ViewPoint
April 20, 2005
Written by MadAlan

Opportunists take note

Erubiel Durazo is a ‘natural hitter’ and is in a major slump. Want a quick jump to your numbers? Pick him up and you have missed a large part, if not all of his slump. Expect him to propel his batting average back to his norm which should be a jump of around 180 batting average points and his power will also show up in the proper order too.

Others?

J.D. Drew
Phil Nevin
Mike Piazza
Mark Teixeira
Albert Pujols

And a hundred more. Look who sits on the bottom right now.

It is early yet check out the walks being gathered by Carlos Pena – Det and Derrick Lee – Cubs.

Pedro Felix – SFG, Brian Roberts – Bal, have as many RBIs as Miguel Tejada – Bal, and they lead all infielders in RBIs with 14 each, with the understanding Felix was a shortstop and is now an outfielder.

Paul Konerko has 10 hits with 6 going for home runs.

Clint Barnes – Col, get him. Actually Jorge Cantu is the better player.

Richie Sexson is back, right now he is only hitting when it is a clutch situation which accounts for his RBIs but sooner than later he will be powering balls out of Safeco and allowing Adrian Beltre see more fastballs – his favorite food.

Eric Hinske is batting .308, with 13 RBIs and 3 home runs.

Carlos Delgado is batting .300, with 4 RBIs and 1 home run.

Ichiro has played in 11 games and has 19 hits. That is staggering because you can math it out and it will be more than 300 hits this year. This is the season he bats higher than .400 anyway.

Brian Giles has collected 14 walks in the first 11 games.

And then there is J.D. Drew who has 5 hits, 9 walks, 7 runs scored and a slugging percentage of .135.

The highly undervalued Julio Lugo in TB has stolen more bases than T. Womack, Carlos Beltran, A-Rod and a few hundred more with 5.

This is the year Michael Young – Tex becomes the equal of any shortstop anywhere in the world.

Are you familiar with these pitchers?

Gustavo Chacin - Tor
Run. Hernandez - KC
Dave Williams - Pit
John Patterson - Was
Aaron Heilman - NYM
Brad Halsey - AZ
Denny Bautista - KC
Jorge de la Rosa - Milw
Wil Ledezma - Det

All of the above mentioned will be 20 game winners within 3 years. All are future “Ace” pitchers and all are coming along this season. Awesome.

- MadAlan