Baseball’s Players of the Week: Trout, Pettitte, Kubel, Dempster

Each week Athlon Sports looks back at the previous week's best baseball players in the American and National leagues, and recaps the most outstanding pitching performances. Here are last week's—June 4-10—standouts.

AL Player of the Week

Mike Trout, Los Angeles—Following teammate Mark Trumbo, who received this honor last week, Trout posted a .520 batting average for the week, leading the American League with 13 hits and 10 runs, which tied teammate Torii Hunter. The 20-year-old outfielder began the week with a 4-for-4 performance against Seattle and ended with eight hits and eight runs in the Angels’ three-game sweep at Colorado.

AL Pitcher of the Week

Andy Pettitte, New York—The Yankees thought Pettitte could help the team by logging quality innings and mentoring young pitchers along the way. However, the veteran, who will turn 40 on June 15, has been one of the team’s best starting pitchers since signing earlier this season. Last week the lefthander threw 7.1 shutout innings in a win over the first-place Rays, and he turned in six innings in a win over the crosstown Mets.

NL Player of the Week

Jason Kubel, Arizona—Kubel was signed over the winter to bring offense to a suspect lineup, and the leftfielder hasn’t disappointed. Last week Kubel batted .409 and slugged .818 with two home runs. He had 12 RBIs, all coming over a four-game stretch, which included a weekend sweep of the Oakland A’s. Kubel had three RBIs in the Diamondbacks’ one-run win on Friday and added two more in the one-run win on Sunday.

NL Pitcher of the Week

Ryan Dempster, Chicago—After a string of 18 consecutive starts without a win (dating to last August), Dempster finally broke through with two wins last week. The Cubs’ righthander tossed 15 shutout innings in his two starts, beating the Brewers on three hits over seven innings and the Twins on four hits and a walk over eight innings. He struck out nine and allowed just eight baserunners en route to posting a 0.53 WHIP and 0.00 ERA.