A Look at the All-Star Break

The All-Star Break is only one week away, which means the league has already divided the good from the bad teams. Playoff races are starting to begin, rivalrys have been formed, and major prospects have made their mark on KJNL sqauds.

By: Matt Sanders

All-Star Break Top 5:
1. Chicago White Sox-The boys in black were projected to finish in the middle of the AL West, not lead it. The line-up isn't flashy, but Mike Jacobs and Pat Burrell lead a potent scoring squad while Zack Grenkie leads a no-name but effective pitching staff.
2. Housten Astros-A powerful offense led by Josh Hamilton has dominated the NL all but once, againt the cellar dwelling Braves. A weak rotation is padded by a stellar bullpen, which should lead it to the NLCS.
3. Seattle Mariners-The Mariners are really good, but they were supposed to be great. An All-Star line-up has been crippled by injuries and slumps, but one can only think that they will explode eventually. The bullpen has been devestated by season ending surgieries and ineffectivness, and must improve for Seattle to clinch the AL West.
4. St. Louis-The offense isn't flashy, but it's done a great job scroing runs for the best rotation in the league. The first four starters in St. Louis could be in the top two on any team, givign the offense plenty of room for only moderate production.
5. Colorado Rockies-Nobody talks about them, but they are tied for the second best team i nthe NL after Housten. They have lots of injury problems however, which could lead to their exit from the playoff race if another NL team steps it up.

NL MVP: Josh Hamiltion-When Housten signed Hamilton, it most likley wasn't becuase he was expecting 179 RBI. Thats wht he is on pace for, which would set the bar high for the league record in later seasons. Can Hamilton keep it up and lead Houston to a title?

AL MVP: Chase Utley-Seattle had a good idea what they were getting in Utley, but his current numbers are off the charts. Can Utley lead Seattle to a AL West title?

NL Cy Young: Edison Volquez: Like Hamilton, this kid came out of nowere. He now leads the NL in ERA.

AL Cy Young: Cliff Lee: Getting it over some very good pitchers in the AL. Lee, another guy who didn't have the bar set very high, has done great so far.

Okay, annoucing the first KJNL All-Star team
Annoucing from a loud, outragous, microphone:
AL
At Catcher, from the Twins...Geovany Soto!
At first...playing for the Bosten Red Sox...Adrian Gonzolez!
At second...for the Seattle Mariners...Chaaaase Utley!
At third...for the Toronto Blue Jays...Ryan Braun!(Braun is 3B eligible)
At short...for Chicago...Carlos Guillen!
In the outfield... for the White Sox...Pat Burrell!...Carlos Quinten!.....and from the Mariners...Carlos Lee!!
Now the pitchers...
From the Cleveland Indians, Brandon Webb!!...and Tim Lincecum!!!...from Minnesota...Cliff Lee!!!...and Ryan Dempster!!...and Carlos Zambrano!
The closer....out of Kansas City....Francisco Rodriguez!
And the manager....The White Sox GM!!!

Now..the NL...
At Catcher...from Housten...Brain McCann
At first...from Colorado...Lance Berkman!!!
At Second...wearing a big C on his chest..no not Cincy....Dan Uggla!!
At thirdbase...wearing a big C on his chest....no not Chciago...Chipppper Jones!
At shortstop...from Houston....Miguel Tejada!!!
For the outfeilders...from Colorado...Manny Ramirez!!...from the Astros...Josh Hamilton!!!....and from the Reds...Ryan Ludwick!
The pitchers....From Cincy...Edison Volquez!.....from LA...Javier Vazquez!!...from the Reds...Roy Halladay!!....from Colorado...Disuke Matsuzaka!!...and...the vet...from Arizona...Mike Mussina!!
The closer...from the Rockies...Jon Papelbon!
If you have any complaints, post them on the board..but who really cares.

KJNL Week 9 Recap

By Staff Writer: Brad Atkinson

Interleague play starts this week and runs almost until the end of the season . . . individual recaps are below.

Boston over Kansas City (6-5-1)
The Red Sox stay on their winning ways, albeit just barely, and move into a tie for first place in their division. The Royals winning streak stops at 3 because of a rather mediocre week . . . the Red Sox took advantage in a timely fashion.
MVP: Ryan Spilborghs - .409/1.389, 4 R, 3 HR, 6 RBI, 1 SB
Goat: Ian Snell – 2 GS, 9.0 IP, 2.56 Whip, 13.00 ERA . . . Royals lost ERA by 0.06.

Minnesota over Detroit (6-5-1)
Another squeaker in a week full of squeakers is found here. The Twins get back on the winning track while the Tigers continue to struggle. This game was so close that it could have turned on several individual performances. The bottom line is that the Twins keep pace with the rest of their division and stay in the race for the playoffs.
MVP: Ryan Dempster – 2 W, 12 IP, 10 K
Goat: Robinson Cano - .154/.308, 2 R

Seattle over Cleveland (8-2-2)
The Mariners dominate the batting side of the ball with near-record setting numbers and their mediocre pitching numbers give them a blowout against a suddenly stumbling Cleveland team. The Indians are now in a tie for first in their division and have two non-division leading teams ahead of them for the Wild Card in the AL. Losing four in a row is a hard pill to swallow for a team that started off 5-0.
MVP: Chase Utley - .391/1.587, 9 R, 5 HR, 14 RBI, 2 SB
Goat: Chris Young - .172/.502, 2 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI

Chicago (AL) over Toronto (6-5-1)
The White Sox blast to 8-1 with their seventh win in a row riding great batting with just enough pitching to get by this week. The Blue Jays meanwhile continue to stake their claim as the worst team in the league . . . this is the closest they have been to the winner’s circle in some time.
MVP: Jose Reyes - .367/1.224, 10 R, 3 HR, 4 RBI, 3 SB
Goat: Jair Jurrjens – 2 GS, 0 W, 9 IP, 2.78 Whip, 9.00 ERA

St. Louis and Arizona tie (6-6-0)
A sister kisser between the first place Cardinals and the last place D’backs is a bit disappointing for both teams. None of the categories were really all that close so neither team can say that they nearly won. With the tie Arizona remains in last while the Cardinals remain in first, the only team in their division that is over .500.
MVP: Scott Kazmir – 2 GS, 2 W, 14 IP, 16 K, 0.64 Whip, 0.64 ERA
Goat: The most disastrous start for someone actually in a lineup – Carlos Silva 0.2 IP, 7 H, 7 ER, 0 K.

Colorado over Cincinnati (6-5-1)
The fifth game of the week decided by half a win or less and the Reds could have really used this one. They go to two losses in a row but still tied for a wild card spot. The Rockies keep their streak of only losing to first place teams alive and are solidifying their early hold on a wild card spot in the NL.
MVP: Manny Ramirez - .320/1.153, 6 R, 3 HR, 8 RBI . . . Ellsbury had 8 SB this week.
Goat: Aaron Harang’s 10 H in 4 IP against the lowly Pirates cost the Reds the Whip win and this game.

Los Angeles over Chicago (NL) (7-2-3)
The Dodgers pull into a tie for the last wild card spot in the NL and keep the Cubs a half game behind themselves and the Reds in the race. This win was more about the Cubs underperformance than any dominance by the Dodgers . . . but at this point teams are taking wins any time they can get them.
MVP: Ian Kinsler - .360/.953, 6 R, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 1 SB
Goat: Dan Uggla - .120/.314, 2 R, 1 RBI

Atlanta over Houston (9-2-1)
Houston streak ends at 8 to start the season. A blowout might have been expected by some in this game between the best and worst of the NL, but not many would have picked it in this direction. The Braves get 14 starts from their pitchers and set records in wins and K’s while the Houston bats have a tough week in every category but HR. Atlanta is becoming the team we all thought they could be.
MVP: Texiera and Bruce combine for .404/1.353, 11 R, 5 HR, 18 RBI, 2 SB while Cueto, Santana and Colon combine for 6 W.
Goat: 6 batters with 3 or more starts with weeks batting under .200.

Week 10 Preview:

An eight week inter-league battle royale begins:

Braves (2-6-1) at Red Sox (5-4)
Two teams on minor winning streaks butt heads to see who can continue on and who will fall off just a bit. The Braves are 2-0 under new management.

Cubs (3-5-1) at Tigers (2-7)
Two struggling teams match up to see who can better right their ship and try to get back on track for the playoffs.

Cardinals (5-3-1) at Indians (5-4)
Two first place, but struggling teams meet up in an important game for each. The Indians are in danger of dropping out of first place and the playoffs altogether while the Cardinals are not in danger this week, but only have a 1.5 game lead to work with.

