Players of the Week, April 16-22

Will Middlebrooks (Kelly O'Connor)

This week's Player of the Week votes were won by a pair of no-doubters: Will Middlebrooks and Matt Barnes. Both are on winning streaks, back-to-back for Middlebrooks and three in a row for Barnes.

Middlebrooks powered himself to Player of the Week honors with 4 home runs, all hit in consecutive games against Syracuse and Durham. He also hit .409 with a .458 batting average and knocked in 11 runs. On the season, Middlebrooks is hitting .375/.430/.778 with eight home runs, 3 doubles and a triple. His .375 batting average is sixth-best in the International League at the time of this writing. The last hitter to win consecutive player of the week awards was Miles Head in 2011.

From the outset there was little question that Matt Barnes was going to be the Pitcher of the Week, but rather the question was by how much he would win. Barnes took the hill at Lexington last Wednesday and turned in another stellar performance, holding the Legends scoreless over 6.0 innings, allowing only 3 hits, striking out 9, walking none and earning the win. In four starts so far in 2012, Barnes owns a 2-0 record, having allowed a mere nine hits (.125 average against) over 21.0 innings of shutout work, striking out 34 and walking four. Barnes becomes the second pitcher to earn three consecutive Pitcher of the Week honors after Clay Buchholz did it in 2009.

Middlebrooks and Barnes are currently ranked as the first and fourth prospects in the Red Sox organization by SoxProspects.com, respectively.

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