Kuzul

Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish struck out 11 batters in Friday’s 2-0 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, thus notching his 22nd double-digit strikeout performance through 69 career starts. Going back to 1914, former New York Mets hurler Doc Gooden is the only player to have more double-digit strikeout outings through the first 69 outings of his career, per MLB Stat of the Day.

While Darvish‘s 22 such outings are unquestionably impressive, Gooden had an astounding 27 at the same point in his career. Making his feat even more incredible, Gooden was only 19 years old at the time of his major league debut in 1984 and only 21 years old when he made his 69th appearance.

Known as much for his precipitous decline as his dominant early years, Gooden owns no shortage of early-career records, yet didn’t even come close to key milestones like 3,000 strikeouts and 300 wins.

Though Darvish figures to have more staying power than Gooden, the Japanese hurler will also have a hard time reaching the major pitching milestones. Having spent his first seven professional seasons in Japan, the 27-year-old Darvish not only got a relatively late start on his MLB career, but he also accumulated a ton of wear and tear on his arm.

With 20-win seasons increasingly rare and Darvish owning just 32 career victories, the 300-win mark looks nearly impossible. The 3,000 strikeout club—currently populated by 16 players—is a bit more attainable, as Darvish has shown an incredible penchant for the punchout with a career K/9 mark of 11.13.

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Prince Fielder is out of the Texas Rangers‘ starting lineup on Saturday with a herniated disk in his neck, Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News reports. The loss of Fielder is just another blow to a Rangers team who have already seen the likes of Derek Holland, Jurickson Profar, Matt Harrison and others hit the shelf this season. 

Grant reports that Fielder received an injection Saturday to help combat the neck issue, and the severity of the injury remains unclear at this point. We’ve seen players miss a week with similar injuries (as Baltimore‘s Nick Markakis did in spring training of 2013), while others have undergone surgery (as New York’s Bobby Parnell did in September of 2013). 

From an on-field standpoint, the loss isn’t a drastic one for the Rangers, as Fielder was hitting just .247 with three home runs and 16 RBIs to this point. However, he did have three multi-hit days in his last four games, so seeing him miss time right as he was starting to get hot is certainly a letdown for Texas.

Fielder has been a disappointment with the Rangers so far, as many thought that moving his power to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington could make him an MVP candidate. The Rangers acquired Fielder last offseason in a one-for-one swap with the Tigers that sent Ian Kinsler to Detroit. Kinsler has thrived with the Tigers thus far, hitting .301 with four home runs and 19 RBIs, so if Fielder misses significant time, Detroit will be walking away as the early winners of the trade. 

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Nobody in baseball today knows the agony of just missing a no-hitter quite like Yu Darvish.

But here’s something you can count on: It won’t be that way forever.

If you missed what happened on Friday night, you missed the Texas Rangers ace flirt with history in an 8-0 drubbing of the Boston Red Sox. First by chasing a perfect game, and then by chasing a no-hitter.

There was a time when it looked like the perfect game was going to happen, as Darvish seemed to be moments away from having a perfecto through seven innings when David Ortiz lofted a harmless fly ball to right field with two outs. All Darvish needed was for either Rougned Odor or Alex Rios to catch it.

Neither did. The ball dropped, allowing Big Papi to reach first. No more perfect game…but since the official scorer ruled the play an error on Rios, his no-hitter was kept intact.

Right call? Wrong call? In my opinion, it was a defensible call. Rule 10.12 states it is “not necessary” for a fielder to touch the ball in order to be charged with an error, and also allows for errors to be charged on outfielders who don’t catch balls that can be caught with “ordinary effort.”

It doesn’t matter, though. The argument became academic when Big Papi came up again and did this when Darvish was just one out away from a no-hitter in the ninth inning:

A nice, clean base hit.

That was it for Darvish. With his pitch count at 126, Texas manager Ron Washington came out to get him. What could have been either a perfect game or a no-hitter ended as just another excellent outing by Darvish: 8.2 innings, one hit, two walks and 12 strikeouts.

It’s OK to feel bummed for Darvish. As MLB.com’s Richard Justice noted, Friday’s near-miss was hardly his first:

Poor guy. No pitcher should have to suffer that many near-misses.

But one way to look at it is that Darvish is due for a no-hitter eventually. And given what we know about what he can do, it’s more than a fair bet that he will indeed get one.

