As David Regan has shown all of you previously, Max Scherzer of the Arizona Diamondbacks is one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball. To get a feel for the kind of stuff this kid has, check out his season stat line so far - 23 IP, 38 K, 1.17 ERA, 0.65 WHIP and he has struck out 11 batters in back-to-back starts. If those don’t raise your eyebrows you need to check your pulse. This guy has nasty stuff and that K/9 rate is a ridiculous 14.86.With Webb, Haren, Owings and Johnson starting the year so well I wouldn’t expect Scherzer to get a look yet but keep your eyes open if Johnson goes down sometime this year.
Hunter Pence has found his groove and is now riding a 7-game hitting streak, which has boosted his BA from .161 to .268 along that span. Pence just turned 25-years old earlier this month and while his hot streak has helped him raise his BA, I’m very curious to see what he’ll do over the course of a full 162 game season. Pence has hit for high average at AA, AAA and at the major league level last season but his BB/K ratio since being called up has been horrendous (.27 last year, .20 so far in 2008). Pence’s .298 BHIP indicates he benefited from a lot of good bounces in 2007, but this season it has taken a big drop to .240. Numbers usually don’t lie and it seems to me that with a BB/K below .30 there is no possible way Pence could finish this season at his 2007 mark of .322. However, there are a select few hitters who can get away with striking out a ton while walking very little and still hit at a high clip. I honestly believe Pence is one of those hitters and would expect his hot streak to continue.
Rafael Furcal has been nothing short of incredible this April. The Dodgers’ spark plug has already collected 11 multi-hit games to go along with a .382 BA, 20 R, 6 SB, 9 RBI and 3 HR (two of them being leadoff bombs). Furcal’s main problem last season was his slow start but he is showing no such issues this year. The speedy SS is boasting an eye-popping 1.15 FPI and 6 of his 11 multi-hit performances have been in his last 10 games. Raffy is poised for what could very well be the best season in his career, especially if Nomar Garciaparra, James Loney, and Jeff Kent continue to hit the ball well.
Scott Olsen allowed no runs in 7.1 innings against the Brewers last night but the statistics that stood out the most were his 5 BB and 0 K. Olsen won’t survive many outings like that unscathed and was very fortunate this time around when you consider Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun are heating up. Olsen posted a respectable ERA of 4.04 in 2006 but fell off in a big way in 2007 when he put up a 5.81 ERA and his BB/9 was a terrible 4.33. His BB/9 is going the same way this season so far as it’s up to 3.34 while his K/BB is an unimpressive 1.00. I’m not very high on Olsen and wouldn’t risk picking him up right now; I believe he might be close to getting shelled in his next start.
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