April Offensive Highlights

Written by Sean P | 04 May 2010

In addition to our look at the top 30, we wanted to touch on some other guys who have gotten off to good starts early on.

Deangelo Mack- A- .275/.396/.500 5 2Bs, 2 3Bs, 3 HRs, 2 SBs, .391 wOBA

Mack has been impressive in the early going. We’ve touched on Mack before and how he wanted to improve his speed heading into this year. While the stolen bases are nothing to write home about (has 3 CS as well) every other facet of his game has improved. He’s now walking in 15% of his PAs but the strikeouts have risen too- up to 23%. I was ready to chalk this up to BABIP but his .352 mark is actually lower than he posted all of last year. As a college kid he’s a bit old for the SAL, 23, but we can’t really hold that against him- it’s been an impressive start in full season ball for the outfielder.

Eduardo Nunez-AAA- .360/.414/.461 6 2Bs, 0 3Bs, 1 HR, 8 SBs, .387 wOBA

Greg touched on this before- this is a Nunez we’re unfamiliar with. Forget all the other numbers, the stand out ones are these- 8 walks, 6 strikeouts. He’s never been a prolific strikeout guy nor has he ever drawn many walks but these numbers early on are trending in positive directions. An 8% walk rate and just 6% strikeout rate certainly stand out. The BABIP is high (.378) as is his LD% (21%) but even a luck and park neutralized line courtesy of Minor League Splits shows an encouraging .314/.379/.407. As Greg notes, the Yankees have been rotating him around the infield a little bit, but it hasn't helped much as he already has six errors on the season and he has especially struggled in his brief time at second and third base. The test will be if Nunez can keep up the impressive plate discipline and maintain this production- here’s to hoping we were wrong.

Colin Curtis-AAA- .339/.435/.441 6 2Bs, 0 3Bs, 0 HRs, 0 SBs, .385 wOBA

Cutis has had a quite beginning to the season but a good one. The main reason for his success is an early uptick in his BB rate that’s propelled him to a very nice .435 OBP. Right now he’s riding in the midst of a hot BABIP, an unsustainable .392 clip. However this defense first corner outfielder has a chance turn some heads as a 4^th/5^th outfield type next year and his nice April shouldn’t be ignored.

Other notable bats-

Juan Miranda just keeps on keepin’ on (.355 wOBA, .204 ISO)…who knows what will happen with him although I imagine some team would give him a look next year…..Zolio Almonte (.290/.362/.441, .346 wOBA) has kept up his improved walk rate from last year (10%) but has struck out in 25% of his PAs….Luke Murton (.268/.345/.474, .355 wOBA) is 2 days removed from the snapping of his 14 game hitting streak and 2010 finds the Charleston 1^st baseman walking slightly less, striking out less but still posting a solid ISO- .206)….Brandon Laird has really turned it on as of late (.284/.343/.526, .362 wOBA) posting a .242 ISO with 5 HRs already….