Lansing Lugnuts- May review

Friday, June 02 2006 @ 11:22 AM EDT

Contributed by: Mike Green

The Lugnuts finished May with a flourish, after an 8 game winning streak put them at 33-18, a game ahead of West Michigan with less than 3 weeks left in the first half of the Midwest League season.

The Midwest League so far this season has moderately favoured the pitchers, as teams have averaged 4.4 runs per game. Perhaps because of the umpiring situation, the league average strikeout rate is very high at 7.7 per 9 innings.  The average walk rate is a typical 3.3 per 9 innings, while the home run rate is low at 0.5 per 9 innings. Even adjusting for these favourable conditions, the Lugnuts have got things done with their arms on the mound.

Pitching

In May, the rotation consisted of Kristian Bell, Chi-Hung Cheng, Billy Carnline, Russ Savickas and Aaron Tressler (filling in for the injured Aaron Wideman), and the news was mostly excellent. Russ Savickas was consistently good all month, while Aaron Tressler was a revelation. Billy Carnline proved his humanity by stumbling a bit when facing Kerry Wood on a rehab start, but by month end had returned to his former dominating self. Chi-Hung Cheng has, according to several observers, added a little zing to his fastball, and was showing better control by the end of the month.

The pen was solid from front to back. Paul Phillips closed consistently well, while set-up duties were split among Yesson Berroa, Sean Stidfole and Po-Hsuan Keng. Performances ranged from very good (Stidfole) to superb (Berroa). Jordan Timm LOOGied all night long, and Joey McLaughlin took care of the less stressful relief duties without causing manager Ken Joyce to pop a Rolaids.

Year to date statistics for these pitchers are:

Pitcher IP ERA K/9 W/9 HR/9 H/9
Savickas 56.1 2.40 8.8 3.4 0.16 9.3
Carnline 54.0 1.67 9.3 1.5 0.67 4.8
Cheng 52.1 3.44 9.1 4.0 0.52 10.1
Bell 51.1 4.73 6.5 5.2 0.53 7.9
Tressler 38.2 1.63 6.8 1.6 0.0 8.1
Phillips 23.0 1.96 8.2 2.7 0.78 8.6
Berroa 25.2 1.40 13.0 2.5 0.36 6.0
Keng 27.0 1.67 7.0 2.0 0.67 7.0
Stidfole 21.1 2.95 10.2 3.8 0.42 7.2
Timm 24.2 2.19 6.6 2.2 0.0 7.3
McLaughlin 12.1 2.19 8.8 4.4 0.0 8.0


Batting

The Lugnut bats spoke fairly quietly in May. Cory Patton continued to provide big time pop, while Brian Pettway was boom or bust in classic Rob Deer style. Anthony Hatch arrived to shore up the infield after Chris Gutierrez' promotion to Dunedin, and surprised with his home run power. Big City (Joey) Metropoulos continued to be a disciplined and feared hitter. Sean Shoffit cooled off after a hot April, while Yuber Rodriguez continued to struggle, but Luke Hetherington arrived in May to add some offence to the outfield. Josh Bell and Jacob Butler each struggled with strike zone control, but hit for power often at key times. It added up to an offence that scored just enough to win.

Here are the year to date statistics of a number of the players:

Player AB W K AVG. OBP SLUG.
Patton 183 16 35 .322 .373 .552
Shoffit 181 17 44 .271 .337 .376
Pettway 169 12 62 .237 .307 .473
Butler 166 10 53 .199 .260 .361
Gonzalez 138 2 34 .239 .257 .283
Metropoulos 137 23 37 .277 .400 .438
Bell 112 3 35 .259 .291 .420
Rodriguez 111 17 37 .216 .328 .279
Hicks 105 9 12 .267 .322 .324
Garibaldi 89 10 29 .202 .314 .292
Hatch 82 8 12 .305 .367 .549
Bormaster 78 11 23 .154 .264 .231
Hetherington 71 6 14 .282 .333 .479


Upcoming

Can the Lugnuts hang on against hard-charging West Michigan for the first-half division title? It should be an enjoyable few weeks in Oldsmobile Park in June.

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