The Thunderchickens held their own for the March weekend going .500. The sad part for us was that we hadn’t gotten around to playing the Champions yet. A week later, we played them over Skype and fell to them 1-5. For the weekend, we were 13-17.
Our highlights:
Jason Varitek is fourth on the team in rbis and only two behind team leader Albert Pujols with 12. The kicker is that Tek only played 22 games and didn’t start all of them.
Despite hitting .217, Troy Tulowitzki is tied with Albert Pujols in team homeruns with six.
Our pitchers are striking batters out. We’re doing it at a pace close to 7 per nine innings (6.91). That’s over a strikeout better than last year. Big guys in that category so far are: Mark Hendrickson (11 Ks in 11 IP), Chris Perez (15 Ks in 10 1/3 innings), Homer Bailey (20 Ks in 25 innings) and K leader John Lackey (29 Ks in 38 innings).
Speaking of Lackey, he’s off to an unlucky start. He’s striking out batters and has a decent ERA of 4.26. Unfortunately, he’s also 0-4 for the season.
And while we’re talking about slow starts, anyone want Casey McGehee? He is still looking for his first hit in 21 at-bats. Rookie of the Year Geovony Soto looks even worse. He started the season in a 0 for 32 slump until he pounded a double in his last at-bat of March. Ouch.
Three rookie pitchers look real good so far. Bullpen ace Jose Mijares has yet to allow a run in nine innings and has collected five saves and one win. Jeff Niemann is 1-1 with a 2.32 ERA in 31 IP. Our #1 pick Tommy Hanson won his first two games of the year. He’s 2-1 with a nice 3.30 ERA.