April In Review

Overall, this has been a remarkably positive month, in spite of the current 8-11 record.

Also in spite of the fact that Roy "ROQ" O'Quinn has succumbed to an end of season injury.
In spite of the fact that SP Cecil Gibbons is going to return to the Bomber rotation sometime in June.

The real positives for the Bombers have been leaps and bounds.
John "Flipper" Martin is pitching, so far, like the pitcher the Bombers expected when they traded "Crayon" Frost to SoCal.  A modest 1-1 record in 4 Starts, a WHIP of 1.16 and an ERA of 2.70

Reijiro "Hit Squad" Yamaguchi has really persevered so far in this young season.  Coming out of Spring Training Yamaguchi lost his bid for the 5th spot in the rotation and was relegated to the bullpen.  However, when Gibbons went down, Yamaguchi stepped right back into the rotation and has really stabilized the back end of the rotation.  In 6 appearances - and 3 starts, he's 1-0, with a 1.66 ERA, 1.06 WHIP.  But as a Starter, he's been down right FILTHY!  1-0, ERA of 0.49, WHIP of 0.87 and 14 K's in 18.1 IP.

Orlando Bustamante, has started this season like a man on a mission.  So far he's already won a Player Of The Week Award, hit 7 HR's, knocked in 16 and is batting at a .407 clip which leads the TML.

Then from a team standpoint, things are looking very promising right now.  Historically, the Bombers bullpen ERA has been ranked either 11th or 12th in the first 3 seasons.  So far this season, they are ranked 2nd in the TML with a 2.70 ERA, which is almost 2.5 runs BETTER than previous season. 
That is the biggest jump right now, but improvement has been seen across the board.

The Bullpen stalwarts are John Wood, Jim Dorsey,  and Cal Henry who are all sporting WHIP's under 1.00 (0.55, 0.68 and 0.97 respectively).

Six of the Seven members of the bullpen are racking up K's at a rate of 8.1 K per 9 or better.

The Bombers have 3 games remaining this month to finish at 500, and they're against Billy Martin Division King, the Maple Marauders.  3 wins would go a long way towards the psych of this young team.