Players Of The Week

This week we find a group of first time winners, from a long time leader to young players who hope to make a difference for the Red Sox for the next several years. The past week saw some strong outings by the Red Sox starting pitchers and that's one of the reasons the Player of the Week was awarded to who it was.

Player of the Week - Jason Varitek

The Captain of the Boston Red Sox used his bat effectively during the past week batting .368 with five runs batted in, sure the seven hits in 19 plate appearances doesn't jump out as all that impressive, but Varitek's week went so far beyond that.

He showed why he is the leader of this team with his work behind the plate. In the five games he played (Kevin Cash caught Tim Wakefield as usual) Varitek called games that resulted in some impressive numbers.

In 34.1 innings from the starting pitchers they held the opponents to just six runs, that translates into a 1.57 ERA, they struck out 26 batters while allowing just 19 hits.

on Lester was the star of stars in the rotation this week as the only two-game starter and one of them was a thing of beauty.



Pitcher of the Week - Jon Lester

In his first start of the week, Lester went head-to-head with Toronto's Roy Halladay and he came out at the end of the day having out pitched the Toronto ace.

In his eight innings of work Lester allowed just one hit, a grounder past third baseman Jed Lowrie that probably should have been converted into an out.

Lester wasn't around for the win on a walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth, but his performance brought new life to the legions of Sox fans who were beginning to doubt Lester's abilities.

Lester followed that gem up with a solid start against Tampa Bay when he allowed just one run on four hits over six innings.

In all, Lester tossed 14 innings allowing just five hits and one run. This award is well deserved for him.


Prospect of the Week - Daniel Bard (Greenville)

It was tough to pick out someone for this award this week and when I finally decided I couldn't locate a picture of Bard wearing a Greenville uniform, so we're stuck with his Carolina blue Tar Heels jersey.

Bard has had a great season thus far coming out of the bullpen for Greenville and last week was no different then any week before for him.

Bard appeared in three games going six total innings. He allowed four hits and one walk while striking out 11 and allowing no runs.

On the season Bard has gone 22 innings allowing nine hits and four walks while striking out 34 batters, he has yet to allow a run on the year.

If Bard continues his dominance he could find himself in AAA before the year is out and could be a prime candidate to appear in Boston's bullpen sometime in 2009 as the Red Sox continue working the top players of their system into the big league roster.