[Bub13]

Okay, get ready for month #2. Twenty-eight games, 15 at home including a month-ending nine-game homestand. Also we'll get our first tastes of top rivals Texas and Detroit, as well as the surprise East-leading Blue Jays. Time to get serious, boys!

May 1 @ KANSAS CITY
Wrapping up this three-game set.

HAW pitcher: RH Jose Rivera (3-2, 4.91)
KCR pitcher: RH Bill Perez (2-0, 3.11)

#27: WIN 6-4 ... a 3-run 8th gives us enough cushion to survive yet another bullpen blowup...Rivera pulled in the 3rd with a back issue, but it's just a dtd thing

Three games above .500 for the first time this season.... Rivera should be fine by his next start, just some back tightness.... Forgot to mention that I also called up 2B Andrew Cunningham from AAA to help with all these pesky infielder injuries. But with Calderin coming off the DL now, I've sent down Jim Pfeifer and expect to return Cunningham to Santa Barbara when Jake Moore is healthy in a week.... Speaking of Santa Barbara, after a 1-5 start they've won 6 in a row.... ELSEWHERE: The surprising Angels are about the hottest thing going right now, winners of 8 in their last 10, and with a 17-10 record they lead the AL West by a game over Texas.... Third-year pro Ivan Valladares, 23, is having quite the start in the Braves rotation: 6 starts, 47.2 IP, 61 K, 0.94 ERA, 1.7 WAR. Atlanta's still just 13-14 and treading water in the tough NL East.


May 3-5 vs TEXAS
Here we go! The standings are starting to sort out some now that we're into the second month of the season, and the Rangers have moved into second place at 16-11. While they've scored the most runs in the AL, as predicted their off-season pitching losses have hurt, with pitching ranked just 16th in runs allowed. With 2B Matt Provance done, last season's DH Javier Tzoc moves into the field. He's hitting .340 with 10 HR, so that seems pretty adequate. C Phil Thoma (.310/11/35) is having a career year, and the deadly trio of Ryan Boers/Mike Olivera/Eric Robbins are all hitting for average and power. Leadoff guy Emilio Mares is down a hundred points from a year ago, and sluggers Ted Miller and Eric Halvorson have yet to get on track, but no one is worried about them. On the mound, the rotation has struggled, but the bullpen has been pretty good, and now CL Han-lee Su is back from a AAA rehab stint, so things should get better. We've been better lately, but these guys still look better than we do right now, frankly.

HAW pitchers: RH Josh Irvin (3-1, 2.95) / LH Daniel Croft (2-2, 5.40) / LH John Loeb (2-1, 2.76)
TEX pitchers: RH Sean Reed (1-4, 8.84) / RH Mike Nelson (2-1, 3.69) / RH Joel Wiechart (2-2, 4.64)

#28: LOSS 3-9 ... well that went poorly
#29: LOSS 3-6 ... we score 3 in the 7th to take a lead, then give up 5 late to blow another game
#30: LOSS 3-6 ... Matson hits his first HR, and we outhit them 11-9...nothing else to see here

Well that ****ing sucked. No hitting, no pitching, no anything. Time for some juggling.... LF Bennetsen isn't hitting, so Chase Thompson is in; also no bueno is CF Joe Lynn, so Brian Hassell slides in; MR Anthony Booker takes the fall for the entire bullpen, and Yoshi Watanabe comes back up. CL Nate Kearns loses that slot, and Brad Cahill is next in line.... Not sure what else to do right now. We do get some injured guys back soon--Pederson and Moore--so maybe that will help.... But it's hard to find speed when it feels like the whole car is terrible right now.... ELSEWHERE: Texas (4 consecutive wins) and California (8-2 of late) are trying to pull away in the AL West. NOZ has the largest division lead, at 7 games.... San Diego (8-22) and Montreal (9-21) bring up the rear currently.... CLE 1B Manny Ayala should be a superstar, with a .333 career average and a solid 2055: .333/.410/.525, 205 hits, 12 triples, 43 steals, 5.0 WAR. But he's been a regular since 2048, and that's the only season he's played over 118 games. Injuries are just brutal.