Reds (4-5) at Blue Jays (1-8)
The Reds are licking their chops at the chance to take on the worst team in the league while the rival Cardinals are facing a first place team. It’s time for them to get back in the divisional race.

Astros (8-1) at Royals (3-6)
Two teams that lost last week ending long winning streaks try to get back on track against each other. The overall records lean way in favor of the Astros, but last week proved that records are not a good indicator of week-to-week performance.

Dodgers (4-5) at Twins (6-3)
The Dodgers try to solidify their tenuous playoff hold while the Twins are simply battling to stay competitive in their division despite a great 6-3 record.

Diamondbacks (2-6-1) at Mariners (6-3)
The Mariners get what seems to be the easiest NL team for their first matchup, but Arizona just tied a first place team last week and the Mariners are battling in a really tough division.

Rockies (6-3) at White Sox (8-1)
The Rockies get the bad luck of drawing the only team in the AL with a better record than theirs in their first go in inter-league. The good news is that they get them out of the way early, the bad news is that winning with David Ortiz on the DL and Billy Butler back in the minors is going to be tough.

Good Luck to all this week!!

KJNL Week 8 Recap

By Staff Writer: Brad Atkinson

The East put up a respectable 5-3 week this week, ending the dominance that the West has had over them the last two weeks. The top teams in each league (White Sox and Astros) keep on keeping on while all of their closest division rivals lose this week . . . those leads are really expanding. Finally, under new management and employing a little bit of the streaming pitchers strategy the Braves get their first win over the Dodgers . . . welcome to the league!! Now for individual re-caps.

Boston Red Sox over Minnesota Twins (9-3-0)
Two great batting weeks by the Twins and Red Sox and they split the batting side 3-3, but the Twins pitchers flop and they get swept on that side of the game. It wasn’t all the Twins fault though . . . the Red Sox were pretty good on that side of the ledger too.
MVP: Ordonez and Gonzalez had huge weeks, but the MVP is Scott Linbrink – 3.2 IP, 5 K, 2W, 1 Hld, 0.00 Whip.
Goat: No one truly awful, though Kason Gabbard was pretty bad in his one start.

Detroit Tigers over Seattle Mariners (7-4-1)
The “Cellar Dwellers” revenge . . . the bottom end of the AL East took on the contending Mariners and came out on top because of a great pitching performance and a 5-0-1 record on that side of the game. Put up a record like that and you only have to win one batting category and 38 runs and a .290 average are hard to beat. The Mariners continue to be good, but inconsistently so, especially on the pitching side of the ball.
MVP: Matsui and Cano – 0 HR, but . . . .420/1.070, 15 R, 10 RBI combined.
Goat: Teahen, Maine and Penny . . . 0/16 batting and 4 starts with 0 W and a 6.25 ERA.

Chicago White Sox over Cleveland Indians (9-2-1)
The current best team in the AL keeps streaking (6 in a row), while the former best team in the AL keeps sliding (3 in a row), though both are still first place teams. The Indians simply had an awful week on both sides of the game. The White Sox had a bad pitching week, but going 6-0 on the batting side makes it easy to win.
MVP: Takashi Saito – 4.1 IP, 8 K, 2 W, 2 Sv, 0.00 ERA, 0.46 Whip
Goat: Boof Bonser and Justin Upton – 2 Starts, 0W, 10.61 ERA and 0/20 swinging the bat.

Kansas City Royals over Toronto Blue Jays (8-4-0)
The battle of the bottom rungs goes to the West and the Royals putting up an impressive .330 BA for the week and having a pitching week that would have them contending with the top teams in the league. The Blue Jays pitched well too, they were just a bit short on amassing stats, almost like they had a few players sitting out or something.
MVP: Jason Bay - .480/1.496, 5 R, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 1 SB
Goat: No one really bad, but why Fred Lewis gets 6 starts in a week is beyond me.

St. Louis Cardinals over Colorado Rockies (8-4-0)
The Rockies suffer their first out of division loss to the first place Cardinals. The Rockies had an obviously off week hitting while the Cardinals excelled at everything except SB. The two teams split the pitching categories. It looked like the Rockies totals over all were down leading to this defeat.
MVP: Aaron Rowand - .364/1.059, 3 R, 2 HR, 9 RBI
Goat: Rockies SP – only 4 starts all week . . . very odd.

Atlanta Braves over Los Angeles Dodgers (6-5-1)
In the closest game of the week, by score anyhow, the Braves get their first win of the year, finally. The Braves were dominant on the pitching side while the Dodgers won on the batting side, though I wouldn’t call their performance dominating. The difference in this game was the fact that the Braves won on runs while the Dodgers could only manage a tie in holds.
MVP: Randy Winn - .318/1.019, 9 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 SB
Goat: Victor Martinez and Casey Blake - .152/.300, 2 R, 1 RBI combined.

Chicago Cubs over Arizona Diamondbacks (10-0-2)
Blowout!! Tied in runs and holds, otherwise it was all Cubs, and they needed it to climb back into the races. Their totals were impressive because the D’backs weren’t exactly off their game this week on the batting side, though their pitching left a lot to be desired. Not winning a single category is a tough thing.
MVP: Bengie Molina - .652/1.697, 5 R, 1 HR, 9 RBI
Goat: Diamondbacks owner leaving to DL players and a non-pitching pitcher in the lineup all week.

Houston Astros over Cincinnati Reds (7-5-0)
Not the closest game in terms of actual score, but in terms of stats, this game was won by the slimmest of margins. Orlando Cabrera went 2/4 with a double Sunday night. One extra base via hit or BB would have given the Reds a 6-6 tie. A bit more would have had to happen for them to actually win, but the margins were tight to say the least.
MVP: Jorge Cantu – 11 AB, .455/1.571, 4 R, 2 HR, 6 RBI – timely insertion
Goat: Johjima and Brian Schneider – only 4 games caught - .143/.400, 1 R combined

Week 9 Preview

Red Sox (4-4) at Royals (3-5)
The Royals try to continue their winning ways while the Red Sox try to continue their turnaround. The Red Sox have gained a game on the Indians despite going 1-2 the last three weeks.

Tigers (2-6) at Twins (5-3)
The Tigers look to celebrate their second win of the year after beating the Twins rival Mariners last week. The Twins look to get back on track and stay competitive in the tough AL West.

Indians (5-3) at Mariners (5-3)
Two teams that took tough losses last week meet up to see who can best get back on the winning side of things. Unlike the Mariners, the Indians can maybe afford to lose this game, but that doesn’t mean that they want their losing streak to continue.

Blue Jays (1-7) at White Sox (7-1)
Two teams headed in opposite directions go head-to-head in this game . . . will the two 6 games streaks continue or will they both end here?

Cardinals (5-3) at Diamondbacks (2-6)
The first place team gets to finish off inter-division play in the NL with the last place D’backs. Arizona is looking to put up a better showing this week than last week and they will need it, the Cardinals do not occupy first place by luck alone.

Braves (1-6-1) at Astros (8-0)
The worst team in the league travels to the best team in the league this week, but the Braves are under new management and haven’t lost under him yet. Of course, the same can be said of the Astros with a larger sample size.

Cubs (3-4-1) at Dodgers (3-5)
Two teams struggling to get back into the races square off against one another. LA is trying to come back from losing two in a row while the Cubs want to start a winning streak.

Reds (4-4) at Rockies (5-3)
Both high flying teams came back to earth last week and now they get up, dust themselves off and go at one another. It’s too early to call this a battle for the wild card but this is the only game between these two teams and head-to-head record is the first tie-breaker.

Good luck to everyone this week!!

KJNL Week 7 Recap

By Staff Writer: Brad Atkinson

The West’s dominance over the East continues with only the Cincinnati Reds getting in the win column among all 8 Eastern division teams. That makes the West 15-1 since the start of interdivision play. If this keeps up league management could start getting petitions for realignment to North/South or Central/Coastal divisions. As an additional note: the undefeated stayed undefeated and the winless remained that way too. This second situation prompted league management to remove the ownership group of the Braves and start a search for a new leader. This shouldn’t take very long as the Braves have a strong roster and MiLB system that are currently underachieving. On to the individual recaps!

