2007 State of the Sox

Week in a Box: April 16-22

Player of the Week:  Jim Thome.  A .690 OBP is hard to beat.  Not only did he draw 15 walks in six games, but of the five hits he had when people pitched to him, three left the yard.

Player of the Weak: Paul Konerko.  He's the reason why people are walking Thome.  Paulie did have a couple of big hits, but going 3-for-25 (including an 0-for-6 stinkbomb) with Thome on base all the time hurts.

Pitcher of the Week:  Mark Buehrle.  Duh.

Pitcher of the Weak:  John Danks.  Like in his start, Danks is once again the hard-luck loser.  Everybody else is pitching pretty well, while Sox defense limited Danks to only 4 2/3 innings in his start.

Fireman of the Week:  Bobby Jenks.  Jenks saved three games this week, and his ERA is falling while his radar gun readings rise.  Plus, everybody else either had a blemish or didn't see much action.

Gas Can of the Week:  Mike MacDougal and David Aardsma.  Both provided gigantic gut punches this week -- MacDougal's 0-2 fastball to Sammy Sosa, and Aardsma's slider to Marcus Thames.

Super Sub of the Week:  Rob Mackowiak.  Mack is giving Ozzie Guillen another reason to not play Brian Anderson, posting a couple of multi-hit games and his first homer of the season in relief of Scott Podsednik.

Super Scrub of the Week:  Gustavo Molina.  The guy still hasn't given A.J. Pierzynski a day off.

Gold Glove of the Week:  Joe Crede.  The diving stab and amazing throw to nail Jerry Hairston Jr. made Buehrle's no-hitter possible.

Hands of Stone:  Nobody.  The Sox played errorless ball this week, although Darin Erstad's failure to call Juan Uribe off on a pop-up helped submarine John Danks' start, and Tadahito Iguchi's dropped exchange on a double-play ball led to a two-run homer.