HBL Week 5

Wow, what a momentous week week 4 was for the Golden Valley 55ers in the Hampshire Baseball league!

We finished week 4 as the third best team for that week, and while we didn't move out of 12th place (last) we made substantial gains. It's really tough to name a Week 4 MVP, but I think I'll name Justin Verlander and Johnny Cueto co-MVPs.

They put up nearly identical stat lines, posting ERAs of 0.64 and 0.60, 0.86 and 0.87 WHIPs and striking out 20 and 14 batters - respectively. Justin gets a little edge due to the two wins he picked up.

Over to the offensive side of the ball, where Rickie Weeks had the best week by far, although that's not saying much. Rickie put up 7 RBI while batting .285 and stole a base. Not too shabby. Troy Tulowitzki rebounded from his benching late last week to hit .333.

Notable disappointments were Kevin Kouzmanoff who went ice cold after being red-hot, Chris Davis (again), BJ Upton (again), and to some extent Carlos Beltran who didn't drive in a run or hit for much power at all last week. He did finally manage to steal a base - I could go for more of that.

I put some feelers out there to see if anyone was willing to swap a big bat for a pitcher, but thus far there haven't been many interested parties. Interest is high in Verlander, and Liriano to a lesser extent) after both began to bounceback. Dan Uggla was available in trade, but at this point I'm content riding out Weeks' aparent breakout season.

Major decisions this week were not to pursue a trade of Matt Holliday (too rich), and to continue starting BJ Upton. If he doesn't hit this week, it may be time to wonder if he's still hurt and start someone else. We can't have someone hit .177 in our lineup all season. Hopefully we get Vlad back soon too, because we're starting Delmon Young at DH. This wouldn't be a problem is the Twins wouldn't have traded their franchise pitcher (Santana) last year for a toolsy outfielder who can't hit (Gomez), but as it stands, Young misses at least a games worth of ABs each week, plus hits 6th or 7th. We can't withstand that for a long stretch of time either.

I did take a flier on Eric Patterson this week. I'm hoping he can show the same talent he shows at AAA every year while up in Oakland again. If he does, I'll try to flip him with a pitcher for another stick. Here's to hoping I catch lightening in a bottle!