Chicago White Sox over Detroit Tigers (8-4-0)
The White Sox have quietly brought themselves to the best record in the AL and the second best record in the league. This week it was all about the bats as they take that side of the game 5-1 on route to an 8-4 win. The Tigers can’t seem to find their footing after getting their first win two weeks ago. Of course, no one in their division has had a win in two weeks.
MVP: Troy Glaus - .407/1.145, 4 R, 1 HR, 7 RBI
Goat: Paul Bako - .133/.369, 1 R

Seattle Mariners over Boston Red Sox (8-4-0)
The Red Sox bats really fall flat after their pitching staff compiled some good numbers. Meanwhile the Mariners finally put together a solid batting week after being a little shaky there in the last few games. A solid week will beat down a shaky week every time and going 0-6 on the batting side sunk the Red Sox to their third loss in a row.
MVP: Jimmy Rollins back from injury - .462/1.210, 6 R, 4 RBI, 4 SB
Goat: Brad Hawpe - .125/.250, 2 R

Kansas City Royals over Cleveland Indians (6-4-2)
How far the mighty have fallen . . . losing two in a row would have the once proud Indians in third at best in the other AL division, but the entire AL East has fallen on hard times so their 2 game lead is still intact. The Royals started to roll once they got out of their own division and haven’t lost yet. This could be a case of a decent team in a really tough division, but their win this week is more about Cleveland’s underperformance than KC’s dominance.
MVP: Francisco (K-Rod) Rodriguez – 3.2 IP, 5 K, 3 Sv, 1 ER
Goat: Jim Thome - .067/.367, 1 R, 1 RBI

Minnesota Twins over Toronto Blue Jays (9-3-0)
BOOM go the Twins’ bats keeping the Blue Jays cowering in their AL East cellar. League records for HR and RBI’s are a good start to a dominating week. 60+ K and a .971 OPS are not a bad follow-up. The Blue Jays actually had one of their best weeks of the season they just ran into the best team of the week. Their bad luck continues.
MVP: No-brainer Alfonso Soriano - .516/1.758, 10 R, 7 HR, 14 RBI
Goat: Kurt Suzuki - .067/.133, 1 R

Cincinnati Reds over Los Angeles Dodgers (8-3-1)
Two tough teams going at it right here. The Dodgers lose because of lack of good contact and few RBI. The Reds had a solid week across the board with a record setting HR performance, if not for the Twins, 35+ R and RBI and a 5/6/3 pitching performance on the week. This win, the only Eastern division team in the league to do so, pulls them into a tie with the Cardinals for first in the NL East. Outside of RBI, BA and OPS, the Dodgers had a solid week too, but those three bad categories were too much to overcome.
MVP: Many choices, but going with Scott Downs – 4 IP, 3 K, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 Sv, 2 Hd
Goat: Randy Wolf – 2 GS, 10.1 IP, 2.03 WHIP, 10 ER, 7 K, 0 W

Arizona Diamondbacks over Atlanta Braves (7-4-1)
The Diamondbacks pitched as well as they could with no closers and go 5-1 on that side of the game giving them an insurmountable lead with the Braves struggling bats and no lineup changes. The D’backs are taking the Royals track of losing 5 in a row before winning the last two, unfortunately they still can’t gain ground on the division leaders because those teams are winning at the same pace. As for the Braves, at 0-6-1 hopefully new ownership will turn that team around.
MVP: Delmon Young - .393/.985, 4 R, 2 RBI, 1 SB
Goat: Mark Texiera - .136/.401, 3 R

Colorado Rockies over Chicago Cubs (7-4-1)
A great batting week by the Rockies overcomes a weak pitching performance (1-4-1) to give them the win this week. That’s 3 in a row and if they were in the other division they would have a one game lead rather than be trailing by 2 in the NL West. The Cubs continue to slide to their third loss in a row and they simply can’t find the consistency they need to succeed on a regular basis. Righting the ship is a must because the teams battling for playoff spots are starting to pull away.
MVP: for about the third week in a row, Lance Berkman - .481/1.511, 8 R, 4 HR, 8 RBI, 2 SB
Goat: Johnny Damon - .080/.195, 1 R, 1 RBI

Houston Astros over St. Louis Cardinals (9-2-1)
The battle of division leaders quickly turned into a look forward to the next week as the Cardinals fell behind early and never really caught up. Putting up zeroes in SB, Sv and Hd is never going to be a good thing and it’s that much worse when playing the only undefeated team in the league. The Astros had their normal, solid week: BA around .300, OPS around .800, around 35 R and RBI, 60+ K and 4/5/4 pitching performance. That was more than enough for the biggest blowout on the scoreboard this week.
MVP: Josh Hamilton - .450/1.500, 6 R, 3 HR, 10 RBI
Goat: Adam Wainwright – 2 GS, 11.2 IP, 1.89 WHIP, 10 ER, 5 K, 0 W

Week 8 Preview

Twins (5-2) at Red Sox (3-4)
The Red Sox try to end their losing streak while the Twins try to extend that wild card lead that they currently possess.

Mariners (5-2) at Tigers (1-6)
The Mariners get to play the dregs of the East while trying to keep up with the streaking teams in their own division. The Tigers simply want to get back into the win column any way they can.

White Sox (6-1) at Indians (5-2)
The NL had it last week so the AL has it this week – a battle of the division leaders. This game has a bit less excitement though as the division leaders are trending in different directions, Indians lost 2 in a row, White Sox winning 5 in a row.

Royals (2-5) at Blue Jays (1-6)
The Royals try and stay hot and run their winning streak to 3 games while the Blue Jays try to post another solid week and hope they don’t run into another juggernaut.

Rockies (5-2) at Cardinals (4-3)
Two losses in a row have dropped the Cardinals to a tie for first place and just one game over .500, they need to get things on track or they will be looking up at the Reds before long. The Rockies want to stay strong and move to 4 wins in row, getting a stranglehold on that wild card slot in the process.

Astros (7-0) at Reds (4-3)
The Astros take on the team in first place in the NL East for the second week in a row, this time though it’s the only Eastern division team that has won a game in the last two weeks. The Reds have the players to beat the Astros, can they stop the winning streak at 7?

Dodgers (3-4) at Braves (0-6-1)
The Dodgers must overcome the stigma of being the only losing Western team and get the benefit of a currently ownerless Braves team. That should right their ship just fine and get them back to .500.

D’backs (2-5) at Cubs (2-4-1)
The D’backs are trying to find a way to surge back into the playoff races after a terrible start while the Cubs try and fix their recent losing ways. The only sure thing is that one team or the other will take a big step back into contention while the other will be on the border of elimination from consideration.

KJNL Week 6 Recap

By Staff Writer: Brad Atkinson

If this week told us anything it is that the West is best while the East is least. A clean sweep by those teams West of the Mississippi, or whatever river delineates the two halves of the country in our league. What does that mean for the division races? It means absolutely nothing changes. All teams are just as many games back as they were last week, although the two western divisions take an early leg up in the wild card races. With all of the Eastern teams losing the league also lost half of our undefeated teams last week. Only one is left standing, though it looked like both of the top dogs would go down as late as Saturday. Here is an individual game look at our Wild Western Week.

Chicago White Sox over Boston Red Sox (10-1-1)

A dominating scoreboard in favor of the White Sox, though it was more about sub-standard performance by the Red Sox than anything else. The numbers that the White Sox put up in 10 of 12 categories would have had them middle of the pack at best this week in most other games. The good news is that in this 1 win/1 loss format it’s easier to bounce back from a bad week than if every individual win counted.

MVP: Carlos Beltran - .381/1.226, 5 R, 1 HR, 8 RBI

Goat: Edgar Renteria – 0/18, 1R . . . close seconds, Luis Ayala and Granderson.

Kansas City Royals over Detroit Tigers (9-3-0)

The Tigers got their first win last week and were victimized by the Royals this week in the Royals first win. The Royals had a great week, .310/.899, sub-2 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP. They might have beaten any team this week, just the Tigers bad luck to be against them. Both teams remain in last or tied for last, but maybe the Royals are starting an uptick . . . and the Tigers didn’t exactly have a terrible week either.

MVP: Jason Bay - .412/1.206, 5 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 SB and it’s about time!

Goat: Brian Burres – 2 GS, 11.1 IP, 2 K, 5.56 ERA, 1.76 WHIP.

Minnesota Twins over Cleveland Indians (8-2-2)

The Indians get an off week from their bats and their bullpen and go down to the Twins who put up stellar ratios and squeaked by well enough on the cumulative stats to get a big win. Unfortunately for the Twins and luckily for the Indians everyone else in their respective divisions did exactly as they did, so no ground was gained or lost.

MVP: Ryan Church - .333/1.201, 5 R, 3 HR, 4 RBI

Goat: no real goat here, just a teamwide, general badness. Saltalamacchia’s .100 BA stands out, but it was only 10 AB’s in 3 games.