As much as we like to treat no-hitters as super-special occurrences, they’re really just ordinary dominant outings with a little extra luck sprinkled in. Anybody can pitch one. Even Bud Smith.

But it helps to be good. As guys like Justin Verlander, Tim Lincecum, Johan Santana, Roy Halladay and many other aces who have pitched no-hitters can vouch, any pitcher who dominates often enough stands a good chance of running into a no-hitter eventually.

And that’s the thing about Darvish: Dominant outings are what he does. Better than any pitcher in the American League, as a matter of fact.

Friday night’s start works as a solid guideline for what we’re talking about. In it, Darvish did the following:

1. Struck out at least 10 over at least seven innings.
2. Allowed three or fewer hits over at least seven innings.
3. Compiled a Game Score over 90.

Want to know how often Darvish has done the first thing since he entered the league in 2012? Friday night’s game was his 16th such start, seven more than any other American League pitcher.

Want to know how often Darvish has done the second thing? Friday night’s game made it 13 for Darvish, three more than any other American League pitcher.

As for that last one, Friday night’s game was Darvish’s third start with a Game Score—a stat created by Bill James that measures the quality of a pitcher’s outing by adding and subtracting points based on innings pitched, strikeouts, hits allowed, etc.—of at least 90. Since 2012, the only American Leaguer with that many 90-plus Game Score starts is James Shields.

Point being, it’s no wonder that Darvish has had a tendency to flirt with no-hitters. That’s an offshoot of him being very good at putting together the kinds of starts that are liable to turn into no-hitters.

And that, in turn, is an offshoot of Darvish being a really, really good pitcher.

Yeah, that’s probably obvious at this point. But since it’s fun to review the numbers of the greats, here they are (via FanGraphs):

Note: Darvish’s opponents’ OPS is from Baseball-Reference.com, with the minimum set at 200 innings.

It’s beyond easy to argue that Darvish is one of the 10 best starters in the American League. It’s very easy to argue that he’s actually one of the five best starters in the American League.

And between the strikeouts, the low opponents’ average and the low opponents’ OPS, there’s absolutely a case for Darvish to be made as the least hittable pitcher in the American League.

And here’s the kicker: These numbers aren’t even updated to include Darvish’s domination of the Red Sox on Friday night. They’ll look even better in the morning.

Bottom line: If you’re sitting there hoping, wishing and praying to see Darvish throw a no-hitter in your lifetime, I really wouldn’t worry yourself too much about it. He hasn’t had the necessary luck just yet, but if there’s a pitcher in the American League who’s a sure bet to throw one eventually, it’s him.

So just wait. And be patient.

And make sure you’re always tuned in when Darvish is on the bump.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted/linked.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

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Many of the Texas Rangers’ Top 10 Prospects continue to shine with their respective minor league affiliations now that the season has hit May.

The players’ season stat-lines can be deceiving as many have improved their numbers since the last time we looked at their stock reports. Pitching prospects come at a minimum for the Rangers but they continue to give the strongest performances this season.

As mentioned in the last report, the prospects that follow are from my pre-spring rankings. Their stock reports over the upcoming months will affect new rankings that will be presented after the conclusion of the Triple-A All-Star Game.

Michael Choice will be substituted with the No. 11 prospect because of his involvement with the Rangers.

Their stats from the previous week (April 29-May 5) will accompany their season stats and whether their stock has risen, fallen or remained the same. Their stock is determined by each player’s performance throughout the season.

All stats courtesy of MiLB.com and Baseball-Reference.com

You can follow Trey on Twitter @treydwarren

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Much like the Seattle Mariners as a whole, third baseman Kyle Seager had an up-and-down first month of the 2014 MLB season.

The 26-year-old Seager is one of the young cornerstones of the Mariners franchise and has been Seattle’s best hitter for the past two years prior to the arrival of Robinson Cano. Seager’s busy April included a horrid start, an AL Player of the Week Award and a walk-off home run to snap an extended losing streak.

Small sample size is still a factor at this point in the year, but there are still a few important takeaways from Seager’s early-season performance. In any case, it’s become clearer and clearer that Seager is going to have a major impact on how the Mariners perform in 2014. 

Seager is still a streaky hitter

Through his first two-and-a-half years in the big leagues, Seager has numerous dominant stretches to go along with some cold spells. April 2014 was no different.

