To steal a golf saying, the say you can't win a golf major on Thursday but you can definitely lose it. To apply that to the baseball and the BBA world, you can't win a division in April but you can certainly lose it. Well, Portland can safely say that it's play in April did neither.
The club finished the opening month of the season with a meager 13-14 record that frankly has the team square in the middle of everything. It's not out of the division by any means but the month certainly didn't inspire hopes of a Brewster title. Thanks to a 1-4 record in one-run games, Portland's pythag record and run differential does suggest the team should be slightly better than it currently is.
"We've said it all along" stated Portland manager Mons Raider, "we aren't panicking anytime soon. We've made some changes this off-season that we're going to give time to see how they build and respond. We'll have a better sense of things at the end of this month and into the all-star break."
Portland has been aided in the first month by outstanding starting pitching that ranks 3rd in the Frick in ERA. All 5 starters currently sport an ERA in the 3s and Portland expects that to be a trend for much of the season. The downside to the first month has been suspect run support for the starters as the offense ranks 13th in runs scored through the opening calendar month. This despite the efforts of Mynorli Gaajlimitz who, despite a lower than normal .363 batting average is still reaching base at a .440 clip thanks to 14 walks in April, and rookie Graeme Odhieng whose 0.8 WAR in April is 2nd on the team behind only Gaajlimitz's.
"Odhieng has caused as a positive challenge this season" said Raider. "He put in some work this off-season and really forced our hand on getting him playing time. And to this point he's proven he deserves to be in the lineup. But balancing his usage with Hideaki and Brick has been one of the early things we're trying to find balance with. Good problem to have, but finding the right mix is something we'll continue to search for as the season unfolds."
Top Hitter of April
Mynorli Gaajlimitz
.363/.440/.539; 3 homeruns; 16 RBI
Top Pitcher of April
John O'Leary
6 starts, 3-2 record, 3.00 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 42.0 IP with 28 strikeouts
Led league in Innings for April and was 2nd in the FL in WAR for the month