Seattle Mariners over Toronto Blue Jays (8-4-0)

The Mariners luck out this week posting a .220/.596, 21 R, 2 HR, 20 RBI week with 30 K’s from the pitchers and somehow still win the matchup, which says a lot about how poorly the Blue Jays performed this week. If you just look at the score it seems that this game went exactly as the standings say it was supposed to, but when you look at the actual numbers generated, the bad performances stand out.

MVP: No players really standout as having a great week. Cristian Guzman comes closest.

Goat: Bill Hall - .048/.214, 2 R.

Los Angeles Dodgers over St. Louis Cardinals (9-1-2)

It could have been a really tough week when you bat .323 as a team and LOSE that category, but that was the only loss the third place Dodgers took this week in putting a beating on the first place Cardinals. The usually stellar Cardinal pitching staff went a little haywire this week and looking forward their bullpen could be in disarray. Isringhausen lost his will to close last week bumping Ryan Franklin into the closers role. So in one mental fit by an aging ballplayer the KJNL Cards lose their #1 closer and turn their #1 holds guy into a saves guy. Thus the massive decrease in holds this week occurs. The ERA balloon can be attributed to the starters coming back to earth this week. The Dodgers did well to take advantage.

MVP: Jermaine Dye - .350/1.240, 6 R, 3 HR, 5 RBI

Goat: Cardinal SP except for Maddux and Wainwright – 8 GS, 1 W 32 ER in 44.2 IP.

Arizona Diamondbacks over Cincinnati Reds (7-5-0)

The closest game of the week by score, though none of the individual categories were all that close. The Diamondbacks jump out in their first non-division matchup to take a 7-5 win over the Reds for their first win of the year. The D’backs actual totals ran hot and cold and having not paid great attention during the entire week it’s hard to say whether the Diamondbacks won this game or the Reds lost it . . . but I would be willing to bet that a little Arizona over-performance with a little Reds underperformance lead to the final score we see above. Congrats D’Backs, with this win there is only one team without a win left.

MVP: Carl Crawford - .304/.792, 4 R, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 4 SB.

Goat: Todd Jones – 3 IP, 4 ER, 1 K, 0 SV

Colorado Rockies over Atlanta Braves (10-1-1)

The Rockies explode with a huge week over the stumbling Atlanta Braves who fail to put up even mediocre batting numbers this week. The Rockies continue to make a case for being the second best team in the league, their only two losses are to the still unbeaten Astros and their other opponents are usually on the bad end of blowouts. Of course, with the records coming in, this blowout was expected.

MVP: For yet another week, Berkman - .682/1.877, 10 R, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 2 SB . . . Mike Lowell and Dice-K were both worthy too.

Goat: Miguel Cabrera - .182/.462, 1 R

Houston Astros over Chicago Cubs (7-3-2)

The Astros win on both sides of the ball this week, 3-2-1 with the bat and 4-1-1 with the arms to stay undefeated. Though the score ended up a little lopsided it was a lot closer than 7-3-2 shows. The two teams were tied in RBI and Saves and the winning margins for the Astros were very slim in SB (1), BA (.007), OPS (.002) and ERA (0.03). The Cubs definitely brought their “A” game and just fell a tiny bit short.

MVP: Hunter Pence - .389/.944, 3 R, 5 RBI, 3 SB – contributing to the categories that were slimly won.

Goat: Buerhle and Villanueva – 10.2 IP, 2.25 WHIP, 14 ER and 10 K combined.

Week 7 Preview

Red Sox (3-3) at Mariners (4-2)
Two teams on opposite tracks, Mariners winning two in a row and Red Sox losing two, though if they had met last week it would have been a dead heat. The Red Sox need a win or they could suddenly be 2 games out of the wild card and 3 games out of the division!

Tigers (1-5) at White Sox (5-1)
The cellar dweller challenges the division leader. It seems like a blowout on paper, but the Tigers have been playing better baseball lately. Of course the White Sox have won four in a row themselves, so this one bears watching.

Indians (5-1) at Royals (1-5)
Another case like the one above except that last week the Royals got their first win and the Indians their first loss. Will the trends end here or continue for another week. The Indians are set up with several 2-start pitchers this week, so the Royals will have their hands full.

Blue Jays (1-5) at Twins (4-2)
The Twins try and take another step towards the top of their division by keeping the Blue Jays on their losing streak. In such a tough division they will need the win because it is almost guaranteed that one of the other two teams at the top will win as well.

Cardinals (4-2) at Astros (6-0)
The division leaders in the National League go head-to-head this week with the Cardinals steaming over a blowout loss to the Dodgers and the Astros celebrating a narrow win over the Cubs. With all of the 2-start pitchers lined up in the matchup each team may end up with 100 IP this week. It should be fun.

Reds (3-3) at Dodgers (3-3)
Two .500 teams will go after each other this week. The Reds want to try and keep their division hopes strong while the Dodgers need a win to keep the two teams in front in the NL West from running off and hiding with their leads.

Braves (0-5-1) at Diamondbacks (1-5-0)
The dregs of the NL clash here with the D’backs getting their first win last week and the Braves dropping 5 in a row so far. Are the Diamondbacks turning a corner or will we have the last winless team in the league finally get one?

Cubs (2-3-1) at Rockies (4-2)
The Cubs hard luck continues. After a heartbreaking loss to the Astros last week they have to take on some of the hottest bats in the league in the Rockies. The Rockies are looking to keep the winning going and creep back up on the Astros, if the ‘Stros give them a chance to.

Good luck to everyone this week and thanks for reading!

KJNL Week 5 Recap

By Staff Writer: Brad Atkinson

Cleveland Indians over Boston Red Sox: 6-5-1

An exceedingly close matchup between the top two teams in the division where one more win by the Sox would have given them a tie and 0.011 more slugging would have given them the win. The Indians find a way to stay undefeated despite an off week in the run producing area.

MVP: Rafael Furcal - .393/1.023, 11R, 1 HR, 4 RBI and 2 SB.

Goat: Red Sox SP with the exception of Lester and Haren – 12 starts, only 2 W.

Detroit Tigers over Toronto Blue Jays: 7-5-0

The Tigers get that first win they have been striving for by having a great batting week and going 6-0 over there then taking advantage of the Blue Jays getting a zero in the holds category to take a small win. It still goes on the win side though, just like an 11-1 blowout. There is now a tie in the cellar of the AL East.

MVP: Matt Kemp - .407/.989, 7 R, 11 RBI and 6 SB.

Goat: Jeff Francouer - .190/.499, 2 R, 1 RBI.

Chicago White Sox over Minnesota Twins: 7-5-0

The battle for first place in the AL West goes to the White Sox in a squeaker. They rode a hot pitching staff, especially in the RP categories, to go 5-1 on that side of the ledger and then used their speed and average on the batting side to seal the deal. The real MLB Cubs had a bad week so the Twins two man RP staff goes into the toilet costing them this game.

MVP: Tigers RP – 10.2 IP, 1 ER, 14 K, 3 Sv, 5 Hld.

Goat: Kerry Wood and Jason Marquis – 12.1 IP, 13 ER, 7 K, 2.15 WHIP, 0 W/Sv/Hld

Seattle Mariners over Kansas City Royals: 10-1-1

The Mariners get back to their winning ways and trounce the Royals allowing them a win in Saves (the Mariners had 0) and a tie in RBI at 29. This win moves the Mariners into a tie for second place in the AL West only one game back of the leaders while placing the Royals firmly in the cellar of a very strong division.

MVP: Chase Utley - .316/1.199, 4 R, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 1 SB

Goat: Pudge Rodriguez - .188/.438, 1 SB; Ian Snell was a close second.

St. Louis Cardinals over Atlanta Braves: 6-4-2

The Cards remain in first after a tight game with the last place Braves. The Braves had solid pitching ratio stats, but only had 5 starts and 4.1 RP innings pitched, you aren’t going to win the accumulation categories like that. But overall it was the Cards slugging that put them ahead. They went 4-1-1 on the batting side of the score losing in SB and tying in runs.

MVP: Placido Polanco with a surprise power burst - .444/1.259, 6 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI

Goat: Braves GM, switching out injured players and putting probable starters in the lineup could have won them this game.

Cincinnati Reds over Chicago Cubs: 7-5-0

The Reds continue to pitch strongly and squeak by with their bats well enough to take over second place from the Cubs in the NL East. This division is becoming a truly tight three-team race and I am sure the Cubs are mad to see this one get away, but when a team puts up a sub 2 ERA and a sub 1 WHIP for the week, it’s hard to do anything about it.

