Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player(s) of the Week.

For the second week running we didn't have too many genuine contenders for our nominations this week, but there were a few players who produced notes of interest for us. Minnesota Twins' 'AA' infielder JAMES BERESFORD returned from a short stay on the disabled list to pick up where he had left off. He did not have sufficient plate appearances for a nomination this week, but we noted that he has amassed 13 hits from his last ten games, has failed to hit in only one of those and he currently enjoys an injury interrupted six game hitting streak. Minnesota's 'A' level pitcher TIM ATHERTON took a loss, yet he quite amazing struck out nine opponents across his 3.2 innings. Angels' 'AAA' outfielder TRENT OELTJEN homered again this week even though he is a bit down on his usual high batting average.

Due to the relative lack of other contenders, we have elected to include three pitchers for "Honourable Mention" while ignoring the fact that they would usually be overlooked for having pitched too few innings. Major leaguers GRANT BALFOUR and TRAVIS BLACKLEY deserve some recognition, as does ANDREW RUSSELL who has hit back after finding himself unluckily sent down to 'AA' after performing well at 'AAA' to start this season. Russell collected a neat win, while Balfour has converted five saves from his last six outings.

A pair of Western Australians have been selected for our primary award this week. Pitcher WARWICK SAUPOLD earned his second successive PPOW award with his second straight impressive win for Detroit's 'AA' Erie Seawolves. He is joined by seasoned catcher ALLAN de SAN MIGUEL who batted 7-18 (.389) as he demonstrates his quality at a level probably below his credentials with Baltimore's 'High A' team Frederick Keys. Still, you can only do what you can wherever you are directed to play in professional baseball.

'Flintoff & Dunn' selected this player for our top award this week:

WARWICK SAUPOLD  ('AA' - Erie Seawolves)    1G   1-0, 1.50ERA  6.0IP  5H  1ER  3BB  4K  --  Season  3-1, 2.03ERA

ALLAN de SAN MIGUEL  ('A+' - Frederick Keys)    5G  .389AVG  18AB  3R  7H  2D  3WLK  4RBI  .476OB%  --  Season .262AVG

Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player(s) of the Week.

We may have enjoyed an embarrassment of riches with the range of Australian players putting forth strong cases to be nominated for our awards this season, but not so this past week. For some reason, including a few notable stars currently on disabled lists, we only really considered three contenders.

Maybe because we don't have too many nominations to discuss we will spend a moment mentioning a few players who did not receive nominations this time. Former major leaguer TRENT OELTJEN had a huge two-homer game during the past week for the Angels' 'AAA' Salt Lake Bees. Minnesota's TIM ATHERTON recorded a win from one good relief outing at 'A' level. Comeback man JOHN HUSSEY earned promotion to 'High A' with the Padres this past week.

To be brutally honest the players we have nominated for "Honourable Mention" this week probably would have been overlooked on previous occasions this season. San Diego's COREY ADAMSON continues to be an emerging star with another solid week that saw him bat 7-23 (.304) that included three doubles. Quite obviously we were not really inclined to include seasoned catcher ALLAN de SAN MIGUEL who had only seven at bats for the week, yet we took account of the fact that his 3-7 included a home run, plus three walks, for a .636 on base percentage - OK, only this week!

Having said all that, we certainly don't make any apologies for our primary nomination that was clearly earned by WA starting pitcher WARWICK SAUPOLD who tossed a terrific winning start for Detroit's 'AA' Erie Seawolves. His winning start comprised 6.2 scoreless innings with six punch outs - very nice work Warwick!

'Flintoff & Dunn' selected this player for our top award this week:

WARWICK SAUPOLD  ('AA' - Erie Seawolves)    1G   1-0, 0.00ERA  6.2IP  3H  0ER  3BB  6K  --  Season  2-1, 2.11ERA

Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player(s) of the Week.

This week we could have quite easily decided not to split EIGHT players to award our PRO PLAYER(s) OF THE WEEK, however, we ultimately concluded that we would have to be very tough on three pitchers who performed superbly this past week. In the end our line of separation was to nominate those who were scoreless for the week, while providing "Honourable Mention" for the other unlucky three.

The very unlucky ones were LIAM HENDRIKS, PETER MOYLAN and JOHN HUSSEY. Hendriks made a high quality winning start for Minnesota's 'AAA' Rochester where he struck out five across his six inning stint. Moylan made four relief appearances for the Dodgers' 'AAA' Albuquerque that reaped him a win and a save. Hussey's two relief outings yielded just one run from his five innings of work with four strike outs included.

For the third straight week to start our PPOW season, we simply could not ignore the wonderfully consistent batting of Minnesota's 'AA' short stop JAMES BERESFORD who racked up a .375 average this week to follow even higher averages the previous two weeks. Although TRENT OELTJEN owned a slightly lower average with .346 for the Angels' 'AAA' team Salt Lake, we did not miss the three doubles, a triple and a home run that gave him a .654 slugging percentage for the week.

The three pitchers who boasted a scoreless week of pitching were major leaguers GRANT BALFOUR and TRAVIS BLACKLEY, as did recent major leaguer RYAN ROWLAND-SMITH. Balfour collected two saves from his 4.1 scoreless innings for the Oakland As with five punch outs. Blackley's four scoreless relief outings saw just one hit come from his four tidy innings. Rowland-Smith allowed just two hits from his total of five innings with Boston's 'AAA' Pawtucket Red Sox.

