Weekly Wrapup/Awards

The Phillies had another decent week posting a 4-3 record in their last 7 games and they are hovering in 2nd place in the NL East a game back of the Florida Marlins. 1B Ryan Howard continues to be absolutely pathetic at the plate and SS Jimmy Rollins missed the entire week still out with his ankle injury. However, Rollins is expected to be activated before tonight's game in San Francisco so the Phillies will finally be back to full strength for the first time since the first week of the season. LF Pat Burrell appears to have cooled off after going a dismal 4-22 in the past seven days. The Phillies starting pitching had a so-so week having 4 Quality Starts in 7 chances, 2 of them oddly enough from 4th starter Kyle Kendrick who appears to be on a nice run of mediocrity right now. That said, its time for the weekly awards:

Player of the Week - UT Eric Bruntlett: Well it was an impressive repeat performance from utility man Eric Bruntlett. Eric once again played very well in Rollins absence going 9-29 (.310) and leading the team with 16 Total Bases. He had 2 2Bs, 1 3B, and 1 HR on the week along with a team leading 8 RBI and 6 Runs scored. Another great week for Eric.

Pitcher of the Week - CP Brad Lidge: Lidge was once again unhittable this week in 4 appearances. He gave up 2 hits and no runs while picking of 1 save in as many chances. Right now he is completely on top of his game and hitters are pretty much helpless against him. (Note: CF Michael Bourn is batting .197 in Houston...Thanks Ed Wade!!!)

Goat of the Week - 1B Ryan Howard: Was there even a question of Howard not being the goat this week? He now has his own permanent segment where I will be counting down how many Ks he needs to break his own Single Season MLB record. Right now he is on pace to shatter his mark by more than 30 Ks. Keep up the good work Ryan! His line for the week: 2 for 24 with 12 Ks. Both hits were singles and he managed to drop his batting average down to .165 after posting an .083 average for the week. He is now 190th out of 191 qualifed batters for the MLB batting title. Only injured SS Troy Tulowitzki has a lower batting average on the year. He has a solid lead in the MLB SO rankings at 51 Ks on the year but Arizona 3B Mark Reynolds is nipping at his heels just 5 back at 46 Ks.