I know I know, I keep changing the title of this thing every week…dates, week numbers, now titles. At any rate, for my money, this was the most exciting week of the season thus far. Kia, a team I thought would really compete this year, might finally be turning things around. Would I be exaggerating if I said the return of Limatime has something to do with it? Let’s give him a few more starts and see what happens. But if Kia is ready set go the KBO is going to get very interesting.

Standings for the KBO can be found here, and don’t miss 화이팅!: True Stories of Korean Baseball’s thorough wrap on the weekend games.

1. SK Wyverns (1) –Took care of business again, sweeping the worst team in Korea, then taking two of three from Samsung. Most agree Chung Dae-hyung (10 saves) is solid as the Wyvrens closer, but how about the work of 18-year-veteran Joh Woong-chun who’s given up just three runs in 21 innings of work, good for a 0.42 ERA. The secret of his sucsess? How about a 16/1 K/BB ratio?

2. Lotte Giants (2) -Sorry, but this ain’t no fly by night rankings system. I know Hanwha probably deserves to be bumped up ahead of Lotte, but you can’t just jump up three spots. Yes, the Giants were swept by the Eagles, but, slightly in the Giants defense, they were tied or leading each game going into the eighth inning. Royster finally got the game he wanted out of Marty McLeary, who pitched a complete game, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, effort against Doosan on Saturday. The Giants will take on Samsung and Woori this week.

3. Hanwha Eagles (5)- As I mentioned, the Eagles swept Lotte and deserve all the credit in the world. They’ve got a real murderer’s row with Doug Clark (12 HR), Kim Tae-gyun (10), Lee Beum-ho (7), and Kim Tae-hwan (9), who occupy four of the Top 5 HR leaders board. As a team the Eagles have hit 43 dingers. The next closest is Worri with 27. Funny enough the team’s BA is seventh at .252. The Eagles start the week with Kia and end with SK. Should be a good test.

4. Doosan Bears (3) -Swept Woori, but then dropped two of three to Lotte. Kim Hyun-soo is off to a great start, hitting .366/.449/.485. The BA is second in the league and nearly 80 points higher than what he hit in 2007 — his second year in the league. The Bears start the week with a series against SK.

5. Samsung Lions (4) - Playing the champs lends itself to a 2-4 kind of week, but there was no shame in what happened in Daegu over the weekend. After splitting the first two games, the Lions were tied 6-6 heading to the ninth. But SK exploded with four runs and won 10-7. Shim Jung-soo, last year’s HR and RBI leader is off to a tough start — just three HRs, but even more surprising is his paltry seven RBI.

6. Kia Tigers (8) - After (another) 9th inning loss to Samsung the Tigers went on a five game win streak, which included a sweep of Woori that saw Kia outscore the Heroes 19-3 in the series. Kim Won-sup is your BA leader at .370. The Tigers have a very interesting series with Hanwha to start the week, the get LG over the weekend.

7. Woori Heroes (6) - So the Heroes take two of three from SK, then proceed to lose six straight. What gives? Really weren’t even in the series with Kia over the weekend, but played Doosan tough in that series. The bats went really cold this week with Jung Sung-hoon (1 for 19), Kang Jung-ho (2 for 21) and Wang Jae-gyun (4 for 23) being the worst offenders.

8. LG Twins (7) - A precipitous fall to the bottom for the Twins, who had lost nine straight before beating Hanwha on Sunday. Last in pitching and last in hitting. LG batters have struck out 218 times on the year. The second closest is Hanwha with 177. The team ERA is a full run higher than the seventh ranked team (Hanwha). Jamie Brown has lasted just three innings in his last two starts, pushing his ERA up to an unsightly 7.93. He could be the first foreigner to be cut if he doesn’t turn things around soon.