For the second year in a row, the Expos season got off to a rough start. Unfortunately this year they didn't make a full recovery by the end of the month.
The Expos won 1 of 3 versus the Nationals and were swept in three games by the Diamondbacks to start the season. At this time SS Warren suffered a minor injury putting him out of action for a week so I decided to place him on the 10 day DL. SS Phipps got the call to fill in.
The Expos then won 1 of 3 versus the Braves, 2 of 4 versus the Phillies, and were swept by the Mets in three games. At this point I activated CF Derringer from his short rehab assignment and demoted CF Paredes to AAA.
The Expos won 2 of 3 versus the Padres. After this series, I activated SS Warren from a short rehab assignment and sent SS Phipps back to AAA. The Expos finished the month with wins in 2 of 3 versus the Cardinals, 3 of 3 versus the Indians, and 1 of 2 versus the Cubs.
This adds up to a 12-15 start to the season for the Expos.
Here are the batting performances for the month:
2B Draxler had the best month for the Expos, though it wasn't spectacular. 1B Garza got off to a decent start and considering he had only about half the plate appearances of most other starters, CF Derringer got of to a scorching start offensively.
And the pitchers:
It was a bit of a shaky start for my rotation as well. Only SP Diplan and SP Womble opened with ERA's under 4.00. Only SP Diplan had an FIP below 4.00 of the starters. By early May as is noted in the chart above, top pitching prospect Britland was moved into the rotation in favor of Garcia.
There were a lot of strong bullpen performances for the month with CL Bedingfield, RP Mosqueda, RP Britland, RP Sandborn, and RP James among them.
Next, the Expos will try to turn their season around and make an early push back toward the top of the division standings...