Saturday, July 12, 2003

Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa are really putting on a show. Sosa has hit 12 homers in the last three weeks with 23 RBI and Bonds has hit a bunch as well including homers in his last five games.

Sosa's midpoint statistics are enviable for a player who didn't sit out for three weeks on the disabled list and then serve a seven game suspension. With 18 homers and 50 RBI, Sammy is well on the way to another 30+ homer season with over one hundred RBI.

Bonds already has thirty homers and has a shot at sixty again. It didn't take long for Bonds to come from behind to take over the league leadership in that category.

With Bonds and Sosa, we are watching two of the best sluggers who have ever played the game. Sosa's last six seasons are unequaled in the history of the game and Bonds has an excellent chance to surpass his idol, Willie Mays, this year to become third on the all time list.


It's time to look at the Fan's favorite boxscore players and how they did the last seven days:
- Bo Hart. Hart is a new favorite but he "only" hit .333 this week to bring his average "down" to .372. And Hart is always on the highlight shows with his spectacular fielding.

- Rocco Baldelli. Rocco was steady with a .296 batting average to maintain his .308 season average. He had a homer and four RBI. He will struggle though if he doesn't get some patience at the plate as his OBP was lower last week than his batting average! Baldelli has only walked 13 times in 86 games.

- Hank Blalock. Blalock had a quiet week with a week's batting average of .286. His season average is still a healthy .329. Blalock only figured in one run (scored) this week as he had not extra base hits and no RBI.

- Mark Teixeira. Teixeira had two homers this week but scuffled a little at the plate, batting .235 for the week. His season average for his first full year in the majors is now .250. He has nearly caught up to teammate Blalock's RBI total for the year.

- Michael Young. Young batted a torrid .417 last week and is now at .323 for the year. He also had two homers and seven RBI and now has 42 RBI for the year.

- Coco Crisp. Coco was not crisp again this week as he batted only .234 for the week and is now at .224 for the week. The most discouraging stat is that Crisp is a speed, singles hitter who struck out six times in six games this week. Even so, Crisp has scored 20 runs in his 30 games played.

- Pat Burrell. Pat. Pat. Pat. Burrell is still scraping as he only had three hits in his 24 at bats this week for a dismal .125 average. His season average is now at .194. Burrell has struck out 99 times in 83 games this season. To put that in better perspective, Burrell has struck out 32 times in every 100 at bats.

- Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera had a decent week batting .263 as he learns his way around the Major League batter's box. He did have a homer and a double as part of his five hits and continues to have a large percentage of his hits go for extra bases.

- Jose Reyes. Reyes had a tough week as he only had two hits in his eleven at bats. His season average is now at .234. Distressingly, he's only walked once in his 24 game Major League career.

- Sean Burroughs. Burroughs and Young are my stars of the week as Jeff's son hit .360 for the week with a homer, triple and three doubles to account for many of his nine RBI for the week. His season average is now over .300. The nicest stat for Burroughs is that for a young player, he's only struck out 44 times in his 84 games.

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