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!