Ben Brown – Picture by Micah Manuel/Tennessee Smokies

Pitching stats for April are pretty funky. And by funky, I mean, there’s only three weeks of data. Most pitchers have only got in three or four starts for the month and most relievers did not break 10 innings. So let’s take the stats for April with a grain of salt as to who is pitching well.

For instance, Kohl Franklin looked to be the best pitcher in the system last month. A small problem, he gave up 6 earned runs in one inning. Otherwise, he didn’t allow another run the rest of the month and looked dominant, just dominant. However, that one inning ballooned his ERA to almost 4. Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story of just how well he pitched.

ERA – Cade Horton 0.00, Kevin Valdez 0.93

Outside of stolen bases, this might be the best category we picked as Greg Huss‘ choice of Jordan Wicks did well last month as did Greg Zumach‘s choice of Luke Little. As for me, Porter Hodge had a roller coaster of a month that saw him struggle to make the adjustment to AA. Not one of us saw Kevin Valdez on the horizon as an ERA leader. Greg Huss picked Bailey Horn while Zumach and I rolled with Jake Reindl.

Innings pitched – Richard Gallardo 25.1, Carlos Guzman 14.1

Innings pitched is always a misleading stat. It could mean that a pitcher pitches well, but ERA is much better stat. There are those who think it is very important like some of you do, but I really don’t. I am in the ERA camp 100%. I am even in the strikeout camp more so at 110%. Greg Zumach nailed this pick as he had Gallardo while Huss had Ben Brown and I had Porter Hodge. As for Guzman, I am not so sure he stays in the bullpen.

Strikeouts – Ben Brown 30, Bailey Horn 20

Our predictions really whiffed on this one as Greg Huss and I both went with Porter Hodge while Greg Zumach went with DJ Herz who has yet to pitch. When it came to relievers, we did not get this one either as Greg Huss went with Johzan Oquendo and Greg Zumach and I both went with Riley Martin. It’s still very early in the season.

Strikeouts per Nine Innings – Chris Clarke 15, Bailey Horn 18

Both Huss and I went with Jake Reindl here. I went with Jake on a lot of my picks in the reliever categories. Greg Zumach picked Zac Leigh who has yet to pitch. Strangely enough, we did not do this stat with starters.

Batting Average Against – Brandon Birdsell 0.82, Kevin Valdez 0.65

Strangely enough, DJ Herz was picked by all three of us, and he may still win this award, but he needs to actually get in actual games and probably will do so next week. No one saw reliever Kevin Valdez coming in terms of being a force to be reckoned with. Both Greg Huss and I picked Jake Reindl while Zumach went with Bailey Horn.

WHIP – Cade, Horton 0.58, Jake Reindl 0.71

Greg Huss picked Brandon Birdsell, who came close on this one, while I went with Porter Hodge and Greg Zumach went with Ben Brown. We only went with this category for starters. If we redid it, I would imagine Jake Reindl would have been an obvious choice for two of us while Bailey Horn would have been in the discussion for the third.

Next year, we can probably expand our statistics prognostications to include a couple more categories. One I like is strikeouts to walks, and the 2 leaders are Brandon Birdsell for starters at 5.00 while the leader for relievers is Brad Deppermann at an amazing 9.00.

We will check back at some point to do an update, but when is more of the question.