GURANDOSURAMU!

Another pretty good day for the hitters, and only a so-so day for the pitchers, which is quite an improvement.  Kosuke Fukudome went yard with the sacks packed, his first granny in the majors, in a losing effort against the D'Backs.  Justin Smoak also had a first homer, in his case his first major league dinger of any kind.  He also doubled, and raised his OPS to nearly .800, well above Chris Davis territory for now.  Hunter Pence and Chris Snyder also went deep, and Aaron Hill contributed three more walks to the coffers.

The only pitcher who appeared last night was rookie Brian Matusz, who is chomping innings pretty nicely if not being dominant.  He went six and allowed three runs, including a home run to Robinson Cano, as the Yanks dropped the Orioles to 4-18 on the year.

Aaron Crow returned to prospect-land at least briefly with eight strong innings and only two earned runs allowed and no homers.  I'm not sure what possessed the Northwest Arkansas manager to leave him in that long, but hey, the Royals know what they are doing, right?  Is this thing on?  Mike Trout had a couple of singles, but was erased stealing both times he reached.  Grant Green is looking pretty pedestrian after a raging start, with a .478 OPS in his last 10 games.  One would hope he's not indulging in that jumping Stockton night life scene.

Q THE OFFENSE

Carlos Quentin maybe, possibly, snapped out of his April doldrums with a homer and a double (plus a walk).  Speaking of walks, the Gunslingers added 12 more to the ledger in 55 PA.  We are walking like Sandra Bullock!  Adrian Gonzalez picked up three more, and Justin Smoak contributed the only way he can right now with two more BB's.  Come on, J-Smoak, Ike Davis is making you look like a chump.

Kenshin Kawakami did nothing to halt the escalating ERA and WHIP of the pitching staff, with a five run, five hit, four walk performance against the Cardinals in four and a third innings.  Nick Masset better not get a long-term lease in Cincinnati after yet another bad outing last night.  He came in to finish off a 6-1 game against the Astros started by rookie phenom Mike Leake and was yanked after giving up a two-run homer to Lance Berkman.  Relievers are such tightly wired creatures who can go from untouchable to completely off-the-charts bad almost instantaneously.  I'll never understand it.

Mike Trout singled, doubled and tripled last night against Clinton, raising the OPS back over .900.  Martin Perez went five, striking out five but walking four, and ceding his first homer of the year.  He gave it up to Sawyer Carroll of the hometown Missions.  Sawyer, buddy, save that stuff for somebody else, will ya?

THAT WAS A SHEETS-Y DEAL

Ben Sheets regressed heavily in his fourth start, giving up eight earned runs on nine hits in four innings to the AL East leading Rays.  Pat Burrell and Reid "Rock" Brignac blasted homers in that game.  It was also pretty ugly for Jamie Moyer, who gave up four runs on 10 hits in a loss to the Giants.  Mark Buehrle also struggled (7 IP, 4 ER), and Kevin Millwood gave up two runs on five hits and three walks in five and a third.  Three relievers, Luke Gregerson, Ramon S. Ramirez, and Nick Masset, pitched an inning apiece and allowed no runs.  Ramirez even got a save for Boston because Jonathan Papelbon was unavailable.

David Wright broke out of a mini-slump with four hits in a doubleheader sweep of the Dodgers.  Nobody else did much of anything, except continue to walk.  We picked up eight walks in 57 plate appearances.

Alex White gave up four runs and a homer for the second straight start.  Pretty much all the pitchers except Martin Perez are looking like non-prospects at the moment.

YTD STATS

Baseball Prospectus Team Tracker is back!

These stats include yesterday's homers by Abreu and Cabrera.  The spread in OPS/OPSA is getting a little better.  We're at .805/.718.  I'd like to see at least a 100 point differential there, with OPS over .800.  Cabrera and Gonzalez are still raking, and Fukudome is having a temporary surge.  Hunter Pence is over the Mendoza Line, while Aaron Hill and Carlos Quentin have fallen below it.  Quentin is really scuffling.  David Wright is walking like a madman, but the average is down to .222.

Mark Buehrle had two bad starts recently, and Brian Matusz keeps giving up runs in the 7th inning (take him out, Dave!).  Luke Gregerson has recovered from his one bad outing and is looking unhittable.  K-Rod and Darren Oliver are missing plenty of bats as well, while Ramon S. Ramirez is on his way to Pawtucket, and Nick Masset is just plain terrible.  Kevin Millwood, Jonathan Sanchez and Ben Sheets are getting it done, and Jamie Moyer is still upright.

I'm pleased with the 31/19 HR/HRA ratio, the 0.82 HR/9IP ratio, and the 7.63 SO/9IP ratio.  I wish the 4.03 ERA and the 1.33 WHIP were lower, though.  Both are pretty much average for our league, as is the .805 OPS.  I'm expecting improvement from Hill, Wright, Quentin, Torres, Pence and Smoak, and not expecting much from the starting pitching.  Masset and Ramirez have to improve or they will lose their jobs.

