[Bub13]

April 15-17 vs SEATTLE
Back home for a short spell, and our divisional co-leaders come calling. What's working for them so far this season is hitting, being 2nd in runs scored, HR, and OPS. Ger van Mourik (.467) just claimed player of the week honors, and Paul Stough (.339, 11 HR) is also crushing it. And in a league where few teams value a solid leadoff batter, the M's have found Luis Hernandez, hitting .371 with 8 steals. Like everyone else, pitching has been a struggle, but on paper at least they're much improved from recent squads. Free agent additions Steve Davenport and Danny Diaz are a solid 1-2 combo at the top of the rotation, and the pen was stabilized with the addition of rookie Theo Soole and moving Dan Crews from the rotation. The only new addition to the lineup is 3B George Ragsdale (from Miami), a fine defensive corner but a so-so hitter. He and two part-timers from last year who are now in the regular order (LF Rogelio Pena and 2B Pedro Ruiz) are hitting above their weight and helping propel their good start to '54.

HAW pitchers: LH Matt Waugh (2-0, 0.86) / RH Biff Skiff (0-1, 10.22) / RH Mike Pearse (1-0, 5.40)
SEA pitchers: RH Steve Davenport (2-0, 5.40) / RH Danny Diaz (1-0, 4.79) / RH Daniel Newell ('54 debut)

#16: WIN 9-4 ... Covington wakes up to power two out of the yard, and Espino adds his first...15 hits for a lineup of 2/3 backups tonight
#17: LOSS 10-13 ... once again Skiff can't get anyone out, but we at least make this one close after going behind 13-4 early...17 hits for the guys
#18: LOSS 4-6 ... Pearse fans 10 and keeps us in it, but Bohlen cracks in the 9th...Groff gets 2 hits, showing maybe he's not dead yet

Disappointing. At least we're still hitting the stuffing out of the ball, but then again so is everyone else.... Somehow Waugh healed up in time to make his scheduled start. It must be the sea breezes here.... Maybe Skiff is throwing too hard: he's averaging a K per inning for the first time in his career, but everyone who isn't striking out is getting on base.... A 6-12 start for our top three minor league teams.... ELSEWHERE: Tampa Bay has won 8 straight, putting themselves at 15-3 and a game ahead of Detroit for the best record overall.... Meanwhile, 12 losses in a row for Toronto, dropping them to 2-16.... A recent five-hit night has put Boston catcher Riley King at the top of the batting charts, at .510. King is a career .238 hitter, so maybe something IS in the water this year.... Sources tell me that MLB may be considering another round or two of expansion in coming years, possibly going from 36 to 40 teams. No one will confirm anything, but cities that have approached the league in recent years include Charlotte, NC; Buffalo, NY; Oklahoma City, OK; Orlando and Jacksonville, FL; Indianapolis, IN; and Vancouver, Canada. Also of note are interested parties in Denver, without a team since the Rockies moved to Austin in 2037; and Havana, Cuba, currently the AAA affiliate of the New Orleans Zephyrs.


April 19-21 vs NEW YORK
Currently 9-9 and treading water in 2nd behind the red-hot Rays. Pitching is tops in the league, but offense is next-to-last, for a -2 run differential. Ageless contact whiz hitting Andrew Taylor is hitting .342 from leadoff, and a healthy Melvin Lopez is at .328. Everyone else is struggling, including pricey free agents DH Steve Colpo, RF Enrique Hernandez, and C Kevin Trotter. Bobby Hamel was shifted from closer to #1 starter and has thrown poorly (7.46 ERA) so far, but Elijah Bragg (3-0, 3.41) looks to be back after an injury-plagued '53. Interesting to note that their entire bullpen is brand new, with only one player (Justin Spurrell) being a rookie; all others were off-season signings. Unfortunately, three of those guys are part of the "bad eggs" squad, leading to a currently unhappy clubhouse. It looks like their pitching could hold up, but the lineup features a lot of guys who swing for the fences but for little else, so they may to score consistently all season. It's still surprising that the league's richest team doesn't break the bank for truly top-notch free agents any more. (*coughWILLIAMSWANSONcough*)

HAW pitchers: RH Mike Bader (1-1, 5.95) / RH Josh Irvin (1-1, 11.08) / LH Matt Waugh (3-0, 1.29)
NYY pitchers: LH Jose Sedillo (1-1, 1.08) / RH Mike Knaak (1-1, 5.71) / RH Dave Loch (1-2, 6.75)

#19: WIN 8-3 ... nice game for Bader (he does walk 5 though), and 2 shutout relief IP from Ruiz...Pederson and Hed with key early-inning HRs
#20: WIN 19-7 ... 5-for-5 night from Lynn, and everyone gets a hit...another terrible start by Irvin
#21: WIN 7-4 ... 3 H, 3 RBI, HR from Medici, and Kelley goes 3-for-4 with 2 RBI...Waugh fans 11 in 6.2 IP, bullpen shuts it down the rest of the way