MVP: Greg Smith and Roy Halladay - 30 IP, 5 ER, 20 W+H, 28 K, 1 W

Goat: No one stands out as pitifully bad and Aaron Cook had 2 wins this week, not bad.

Colorado Rockies over Los Angeles Dodgers: 7-5-0

This was yet another close matchup in this battle for second place in the NL West. 4 wins on the batting side and 3 more on the pitching side gave the Rockies the win. This close one is different than our other close games this week in that it was closer to a blowout than a tie. 1 HR and 0.02 better WHIP and the Rockies take this one 8-3-1. The Dodgers had no categories that they lost even come close.

MVP: Lance Berkman - .333/1.074, 7 R, 2 HR, 8 RBI

Goat: Johnny Peralta and Jermaine Dye – combined to go 2 for 37 though they did have 1 HR and 1 SB together.

Houston Astros over Arizona Diamondbacks: 8-3-1

The Astros had a Dave Kingman/Joe Carter type week. They only batted .231/.696, but they drove in 44 runs, hit 9 HR and scored 30 Runs. When a team can combine that with a 4 W, 4 Sv, 5 Hld, 40+ K week, it’s liable to be a good one unless you run into an equally hot team. The now 0-5 Diamondbacks do not qualify. Houston remains undefeated and 2 games out in front of the rest of the division while Arizona remains in the cellar two games behind everyone else.

MVP: Hunter Pence doing his best Dave Kingman - .261/.913, 4 R, 3 HR, 8 RBI

Goat: D’backs pitching staff with three no shows for the week and James Shields who wishes he hadn’t pitched.

Quick Week 6 Preview:

Interdivisional matchups start this week. I thought we had one more week of playing within our divisions, but it looks like we all get to venture outward now and see how the rest of the league stacks up.

White Sox (4-1-0) at Red Sox (3-2-0)
A battle is played here for playoff positioning, even though it is still early. The White Sox need the win to stay on top of the competition as the Mariners and Twins breathe down their necks. Meanwhile the Red Sox have a stranglehold on second in their division, but aren’t satisfied with looking up at Cleveland.

Royals (0-5-0) at Tigers (1-4-0)
The Royals look to win their first while the Tigers try and put back-to-back wins together. With a little luck this could be the beginnings of a run up the standings for either of these teams.

Twins (3-2-0) at Indians (5-0-0)
The Twins have a hard row to hoe this week catching the undefeated Indians with many of their stellar SP set for 2 start weeks. They have to play hard and get in there and scrap though, their division and the wild card standings in the AL are unforgiving right now.

Mariners (3-2-0) at Blue Jays (1-4-0)
The Mariners are grinning widely after last week’s blowout of the Royals and look forward to stomping the lowly Blue Jays while their division rivals have to play the top two teams from the East. The Mariners are envisioning themselves in first place at the end of the week, now they just need to execute the plan.

Dodgers (2-3-0) at Cardinals (4-1-0)
The third place Dodgers catch the first place Cardinals in their first game outside of the division. It could be a close matchup though. The Dodgers need to stay in contention and not let the playoff teams in the NL try to run off and hide with their leads.

Diamondbacks (0-5-0) and Reds (3-2-0)
The Reds are licking their chops at the chance to take on the 0-5 D’Backs, they only regret that the division leading Cardinals also picked up and apparently easy matchup as well. Look for the NL East race to stay tight this week.

Rockies (3-2-0) at Braves (0-4-1)
The Rockies look to show that they may very well be the second best team in the NL despite their record. Their only losses are to the undefeated division rival Astros and both of those were nailbiters. They run into the hapless Braves and unless this is the week that their GM starts paying attention I see no obstacles for the Rockies.

Astros (5-0-0) at Cubs (2-2-1)
The Cubs were looking for a nice, easy game to spring them back into the top two spots in their division after a heartbreaking loss to the Reds last week. Instead they run into the undefeated Astros with Burnett, Bannister and Oswalt all poised for 2 start weeks. Good Luck Cubbies, you are gonna need it.

On that note, good luck to everyone this week.

Questions and Comments are always welcomed.

Troubles for Braves Early

By Staff Writer Matt Sanders
The Atlanta Braves, who entered 2008 as a World Series contender, are staring a 0-3-1 record in the face. General Maneger Tyler Boxburger, who stockpiled draft picks in the inagural 2008 Minor League Draft and made several off-season moves has been relativly quiet since the season started, evident in his unavilibility for comment.
The Braves, who have several All-Stars in their line-up such as Mark Teixara, Miguel Cabrera, Torii Hunter, and Vladimeir Guerrero, are sitting in the bottem half of the league in every single offensive catagory.
DH Gary Sheffield has missed some of the season, OF Andruw Jones isn't helping much either, and only two of the nine superstars in Atlanta's line-up are hitting above .300.
Atlanta's pitching isn't producing either. Similar to the line-up, the pitching staff is full of great players 1-5. Tim Hudson, Chuck James, Joe Blanton, Rich Harden, and young sensations Johnny Cuento and Chad Billingsly fill out the rotation, but again, the pitching isn't getting it done. Bobby Jenks and B.J. Ryan look like a dominate bullpen on paper, but they only have nine saves total.
The point is, Atlanta is in trouble. After several pre-season gloats, Boxburger has disapeared, and his team is taking a direct impact. The Minor League system, possibly the best in baseball, isn't going to bail the Braves out now.

KJNL Week 3 Recap

By Staff Writer: Brad Atkinson

Boston Red Sox over Toronto Blue Jays (7-5-0)

The Blue Jays split the categories they actually competed in, but 0 SB and 0 Holds leaves them out in the cold with a 7-5-0 defeat. High K totals by both teams and a nearly equal pitching match-up with the Jays starters keeping even with the Red Sox relief corps, but in the end, punting two categories killed the Jays.

MVP: Garrett Atkins - .345/.953 in six games with 2 HR.

Goat: Rickie Weeks - .091/.291 in six games with 2 R and no other stats.

Cleveland Indians over Detroit Tigers (9-3-0)

Indian bats killed last week, going 6-0 and none of the races were even close. A split in the pitching categories gets us to the above final score. The Tigers continue to be snakebit and fall to 0-3 . . . maybe the second trip through the division will be more productive.

MVP: Conor Jackson - .480/1.599 with 3 HR, 10 RBI and 10 R.

Goat: Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy – 4 GS, 0 W, 9.00 ERA, 2.1+ WHIP, 16 K in 18 IP.

Chicago White Sox over Seattle Mariners (7-5-0)

A very tight game was played here. The White Sox won BA by .002 and ERA by 0.05. A loss in either gets the Mariners a tie and a switch in both gives them a win . . . so it all came down to about 1 hit and 1 earned run for the week. That’s tough to take on the losing side and hard on the heart for the winners.

MVP: Billy Wagner – 4 IP, 3 SV, 3 K, 0 ERA and 0 WHIP; won saves category all alone.

Goat: Frank Thomas and Todd Helton in the Util spot - .125/.310 and 1 RBI between them.

Minnesota Twins over Kansas City Royals (9-3-0)

A nice, balanced performance put in by the Twins last week. They kind of punted saves getting only one, but the other two categories they lost were by only 1 SB and 2 HR. The Royals had a decent week, but it is hard to compete with the numbers that the Twins were putting up on the scoreboard.

MVP: Derrek Lee - .400/1.204, 3 HR, 7 R, 8 RBI.

Goat: Tom Gorzelanny – rocked in his only start – 2.2 IP, 7 ER, 10 H+BB.

Cincinnati Reds over Atlanta Braves (11-1-0)

What a batting week for the Reds, .347/1.047 as a team!! The Braves are putting up decent ratio numbers, but are falling behind in the accumulation categories, this is because their lineup isn’t being kept up with very well and there are some current holes.

MVP: Chipper Jones and David Wright - .544/1.704, 5 HR, 11 R, 16 RBI combined

Goat: Braves Owner – this team could really compete if someone would keep up daily with the rosters and pitchers.

Chicago Cubs over St. Louis Cardinals (7-4-1)

A dominating batting performance for the Cubs lets them coast on the pitching categories against a tough Cardinal staff and get a satisfying win. The NL East really locks up after these two games . . . three teams within 0.5 games of the lead and a third that will begin to compete if their owner ever pays attention.

MVP: Scott Olsen – 2-0, 0.64 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, did just enough to keep it from being a sweep for the Cards on the pitching side.

Goat: Yuniesky Betancourt – 4 RBI, but only batted .158/.353 for the week, Carlos Delgado was a close second here, but he only played 3 games.

