Prospectus Hit List for April 18
Hit List for April 15
Hit List for April 22
Teams are ordered based on Adjusted Hit List Factor, a computer generated number, and the author isn't responsible for the order of the teams.
| Rk | Tm | W | L | W1 | W2 | W3 | HLF | AHLF | Win Div% | Win WC% | Playoff% | 1-Day | 7-Day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | 9 | 3 | 9.9 | 10.4 | 10.3 | .700 | .696 | 73.1% | 15.2% | 88.3% | -2.5% | 1.7% |
| At what point does Jon Lester's inability to throw to first consume him in madness, causing him to abruptly retire, move to the Caribbean, and become the world's preeminent cricket bowler? I've got June 11th in the pool. | |||||||||||||
| 2 |  | 9 | 2 | 8.7 | 8.5 | 8.0 | .660 | .656 | 55.5% | 24.4% | 79.9% | -3.0% | 11.6% |
| If you're wondering why Daniel Murphy is hitting .432/.523/.784 to start the season, remember that Washington considers April their most important games to win. | |||||||||||||
| 3 |  | 8 | 5 | 9.1 | 9.8 | 9.2 | .639 | .634 | 72.9% | 13.9% | 86.8% | 1.5% | 3.1% |
| Not that he's looking forward to next year, but during the sixth inning of every game Vin Scully has been sneaking in tidbits about his upcoming cruise itinerary. | |||||||||||||
| 4 |  | 7 | 5 | 8.9 | 9.1 | 8.7 | .606 | .601 | 12.5% | 24.9% | 37.4% | 2.6% | 7.9% |
| Sometimes you can't predict baseball, but when a 30-year-old former backup catcher for the Twins and Pirates starts the season 6-for-6 for the Cardinals, sometimes it's like fish in a barrel. | |||||||||||||
| 5 |  | 8 | 3 | 7.0 | 7.7 | 7.5 | .580 | .585 | 9.1% | 11.4% | 20.5% | 1.4% | 4.2% |
| The Orioles hot start makes a lot of sense when you consider that you probably ingested an unsafe amount of cough syrup this month. | |||||||||||||
| 6 |  | 8 | 4 | 7.0 | 7.3 | 6.8 | .566 | .571 | 28.1% | 25.9% | 54.0% | -1.4% | 6.8% |
| Chris Sale has been pitching like an ace starter long enough that I think we can officially call him Chris Everyday Low Prices. | |||||||||||||
| 7 |  | 7 | 4 | 7.0 | 6.7 | 6.9 | .561 | .566 | 12.4% | 17.8% | 30.3% | -0.7% | 6.2% |
| Not only is Jarrod Saltalamacchia leading the team in OPS (1.129), the Tigers didn't have to trade three pitching prospects to acquire him. | |||||||||||||
| 8 |  | 6 | 5 | 5.8 | 5.8 | 6.1 | .538 | .543 | 28.5% | 19.4% | 47.9% | -5.4% | -2.9% |
| David Ortiz is a living reminder of the formula to succeed in Boston: sign with Red Sox, but not for a lot of money. | |||||||||||||
| 9 |  | 7 | 6 | 6.6 | 8.2 | 8.2 | .545 | .540 | 10.9% | 24.1% | 34.9% | 2.5% | -4.2% |
| Clint Hurdle thinks we'll have female players soon, and he's probably right. Just think: five years from now, the Pirates may have a female ballplayer, and so will the team that beats them in the National League Wild Card game. | |||||||||||||
| 10 |  | 6 | 7 | 6.8 | 6.6 | 6.7 | .518 | .523 | 20.7% | 18.4% | 39.1% | 2.4% | -0.8% |
| Did anyone see when John Gibbons raised both hands to bring in ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte? This pretty much rules out any chance of the Blue Jays signing a centipede relief pitcher. | |||||||||||||
| 11 |  | 5 | 6 | 5.4 | 6.0 | 6.0 | .516 | .521 | 15.9% | 15.9% | 31.8% | 3.6% | -6.3% |
| The Yankee mystique is as strong as it's ever been. In fact it's so strong we don't even know who half these pitchers are. | |||||||||||||
| 12 |  | 8 | 4 | 7.0 | 6.2 | 5.9 | .515 | .520 | 5.4% | 9.7% | 15.1% | -3.4% | 1.1% |
| If Omar Infante keeps leading the team with a batting average like the .324 he currently has, that means all our ironic All-Star votes will have to go to Chris Getz, retirement be damned. | |||||||||||||
| 13 |  | 5 | 5 | 4.9 | 4.2 | 4.4 | .515 | .520 | 51.6% | 21.6% | 73.2% | -2.6% | -1.1% |
| The only thing wrong with Corey Kluber is that he won a Cy Young with the Indians and didn't get traded the season after that. Which, given the constraints of time, is incurable. | |||||||||||||
| 14 |  | 7 | 6 | 7.4 | 6.0 | 6.3 | .521 | .516 | 19.2% | 29.3% | 48.5% | -3.2% | -7.8% |