Much better, and these three games shot up our run diff to +28.... We're also batting .325 now, just unheard of. And that's only good for 4th place.... Josh Matson is batting a solid .322 but has zero HR, after hitting 26 each of the last two seasons.... Skiff and Irvin will toss their fifth starts of the season next times out. I'm not sure how long I'll stick with them and their ten-plus ERA. Problem is, much of my AAA pitching hasn't been good either.... ELSEWHERE: Detroit is the hot team now, with 9 wins in a row and a 17-4 record, same as the Rays. Toronto won two games, bringing themselves up to 4-17 and a tie for last with Cleveland.... Fantastic .446/.475/.757 start for Giants 3B Juan Garcia, now just 95 hits away from 3000 for his career. At this rate he'll reach that by Memorial Day.... Yet another Reds SP having a great season start from out of nowhere: Josh Grato, 28, came into '54 with just 8 career appearances, all in relief, and none since 2051. So of course he's 2-0 with a 3.27 ERA. Meanwhile, ace Cris Frias has a 7.45 ERA and has walked 36 in 29 innings (along with 38 K).


April 22-24 @ CALIFORNIA
Not good, not terrible: at 9-12 so far and not doing anything of note. Even superstar William Swanson is in a fog, at just .247/5/17. CF Mauricio Marquez, on the other hand, continues to shine at .385/5/17. Other than Swanson, they didn't do much in the off-season, grabbing 3B Scott Peckler (.278 and solid D) and promoting some rookies, none of whom have done much to date. I don't suppose a -19 run differential this early on was what they counted on when they convinced Swanson to sign on, but as this is basically a two-man offense no one should be surprised. The coaches are happy with each other, and the players are content, although most of the starting lineup doesn't care much for manager Matt Sargent. But with two captains, four other leaders, and three pranksters for the funsies, this is a pretty loose clubhouse. And what the heck, even owner Arturo Moreno is ecstatic, what with a new superstar slugger, a profitable team, and a reach-for-the-stars goal of "play close to .500 ball," who wouldn't be happy.

HAW pitchers: RH Biff Skiff (0-2, 12.38) / RH Mike Pearse (1-0, 5.25) / RH Mike Bader (2-1, 5.40)
CAL pitchers: RH Aaron Moore (1-1, 4.95) / RH Jose Ambriz (3-1 4.18) / RH George Millard (1-2, 7.50)

#22: WIN 8-6 ... 2 more hits from Pfeifer, 5 RBI for Covington, and a 3-for-4 night from Royer...Pederson takes 4 walks...Skiff tosses not-horribly
#23: WIN 10-1 ... ten hits, ten runs...HR from Medici, Covington, and Pfeifer, an odd trio...solid pitching by Pearse and Booker
#24: LOSS 3-11 ... lots of bad pitching, and "only" nine hits, one for extras

Two out of three will do here. Pitching continues to be all over the map, but hey at least Skiff's ERA dropped nearly two points! And, um, then Bader's went way up.... Pfeifer went 4-for-13 with two homers, which is not something I saw coming. Still, he's just six games into his big league career, so let's give him some space before we plan his parade.... Pitching troubles in Santa Barbara led me to make a waiver claim for a guy who's on a league-minimum contract, so I've got to expose him again to get him to the farm.... ELSEWHERE: AL batters are hitting everything, including each other: there have been six games with suspensions over the last week-and-a-half. Something's definitely in the water.... The race to the bottom is already a hot one, with Toronto, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh sporting 5-19 records, and Montreal just a game ahead of them. But watch out for KC, now on a ten-game losing streak.... On the flip side, it's twelve straight wins for the Tigers, at 20-4 and six games up on the Chisox.... The Yankees added their own billionth reliever, grabbing our former closer Robbie Collier on a $17M one-year deal.


April 25-27 @ MINNESOTA
They let some major talent walk in the off-season, losing ace Conor MacLeod and perennial MVP candidate Josh Jacobson. In their place they added pitcher Chris Liles (trade with us) and RF Tim Marinaccio (from the Cubs). In addition, rookie Ryan Lawler takes over in center, and he's off to a .368 start. The offense ranks 4th, scoring 181 runs, and they lead MLB with a .340 average. Like us, pitching has been a bugaboo, and their rotation ERA is near 7. Rookie Harald Willemsen and vet Dustin Springer have been especially bad, but really no one has anything approaching solid numbers. This explains their 12-12 record despite strong offensive production. (Also not helping is having decent vets Gary Kocher and Dan Hannan, both penciled into the rotation, out of action long-term.) More nutty numbers: 1B Santos Chavez batted .257/18/64 last year, but is .460/9/31 after 24 games this year. Looking down the road, the 26th-ranked prospect system is loaded with 1B (three of the top five guys) who aren't suited to play anywhere else. Get some pitching!