Colorado Rockies over Arizona Diamondbacks (9-2-1)

After a slow start in week 1, the Rockies have been suitably dominant the last two weeks and have taken sole possession of second in the NL West setting up for a showdown in week 4 against their week 1 nemesis and division leader the Astros. The Diamondbacks continue their struggles to put up power numbers and a 1 W, 0 Sv, 1 Hld week is going to get you an 0-3 in those categories about every time.

MVP: Manny Ramirez - .417/1.476, 4 HR, 7 R, 8 RBI. Pedroia on surprise factor almost made it in here.

Goat: D’Backs Owner – Bergmann has been in the minors for weeks and why Messenger, Riske and Reyes are still being used out of the bullpen while pitchers like John Rauch pass waivers and pitchers like Doug Brocail and Wesley Wright are still FA is beyond me.

Houston Astros over Los Angeles Dodgers (5-4-3)

Bobby Crosby goes 3 for 4 with a BB on Sunday in the late afternoon to give the Astros a .005 BA win and a .011 OPS win while the Dodgers pick up a save and hold to even up those categories on the pitching side. The Astros were literally a double and a walk away from a 6-3-3 defeat this week, but the stats stand and they remain atop the division at 3-0.

MVP: Obviously, Bobby Crosby - .345/.939, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 5 R and his Sunday afternoon timeliness.

Goat: Johnny Peralta’s .136/.376 week in 22 AB’s killed the Dodgers in this week’s hotly contested categories.

Week 4 Match-ups:

These should all be repeats of our week 1 match-ups as we start a second trip through our divisions before taking off into interdivisional games for several weeks starting in week 7.

Rockies (2-1-0) at Astros (3-0-0): A fight for the NL West lead, the Rockies have gotten hot since a week 1 defeat and the Astros cooled last week . . . should be a good one to watch.

Dodgers (1-2-0) at Diamondbacks (0-3-0): The D’backs are the Dodgers only win, will it repeat or will there be a tie in the NL West cellar? The D’backs have some roster work to do to get competitive.

Cardinals (2-1-0) at Reds (2-1-0): The winner leads the NL East, hot batting against hot pitching . . . who comes out on top?

Braves (0-2-1) at Cubs (1-1-1): The Cubs can pull into second on their own with a win or in a tie for first if the Cards and Reds tie. That win possibility looks likely with the absentee owner of the Braves

Twins (2-1-0) at Mariners (2-1-0): The three way tie at the top of the AL West begins to sort it self out with this powerful match-up. Both teams will needs their A-games on to win here.

White Sox (2-1-0) at Royals (0-3-0): The White get the early break of playing the cellar dweller first in the round robin through the division in weeks 4-6, but the Mariners and Twins are both next on the list.

Indians (3-0-0) at Blue Jays (1-2-0): The Indians aren’t 3-0 by accident and punting categories like the Blue Jays did last week won’t help them at all here. Bring your bats, make sure your pitchers do their thing and hope that it’s enough to knock off the top dog.

Red Sox (2-1-0) at Tigers (0-3-0): The Tigers try to turn their bad luck around and get off the schneid against one of the better teams in the league. It may not be that the Tigers are bad, it may be that their division is just that good!

Good luck to everyone this week!

KJNL Week 3 Preview

Written by KJNL Commish


Arizona (0-2) at Colorado (1-1):
Arizona is off to a rough start, but has no reason to panic yet. Their hitting has been doing everything it can to make up for the lackluster production being shown by their pitching staff. Having Kazmir on the DL is definitely showing. Colorado's anemic offense showed life last week and will need to do so again to beat the tough luck Arizona team. Should Colorado's offense produce, along with another strong week from their pitching staff, this one should go to Colorado. If their offense goes back to sleep, Arizona could very well get their first win of the young season.

Los Angeles (1-1) at Houston (2-0):
Houston's riding high at 2-0 with a well balanced attack the first two weeks. Los Angeles is coming of it's 1st loss against Colorado last week. Los Angeles will need their batters to keep doing enough to get by and get their pitchers to start performing more consistently if they want to win this week. Houston has been riding the back of some pleasant surprising pitching that is due for a bad week. This one should come down to the wire and the winner of this match up will be the team who can milk all they can out of their pitching.

St. Louis (2-0) at Chicago Cubs (0-1-1):
Division leading St. Louis has been lights out from the rubber. When their hitting tries to keep up, they end up with a week like last where they beat a solid Atlanta team by a wide margin. Cubs have been winning most hitting categories and should continue to do so. What they need is to have a good week from their pitching staff to try to keep up with the Cy Young caliber output coming from St. Louis. Unlike the records show, this should be a very tight match up and may very well be the game of the week.

Cincinnati (1-1) at Atlanta (0-1-1):
Atlanta just can't seem to put it together yet. Their offense has yet to really show up and their pitching was great the first week and equally as bad the second. Cincinnati, after running into the pitching juggernaut of St. Louis the 1st week, put forth a Cardinals-esque performance themselves in the second week. If Atlanta doesn't wake up, they could be looking at another lopsided loss this week and be looking out the basement window of their division for a while.

Minnesota (1-1) at Kansas City (0-2):
Minnesota has had two very close match ups so far this year. They have lost and won by the same score 5-4-3. Their balanced attack has given them a shot both weeks and should do at least that this week. Kansas City's pitching has been good enough, but been out performed by their opponent. Kansas City is going to need to put forth a much better offensive week if they want a chance in this match up.

Seattle (2-0) at Chicago White Sox (1-1):
Scary thing about Seattle is that they are 2-0 while both Martin and Howard are off to slow starts. They're another one of those teams with the players on both sides of the ball to put out a balanced performance each week. Chicago has shown that it can hit and pitch. They just need to put it all together this week and they could challenge Seattle and give them their first loss of the season.

Cleveland (2-0) at Detroit(0-2):
Detroit's a team that has the players to contend, but has been besieged by injuries and low output. When you have a team loaded with bats from the Yankees, you'd expect to win most hitting categories. This team will not go o-fer this year. Eventually, their hitting will live up to the hype and they won't be placing key players on the DL every week. In real life sometimes adversity breeds strength and pulls a team together. Detroit needs that to happen here. Cleveland can beat you with their bats or arms. They're getting some great pitching performances and their young hitters are off to excellent starts. They'll be in each match up every week, but are beatable.

Toronto (1-1) at Boston (1-1):
When you've got a lot of pitchers on your staff that play half their games in Coors Field, you're never going to know what you're gonna get. Boston's pitching has been inconsistent, but adequate. They're hitting is not doing what it needs to do if they want to challenge Cleveland in this division. Toronto's win last week against the M*A*S*H unit named Detroit wasn't pretty. Their pitching was good enough to win 4 categories and their hitting pulled a Rob Deer by winning the power numbers with an avg. below the Mendoza line. Based on past performances of these two clubs, this match up will not be pretty. Neither team is clicking on all cylinders and the numbers will show it.

KJNL Week 2 Recap

By Staff Writer: Brad Atkinson

Two weeks have passed and we have four outright leaders in our four divisions. The leaders are the Indians in the AL East, the Mariners in the AL West, the Cardinals in the NL East and the Astros in the NL West. All are 2-0 and all are alone in first. So how did they get there? I’ll begin this week’s recap with a special section:

Facts and Footnotes for the Division Leaders:

What weirdness has conspired to make these particular teams the early frontrunners?

Cleveland Indians: Everyone knew that the Indians would dominate the starting pitching stats. Wang, Peavy, Webb and Lincecum will make sure of that week in and week out. Where is the shock factor? How about this . . . Joe Crede + Mark Reynolds + Justin Upton are good for a .346/1.111, 26 R, 14 HR and 41 RBI stat line. Combine that with the expected production from the other bats and that leads to first place despite a combined 3 saves and 3 holds from the entire pitching staff over two weeks.

Seattle Mariners: Honestly, there are no surprises here. This is where this team is supposed to be with that lineup. The only thing in store now is finding out where the saves are going to come from with BJ Ryan back and Accardo going back to the setup role.

St. Louis Cardinals: It’s all about the pitching!! 6 SP with 8 total wins, each with a sub-4 ERA and 5 of them with double digit K’s . . . that’s every SP that has accumulated any stats for this team. The four RP on the roster (no bench RP at all) have combined for 8 saves, 6 holds and 22 K. That is what you call great production from a pitching staff that only has one producing bench player . . . 10 hot pitchers can definitely bring a team into first early.

