There are not many things that are for sure in the game of baseball, but Dontrelle Willis winning in the month of April is becoming pretty close. Over the course of his career Willis is 12-1 in April. Almost the same could be said about Willis in the first half of the season (37-17 with a 2.40 ERA). Willis's early season dominance continued on Friday as he threw seven innings, allowing only three runs on eight hits while striking out five. Willis is now 3-0 with a 3.32 ERA.
Aramis Ramirez of the Chicago Cubs did not play on Friday afternoon because of swelling in his right wrist. Reportedly, Ramirez jammed his wrist sliding into second base sometime back in spring training and it flared up overnight on Thursday. This comes as bad news to Ramirez owners as well as the Chicago Cubs, because Ramirez was enjoying his best startto a season ever. Ramirez saw a hand and wrist specialist in Chicago on Friday, but the Cubs are hoping that this was just precautionary. In a pregame interview Cubs manager Lou Pinella said that he hopes it will just be a day or two before Ramirez returns to the lineup. Apparently this issue with the wrist has been bothering Ramirez since the original incident occurred back in spring training. Considering Ramirez is off to his best April in his career I would not worry too much about him at this point. Ramirez is currently batting .406 with one home run and five runs batted in. Although Ramirez probably won't play today, he should be back in the lineup by Sunday when the weather forecast is more favorable.
Carlos Zambrano of the Chicago Cubs had a very up-and-down day on Friday to say the least. In the first four innings Zambrano put up zeroes on the mound and added a double and a home run at the plate. Unfortunately for the Cubs, Zambrano now has more home runs than Alfonso Soriano and Derrek Lee combined. Also unfortunately for the Cubs Zambrano suffered a complete and total meltdown on the mound in the fifth inning. In the fifth inning Zambrano failed to record an out and surrendered six earned runs. Apparently the Cincinnati Reds are Zambrano's kryptonite. Two of Zambrano's three starts this season have come against the Cincinnati Reds and in those two outings Zambrano has surrendered 11 earned runs in nine innings pitched. The good news for Zambrano owners is that his next start will come on April 18 against the Atlanta Braves and he will not face the Cincinnati Reds until at least July.
Richard Hill of the Chicago Cubs will make his second start of the season today. Hill is coming off of a dominating performance against the Milwaukee Brewers back on April 6th. Hill was scheduled to start on Wednesday against the Houston Astros, but in order to not mess with Carlos Zambrano's five-day rhythm he was pushed back until today. Hill will square off against Bronson Arroyo of the Cincinnati Reds. Having an extra day between starts can often wreak havoc on starting pitchers so there is no telling what having three extra days will do to Hill. The odds will be stacked against Hill since the Cubs will be facing Bronson Arroyo (4-1 with a 1.69 ERA vs. Cubs since joining the Reds) and Aramis Ramirez is expected to be out of the lineup, but the weather should be in his favor if they actually play (snow in the forecast). In two starts against the Reds last season Hill racked up 20 strikeouts in 14 innings pitched, posted a 2.57 ERA, a 0.64 WHIP and held the Reds to a .125 BAA.
Over the course of his career Alfonso Soriano is a .307 hitter with 30 home runs and 86 runs batted in, in the month of April. Through nine games this season Soriano is batting .205 with zero homeruns and zero runs batted in. Is it possible that Soriano is suffering from a return to the spotlight, perhaps it is his huge contract that is making him press or maybe there really is a curse? The answer to those questions is in the eye of the beholder, but there is one thing that is for certain and that is that Soriano will start to hit at some point. The Cubs and fantasy owners alike are just hoping that he'll begin to hit before it's too late and he likely will. What is going on with Soriano right now is unexplainable. I have watched Soriano swing through middle to upper 80's mph fastball after middle to upper 80's mph fastball. On top of that when he does get on base he is not stealing bases (1 SB). As most fantasy projections had Soriano as a top-five player, at the least, it is way too early to sink the ship. Soriano has a well established and proven record so it is just a matter of time before he comes around. Aside from getting off to a very slow start Soriano has collected one hit in eight of his first nine games.
There are over 100 player news blurbs posted in the member area each morning, members can read the rest of today's player news by clicking here: www.fantistics.com/baseball00/. Not a member? Join today: www.fantistics.com/join/join.php3
