Reflections on April

[adambr2]

Positives: The bats have been as advertised or better. There's nothing more that can really be said about Thames, and Braun shows no signs of slowing. The catching tandem has produced far better offensive and defensive results than could have been anticipated. Though Broxton, Arcia, Villar and Santana all suffered slow starts, they've somewhat showed signs of coming around, particularly Arcia and Santana. After a very shaky start defensively, Villar seems like he will handle 2nd fine. Other than Santana there's no one that stands out sorely defensively that won't be able to field their position at least adequately. Shaw looks like a good find at 3rd, and Perez is the ideal supersub. Anderson has been the lone bright spot in the rotation

 

Negatives: Its still the pitching. While Davies has typically suffered slow starts and has performed better in more recent starts, Nelson and Peralta continue to look like back of the rotation starters at best. Garza hasn't looked bad, but has only had 2 starts. The bullpen relies heavily on Barnes and Knebel, as every other pitcher in the pen appears capable of imploding on any given night. The back end of the bench, in Franklin and Aguilar, don't offer much in terms of offense.

 

Overall: Though April was plagued with plenty of frustrations and blown leads, I think we probably have to take the net result of it of a .500 club and look at that as a positive sign that maybe we're further along in the rebuild than we thought, particularly after playing 26 games in 28 days without our #1 pitcher.

. Is it sustainable? I really don't know. They've got guys certainly due for regression, but others that are certainly capable of a higher level than what they've shown, and Guerra's return soon should help. It will be interesting to see where we're at in a month and more telling of the caliber of club that we have than we know right now.

[trwi7]

8-1 against the Reds and Blue Jays. Go against decent teams and we still suck.

[Ennder]

We are 3-7 against likely playoff teams and 10-6 against teams not likely to make it. Sounds like a rebuilding team to me.

 

I am impressed with the overall offense. Even the guys off to slow starts like Broxton and Arcia have shown signs of improvement lately. The defense is not great, Santana and Villar specifically are pretty awful. The pitching is just straight up bad and that is what I expected. Overall this month was a positive for the club. I thought they could be just downright awful and they have been close to league average. That is a decent sign for a team in full rebuild. At this point in the Cubs rebuild they were a 100 loss team just to give one example. Looks like we might avoid hitting rock bottom during ours.

[MrTPlush]

April made me feel like not a rebuilding team persay, but one that is ready to rise it just needs the right things to happen. I think there is a solid core right now and if some of our upper prospects can perform and we make some smart outside additions we can start making some noise. It will be a lot of fun to see what happens when Hader/Brinson/Woodruff come up sometime this summer. Not to mention Cordell/Phillips and all the pitchers we need to look through to find reliable bullpen guys.

 

It was a nice sign of life, but not sure if it will continue where we flirt with .500 at the end of the season. I would guess not just because I don't think the offense is this good and the bullpen is going to hand over too many wins late.

[Jenkins5]

Positives:

Pina & Bandy have been outstanding for us.

Thames-Braun-Shaw have been huge 2-4

Villar, Broxton, Santana, & Arcia have been getting going past week

Perez after slow start is back at it.

Barnes & Knebel have been pretty lights out.

Garza may be building trade value.

Anderson, Hughes, Drake all have been good.

 

Negatives

Strikeouts

Right now we only have about five pitchers who have been consistent.

-only 1 starter maybe two if you think Peralta for first 3-4 starts

Baserunning mistakes

Villar, Broxton, & Santana underperforming

Blown games

 

Overall, impressive start for them. Finish a few games vs the Cubs, I'd be more excited. Right now I'm ready to clean house with pitching staff. Much more fun once Woodruff, Hader, Lopez earn their spots. Some guys in bullpen who need to figure it out soon as well. Like to see Wang up over Malone.

 

Team is still fun for me to watch which is important during rebuild but that is only due to offensive talent. I usually switch off game when we are on defense. I just can't wait until June when we can start bringing up some exciting talent. Even if they struggle, I'd love watching our future out there growing & figuring it out like Arcia right now. Hader, Woodruff, Wang, Brinson are guys I hope to see by June sometime. Phillips, Cordell, Lopez, maybe Rivera later in season. Surprised Cordell hasn't been moved around to 1st & 3rd a bit to increase versatility in order to have a role if called up down road.

[superfly]

8-1 against the Reds and Blue Jays. Go against decent teams and we still suck.

 

Don't blow 5 run leads and we'd be several games better too.