Just at the point where some were starting to get concerned, Seager ripped off a huge week, April 20 to 27, to return his season numbers to respectability. He shared league player of the week honors with wonder rookie Jose Abreu.

The most important thing at this point is that Seager’s awful first 15 games were just a bump in the road and not indicative of a more long-term problem. Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington explained it best following a series where Seager hit three home runs against the Rangers. Via Adam Lewis of MLB.com, Washington said, “I thought we had him. For a moment I thought he was in a slump. I guess he’s not.”

His plate discipline numbers are changing

Some interesting trends have emerged with Seager’s plate discipline over the first month of the season. So far, his walk rate is up to career-high 10.4 percent, and he is swinging at fewer pitches outside the zone than at any other point in his career. At the same time, Seager is striking out in 21.7 percent of his plate appearances this season, up a little over four percent from his career rate.

As Seager’s whiff chart on Brooksbaseball.net shows, the pitches he has struggled with the most have been low and away, but he is doing fairly well with everything else. 

A number of factors could be influencing Seager’s changing plate discipline numbers. Seattle has a brand new coaching staff with a different approach, including hitting coach Howard Johnson. The Mariners as a whole are striking out a lot, and strikeouts league-wide have been steadily climbing. It could also just be April noise.

In any case, Seager’s plate discipline will be something to keep an eye on through the rest of the season.

Seager will again play in at least 150 games

The only reason Seager is not more known around the league is that poor finishes in both of his full major league seasons have severely hampered his overall numbers. On July 31 of last year, Seager was hitting .298 with 17 home runs and 27 doubles before hitting below .200 in both August and September and seeing his power numbers sharply decline.

There’s no telling what the cause for Seager’s late-season swoons have been, but he played in 155 games in 2012 and 160 a year ago. It could be the case that he simply wore down by the end of the season. That was mostly out of necessity, as the Mariners had no other options at third, but that changed during the offseason with the addition of utility man Willie Bloomquist.

Nobody is going to argue that Bloomquist gives the Mariners a better chance of winning than Seager, so Seager should be in the lineup as much as possible. So far, Bloomquist has started twice at third, and Seager is on pace to play in about 150 games. Maybe that just occasional off day will make a difference come August, and it will be interesting to see if manager Lloyd McClendon is thinking about that along the way.

Leading Seattle in home runs is a possibility

Seager led the Mariners in home runs in 2012 and was third last year behind Raul Ibanez and Kendrys Morales, who are both no longer with the team. The Mariners added some more power with Robinson Cano and Corey Hart, but Seager still leads the team in home runs with five.

Of course, all five of those came in a span of four games. But spurts like that mean Seager could hit 25 to 30 home runs if he can avoid the aforementioned late-season problems. When Seager is locked in, he has the ability to launch some deep shots. 

Cano has been getting his hits, and the home runs will eventually come, albeit at a decreased rate moving from Yankee Stadium to Safeco Field, but he has some work to do to catch Seager. Hart has more power, but also might not be in the lineup quite enough to overtake Seager by the end of the season.  

The Mariners’ success is heavily dependent on Seager

The big question for the Mariners coming into the season was who would produce offensively besides Cano. That placed a lot of pressure on a number of young players, none more so than Seager.

An eight-game losing streak in mid-April coincided with the worst part of Seager’s slump. On April 23, the Mariners were in danger of being swept by the Houston Astros for their ninth consecutive loss, one that could have easily sent things spiraling out of control.

Seager then picked a good time to get out of his slump.

It’s hard to call something in April a “turning point,” but Seager’s two home runs in that game were about as important as they come at that point in the season.

McClendon highlighted how important it was that Seager finally turned things around after the game, via Greg Johns of MLB.com:

He has a track record, and I’ve said all along he’s going to hit. Obviously when you’re in a losing streak and the guys you expect to hit don’t hit, it’s a little frustrating. But in that case, you have two options: You can sit ’em or you can play ’em. I chose to play him and he didn’t disappoint. I think he’s going to be just fine.

The Mariners have now won six out of their last eight games to get to one game under .500, thanks in large part to Seager. If he produces more like his last 15 games then his first 14, Seattle might be able to hang around in the division race just a little longer.

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The Oakland A’s deserve some much-needed home cooking, particularly after the grueling three-game series against the Boston Red Sox over the weekend. All three games were intense, as the A’s were strongly tested by the World Series champions.

