb performance by closer Jonathan Papelbon (5-5 saves, 0.00 ERA in 5 games). But this week's Springfield Punx Pitcher of the Week Award goes to Philadelphia's Brandon Webb. Webb was also 3-0, but with a slightly better 1.14 ERA and slightly lower 1.14 WHIP. Webb also amassed 19 strikeouts in 23.2 innings of work.

Marietta's Mariano Rivera logged a lot of playing time over the past two weeks, but the old man still got it done. Rivera appeared in 12 games with an 0.71 ERA, picking up a win and a save, while striking out 11 in 12.2 innings.

Other pitchers of note...Speaking of old men, Arkansas' Roger Clemens still has a little bit of gas left in him (2-0, 2.02 ERA, 0.97 WHIP)...Looks like some time in the minors has done Philly's Yovani Gallardo some good (2-0, 3.09, 13K in 11.2 IP)...Hillsborough's Dan Haren (2-0, 1.72, 12 K, 0.77 WHIP) has helped keep the Hitmen on pace with D.C.

Big Deals rejuvenate cooling Hot Stove league

Well there certainly is a lot of discussion going on around the draft date, especially the time. We'll try to hammer this one out in the next few days.

And remember when I posted something about how quiet the Hot Stove league had become? OOPS, I guess the DMBL gods heard me and forced a couple of trades over the past 24 hours.

First it was Vancouver completing a long-rumored deal that sent outfielder Jason Bay, young first baseman Conor Jackson and a fourth round pick in 2009 to Marietta for DMBL veteran Todd Helton. Helton had been a mainstay in the Mighty Men lineup since 2001, so the fans were very upset at the news. Irate fans called into the Fan's Rude Awakening radio show this morning screaming for owner David Landsman's head. "We could have gotten the same package for Wes Helms" said livid caller Jimbo from Kennesaw. "If Landsman knew what he was doing he could have gotten Prince Fielder and Vlad Guerrero for Helton" said another heated listener. Landsman was too distraught for questions but issued a brief statement that began "Today we say goodbye to a truly Mighty Man." A tearful Landsman departed the scene while upset fans picketed the parking lot. "He was a fan favorite" said manager Graig Nettles.

Meanwhile, Honolulu finally did something about their glut of catchers. The Sharks shipped off Brian McCann to D.C. in exchange for pitcher Mark Buehrle and a third round pick. Buerhle will solidify a solid staff featuring Roy Oswalt and Jered Weaver, while McCann slides right into the starting lineup for the Bushslappers. Kenji Johjima is expected to take over the everyday catching duties for the Sharks.

Bad day for pitchers

Two teams were crushed yesterday at home. Honolulu routed the Golden Falcons 18-5. Brian McCann had two homers and five RBIs and Jeff Francis improved to 7-1 on the season. Falcons starter Ervin Santana lasted just 2 innings and gave up six runs, but the real damage was done by reliever Brad Lidge, who surrendered eight earned runs, in addition to allowing both of his inherited runners to score. Lidge and Santana combined to walk eight batters and surrendered eight hits and 14 earned runs in 3.1 innings.

Meanwhile in Vancouver, the Sugar Bears pounded the Iron Fist to a 17-5 tune. Nick Johnson was 4-6 with 6 RBIs and three homers and Manny Ramirez was 4-5 with one homer. Starter Ben Sheets was ripped apart - 1.2 IP, 6 ER, 6 hits. Vancouver also allowed six unearned runs in the contest. Javier Vazquez was the beneficiary of the run support and improved to 4-2 by limiting the Fist to three hits over six innings, though he did issue five walks.

New Jersey's recent acquisition Matt Guerrier pitched in his first game for Team Buddah and was impressive in 5.1 innings, surrendering no runs and four hits, while striking out three. It wasn't enough because starter Brad Penny was shelled (6 runs, eight hits in 1.2 innings).

Want more starter shellings? How about D.C.'s John Maine who gave up six runs and eight hits in two innings against Hoboken? At least Maine didn't get a loss as the Bushslappers came back to win the game.

How about Sardine City's Tom Glavine who gave up five runs and five hits in two innings in a loss to Hillsborough? The Straphangers ended up using eight pitchers in the game, including Brandon Claussen who was the team's emergency starter earlier in the year.

So did anyone pitch well yesterday? Las Vegas' Chris Young pitched seven scoreless innings against South Boston in picking up the win to improve to 4-4. Young struck out 10 Gangsters. Speaking of Las Vegas, Brett Myers will try to break the hex over him tonight as he tries to win his first game of the season. Myers is currently 0-9 on the year with a 10.38 ERA. "If he doesn't turn things around, I may send him to the pen next year" said team owner Eric Wickstrom.