MLB Weekly Awards 8/12/12

Best Hitting Infielder- Billy Butler, 1B/DH, Royals-Butler hit .333 with four jacks and seven RBI’s this week and is hitting .300 overall for the season with 24 homers. Miguel Cabrera, Chase Headley and Manny Machado get honorable mention. Brought up before Thursday’s game against Kansas City, the Baltimore prospect has hits in all four games he’s played in and three home runs.

Worst Hitting Infielder- Mike Napoli, 1B/C/DH, Rangers-Napoli went hitless in 12 at bats and hit the 15-day DL with a left quad strain. Twins SS Tsuyoshi Nishioka also went 0-12 and had several costly errors for Minnesota this week.

Best Hitting Outfielder- Adrian Gonzalez, Red Sox-He counts since he has played games in the outfield this season, even though that’s a cop-out. Gonzalez homered twice and drove in 14 runs over the week, including a homer and four RBI’s in the Red Sox’s 14-1 trouncing of the Indians on Sunday.

Worst Hitting Outfielder- J.D. Martinez, Astros-Martinez went 1/15 this week and was sent down to AAA on Thursday. Dishonorable mention goes to the Mets’ Jason Bay, who went 1/11 and whose team wants to cut him even though they know they can’t.

Best Starting Pitcher- Jason Marquis, Padres-After nearly losing his daughter in a freak bicycling accident and being released by the Twins, Marquis was the week’s feel good story after he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning on Saturday against Pittsburgh. He threw a complete game, two-hit shutout and went 2-0 for the week with a 1.76 ERA. Honorable mention goes to Justin Verlander, who allowed one earned run and struck out 22 over 15 innings.

Worst Starting Pitcher- Johan Santana, Mets-Santana was absolutely shelled by the Braves on Saturday, allowing eight earned runs on eight hits in 1 1/3 innings. Since he threw the no-hitter on June 1, Santana is 3-6 with a 7.97 ERA.

Best Relief Pitcher- Huston Street, Padres- Street was the only pitcher to record three saves and not allow an earned run. He struck out four in as many innings before hitting the DL with a calf injury. Honorable mention goes to Aroldis Chapman of the Reds for saving two while striking out five over 2 1/3 innings and Jesse Crain of the White Sox for fanning six over that same span, both with no earned runs allowed.

Worst Relief Pitcher- Garrett Olson, Mets-New York gets a sweep of the bad pitching awards after Olson allowed four earned runs while recording just one out in Wednesday’s 13-0 loss to Miami. Olson’s ERA for the week is 108 and his WHIP is a tidy 12.

Best Team- Tampa Bay Rays-Tampa Bay is riding a six-game winning streak after sweeping the Blue Jays and Twins this week and are back in the Wild Card lead. Evan Longoria, David Price and Fernando Rodney all were major contributors this week. Washington gets honorable mention, but its eight-game win streak was snapped Sunday in Arizona.

Worst Team- Chicago Cubs-After being swept in San Diego to extend its losing streak to eight, Chicago lost three of four in Cincinnati to complete a 1-6 week. Congrats!