May 6-8 @ TORONTO
Tied with Miami for first, at 18-12. They've struggled to score, at 15th in runs and at or near bottom-tier in every other major offensive category. But pitching is carrying the day, league best across the board. 1B Ian Logan (.308) and 2B Joe Smith (.303) are getting on base, and C Victor Valadez (.289/4/11) is not far behind. But others are barely keeping up. Pitching? No complaints. The whole rotation is going well, and half the bullpen hasn't even allowed a run yet. For a team that hasn't finished over .500 in nearly a decade, and won just 58 games last year, this start has been a solid surprise. If they get any hitting at all, they can keep it up.

HAW pitchers: LH Matt Waugh (4-1, 3.83) / RH Jose Rivera (3-2, 4.58) / RH Josh Irvin (3-2, 3.95)
TOR pitchers: RH Nick Palmer (2-3, 4.17) / RH Jaden Buchanan (2-3, 3.72) / RH Josh Haynam (4-1, 2.82)

#31: WIN 18-2 ... nothing makes sense any more...22 hits, 4 HR, 7 doubles...Waugh goes the distance, allows 7 hits, fans 10
#32: WIN 3-1 ... tired from the last game, we manage just 6 hits, but a pair of timely doubles saves the day...Rivera tosses 7.2, allows just 4 hits himself
#33: LOSS 3-4 ... repeat after me: ANOTHER. BULLPEN. BLOWUP. Three runs in the 9th, a walkoff loss...Can anyone in the bullpen please step up?

Better, but still some glaring holes: in particular, our relief pitching continues to be abysmal. Dead last. Dreadful. Choose your pejorative.... Any kind of power at all is still hard to come by, we do have guys who are hitting right now: Coronado (.357), Hassell (.312), Thompson (.348), Simmons (.303). Medici has cooled but is still at .302. My job is to figure out how to arrange them so can score in bunches, like the old days.... Shouldn't be surprising our offense has been iffy, given that my entire pre-season outfield is not playing right now: Pederson (hurt), Lynn (benched), Bennetsen (benched). Great.... ELSEWHERE: Nearly a dozen shutouts over the last league-wide series of games. Lots of guys are still hitting, but the pitchers are coming around now.... Milwaukee is still on top in the Central at 23-10, but just lost 3B Mitch Elmore (batting .364) for the season.... San Diego has lost 7 straight, still the only team with double figures in wins.... Winners of 9 in a row, Washington has moved into first in the NL East, 21-12 and 4 games ahead of ATlanta.


May 9-11 vs MINNESOTA
It's been a rough start for the Twins, who expected better than a 13-20 beginning. Both offense and pitching rank 14th, and the only statistical bright spots are home runs (6th) and bullpen ERA (3rd, must be nice). Injuries have taken a big bite, with 1B Santos Chavez and 3B Caleb Ottenburg missing time, in addition to the six pitchers currently on the DL. And some veteran bats have been awfully quiet so far: all-everything LF Jordan Foots (.198), RF Tim Marinaccio (.232), and DH Jesus Villegas (.244) the most notable. On the mound, the rotation is getting playground-bullied most every night, and no one has an ERA under 5.2. That bullpen ERA is all the more impressive when you note that closer Ryan Scheele (5.56) and setup man John Kekic (4.70) haven't gotten themselves right yet either. With both Milwaukee and Detroit off to hot starts, the rest of the Central may only be fighting for wild card scraps, and soon.

HAW pitchers: LH Daniel Croft (2-2, 5.13) / LH John Loeb (2-2, 3.49) / LH Matt Waugh (5-1, 3.49)
MIN pitchers: RH Ken Aikens (2-4, 7.88) / RH Dan Hannan (3-1, 5.72) / LH Sid French (1-4, 7.81)

#34: WIN 8-4 ... Medici breaks open a 3-3 tie with a 2-run shot in the 6th...NEWSFLASH: Reyes in the pen tosses two shutout, no-hit innings!
#35: LOSS 4-7 ... sigh: Medici legs out a triple but breaks his thumb sliding into third...Calderin FINALLY hits his first HR of the season
#36: WIN 7-1 ... 3 hits each for Gamboa and Coronado (who?)...Waugh goes the distance again: 5 hits, 9 K

