On the Diamond Vol. 1

[bschr682]

I waited awhile before writing anything and now after 3 sims its time to dig in.

A brightspot in April has to be the Crusaders starting 5. 4 starters have an ERA of 3.14 or below. While SP John Davis struggled a bit to begin the year it paled in comparison to the struggles of CL Billy Taylor. Taylor, coming off a fantastic 43 save/ 2.09 ERA season, put up an abysmal ERA of over 10 and blew 2 of his first 3 save opportunities. It have been rash but moving Davis from the rotation to the closer spot has worked out. Hes 100% in the saves department and has lowered his ERA. His k rate should go up drasticly with the move to the pen.

With this move the Crusaders needed a new 5th starter. In comes young swing man Paul Kimzey. Kimzey (25) is much younger than Davis (31) so perhaps he has a future in the Crusaders rotation. Only time will tell.

The other side of the diamond has not been so kind to the Crusaders. Hitting has been pretty poor to say the least. Star 1B Billy Wilson has a very poor batting average of .171. While average has never been Wilsons strong suit I'd like to see that come up a bit. At least the power is still there as he has hit 7 homers. C Hurley Reyes is off to a fast start .337/.406/.663. After that the hitting drops off quite a bit.

Its a bit early yet to make any predictions but if the hitting from the rest of the lineup doesn't shape up, I may be getting busy near the trade deadline.

And of course after all my whining about my poor hitting, the Crusaders are sitting ok at 14 -14 and only a game and a half out of 1st.