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!