Please join my twitter army @TheNLKing. This article is a reminder that April is just one month into the season. A lot of players, especially hitters, are notorious slow starters. I have Joey Votto and Rickie Weeks and at the time of this writing they have yet to get it going. As long as they stay healthy they will. In fact, the only area's I would have for a given team at this junction is injury situations (which there have been a lot) and certain players starts to the season that you were counting on them to be good. For instance, on my team I have Chase Headley and Rafael Furcal and I like what I am seeing. I know Votto and Weeks will be good but some of these other players that's where I really have my eyes on. That's who you should be following closely on you teams right now, these kind of players which I call bridge players. Just to illustrate the point of April numbers, last year Michael Morse, for the month of April, had 1HR, 9RBI, 4R, 1 SB and a .224 Avg. Of course, his final numbers were 31HR, 95RBI, 73R, 2SB, . 303 Avg. Carlos Gonzalez the last couple of years has got off to a very slow start including his insane 2010 season. Mark Teixiera is always a slow starter. Those off you from my generation will remember that Don Mattingly during the 80's, where he was arguably the best player in baseball, always had a very slow first 2 to 3 weeks. Like I said, in my last article you have to be patient. SF Bullpen - Obviously with Brian Wilson gone for the year unless, the Giants pull off a trade which I doubt at this juncture, it's going to be either Santiago Casilla or Sergio Romo. Quite honestly, it could be one guys role as closer for a while and then it could flip. Also there will be situations where they could use Javier Lopez or Clay Hensley for a save as well. Both Casilla and Romo have excelled the last couple of years in terms of performance setting up for Wilson. Casilla did close for the Giants last September when Wilson was shut down and went 6 for 6 in save situations. Both guys have the stuff to close the question is do Casilla & Romo have the mentality to be a closer over the course of a season and can the hold up physically as well as both have had bouts with injuries. Seems like Casilla will get the 1st chance to get the majority of the saves but when it's all said and done I think both guys at the end of year could give their owners good secondary saves. NL King - C.Lizza
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
NL King - It was only April
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