'Flintoff & Dunn' selected these players for our top award this week:

JAMES BERESFORD  ('AA' - New Britain Rock Cats)    5G  .375AVG  16AB  1R  6H  1D  2WLK  4RBI  .444OB%  --  Season .338AVG

TRENT OELTJEN  ('AAA' - Salt Lake Bees)    7G  .346AVG  26AB  5R  9H  3D  1T  1HR  5RBI  .654SLG%  --  Season .209AVG

GRANT BALFOUR  ('MLB' - Oakland Athletics)    4G   0-0, 0.00ERA  4.1IP  3H  0ER  3BB  5K  2SV  --  Season  0-0, 2.03ERA

TRAVIS BLACKLEY  ('MLB' - Houston Astros)    4G   0-0, 0.00ERA  4.0IP  1H  0ER  3BB  2K  --  Season  0-0, 3.60ERA

RYAN ROWLAND-SMITH  ('AAA' - Pawtucket Red Sox)    2G   0-0, 0.00ERA  5.0IP  2H  0ER  0BB  1K  --  Season  2-0, 0.52ERA

Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player(s) of the Week.

This week we had four players - two position players and two pitchers - that we would not split for our major award as our Aussie pros are again setting a high standard early in the 2013 US season.

To begin with those who missed out but will receive an "Honourable Mention" we are delighted to recognise the recent good form of our major league pitcher TRAVIS BLACKLEY who is hitting back hard after finding his career again in the balance when he was released by Oakland. Blackley seems to have found another home with the Houston Astros and he was one player who performed well for the struggling club that was swept in Boston. Former major leaguer RYAN ROWLAND-SMITH continues to do well for The Red Sox at 'AAA' level, yet he may have been fortunate to sneak in here with so few inning pitched for the week. At first glance you may be surprised to see Boston's BOSS MOANAROA among the nominations after batting 5-19, but when you include three doubles, a triple and six RBIs we couldn't omit him.

The four Australians to share our major award this week, we feel, each have compelling cases for PRO PLAYER OF THE WEEK. To start with the pitchers, Melbourne's JOHN HUSSEY has built upon his solid ABL campaign with a terrific start to his 2013 season with the San Diego Padres organisation. His two outings produced a win and no earned runs from 6.2 innings. Twins' reliever TIM ATHERTON had two stunning outings, even though he totalled just 4.1 scoreless innings - he earned one save and did not give up a hit while striking EIGHT and walking only one.

Although not as prodigious as last week, Minnesota's 'AA' star JAMES BERESFORD made it two-from-two this season with another strong week of hitting that saw him bat 7-18 for a .389 average. He was joined by his young World Baseball Classic team mate COREY ADAMSON who owned a lower average (.350), but two doubles and a home run gave him a big .600 slugging percentage.

'Flintoff & Dunn' selected these players for our top award this week:

JAMES BERESFORD  ('AA' - New Britain Rock Cats)    6G  .389AVG  18AB  1R  7H  1D  1WLK  2RBI  .444OB%  --  Season .328AVG

COREY ADAMSON  ('A' - Fort Wayne Tin Caps)    5G  .350AVG  20AB  2R  7H  2D  1HR  3RBI  .600SLG%  --  Season .328AVG

JOHN HUSSEY  ('A' - Fort Wayne Tin Caps)    2G   1-0, 0.00ERA  6.2IP  3H  0ER  1BB  1K  --  Season  2-0, 1.50ERA

TIM ATHERTON  ('A' - Cedar Rapids Kernels)    2G   0-0, 0.00ERA  4.1IP  0H  0ER  1BB  8K  1SV --  Season  1-0, 0.82ERA

Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player(s) of the Week.

Welcome back to 'Flintoff & Dunn's' PRO PLAYERS OF THE WEEK for the 2013 US professional season.

Already we have seen some pretty hot competition for our first award(s) of the season. There were a number of very good candidates for "Honourable Mention" but really just one absolute standout for our primary award.

With several relief pitchers to consider we decided to rule a line under a minimum of four innings pitched for the week and, to indicate how tough the competition was, our former major leaguer PETE MOYLAN just missed out because of one earned run allowed from his 4.0 innings. Another former major leaguer RYAN ROWLAND-SMITH earned a win while allowing juts two hits from his 4.0 scoreless innings to earn a nomination. Two of Ryan's Australian team mates from the 2013 World Baseball Classic joined him for mention - namely ANDREW RUSSELL and WARWICK SAUPOLD.
Side-armer Russell allowed a few too many hits and walks across his 4.0 innings, yet he refused to allow a run from his three outings. Saupold pitched a quality 6.0 inning start that saw just one run scored. TIM ATHERTON joined them with a nomination after earning a win when he allowed just one run from his 4.2 innings.

To wave the flag for the position players, a couple of our World Baseball Classic reps also deserved "Honourable Mention". ALLAN de SAN MIGUEL batted 6-16 (.375) with a pair of home runs for a mighty .750 slugging percentage and, on another occasion, he might have won our main award. Fellow West Aussie COREY ADAMSON didn't quite match him with 5-14 (.357) plus two stolen bases and a .500 on base percentage.

Head and shoulders above them and setting a cracking early pace for 2013 was our World Baseball Classic short stop JAMES BERESFORD who has responded once again by batting a monster 11-23 (.478) plus six walks for a huge .586 on base percentage. Beresford also drove in five runs for his team.

'Flintoff & Dunn' selected this player for our top award this week:

JAMES BERESFORD  ('AA' - New Britain Rock Cats)    7G  .478AVG  23AB  5R  11H  2D  6WLK  5RBI  .586OB%  --  Season .302AVG