Oakland escaped with a 10-inning victory on Sunday to take the last game in the series, avoiding a sweep by doing so. Each contest was a struggle for the Athletics. In fact, in all three facets of the game—pitching, hitting and fielding—the A’s were generally outplayed. On the cusp of being swept out of Boston on the heels of an inspiring three-game sweep of their own of the Texas Rangers, it was a great win for the Athletics.

But there is no time to rest and reflect for the A’s. Following their cross-country 10-game road trip, the team immediately flew back to Oakland to begin a 10-game homestand that has a unique twist. Starting Monday, the Seattle Mariners pay another visit to the Oakland Coliseum for four games in three days; a doubleheader is scheduled for Wednesday to atone for the “washout” that occurred in early April.

After this series is over, the A’s will have played the M’s 10 times in their first 45 games this season. The Mariners are obviously a ballclub with which the Athletics are overly familiar.

Here are five things to look for in the upcoming series against the Seattle Mariners.

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The Oakland Athletics are off to a hot start after one month of baseball. So, too, are some of their minor league prospects. But it might not be the guys you’d immediately expect to see.

MLB.com keeps an updated list of the top-100 prospects in the game, sortable by team. The “rank” you’ll see on the following slides comes from their list. Hence why you may be surprised to see that of the eight guys on this list, only four are listed in MLB‘s top 20 for Oakland.

Another surprise? No one from the Sacramento River Cats (Triple-A) made the list.

Here’s how guys made the list:

First, they had to be off to a hot start. Obviously. Second, the sample size has to be high. In looking at Single-A stats, you’ll see Craig Gentry has the highest batting average on the team. Except that Gentry played in one game—a rehab stint. Gentry brings up a third way to narrow down the list: age. A 28-year-old in Single-A can hardly be considered a prospect, so even if their production is tops, they weren’t listed.

Statistics were acquired via Baseball-reference.com.

Did I miss anyone? Let me know on Twitter.

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Talk of his demise certainly appears to be premature, but is it too early to declare that Albert Pujols is back to his MVP-caliber form based on a 22-game sample?

After collecting two more hits in a 13-1 victory over the New York Yankees on Friday night, including his ninth homer of the young season against only eight strikeouts, Pujols has a 1.008 OPS—coincidentally, that’s also his career OPS—and is on pace to crack the 50-homer mark and top his career-best 49 homers in 2006. 

While there was no definitive way of knowing whether his declining numbers in 2013 were due to the injuries he was playing through—he was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis in April and also battled soreness throughout the season on his surgically repaired knee—the general feeling around the baseball world was that his skills were deteriorating as he approached his mid-30s.

Healthy or not, Pujols wasn’t near the player he was before the Los Angeles Angels rewarded him for 11 years of greatness (with the St. Louis Cardinals) by giving him a 10-year contract that would pay him $240 million through his age-41 season.

Or so it seemed. 

Through his first 22 games of 2014, the 34-year-old doesn’t look to be much different from the guy who posted a 1.115 OPS while hitting 37 homers, 44 doubles and knocking in 116 runs en route to winning his last NL MVP award back in 2009.  

It’s not uncommon for an average player to string together two to three weeks of greatness at least once during his career. The difference here is that this kind of production has always been the norm for Pujols. The longer he keeps it up, the more his disappointing 2013 season will look like the outlier and quickly be forgotten. 

Asked about his recent success after belting his 499th and 500th career homers, Pujols sounded like a hitter who was in the zone. 

“Last couple years have been really tough, but I feel that I’m getting my swing right where I want it to be,” Pujols said after the game.

That sounds about right, considering he was confident enough to tell teammates before Tuesday’s game that he’d be hitting a pair of homers that night. 

If you were paying attention to Pujols this spring, maybe his strong start shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Despite the rough beginning to his Angels stint, he was upbeat and confident when he reported to spring training in February.

“As long as I stay healthy, I’m going to hit,” said the nine-time All-Star when he reported to camp early on Feb. 13. “I’m going to play as hard as I can and try to put some big smiles on faces and try to help this organization win a championship,” said Pujols, per Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times.

He wasn’t lying. 

It turns out that Mike Trout isn’t the only reason to go see a ballgame at Angels Stadium these days. Right now, a healthy Albert Pujols is earning every dollar of his $23 million salary for 2014, and he’s helping to put fans in the seats as he continues to pile up historic numbers. 

