It’s the 28th of the month so that means it’s stat day for the Illowa APBA League. Since our APBA draft weekend was a bit early in February this year, the managers had a good month and a half to get the stats done for the first 30 games but as usual I waited till the last minute to get my Twin City Thunderchickens numbers done. I did get through fifteen boxscores last night and slogged through the rest of them this afternoon.
As noted before, I went 11-19 for the weekend so I won’t dwell on that. We did get a significant amount of resting of starters done so I think that pattern won’t continue.
Albert who?
I should thank fellow manager Nick Tegeler. Our off-season trade with him which included Thunderchicken fan favorite Albert Pujols, is paying off dividends already.
To recap, the deal was:
Twin City’s 1st round pick <> Pablo Sandoval
Twin City’s 2nd round pick <> J.D. Martinez
Albert Pujols <> Eric Hosmer
Twin City’s last supplemental pick <> Dayan Viciedo
While Hosmer hasn’t really done much (.128 with 6 rbis in 78 AB), I am extremely grateful for Sandoval and Martinez. They have carried this team offensively. Pablo leads the team in hitting with a .340 batting average while J.D. paces us in homers (6) and rbis (16). Sandoval is right behind him with 15 rbis and has gone long four times while Martinez is hitting a solid .303.
The Sandoval/Martinez duo has combined to drive in over 1/3 of the entire team’s runs (31 of 91).
Speaking of Hosmer, he may have to fight for his job. Adam LaRoche is the only other guy in double digits in rbis with ten and is tied with Panda with four homers. LaRoche who is batting a decent .255, has been splitting time with Hosmer at first base.
Interestingly, Nick Markakis leads the team in strikeouts with 38. In his 29 starts, he failed to strikeout in only three of those games.
Hard luck Hurling
As usual, the pitching for Twin City is doing its job but suffering a bit of hard luck. Homer Bailey is the epitome of the Chicken staff. He has a 3.21 ERA and struck out 23 batters in 28 innings and yet has a record of 0-3. Strasburg is out to a fantastic start, however. He’s struck out 48 batters in 41 innings with a 2.63 ERA and is off the 3-1 start. He also has our only shutout.
Give some kudos to the rookie relievers, too. Zack Putnam has a 2.45 ERA and one save and Jose Familia has three saves to go with his 2-1 record and 2.70 mark. Both have kept games close for us.
As for Pujols, rumor has it that he hit three homers for Nick’s Iowa Oinkers in the first 30 games. If that’s true, he now sits at 499 career IAL homers. Don Smith’s Molly Putts Marauders are next up for the Oinkers. Watch out, Albert. Mr. Smith might order his pitchers to pitch around you…or maybe just a little chin music.
