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!!