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Oakland Athletics starting pitcher A.J. Griffin is reportedly likely to undergo Tommy John surgery next week to alleviate the discomfort in his injured right throwing elbow.

A source informed Joe Stiglich of Comcast SportsNet California, and he passed along the news of the ominous development for the A’s on Friday:

However, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Susan Slusser has different information:

Griffin was shut down during spring training for three weeks because of his ailing elbow, diagnosed as right flexor tendinitis. The promising 26-year-old hurler has yet to take the mound this season, and it looks as though he won’t at all in light of Friday’s news.

John Hickey of Bay Area News Group felt the writing may have been on the wall in his analysis on Thursday:

Although Griffin was only likely to be the No. 4 pitcher in Oakland’s rotation, this is nevertheless a big loss for the A’s, who are already going to be dealing with the absence of Jarrod Parker. At age 25, Parker is slated to undergo the second Tommy John procedure of his career and is out for 2014.

The uncertain circumstances surrounding both Parker and Griffin had Oakland preparing for the worst even before the regular season began. Assistant general manager Mark Forst explained the club’s strategy in light of the injury situations plaguing Griffin and Parker, per ESPN.com news services on March 17:

This is why we stretched out Jesse Chavez this spring. And this is why we didn’t trade Milone in the offseason when people were saying we had too much starting pitching. The need for [pitching] depth is always there. In this case, the five starters didn’t make it to Opening Day.

So at least this is something the Athletics have been bracing for, as they didn’t expect much from Griffin once he was diagnosed with his injury. Jesse Chavez and Tommy Milone have been tasked with picking up the slack on the bump, and it’s worked well enough to get Oakland to 14-8 entering Friday’s action.

Chavez in particular has been strong, posting a 1.38 ERA in four games, as the A’s lead the MLB in quality starts with 18 already.

Since this news regarding Griffin was just confirming the organization’s worst suspicions, it shouldn’t be all too big of a blow moving forward for the A’s. Between Scott Kazmir, Sonny Gray and Chavez, they still have at least three quality starters to get by even without their two strong youngsters in Griffin and Parker.

This is yet another prime example of savvy moves by Oakland’s front office that has allowed it to build cost-effective depth over time and has positioned the team for contention in the past three seasons. There is plenty of reason to believe they can overcome this early adversity with Griffin out and win their third consecutive American League West division title.

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This is the Josh Hamilton the Los Angeles Angels thought they were getting. Alas, after paying the five-time All-Star $125 million over five years in December 2012, the 32-year-old’s start to 2013 was as cold as his 2014 beginning has been hot.

In his first month as an Angel, Hamilton batted a ghastly .204/.252/.296 on his way to hitting just .250/.307/.432 with 73 runs scored, 21 home runs and 79 RBI, all of which were career worsts for seasons in which Hamilton played at least 100 games.

This April, though, the 2010 AL MVP has been the exact opposite, with 12 hits in his first 24 at-bats (.500, if you couldn’t figure that out), along with a pair of homers and doubles apiece. All of which earned Hamilton a share of the AL player of the week, per Joey Nowak of MLB.com.

“(Hamilton is) obviously a different player than he was last year,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said via Nowak‘s story. “He’s back to his playing weight (about 240 pounds). He has a comfort level in the box that started to come together the second half of last season but never really materialized the way it had before in his last couple years in Texas. Right now, we are seeing it. Hopefully, he’s in a better place in the batter’s box now and will maintain it for long stretches.”

That would be big for both the Angels, who once again have postseason aspirations, and Hamilton, who endured a calf strain that cost him a few weeks during spring training before making it back to hit .333/.378/.606 in March. Both sides want a redo on 2013, and a quick start is the best way to go about that.

Hamilton attributes his strong showing through the first seven games of the season to getting back his rhythm and timing in the batter’s box, according to Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com. “Hitting is rhythm and timing,” the outfielder told Gonzalez. “If one is out of sync, you are going to struggle.”

With Hamilton not struggling at the outset of his second year in Los Angeles, it’s time to make some general statements about his performance so far and play a little Fact or Fiction with each.

Statement No. 1: Josh Hamilton’s power is back.

For a hitter like Hamilton, who sports a .532 career slugging percentage, power is paramount. That wasn’t the case in 2013, especially early on.

