Halfway through April, some players have been performing unusually well, while others have faltered from the stats they've put up in previous seasons. A look at whether these early-season numbers are flukes or actual trends:
P Joe Borowski | Cleveland Indians: The man dubbed "Joe Blow" by Indians fans blew yet another save Monday night, this time against the Boston Red Sox. Last year he managed to rack up 45 saves despite posting a 5.07 ERA.
Borowski always seemed to tread on thin ice, but upon examination of his peripheral stats, Borowski is a pitcher who was better than his ERA indicated. The Rutgers product struck out 58 batters in 65 innings last year and walked only 17. No one will mistake him for Jonathan Papelbon - Borowski did also give up nine homers last year - but his peripherals suggested that he could continue to be a useful pitcher.
This year, however, the veteran's velocity has been down, as was seen during Monday's game when he topped out at 83 miles per hour. If this trend continues, Borowski is indeed going to continue to be ineffective. However, if he can regain a few miles per hour on his "fastball," Joe Blow might remain a useful pitcher in the Tribe's bullpen once he returns from the DL, where he was placed yesterday.
CF Carlos Gomez | Minnesota Twins: As of Monday night, the speedy outfielder had five stolen bases in 52 at-bats. Gomez, however, was only hitting .269/.296/.385. This is the type of player Gomez is at this point in his career; he could steal 60 bases if he ever received 600 at-bats, but his OBP could hover around .300 and his slugging percentage is unlikely to eclipse .400.
Luckily for Twins' fans, the former New York Met's age and minor league track record suggest that his OBP should rise with experience, and there remains a small, but not insignificant, chance that Gomez could develop enough power to be an elite player. Even if Gomez fails to develop much power, if he can get his OBP to the .360-.380 range he should be an above-average player.
P Zack Greinke | Kansas City Royals: Touted by many as someone who could have a breakout season, the fifth-year vet currently sports a 0.75 ERA for Trey Hillman's club. His peripherals, however, do not suggest domination: Greinke has walked five and struck out nine hitters. Greinke does have a lot of breakout potential, but he needs to up the strikeouts in order to live up to the hype.
P Dana Eveland | Oakland Athletics: The lefty was an unheralded part of the December trade that sent Dan Haren to the Arizona Diamondbacks, but he has made a big impact in his first two starts. Eveland boasts an impressive minor league track record and above-average stuff.
His problem has been conditioning, since he is a rather large fellow, and control. He appears to have the former in check, and he's shown the ability to harness the latter as well.
Eveland will likely have some days when he simply cannot throw strikes; in the meantime, the combination of his high-strikeout rate, a solid defense behind him and half of his starts coming in a pitcher's park suggests that Eveland could be very successful this season.
P Chien-Ming Wang | New York Yankees: The Taiwan-bred ace of the Bronx Bombers seems to have moved from the label of overrated after his initial success in the majors to underrated this season. Sure, Wang does not strike out many batters, but he also walks few and is extremely stingy with the long-ball.
In 2008, he has seen these patterns continue, as Wang has struck out 11, walked four and given up one homer in 22 innings. He may not be exciting to watch, but Wang should be a reliable force at the top of the Yankees rotation all season long.
P Kenny Rogers | Detroit Tigers: The veteran was supposed to be an integral part of Motown's otherwise-fragile rotation. But Rogers has pitched very poorly this year, walking as many batters as he's struck out and posting a 6.75 ERA through three starts.
To be fair, two of these starts were very tough assignments: one was in Fenway against the Boston Red Sox, the other in US Cellular Field against the Chicago White Sox. Rogers' middling strikeout rate, however, may finally have caught up with him, as he neither induces enough ground balls nor walks few enough batters to survive without raising his Ks. While his ERA should improve from its current mark, Rogers likely will not be very successful this year.
P C.C. Sabathia | Cleveland Indians: The reigning AL Cy Young winner currently sports a horrific 11.57 ERA through three starts. Many people were concerned about the workload Sabathia endured last season, when he threw 264 innings between the regular season and playoffs for the Tribe.
That said, Sabathia was so efficient that he actually only threw 13 more pitches during the regular season than Baltimore Orioles hurler Daniel Cabrera, even though Cabrera threw only 204 innings last year. This year, Sabathia has uncharacteristically walked nine batters after he walked 37 all of last year.
But Sabathia has also struck out 13 in his 14 innings of work, and his velocity appears to be fine. While it's possible Sabathia is suffering a hangover from last season, it's more likely that he's simply off to a slow start and will recover soon.
