Speed Plot – April 5th, 2006

Daily Best

Jeremy Bonderman – It pains me to give Bonderman best of the day (mostly because he’s a favorite of my fantasy baseball nemesis), but giving up just 3 hits and striking out 8 in 6 plus innings of work was too good to ignore. He induced 13 ground balls and only 2 fly balls, one of which was an infield-fly. Playing against the Royals certainly didn’t hurt.
Runners up: Bronson Arroyo, Josh Beckett

Ivan Rodriguez – Even though he had arguably the worst plate discipline of any player last season, he managed to get the bat on the ball last night all 11 times he swung. Three of those times he connected for doubles, one time for a home run, and the other time for a single making him a perfect 5-5 on the night. He also drove in 5 runs in the 14-3 drubbing of the Royals.
Runners Up: Tori Hunter, Jay Gibbons

Daily Worst

Seth McClung – Sure McClung’s fastball might top out at over 100 mph, but when you walk 7, maybe it’s time to ease off the gas a bit. He also gave up 5 hits and 7 runs in just 3 innings of work.
Runners Up: Odalis Perez, Steve Stemle

David Ortiz – The Red Sox pitching managed to fend off the Rangers tonight and it’s a good thing too. The usually great Ortiz struck out once, hit into not one, but two double plays and didn’t get on-base once. A very poor night for the runner-up MVP.
Runners Up: Bernie Williams, Matt Holliday

The 5 Players I Feel Like Writing About

Prince Fielder – The contact watch is over! For the first time this season (all of 3 games), Fielder didn’t strike out once and drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 8th inning. He still only made contact with the ball 50% of the time, but it’s the results that matter. Right?

Orlando Hernandez – In his first start for the Diamondbacks, he was impressive striking out 8 and surrendering only 1 run in 5 innings of work. Anyone taking bets on another 7-1 start from El Duque? If he can stay healthy, he should do just fine.

Derrek Turnbow – He’s notched a save in all three of the Brewers’ games, but has walked 2 and given up 4 hits making things a little dicey at times. It’s way too early to make any assumptions, but it’d be nice to see him make things easier on himself instead of having to gut out 1 run games with runners on 2nd and 3rd.

Danny Haren – Walking none and striking out 8 players in one of the most feared lineups in baseball was definitely impressive. Besides giving up a solo home-run to Matsui in the 2nd, most of the damage was done on a 3 run-homer by Sheffield in the 3rd. He’s never had too many problems giving up home runs in the past, so I wouldn’t expect it to be much of an issue this year. It will be interesting to see if he can continue to strike batters out at anywhere near his current pace.

Jonathan Papelbon – Given the nod to close out the game last night, Papelbon was excellent, striking out two in a perfect ninth. In his short stint in the majors last year, he showed all the skills necessary to be a top closer. If he’s not needed in the rotation, I wouldn’t be shocked to see him hang on to the closers job all year long.