A year ago, Hamilton managed a measly .296 SLG and .548 OPS before May. From there, his power fluctuated some, but he actually put up a solid .464 SLG and .783 OPS after April. That’s not quite the Hamilton of old, but it indicates just how much his awful beginning drowned out the progress he made over the rest of the year.

To wit, Hamilton hit .329 with a .518 SLG and .909 OPS over his final 45 games from mid-August until the end of the year.

Now that he’s in his age-33 campaign, it’s only natural for Hamilton to experience some decline in his performance. Thing is, his last April was still more of an outlier than a clear indication that Hamilton’s days as a dangerous hitter were done.

Is he going to return to his 30-plus-homer ways from his peak seasons? It’s a possibility. And even though it’s more of a cute observation than anything else, there is this: Since 2008, Hamilton has topped 30 homers and 100 RBI every other year, and 2014 is one of those other years.

Is Hamilton’s power back? Seems so. In fact, one could make a claim that it was here all along and only went hibernating for a month or two early in 2013.

Verdict: Fact

Statement No. 2: Josh Hamilton’s plate discipline is improving.

For Hamilton to sustain this early-season success, the two keys are going to be his health and his plate discipline, both of which have been concerns during his career. While the former is hard to control to an extent, the latter—when and when not to swing—is something that is well within a player’s ability to maintain.

Hamilton has always qualified as a free swinger, as proven by his 56.1 percent swing percentage, which is the percentage of pitches a batter goes after, and he ranks among the top 10 highest in the sport since 2007, his first year.

To start 2014, though, Hamilton has been a wee bit more selective. His swing percentage is at 46.3 percent, which would be a career low by far. Here’s a look at Hamilton’s other plate-discipline metrics so far:

That table basically shows that Hamilton has been swinging at fewer pitches overall (Swing%) while also doing a better job of swinging at pitches in the strike zone (Z-Swing%) after a dip in 2013 and swinging at pitches outside the zone (O-Swing%) at a much better rate than in recent seasons.

Add it all up, and it’s not surprising that Hamilton already has drawn six walks and has whiffed only six times in his first 30 plate appearances. By comparison, in his first year with the Angels, Hamilton had only three walks against 11 strikeouts through his first 30 trips.

A sample size of 30 PA is too small to draw any conclusions about Hamilton’s plate discipline this year, or any player’s for that matter. Studies have shown that a player’s strikeout rate tends to stabilize around plate appearance No. 60, while his walk rate takes about twice as long.

If that holds true with Hamilton, then he’ll need to continue with his current approach through the rest of April before we really buy in. And even then, this is a hitter who always will have an aggressive mentality and some swing-and-miss to his game.

Verdict: Fact (for now)

Statement No. 3: Thanks in part to Josh Hamilton’s early success, the Angels can avoid a third straight disappointing season.

It’s all about April for the Angels, who have been underwhelming in the face of lofty expectations the past two years despite a ton of talent on the roster.

It’s too early to put much weight on the Angel’s 3-4 start following two series against fellow AL West clubs, the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros, but if any team in baseball needs to avoid a poor first month, it’s the Halos.

Here’s why. After April 2013, the club was just 9-17, and in April 2012, they went 8-15. From May on, though, they’ve been much, much better the past two seasons, going 69-67 last year and 81-58 in ’12.

The West is wide open at the moment, due to injuries that have the two preseason favorites to fight for the division crown more than a little short-handed: The Oakland Athletics are without Jarrod Parker after Tommy John surgery, while A.J. Griffin remains sidelined with elbow tendinitis; and the Texas Rangers lost Derek Holland for half the season after offseason knee surgery and Jurickson Profar with a shoulder injury suffered late in spring training that will cost him at least a couple months.

The Angels cannot afford to miss the opportunity that those injuries—as well as Hamilton’s hot start—is presenting. The rest of the team has to get on board with Hamilton and put together a strong opening month. After all, they’ve shown they can play well once the calendar flips to May.

Verdict: Fact

While the expectation shouldn’t be for Hamilton to regain his MVP form, he certainly should bounce back from a disappointing 2013. Ultimately, if that also helps the Angels do the same, then there’s a good chance they’ll be playing in October for the first time since 2009. That’s one final fact Hamilton and the Angels would like to change.

Statistics come from Baseball Reference and FanGraphs, except where otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

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