Houston Astros: Hot hitting . . . all normal starters except for Hunter Pence have OPS of .790 or better . . . and if you take out Util Bobby Crosby, they are all .855 or better. Also, going into the year the Astros figured to have 3 good SP and 3 struggling SP . . . the shocker is who they are!! Oswalt, Burnett and Lilly: 1-5, 8.40 ERA, 1.82 WHIP, 27 K in 45 IP. Meanwhile, Backe + Bannister + W. Rodriguez: 5-1, 1.76 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 44 K in 56.1 IP. All of that combined have the Astros ranked as the #1 overall team, though I am not sure how exactly that is calculated.

Now for the game by game recap:

Indians at Red Sox: The Indians set league record for R and RBI in a week while rolling over the Red Sox at a 7-4-1 clip. The Red Sox had to really step up to get the tie in wins, I would be willing to bet that not many people will be able to do that with the Indians this year.

MVP: Tim Lincecum in a two start week with a 1 W, 18 K, 2.25/1.25 stat line.

Goat: Bronson Arroyo in a two start week gets only 10.2 IP with 9 K, 5.91/1.59 line and NO wins.

Blue Jays at Tigers: Despite batting .188 and pitching at a 5.09/1.42 clip for the week . . . the Blue Jays roll 8-3-1. The Tigers simply underperformed, much like their MLB namesakes . . . the totals of 16 RBI, 0 saves and 1 hold for the week are truly telling.

MVP: They were hard to find, but CJ Wilson and Francisco Cordero had great closer weeks for the Blue Jays . . . 4 K, 3 saves, 0.00/0.80 combined.

Goat: Yankee youngsters . . . Cano shows up for the second straight week (.167/.394, 2 RBI) while Philip Hughes in a 2 start week gets only 5 IP with a 16.20/3.80 line . . . he did get 5 K’s though.

Twins at White Sox: A very close game that ended 5-4-3 in favor of the Twins. They won Wins by 1 and OPS by .003 and lost Runs and K’s by 1 . . . all of that combined with the 3 tied categories mean that this might be the closest match-up seen all year. I bet both owners were biting their nails the whole time.

MVP: Geovany Soto - .346/.991 with 1 HR, 2 R and 5 RBI . . . just enough to put the Twins on top.

Goat: Gerald Laird and Ryan Zimmerman combine for .158/.477 and 3 RBI despite being the only C and 3B on the roster.

Mariners at Royals: The Mariners were 2 K, 1 W and 2 Sv from going 12-0. Now THAT’S dominance. The overall totals for the Royals were very low while there were several teams that would have put a hurting on the Mariners this week. Of course when you team is full of Pirates and Tigers . . . this was a BAD week.

MVP: Raul Ibanez - .370/1.469, 4 HR, 7 R, 11 RBI. Honorable mention to Cole Hamels.

Goat: The power bats of the Royals, the speed guys are scoring, but there is no thump!

Cardinals at Braves: Wow!! Blowout!! Cards win 11-1 losing only SB by two. I think the Braves lack of activity and lineup changes are really hurting them and their chances of being the #1 team in the NL like their lineup says they should.

MVP: Albert Pujols (.417/1.392, 3 HR, 7 R, 7 RBI) and Greg Maddux (2 W, Sub-1 ERA and WHIP)

Goat: Andruw Jones (1/18 with 3 R) that’s two weeks in a row on him I think!

Reds at Cubs: The Reds sweep pitching and the Cubs nearly sweep batting . . . falling short by 5 RBI to get their first loss rather than their second tie. The Reds ERA (1.46) and WHIP (0.96) are easily new records and may hold up for a very long time. The Cubs are a projected playoff team but are struggling to start the season.

MVP: The entire Reds staff minus Miguel Batista . . . he had an average outing, the rest were spectacular.

Goat: Fukudome came back to earth after his stellar first week.

Dodgers at Rockies: The Rockies get off the schneid with a 7-5 victory on their strength of their bullpen and a near collapse by the Dodgers’ bullpen. The thumpers in the Rockies lineup are not hitting on all cylinders, as evidenced by their low HR and RBI totals, but the runs and the bullpen numbers were there giving them a squeaker of a win.

MVP: Lance Berkman - .391/1.418, 3 HR, 8 R, 7 RBI, 1 SB . . . he and Manny are providing ALL of the pop in this currently punchless Rockies lineup. Hon. Mention: Javier Vasquez for the Dodgers (2 W, 1.93/1.03, 17 K, 14 IP) . . . great week!

Goat: Sabathia and Borowski (25.07/3.86 with 5K in 4.2 IP) . . . that’s terrible!!

Diamondbacks at Astros: The D’backs have a great production week in the batters box and go 1-4-1 as the Astros set three league records (two of which may last a while, .333 BA and .976 OPS) on their way to a 8-3-1 win. The Astros entire attack, batting and pitching, is very balanced right now, but who knows if that continues?

MVP: Byrnes and Tejada - .444/1.252, 13 R, 2 HR, 10 RBI, 2 SB

Goat: Jason Bergmann . . . he exploded on the mound and was sent to the minors in the middle of the week.

Good luck to all this week!

Week Two Preview

Week Two Preview
-Matt Sanders
Seattle vs. Kansas City
I think Seattle wins rather easily. They have some big bats that didn’t deliver last week, and expect n explosion sooner or later, probably this week. Their starting pitching, while slightly inconsistent, is good and can rack up wins. The bull pen is a save and hold machine with Betancourt, Accardo, Soriano, and Moylan. Kansas City lacks offensive fire power, and much pitching, Seattle wins big.

Cleveland vs. Boston
The Indians have the clear edge in pitching, with stars like Wang, Webb, Peavy, and Lincecum-all but Lincecum receiving nice run support. They have some great hitters, who are playing well now, like Jim Thome and Joe Crede…but they’re sitting on the bench when struggling players like Mark Reynolds play. If they platy the right guys, they could compete with Boston. Boston has plenty of bats ready to explode, like Holliday. Boston wins a close one.

Toronto vs. Detroit
Toronto is hitting for average but not for power, which is what most of his players are used to doing. The bull pen is rock solid, but the staff is shaky. The Tigers have a monster line-up if everyone can get going, and will win this one, by most the hitting categories.

Minnesota vs. Chicago White Sox
Chicago is coming off a big victory, and Minnesota a close loss. Chicago should roll in this one, just because Minnesota has to rely on the Cubs too much, they didn’t make many moves to differ from their franchise. Zambrano, the staff ace, isn’t getting it done, and Lee seems to be the only bat they have right now. Chicago rolls.

Cincinnati vs. Chicago Cubs
The Cubs have one of the best young teams in baseball. Hanley Ramirez, Alex Gordon, and Dan Uggla are all firing on all cylinders, that should lead the Cubs to a victory. They have lots of power, as well as some speed. The Reds have a better team on paper, with Adam Dunn and Chipper Jones leading the Cincy squad, but lack speed. This will be a close game, but the Cubs win it.

Dodgers vs. Rockies
If LA is healthy, this should be the game of the week. Victor Martinez, Paul Konerko, Ian Kinsler, Grady Seizmore, Ichiro Suzuki, and Travis Hafner lead a powerful Dodger team into Coors Field. Their pitching is doing terrible however. Manny Ramirez, Lance Berkman, Troy Tulowitski, Big Pappi, and Mike Lowell lead the Rockies. I see this one dead even until somebody gets hurt or hits an early slump.

Arizona vs. Houston
Arizona is really fast, really, really fast. Joey Gathright, Carl Crawford, BJ Upton, and Julio Lugo. They have no power however, after Pena-Upton and Wells will hit some too-, and will struggle against a powerful Houston line-up. Houston wins big on paper, but can those big names deliver? They didn’t Opening Week.

St. Louis vs. Atlanta
Atlanta has a great line-up, that should win nearly every hitting category. St. Louis has better pitching though, and should dominate that side of the scoreboard. This looks lopsided, but look for this to be a close game.

Week 1 Recap

By Staff Writer: Brad Atkinson

First a note . . . I thought that each individual category counted as a win/loss and we would have some 200+ decisions on the year (like a yahoo league) . . . as the standings show this morning, that is not the case. It is MUCH easier to come back from a bad week in this format.

Astros at Rockies:

The Astros take the game 7-4-1, every category was nip and tuck except for OPS (won by Houston) and ERA (won by Colorado) . . . this is definitely a case of the final score not being indicative of the closeness of the game.

Matchup MVP: The Astros truly had no standout . . . so in a losing effort . . . co-MVP’s go to Dice-K and Papelbon who combined on the week for the following line: 15 IP, 1 W, 2 Sv, 22 K, 2.40 ERA, 0.87 WHIP.