HAW pitchers: RH Josh Irvin (1-1, 11.72) / LH Matt Waugh (4-0, 1.82) / RH Biff Skiff (0-2, 10.72)
MIN pitchers: RH Dustin Springer (1-1, 10.57) / RH Chris Liles (3-1, 6.51) / RH Jonathan Belmonte (2-1, 5.46)

#25: WIN 15-10 ... 20 hits, including 2 HR for Pederson and one from Medici...spare a thought for all those poor, poor pitchers
#26: LOSS 5-6 ... 3 errors account for 3 unearned runs and cost us this one...Espino gets hurt in a rare start
#27: LOSS 5-6 ... Skiff pitches better, but it's Ruiz in relief who allows 3 late runs for the loss

Uncool, and we've now dropped three of four.... Five starts, five ruinous outings from Irvin. Not great in a contract year. Skiff at least has his ERA under ten now. (Their BABIPs are .382 and .381, respectively.).... Espino's injury is just dtd, no DL for him. Of course he started again the next day and even threw out a runner at third.... Still no HR from Matson. Maybe he's just teasing us with some big months to come.... ELSEWHERE: All the long winning and losing streaks are over. What will I talk about now.... Offenses continue to destroy pitching: AL offense is up a full run per team from a year ago, and even NL pitching ERA is at a 5.03 average. Not sure anything can (or should) be done mid-season, but we will rein in these superballs in the off-season, should this nonsense continue.... Baltimore freshman-and-a-half (he played 71 games last year) Xavier Perez had his hitting streak stopped at 24. Perez is a solid, do-everything (except hit homers) guy, one whom O's fans should be very happy about for years to come. In other news, there is a longer hit streak out there right now, but I'll stay silent since I usually curse guys when I mention them by name.


April 29-30 @ OAKLAND
The month ends with our first trip to northern California, but the bastards did take two from us three weeks ago. The A's are a game under .500, at 13-14, and rank just below middling in offense and pitching, with a +1 run differential. They do still hit 'em into the seats, with 53 (4th place), but struggle to produce much else. And that "middling" pitching is mostly due to some pretty poor bullpen work, with an ERA near last, while the rotation ranks third. Long-term, I still think that rotation is going to be an Achilles heel, with top starters Jim Schwartz and Eric Stockton done for the year. (And yes the coaching staff is still feuding, with hitting coach Norly Suarez and pitching coach Hisa Sato apparently hated by everyone else.)

HAW pitchers: RH Mike Pearse (2-0, 4.31) / RH Mike Bader (2-2, 6.03)
OAK pitchers: RH Kyle Forney (2-2, 5.14) / RH Tom Baker (0-1, 5.59)

#28: LOSS 1-4 ... only one run? Sickos...Pearse tosses 8 shutout innings but Johnson blows up with 1 in the 9th and 3 in the 11th
#29: WIN 5-1 ... Matson finally hits one out, and he's joined by Med with 2 and Ped with 1...solid 8 IP from Bader...Royer hurt

Not much scoring, oddly, but seven HR combined in these two games.... We drop four of our last six, and finish the month 18-11, a game ahead of Texas.... Of course I sing Pfeifer's praises and he stops hitting. He does have 3 HR in his ten starts, but also zero walks and 13 strikeouts.... The bullpen has been a bit leaky the last few series, so some strings could be pulled in the next week if that doesn't turn around.... ELSEWHERE: It took all month, but no one in the NL is now hitting .400. Detroit's Pat Townsand, however, is having a triple crown season so far, at .446/18/46. That may juuuust be good enough to get him player of the month honors. Oh, and he's on pace for 101 dingers.... Still no big team streaks right now, but Arizona has dropped nine out of ten to slide to 8-21.

......

TL;DR Version: Not a great end to the month, but overall pretty solid. We're riding the league-wide offensive wave, batting .313 (5th place) with 43 HR (10th). Joe Lynn is batting a nice .405 and getting on base at a .459 clip. Only Mike Covington isn't producing (.239), and of course the situation at second base is under constant scrutiny: Jim Pfeifer started hot, but is now at .275, while Zach Watt is at .275 but with no power at all. Kevin Kelley has filled in for the injured J.J. Simmons at short and is hitting .338, so could be looking at continued full-time work even when Simmons comes back, if he can keep it up. On the mound, Irvin and Skiffington have started extremely poorly, but Skiff at least has looked better of late. Top pitching prospect Daniel Croft wants a promotion and has started hot in AAA (3 starts, 0.49 ERA). We'll see...