As usual, there are some surprising names at the top of
April’s pitching leader board – both good and bad.
Jaime Garcia – 2nd ERA (1.04) NL: All eyes are focused on Adam Wainwright and
Cris Carpenter, but there’s another pretty good starter in the St. Louis
rotation. Jaime Garcia hasn’t given up
more than 2 earned runs in any of his five starts and he’s struck out at least
5 batters in all but one game. True,
he’s a real life 5th starter, but he has the makeup to play in mixed
leagues.
Doug Fister – 1st WHIP (0.80) AL: After walking 3 batters in his first start
of the year, Fister has only yielded 2 base on balls over his next 31
innings. His strikeout ratio of 4.1 is
less than desirable, but he’s managed to nail down some quality starts. Nothing in his past suggested that he is
capable of continuing this breakneck pace especially when the .218 BABIP
corrects itself, so keep expectations in check.
Jonathan Sánchez – 9th strikeouts (37) MLB: Along with the strikeouts, Sanchez has
tallied a 2.48 ERA and 1.21 WHIP. Even
with last year's no-hitter under his belt, Sanchez can be wildly erratic - he's
tied for 3rd in the NL with 18 BB. Nevertheless, he still hasn't surrendered a
hit to a lefty this year and he's plenty valuable in mixed leagues as long as
you can offset his WHIP.
Ricky Romero – 1st BAA (.168) AL: Romero is also sporting a healthy 7.75 K/9
ratio to go along with a 2.25 ERA and 0.94 WHIP. All of that indicates the opposition's struggles and the .168
BAA. He had a .284 BAA last year, so
there's plenty of room to digress, but it also shows he is back healthy.
Rich Harden – 1st Walks Allowed (23) MLB: We all know about Harden's excellent
strikeout rate (8.60 in 2009), but we would like to see more consistency. Harden has given up a homer in 4 of his 5
starts and he's walked 23 batters in 23.2 IP.
He hasn't gone past 6 IP this year, but at least his last start showed
improvement giving up 3 ER in 6 innings against the White Sox (he walked 5).
