April is drawing to a close in South Texas. Corpus Christi may be playing in front of empty stadiums if the flu outbreak keeps spreading. In the mean time, the Hooks are sitting at 8 -11 and are in a tie for last in the the Texas League north. Their record is also tied for the worst record in the Texas League. Let’s take a look at what the numbers say about the good & bad of the Corpus Christi Hooks as of the 4/29/09 games.
The Good:
The Hitters:
The Hooks are hitting the ball pretty well. They are ranked 3rd in team batting average (.281), slugging (.434), OPS (.817), runs (109), RBI (102), total bases (286) and hits (189). They lead the league in round trippers with 21. They also have the 3rd fewest runners caught stealing (4) but that is tempered by the fact that they have only run 19 times which is the 2nd lowest attempted in the league.
Individually, Andrew Locke is making his mark in AA since being taken in the minor league section of the rule 5 draft. He is hitting .406 on the season that is good enough for 2nd in the league. He is leading the league in RBI (23). He is also second in slugging (.667), and hits (29) . He is tied for 5th in doubles (6) and alone in 5th in OPS (1.093). He is tied for 4th in HR with 4 and is 3rd in total bases (46).
Jimmy Van Ostrand has the second best OBP (.492), 4th in slugging (.640) and 3rd in OPS (1.132). His average (.400) is good for the 3rd best in the league.
Collin DeLome leads the league in HR with 6 and has the 10th best slugging percentage at .566. He is 5th in total bases (43), tied for 9th most RBI (14), and is tied for 3rd most runs scored (18).
Mitch Einertson has the 7th best slugging percentage (.583), and his 4 home runs tie him for 4th most.
Josh Flores has 4 stolen bases on the year which ties him for 9th most in the league.
Wlad Sutil has 4 stolen bases on the year which ties him for 9th most in the league.
The Pitchers:
The games they have won have been close, they are tied for the league lead with 6 saves. They have also plunked only 9 batters which is the 3rd fewest and have walked the fewest batters in the league (52).
Brad James has the 5th best ERA (2.81) in the league.
Douglas Arguello has the 7th best ERA (2.87)in the league and has the 9th best WHIP (1.28).
Polin Trinidad struck out 17 batters before going on the DL which ranked him tied for 5th.
The Bad
The Hitters:
For all the home runs they are hitting, the doubles aren’t falling. They have hit 30 doubles which is the 3rd fewest in the league. They have also only hit 2 triples which is the fewest in the league. They also have walked the fewest times in the league (57). They have struck out 126 times which ties them for 2nd most in the league. The Hooks have only stolen 14 bases which ranks them next to last in that category.
Andrew Locke has fanned 16 times to tie him for 8th most in the league.
Wlad Sutil has been caught stealing 3 times which ties him for the most in the league.
The Pitchers:
As a team, the Hooks have the next to highest ERA in the league (5.51). They have given up the most hits (120), and the second most runs (115) and earned runs (102). They have also given up more home runs (23) than they have hit (21). They have struck out the fewest batters in the league (106).
Casey Hudspeth has given up 24 hits which is the 5th most in the league. Those hits have ended up in 15 runs scoring which is tied for the most surrendered in the league. Twelve of the runs were earned which is tied for the 5th most allowed.
Polin Trinidad has given up 22 hits which ties the 6th most given up. He has given up 13 runs in the process which is tied for the 10th most in the league. He has also given up 3 home runs which ties him for 4th most allowed.
Sergio Perez has given up 12 earned runs which is tied for the 5th most allowed.
Chris Salamida has surrendered 4 home runs which ties him for 2nd most allowed. He has also plunked 3 batters which ties him for 4th most in the league.
Brad James has given up 11 walks, this is the tied for the 6th most given up.
Eric Abreu has given up 3 home runs which ties him for 4th most allowed.