Okay, two wins here and somehow we now find ourselves in second in the West (thanks mostly to California slumping). And RF Doug Pederson returned from the DL, so we sent down the struggling Jeremy Hagemann.... And then Medici goes and breaks a finger in the dumbest way possible. He'll be out for a month, so we recall Hagemann and will give him some time at first as well as OF. The one guy we really can't afford to lose offensively, and there he goes.... Team offensive numbers look better, but we're still just 15th in home runs. I expected Pederson and Calderin to hit 25-35 HR each, and Matson 15-20. They've combined for just two so far. Medici (with 9) has 1/4 of our entire output, so you can right away see one major effect losing him will have.... ELSEWHERE: Those Angels have now dropped 8 straight, putting them at .500 and down in third place.... San Diego finally one a game, after losing 9 in a row. And they still don't have ten wins yet (at 9-27).... Seven starts for STL's John Odom, and still with an ERA under one.... It's all or nothing for Mets ace Conor MacLeod: 8 starts, a 4-4 record. In his losses: 18 runs through 27 IP. In his wins: 11 runs in 29 IP. But his best numbers are a ridiculous 70 to 9 K-to-BB ratio. And in only his 9th year in the league, he already ranks 60th in career strikeouts.


May 13-15 @ HOUSTON
Our second go-round against the Astros; we took 2 out of 3 last month. Middling stats and a 15-21 record, last in the divison, but just a -3 run differential. Three reasons for that record jump out: ace Mat Caldwell is out for the year; key hitters--notably the 1, 2, and 4 spots--are just not producing; and the newly-crowned worst bullpen ERA in the AL. Closer T.J. Watson may not be long for that role, given his 11.74 ERA and 1-to-1 walks-to-innings ratio. Continued props to 28-year-old OF Ahmed Hackett, making the most of his first full-time starting role: batting .310 with 10 HR and a 1.020 OPS. But can he sustain a .371 ISO and a 177 wRC+? Rolling the dice now...

HAW pitchers: RH Jose Rivera (4-2, 4.02) / RH Josh Irvin (3-2, 3.49) / LH Daniel Croft (3-2, 5.13)
HOU pitchers: RH Winton Jones (3-4, 3.57) / RH Chris James (2-3, 4.76) / RH Robbie Camp (3-4, 4.44)

#37: LOSS 3-5 ... for once we lose early, falling behind 5-1 in the early frames...Matson pokes a 2-run shot late...Rivera yields 14 hits in 7 innings
#38: LOSS 1-2 ... we waste a strong effort from Irvin, getting only 6 hits and contributing 2 costly errors
#39: WIN 3-1 ... more walks (7) than hits (6), but some timely doubles help squeak out this one...Croft seems to be coming around finally

Still haven't unlocked the secret to getting the offense going, as we muster a total of 17 hits in this series.... In particular, with Medici out, we're getting practically zero production from the heart of the lineup, the 4-5-6 slots. Pederson is back from injury, probably rusty, at only 2-for-15; Calderin is hitting .220 with 1 HR; and Collins only .229. Time for more tinkering.... Team defense stinks too, let's not overlook that: 17th in efficiency, 16th in ZR. Outside of 3B Coronado (-4.7 in 28 starts), no one has been truly bad, but no one is sparkling either. And guys who should be good--Moore at SS, Hassell in CF--have not performed.... Santa Barbara started the season 1-5, then won 17 straight until a recent loss to Sacramento.... ELSEWHERE: San Diego finally wins their tenth game, but still brings up the league rear at 10-29.... California has now dropped eleven in a row.... Richmond's won nine straight to surge to the top in the NL East.... Tampa Bay's Jose Taveras is the latest AL player of the week. Taveras, now 33, has 532 career HR, 70.6 WAR, and has been an all-star nine of his eleven full-time seasons. He's never played in fewer than 154 games over that stretch as well.

......

TL;DR Version: The doldrums continue, with a 6-7 stretch putting us at 20-19 overall. Somehow it's my fault, I know: we're top five in offense and pitching, with a +26 run differential. But we can't put things together on a night-in, night-out basis. One glaring hole is our near-complete lack of power, which will probably disappear completely with Medici's injury. (Until Pederson shakes off his rust, we may not average one HR per series.) My hope now is that I can find the right lineup to just outhit and out-OBP teams, like we used to do. Is there help on the farm? Well, top prospects Jose Villalpando and Eric Sayward are hitting a ton in AAA, but neither has produced any of their promised power yet, and both have enough holes in their games that I think they shouldn't come up until September. Barring any further injury disasters, of course.