Matchup Goat: Travis Buck . . . only got into two games going 0/10, but his week stats tell it all . . . 0/22, 1 R.

Tigers at Red Sox:

The Red Sox win three categories by 1 point and OPS by .008 to take the final 7-4-1 . . . another close matchup between potential playoff teams. Crazy stat in this game . . . Boston loses the WHIP category 1.43 to 1.07, but win ERA 3.50 to 4.19 . . . WEIRD!!

MVP: Kyle Lohse: 2 GS, 12 IP, 1W, 5 K, 0.00 ERA, 0.92 WHIP.

Goat: Robinson Cano . . . counting on him as a high end 2B . . . 7 GP, .174 BA, 0 R, HR, RBI or SB.

Blue Jays at Indians:

The Indians post an impressive win . . . dominating the Pitching categories and splitting the hitting categories . . . 8 pitching wins in a week is an impressive total! Indians take the game 8-4.

MVP: Jake Peavy – 2 W, 12 K, 0.56 ERA and WHIP . . . Wang and Webb are a close 2^nd.

Goat: Gil Meche – 2 GS, 11.2 IP, 0 W, 6.94 ERA and 1.71 WHIP for the #1 SP on a team that started 4-2 in week one.

Royals at White Sox:

With a dominating batting performance on the ratios and obviously big SP numbers to split the pitching categories, the White Sox take this matchup 7-3-2.

MVP: Carlos Gomez hits .357 in 28 AB and steal enough bases to win this category all by himself.

Goat: Magglio Ordonez batted .280 for the week but provided 0 R, RBI, or HR . . . the matchup was so close that he could have turned the game around with a little power.

Mariners at Twins:

Leading big early in the week, the production began to shut down, but the Mariners hold on (barely) for the 5-4-3 win. Don’t look for 1-3-2 to be a normal line on the batting side of this lineup.

MVP: Chase Utley with the 8 R, 3 HR, 6 RBI, .429/1.471 week kept the Mariners from being 0-6 in the batting categories.

Goat: Strong performances in the loss . . . Soriano’s .077 average stands out though.

Cubs at Braves:

A sister kisser, Cubs 5-1 Batting, Braves 5-1 Pitching . . . the Cubs had a lot of people hurt and the Braves weren’t around too much . . . nto really taking advantage of the day-to-day lineup changes. It’s hard to predict the future for these two potential playoff teams.

MVP: Rich Harden and Kosuke Fukudome

Goat: Justin Verlander and Andruw Jones

Reds at Cardinals:

The Cardinals dominate the pitching side coming only 3 K short of the 6-0 sweep and split on the batting side to take this matchup 8-4 and go to 1^st alone in the NL East.

MVP: Split: Isringhausen wins the Saves category all by himself and AJ Pierzynski posts a 7 R, 2 HR, 7 RBI, .500/1.565 week.

Goat: Brett Myers, 2 GS, 10 IP, 6 K, 6.3 ERA, 1.8 WHIP, 0 W.

Diamondbacks at Dodgers:

I would call it a dominating pitching performance by the Dodgers, but it was more about the D’Backs staff being horrendous . . . 5.21 ERA, 0 SV and 27 K for the week?!! The Dodgers batted .300 but were otherwise really unimpressive in a 7-4-1 win.

MVP: Jermaine Dye posts a 7 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI, .417/1.315 week.

Goat: The D-Backs pitching staff except for Shields and Wheeler . . . the D-Backs seriously need a closer or two.

Good luck in all of your matchups this week!!

KJNL Week 1 Preview

By Staff Writer: Brad Atkinson (Houston Astros)

Who makes these schedules anyways?!!

Week 1 is a juggernaut’s bonanza in the NL . . . two, week 1, intra-division clashes between the four predicted playoff teams from the NL? It’s like the season starting off with two four game series one between the Red Sox and Yankees and the other between the Indians and Tigers. It really gives the media something to talk about, but in the grand scheme of things it’s just one series. But because of the colossal clashes . . . this week we have TWO featured match-ups rather than just one.

Featured Games of the Week:

Astros at Rockies:

The Rockies jump out to an early lead having drafted the Red Sox roster and getting the benefit of two early games in Japan. Honestly though, outside of Manny Ramirez and a surprise win for Okajima, the Red Sox were unimpressive in Japan. Sunday night action evened up the “surprise win” category as Jon Rauch blows a save on a passed ball and Ryan Zimmerman homers him to the RP win. But these are just the opening salvos in a week long war . . . here’s how the week could shape up.

Batting is going to be hard to call as spring training stats are rarely predictors of the regular season, but the Astros are down one of their two main SB producers and thus have Randy Winn inserted into the lineup ahead of Frank Thomas to try and make up the number a little, though there are few SB to find on the Rockies side. Batting stats will probably be split. On the pitching side, Boston is down two starters in this first week (Beckett and Liriano) and Broxton will be serving the LAD’s closer role while Saito catches up from being behind in the spring. The Astros are at full strength with 6 starters and 6 relievers ready to go. With Rauch holding down the closer role this first week with Cordero ailing and a full complement of starters look for the Astros to win the non-ratio categories with the exception of holds. With fewer innings available to them, the Rockies could take advantage in the ERA and WHIP. Overall . . . don’t look for either team to come out of this week much better than 7-4-1 at the best and that’s if everything falls perfectly for one team over the other. Though which team that will be depends on who’s hot and who’s not . . . this will be easier to predict after a couple of weeks.

Cubs at Braves:

Braves SP come roaring out of the gate with 3 solid performances, but only 1 win to show for it, giving them the early lead and Johan Santana is scheduled for today. The Cubs haven’t really had anyone compile any stats, so they can’t be counted out yet.

The Cubs are in trouble off the bat with 3 strong SP performances + Santana to come today for the Braves. It also doesn’t help that Hermida, Dukes and Lackey all begin on the DL while Cordero seems to be ailing and unable to close. It’s never good to go up against the projected NL pennant winner with a full complement of weapons. Jenks vs. Gregg for the saves category this week is the PVP match-up to watch. BJ Ryan and Chad Cordero should be non-factors this week. The Cubs should fall behind in the batting categories, except for SB . . . look for the Braves to go at least 8-4 this week . . . but the Cubs will contend as their lineup gets healthy.

The Rest of the League:

Royals at White Sox:

It will be interesting to see how hot the Royals pitching staff starts out, there is a lot of unfulfilled potential there . . . Saito will be hard to use the first couple of weeks for the Sox leaving all of their saves number up to Billy Wagner. Pitching should be a wash and the White Sox bats are dominant over the Royals . . . though it will be interesting to see if Pudge Rodriguez can keep up his spring power surge.

Mariners at Twins:

The Mariners are fully healthy and have two saves guys for as long as Accardo holds the job and BJ Ryan is making his way back . . . they are the dominant team on paper that was predicted before the season. TheTwins are down two top-of-the-line SP (Smoltz and Escobar) and only have two RP on their entire roster. They get a boost since Ethier beat out Pierre for the starting OF job in LA, but I don’t think it is enough this week. Mariners Roll.

Blue Jays at Indians:

Both teams are fully healthy . . . I give a slight edge to the Blue Jays on batting and a bigger edge to the Indians on pitching, except for saves, I am not sure anyone in the league is going to beat the Blue Jays on Saves this year if they stay healthy. I look for a 6-6 or 7-5 series here.

Reds and Cardinals:

The Reds being down Lidge doesn’t hurt that badly with Todd Jones and Troy Percival still available . . . though Lidge is arguably the most consistent of the three and that’s a little scary. I like Reds pitching a little more than the Cardinals and the Cardinals can mash the ball for sure . . . but they will be lucky to steal 40 bags on the whole year with the lineup I see in there right now. Look for a wash on batting with Cards winning HR,RBI, and OPS while the Reds win R, SB and Avg.

Diamondbacks at Dodgers:

The D-backs have a lineup built on speed and not power and their top 3 SP all begin on the DL. The Dodgers are a well balanced team with a LOT of guys coming back off of questionable years. The D-backs will probably take the SB and R categories (as they should just about every week) . . . but will be lucky to win another one in this match-up . . . especially given the health of their pitching staff.

Tigers at Red Sox:

This match-up is REALLY tough to call. The batting should be a tight race all week . . . the Red Sox starting pitching honestly scares me a little, but they could still perform on a week to week basis . . . the Red Sox have a slight edge on saves with 2 closers vs. Rivera. If you made me choose I would give the edge to the Red Sox since they have more diversity on their team and the Tigers rely mostly on Yankees who have a tough first week to start with.