Stats

The "s" word, meaning slump, not steroids, is something that almost every ballplayer at every level has experienced in some form, but this one feels different.

He can't catch up to routine fastballs.

Who has won the Matt Holliday trade?

If one were to look at just one of the prospects the Rockies received in the trade, Carlos Gonzalez, and viewed his Triple-A Colorado Springs stats, one could argue either way.

Gonzalez, an outfielder in the Rockies' farm system, has been absolutely tearing it up for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. And when I mean tearing it up, that might be an understatement.

Part of the Pittsburgh Pirates' lineup is formidable.

This includes Nyjer Morgan, who hits for average and steals a ton of bases. Freddy Sanchez is beginning to look like the man who won a batting title in 2006. "Nasty" Nate McLouth is just that to opposing pitchers. And the Pirates are in good hands when one of the catchers with the initials RD, Ryan Doumit or Robinzon Diaz, is batting.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Pirates' lineup isn't contributing as much as the team would like.

April has come and gone, and we are now about halfway through May.  Many casual Pirates fans may be wondering how the farm clubs as well as players such as Andrew McCutchen, Pedro Alvarez, and Jose Tabata may be doing. 

Look no further as I will update you monthly, between the 10th and the 15th, about the happenings of the Pirates minor league teams.

AAA Indianapolis Indians: 13-17, 2nd place International League West division

Believe it or not, Kevin Millwood is pitching like an ace this year. The scary thing is his numbers could be even better if the Rangers offense would help. 

After Saturday’s performance Millwood’s record is at 3-3 with a 2.92 ERA. He’s even eating up the innings too, which will give him an automatic contract next year.  In his seven starts this year, he has gone at least seven innings. That ties a team record. A record hard to match regardless of the team you play for.

In part one of this series, we took a look at the overall team numbers of the Washington Nationals' surprisingly effective offense. In part two here, we'll examine each of the Nats' regular players to evaluate their performance so far, and try to establish if they can keep up their pace.

Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA system is a tremendously accurate projection system, so we'll compare their projections to the players' pace to aid us in our evaluations.

Jorge De La Rosa's stats are deceiving.  His 0-2 record in five starts may look like he's struggling early on in the year.  He's posting a 3.90 ERA, and a 1.37 WHIP. He's only owned in 0.8% of ESPN fantasy baseball leagues.  However, De La Rosa is doing much better than what his stats are saying.

In his five starts on the year, De La Rosa has pitched 27.2 innings, and has struck out 23.  He's walked just 12 batters, and has given up just one home run in that span, in his last start vs the Padres.

The Washington Nationals' season is one-sixth complete.  I know that sounds funny to say, but it's true.  The team has played 27 games so far, which is one-sixth of 162.  So how does the team stand?

Well, to listen to the national media or bloggers looking for cheap web page hits, the Nats are a laughingstock.  But how true is that?

The starting pitching leaves much to be desired.  Any staff that's counting on two rookies and Daniel Cabrera can not be considered good.  And the bullpen has been every bit as bad as advertised. 

When the Minnesota Twins traded for Delmon Young prior to last season, everybody thought the team was bringing in a hitter with big power potential. The assumption was rightfully so; Young had hit .288 with 13 homeruns and 93 RBI with the Rays and was just barely 21-years old.

In his first season with the Twins, Young hit .290 with 10 homeruns and 69 RBI. The numbers weren't bad; Young upped his average from the year before and also struck out 22 fewer times. Yet the expectations that the homerun totals would rise with age caused most to be critical of Young and the trade.

Forrest Gump:  "Momma said, "Life is Lak a Bawx O' Chawklets.  Ya nevah know what yer gonna get."

Wednesday night Michael Kay on YES Network said New York Yankee Manager, Joe Girardi never knew what he was going to get out of his bullpen.

That night, the Yankees had tied the score in the eighth inning on a bases clearing three run double by Mark Teixeira. Mariano Rivera had been brought in to stop the Tampa Bay Rays in the ninth and did his job.