Lansing-April review

Friday, May 05 2006 @ 07:00 AM EDT

Contributed by: Mike Green

The Lugnuts went 17-5 in April, as just about everything went right.  Shall we revel in the details?

Pitching

The starters were excellent, the relievers were excellent, and the pop vendor and team mascot held their own.  Kristian Bell had the highest ERA among the starters at 4.15.  Lefty Chi-Hung Cheng continued to have control issues, but also continued to strike out over a batter an inning and to pick off runners willy-nilly on the way to a 4-1, 1.85 mark.  Russ Savickas was the surprise of the rotation, putting up a sweet 29-4 K/W ratio in 27.2 innings. Mississauga native Aaron Wideman struck out 20 and walked 5 in 19 innings, but didn't have a win to show for his fine effort.  Going longer into games is a goal for Wideman.  After staring out in the bullpen and dominating there, Billy Carnline moved to the rotation and did not miss a beat.

In the pen, Po-Hsuan Keng, Aaron Tressler, Yesson Berroa, Jordan Timm and Paul Phillips all got the job done, with Phillips 14 strikeouts in 11 innings as the closer a notable highlight. 

Here are the team pitching stats through May 1:

Pitcher G GS
ERA		 IP H W K HR
Cheng   5   5 1.85 24.1  30 12 25 1
Bell 5 5 4.15 26.0 18 17 21 0
Wideman  4 4 3.79 19.0 22 5 20 0
Savickas 5 5 2.28 27.2 26 4 29 1
Carnline 7 3 0.32 28.0 10 1 31 1
Phillips 8 0 1.64 11.0 9 4 14 1
Keng 8 0 0.90 20.0 16 6 16 1
Tressler 5 0 2.84 12.2 11 3 7 0
Berroa 8 0 2.25 12 9 2 17 0
Timm 6 0 1.59 11.1 10 3 5 0

Hitters

The best news for the organization in Lansing, aside from Carnline's development, has to be the progress made by young infielders Sean Shoffit and Chris Gutierrez.  At age 20, Shoffit is holding his own as a leadoff hitter against Midwest League pitching, while Gutierrez earned a promotion to Dunedin.  First baseman Joey Metropoulos and outfielder Cory Patton have hit with power and shown some control over the strike zone, while rightfielder Brian Pettway and catcher Josh Bell have hit the long ball but must work on their plate discipline. Centerfielder Yuber Rodriguez has shown speed on the basepaths and fields his position well, but still has work to do at the plate. Here are the hitting stats through May 1:

Player AB BA OBP Slug W K SB CS
Shoffit 91 .330 .420 .435 11 24 5 3
Gutierrez 75 .320 .376 .493 8 14 3 3
Metropoulos 78 .308 .391 .487 9 18 2 1
Patton 88 .307 .360 ,557 9 21 3 0
Pettway 84 .274 .323 .524 4 30 0 1
Bell 60 .267 .279 .467 1 17 1 0
Gonzalez 68 .250 .268 .338 1 12 1 0
Rodriguez 65 .231 .329 .323 8 23 8 1
Butler 91 .187 .237 .341 4 32 3 0
Hicks 46 .370 .420 .435 4 1 4 1
Garibaldi 40 .175 .267 .275 4 16 1 1

Outlook

The talent is here for this team to be very good, even if there is another promotion or two.  We probably have not seen the best yet from Pettway and Bell, so it is quite possible that the team will continue to win at a .600 clip or so, relying on the offence a little more and the pitching a little less.

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