BATTERS (Change Display Statistics)

Name	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	AB	R	H	RBI	HR	CS	SB	TB	BB
Bobby Abreu	.293	.348	.524	.873	82	12	24	12	4	2	3	43	7
Miguel Cabrera	.363	.446	.663	1.108	80	14	29	24	5	2	0	53	12
Kosuke Fukudome	.327	.393	.577	.970	52	9	17	11	3	1	1	30	7
Adrian Gonzalez	.311	.427	.623	1.050	61	12	19	12	5	0	0	38	12
Aaron Hill	.167	.286	.333	.619	24	4	4	2	1	0	0	8	4
Russell Martin	.304	.403	.393	.796	56	10	17	3	1	0	1	22	9
Hunter Pence	.209	.232	.284	.515	67	9	14	5	1	1	2	19	2
Carlos Quentin	.154	.291	.338	.630	65	12	10	13	3	0	0	22	10
Alexei Ramirez	.210	.210	.323	.532	62	4	13	6	1	0	0	20	0
Justin Smoak	.091	.375	.182	.557	11	1	1	0	0	0	0	2	5
Chris Snyder	.267	.365	.444	.810	45	6	12	9	2	0	0	20	7
Andres Torres	.258	.324	.323	.646	31	2	8	1	0	1	0	10	3
Juan Uribe	.310	.373	.483	.856	58	10	18	11	2	1	1	28	7
David Wright	.222	.405	.413	.817	63	8	14	10	3	1	6	26	19
TOTAL	.264	.354	.450	.805	757	113	200	119	31	9	14	341	104

PITCHERS (Change Display Statistics)

Name	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	G	GS	IP	W	L	SV	SO	ERA	WHIP	BS	Hold	R	ER	PA	AB	H	HR	TB	BB	UBB	IBB	HBP	SF	SH	DP	H9	SO9	HR9
Mark Buehrle	.277	.327	.394	.721	4	4	25.7	2	2	0	11	4.56	1.32	0	0	16	13	106	94	26	1	37	8	8	0	0	2	2	4	9.12	3.86	0.35
Luke Gregerson	.129	.182	.161	.343	8	0	9.0	0	0	0	10	3.00	0.67	0	3	4	3	33	31	4	0	5	2	1	1	0	0	0	1	4.00	10.00	0.00
Kenshin Kawakami	.284	.315	.493	.808	3	3	17.0	0	3	0	6	4.76	1.35	0	0	10	9	74	67	19	1	33	4	4	0	0	2	1	1	10.06	3.18	0.53
Nick Masset	.378	.455	.568	1.022	9	0	8.0	2	1	0	13	12.38	2.50	0	0	11	11	44	37	14	2	21	6	5	1	0	1	0	0	15.75	14.63	2.25
Brian Matusz	.242	.320	.286	.606	4	4	24.7	2	0	0	27	4.38	1.30	0	0	12	12	103	91	22	1	26	10	10	0	1	1	0	2	8.03	9.85	0.36
Jose Mijares	.462	.533	.923	1.456	5	0	3.0	0	0	0	2	6.00	2.67	0	2	2	2	16	13	6	2	12	2	2	0	0	0	1	1	18.00	6.00	6.00
Kevin Millwood	.269	.298	.426	.724	4	4	26.7	0	3	0	24	3.38	1.24	0	0	14	10	114	108	29	4	46	4	3	1	1	1	0	1	9.79	8.10	1.35
Jamie Moyer	.257	.304	.419	.723	3	3	18.0	2	1	0	11	5.00	1.28	0	0	12	10	79	74	19	3	31	4	4	0	1	0	0	0	9.50	5.50	1.50
Darren Oliver	.229	.270	.457	.727	9	0	10.3	0	0	1	11	2.61	0.87	1	1	3	3	37	35	8	2	16	1	1	0	1	0	0	3	6.97	9.58	1.74
Ramon Ramirez	.324	.359	.622	.981	8	0	8.3	0	0	0	3	7.56	1.68	0	1	7	7	39	37	12	2	23	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	12.96	3.24	2.16
Francisco Rodriguez	.156	.300	.188	.488	9	0	9.7	1	0	3	13	0.93	1.14	1	0	1	1	40	32	5	0	6	6	6	0	1	1	0	0	4.66	12.10	0.00
Jonathan Sanchez	.167	.283	.202	.485	4	4	24.3	2	1	0	33	1.85	1.11	0	0	5	5	100	84	14	0	17	13	12	1	1	1	1	1	5.18	12.21	0.00
Ben Sheets	.271	.364	.471	.834	4	4	23.0	1	1	0	12	2.74	1.57	0	0	8	7	99	85	23	1	40	13	13	0	0	1	0	3	9.00	4.70	0.39
TOTAL	.255	.321	.397	.718	74	26	207.7	12	12	4	176	4.03	1.33	2	7	105	93	884	788	201	19	313	75	71	4	6	10	5	17	8.71	7.63	0.82