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.