Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 11, 2008
Players of the Week

The National League offers a tough choice this week among hitters. Albert Pujols hit three home runs, posted a .556 OBA and a .955 slugging percentage. Carlos Lee matched the home runs with better averages, but only played five games and may be out for the season with a broken finger. There's also Dan Murphy of the Mets, who's getting on base, but without the runs scored and RBI of Lee and Pujols. My NL Hitter of the Week goes to Carlos Lee. He hit better than Pujols, and his injury inspired the Astros to keep playing well, going 5-2 this week.

In the American League, Marlon Byrd knocked out six multi-hit games and two four-RBI games. Carlos Pena started to show the kind of hitting that made him a star in 2007, posting a .545 OBA and an .826 slugging percentage. Carlos Quentin doesn't quite hold the averages of the other two, but hit four home runs and took some for the team as he was hit by a pitch in four straight games. It's a tough call. Despite Byrd's great performance, Texas played poorly as a team. Pena helped the Rays extend their lead in the AL East, and the White Sox took two out of three from the Red Sox. Texas's team play can't hide the fact that Byrd hit like a machine this week, so the AL Hitter of the week goes to Marlon Byrd.

Pitchers of the week are a bit easier to establish. Leading Cy Young candidates Brandon Webb and Cliff Lee started twice, pitched well twice and won twice. Webb allowed two walks in fifteen innings, as did Lee. Webb allowed 15 hits, but only one of those, a double, went for extra bases. Lee was almost as good. With few strikeouts, 16 balls in play went for hits, but just two were doubles. Brandon Webb wins NL Pitcher of the Week honors while Cliff Lee takes the title for AL Pitcher of the Week.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:14 AM | Army Strong | TrackBack (0)
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