| Credit to the players' union for having Hunter Pence avoid any length of a suspension for his disastrous appearance on "Fuller House." | |||||||||||||
| 15 |  | 5 | 6 | 5.5 | 5.4 | 5.0 | .519 | .514 | 41.6% | 28.7% | 70.3% | 5.2% | -0.7% |
| Wilmer Flores starting the season off with a .071 slugging is certainly one way to kill every future trade trumor. | |||||||||||||
| 16 |  | 5 | 7 | 6.0 | 6.2 | 5.8 | .503 | .508 | 31.6% | 9.7% | 41.3% | -5.2% | 1.7% |
| Games it took Robinson Cano to hit his fifth home run of the season, Seattle era: 2014: 78 2015: 75 2016: 9 | |||||||||||||
| 17 |  | 5 | 7 | 4.9 | 5.2 | 5.5 | .490 | .495 | 25.8% | 20.7% | 46.5% | 4.5% | -1.7% |
| On Saturday, the Rays batted Brandon Guyer leadoff with Steve Pearce second. Guyer, Pearce? I wonder if they Memento do that. | |||||||||||||
| 18 |  | 7 | 6 | 6.9 | 5.4 | 5.7 | .479 | .484 | 13.1% | 5.8% | 18.9% | 0.2% | -2.6% |
| Really, Adrian Beltre -- just a two-year extension? You really think the team will be healthy by then? | |||||||||||||
| 19 |  | 5 | 8 | 5.1 | 5.4 | 5.2 | .473 | .478 | 39.8% | 10.6% | 50.5% | 5.1% | -2.4% |
| When your team's smallest guy Shares the team lead in big flies That's Altuve | |||||||||||||
| 20 |  | 7 | 5 | 5.2 | 5.8 | 5.9 | .481 | .476 | 3.8% | 8.8% | 12.6% | 1.9% | 4.8% |
| Trevor Story has 22 strikeouts in 12 games, but keep in mind that you had to adjust those numbers outside of Coors Field. | |||||||||||||
| 21 |  | 3 | 7 | 4.6 | 5.6 | 5.6 | .470 | .465 | 2.2% | 6.2% | 8.4% | -1.2% | -2.5% |
| If the Marlins feel bad about getting swept by a winless team, they're at least used to it since that happened to them in the opening series. The good news is that this probably doesn't happen again this year. | |||||||||||||
| 22 |  | 6 | 7 | 5.7 | 5.6 | 5.6 | .457 | .462 | 8.8% | 4.0% | 12.9% | 1.2% | -3.7% |
| The last time the Athletics won a series against the Royals before this weekend, Wade Davis was in the rotation and the A's still had Coco Crisp, Josh Reddick and Jed Lowrie in the lineup. [whispering offstage] Oh, you don't say. | |||||||||||||
| 23 |  | 5 | 8 | 5.1 | 5.0 | 5.6 | .439 | .434 | 2.9% | 7.1% | 10.0% | 1.8% | 1.9% |
| All your tongue-in-cheek jokes about the "murderer's row" 3-4-5 lineup of Phil Gosselin, Yasmany Tomas and Brandon Drury turned to dust like that grail-drinkin' guy from Indiana Jones once that portion of the lineup hit four home runs yesterday. Of course they chose wisely, you dunces. | |||||||||||||
| 24 |  | 6 | 6 | 4.6 | 4.0 | 4.7 | .430 | .425 | 1.6% | 5.3% | 6.9% | -1.9% | -6.8% |
| That nice 5-1 start was wholly ruined by dropping five of six games to the Cubs and Cardinals. No worries, it's not like they share a division with them or anything. | |||||||||||||
| 25 |  | 5 | 7 | 4.3 | 3.9 | 4.0 | .415 | .419 | 6.6% | 3.0% | 9.6% | -1.2% | 1.0% |
| One of the most timeless fables in baseball lore is arguably the story of Jered Weaver's fastball and the hare. | |||||||||||||
| 26 |  | 3 | 9 | 3.6 | 4.5 | 4.7 | .410 | .415 | 2.5% | 6.1% | 8.5% | 1.5% | 0.5% |
| Hey, Braves, stop copying us! | |||||||||||||
| 27 |  | 6 | 7 | 4.2 | 5.7 | 5.6 | .416 | .411 | 0.5% | 1.5% | 2.0% | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| When you treat the Philles like another superhero reboot movie and set the expectation that you're not going to see anything too wonderful, you can sit back and have some fun watching them. | |||||||||||||
| 28 |  | 4 | 9 | 4.7 | 3.9 | 3.5 | .390 | .385 | 1.3% | 3.6% | 4.9% | -0.9% | -4.1% |
| Remember that when it comes to the Padres bullpen, a Brad Hand is worth two Kevin Quackenbushes. | |||||||||||||
| 29 |  | 5 | 7 | 3.1 | 2.5 | 2.6 | .374 | .369 | 2.0% | 6.4% | 8.3% | -3.1% | -4.4% |
| The Brewers dare to ask the question that no other team dares to try and experiment: how many Tylers in a bullpen is too many? | |||||||||||||
| 30 |  | 3 | 9 | 3.5 | 3.0 | 3.7 | .345 | .340 | 0.2% | 0.6% | 0.8% | 0.0% | -0.7% |
| Hey, Braves, stop copying us! | |||||||||||||
Answering the eternal question: Will Matt mention Cory Snyder today?