April's over. Let's look at some of the good and bad for the month:
Good: Cub starting pitchers had 15 quality starts (out of 24) in April; in those they had a 1.77 ERA in 101.2 IP.
Bad: Cub relief pitchers are 0-7 with three blown saves.
Good: Derrek Lee has 14 doubles, more than any Cub in the last 50 years has had in April, and currently leads the majors in BA at .392.
Bad: The entire Cubs outfield has two home runs -- one from Cliff Floyd, one from Felix Pie, and the $136 million man, who has 5 straight years of 90+ RBI, drove in one run during April.
Good: The guy who many of you thought was going to be the worst of the starters is 3-1 with a 2.35 ERA.
Bad: The supposed ace of the staff has a 5.77 ERA and is tied for the NL lead... in most batters walked.
Good: The Cubs have outscored their opponents 112-91, which, by the Pythagorean Formula created by Bill James, should result in a record of 14-10 after 24 games.
Bad: The Cubs have lost all six of their one-run games, making the above formula pretty much useless.
You get the idea. Time to change this, starting tonight.
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Wait, it gets worse. Not only has Armas had two brutally bad starts, but several Cubs have hit him really hard during his career (Derrek Lee: .345/.441/.897 in 29 AB, 4 HR; Cliff Floyd, .423/.500/.500 in 26 AB; Aramis Ramirez, .462/.462/.923, 6-for-13, 2 HR; and -- you're not going to believe this -- Cesar Izturis, .583/.538/1.250, 7-for-12, three doubles, a triple, and a HR).
Like I said, I hate matchups like this. Time for one of them to actually come out like the stats say it should.
The game's back on CSN and thus, EI, and also at the Mediacenter.
Discuss amongst yourselves.