The last week of April has come with plenty of excitement throughout MLB, as well as a bit of disappointment.
There’s been a lot of big news in the final week of April. Several MLB players have had standout performances, and a few have sustained major injuries. The Yankees and White Sox have had more success than most would have guessed, while the Blue Jays have continued to struggle. Rookie phenom Aaron Judge has been crushing the ball in the Bronx, and Chris Sale keeps K’ing away in Boston. Derek Jeter might become a part owner of the Marlins, or will he?
We’re still a full month away from summer, but the ball is already flying out of the park. Four players already have double-digit home runs, with fourteen more close behind. There’s been a lot of homers, but there have been plenty of strikeouts, too. Seventeen different starters are averaging 10+ K/9, with another sixteen striking out at least one batter per inning.
The Good News
Lets start with the positive. Eric Thames is still hitting the cover off of the ball, and Ryan Zimmerman has decided to join the party. As of Sunday, the two are tied for the league lead with 11 home runs. Zimmerman has been a slugger in the past, so this appears to be a resurgence. Thames, on the other hand, had an unsuccessful first attempt in MLB. He’s put up gaudy power numbers since returning from Korea, which has raised suspicion around the league. As a result of this, Eric Thames has already been tested 3 times this season.
#Brewers Eric Thames might have been wrong when he said “I have plenty of blood and urine." Tested last nite for third time in 10 days.
— Tom (@Haudricourt) April 29, 2017
Yankees rookie outfielder Aaron Judge has 10 home runs to his name this month, tying Jose Abreu and Trevor Story for the most home runs in April by a rookie. We’ve talked about Judge before, and we’ll surely be talking about him again. Bryce Harper has 9 home runs already, with a batting average in the .380’s. Freddie Freeman, Justin Turner, and Ryan Zimmerman are also hitting above .380. In fact, Zimmerman is currently batting .420. And although he’s only batting .365 with 7 home runs, Mike Trout is leading all position players with 2.0 fWAR.
On the pitching side of things, there are definitely some eye-popping numbers. Boston’s prized offseason acquisition Chris Sale leads the pack with 2.0 fWAR and 56 Ks in 37.2 innings. Mariners lefty James Paxton is hot on his trail, with 1.7 fWAR of his own. Dallas Keuchel and Ervin Santana are stranding runners at an absurd rate, with Left On Base percentages of 100% and 99%, respectively. Santana currently has the lowest ERA in the league, giving up a microscopic 0.77 earned runs per nine innings. Since most starters have only pitched in five games, this is an incredibly small sample size. Still, it’s hard to ignore some of these stats.
The Bad News
I’m not going to get into the players that aren’t performing well. They still get the benefit of the doubt that comes with a small sample size. Instead, I’ll focus on MLB’s worst injuries last week. The news broke Saturday in D.C. that Nationals center fielder Adam Eaton is expected to miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL. This is a massive blow to the Nats, who gave up the No. 3 prospect in the game, Lucas Giolito, along with other to acquire Eaton. The Diamondbacks suffered a similar loss on Saturday when it was announced that Shelby Miller needs Tommy John surgery and will miss the rest of the season.
Shelby Miller says he will undergo Tommy John surgery.
— Nick Piecoro (@nickpiecoro) April 29, 2017
The Blue Jays are likely feeling frustrated with the Aaron Sanchez situation, as their ace has pitched just 13.1 innings due to blisters on his pitching hand. Likewise, Rich Hill has provided only 8 innings for the Dodgers as a result of ongoing blister issues. Hill has been having such a persistent issue with blisters that the Dodgers even considered moving him to the bullpen. As it turns out, they decided not to. Giants ace Madison Bumgarner will not require surgery after his dirt bike accident, but is expected to need at least 10-12 weeks before he’s ready to take a major league mound again.
Just News
While this last subject isn’t necessarily good or bad, it’s definitely complicated. The Miami Marlins are for sale, and a group led by Derek Jeter and Jeb Bush (yes, that Jeb Bush) are said to be making a serious push to buy the team. The most notable group they’re competing with is headlined by Tom Glavine and Tagg (son of Mitt) Romney. Most of the news on this potential sale has been in regards to the Jeter/Bush team, but it’s unclear what is really going on.
It was reported last week that the Jeter/Bush group was finalizing a deal to purchase the team. As it turns out, this is not exactly the case. Supposedly, the group needs to raise roughly $1 billion from investors in order to buy the Marlins. That will obviously be hard, if not impossible, for them to do.
Next: Rendon Goes Off on the Mets
An interesting twist on the situation came about on Friday when the group stated that they suspect the team is “spreading misinformation including the terms of the bid”. This would be a pretty low move by the Marlins, who have suffered from bad PR in the past. More details on the potential sale of the Marlins can be found through this link.
That wraps up this week’s big MLB news. For live-game updates, analysis, and opinion, follow me on Twitter @Joepiazza_