Aces Only Association:

2025, Week 9

Written by Cory Puffett
Published May 25, 2025

For the 17th time in AOA history, and the third time this season, the top four scorers all won their matchups this week. Of note, all four winners scored 100 points, all four losing managers failed to reach that mark, and the AOA West went a perfect 4-0 against the East division this past week. That mark included a surprising upset with Cory Frontin, who entered the week with one victory and sat in last place in the West, toppling Stephen April who remains the AOA East leader by one game.

Now we prepare for the final week of the 2025 season's first half!

Players of the Week

Catcher - Cal Raleigh, 8.35 points (Stephen April)

1st Baseman - Bryce Harper, 8.70 points (Alex Mayo)

2nd Baseman - Jose Altuve, 8.50 points (Cory Frontin)

3rd Baseman - Isaac Paredes, 12.45 points (Cory Puffett)

Shortstop - Gunnar Henderson, 7.75 points (Rich Blorstad)

OF - Seiya Suzuki, 15.70 points (Alex Mayo)

UTIL - Trea Turner, 14.80 points (Cory Frontin)

SP - Tarik Skubal, 19.80 points (Cory Puffett)

RP - Andres Munoz, 12.50 points (Rich Blorstad)

Cal Raleigh has now won the Mike Piazza Award six times in the past eight weeks. Repeating from last week, "Sean Kennedy is surely regretting letting him go back in Week 4."

Impressively, Alex boasted the top two outfielders this week, with Aaron Judge finishing second in the running for the Mike Trout Award with 11.30 points. This was Suzuki's first time ever earning the AOA's award for top outfielder.

After Framber Valdez won last week's Bobby Witt Award for Cory, Tarik Skubal claimed another one for the two-time Scully Cup champion, narrowly edging out the other Cory's Luis Castillo by less than half a point.

Game of the Week: Sean Kennedy (106.40) vs Eric Meyer (71.30)

All-time H2H: Sean leads series 7-6

For the second time in three weeks, Eric’s leading scorer was Rafael Devers with 11.65 points. Unlike two weeks ago when his sub-80 score was good enough to defeat a one-win District Dingers squad, it wasn’t nearly enough to overcome a bounce-back week for Sean’s Marauders.

I don’t have the data to confirm this yet (perhaps an offseason project for me), but I can’t recall any other 7-day contest in which a team failed to reach 200 plate appearances but still won their game, much less reached triple digits. Superb pitching and strong hitting with their limited attempts accounted for Sean’s victory.

Sean's top scorer: Kyle Schwarber, 12.15 points (7 games)

Eric's top scorer: Rafael Devers, 11.65 points (7 games)

Rich Blorstad (118.75) vs Sam Martin (98.60)

All-time H2H: Rich leads series 3-2

Rich's top scorer: Andres Munoz, 12.50 points (3 relief appearances)

Sam's top scorer: Kris Bubic, 11.70 points (1 start)

Stephen April (81.75) vs Cory Frontin (112.35)

All-time H2H: Stephen leads series 3-2

Stephen's top scorer: Zack Wheeler, 11.80 points (1 start)

Cory's top scorer: Luis Castillo, 19.35 points (2 starts)

Alex Mayo (98.50) vs Cory Puffett (106.80)

All-time H2H: Cory leads series 9-2

Alex's top scorer: Seiya Suzuki, 15.70 points (6 games)

Cory's top scorer: Tarik Skubal, 19.80 points (2 starts)

Cory continued his climb up the power rankings this week, now usurping Stephen in the #2 spot behind Rich, who earned his 11th career #1 power ranking and eighth of the season.

Cory Frontin, meanwhile, is at the bottom of the power rankings for the 23nd time in his career despite the big week, breaking a tie with Sean Kennedy for the most in AOA history.

Note: MLB issues stat corrections up to 7 days after games. These corrections will be applied to games, including those that have been completed, but these articles will not necessarily be updated with those stat corrections.

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