Isn't April Great!

Twins keystoner Brian Dozier has 13 hits this year in 67 at bats, a .194 batting average. Yet he paces the junior circuit in runs scored with 18. That's the power of 13 walks.

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The Big Donkey had an uncharacteristic Little Gnat kind of game Saturday. He batted four times, hit three singles and stole a base. He neither walked nor struck out.

Over 1884 career games, Adam Dunn has walked, struck out or homered in exactly half his plate appearances. He has singled less than 10% of the time. And he has swiped all of six bases, including Saturday's, over the last six years. Based on his career, the odds of hitting three singles and stealing a base were roughly one in 150,000. But Saturday, it happened.

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Pirate outfielder Pedro Alvarez has hit safely 11 times so far this season. Six of those hits have left the yard. Despite batting .157, Alvarez is second in the NL in RBIs with 18.

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Some of the beauty of baseball lies in watching the emergence of new stars. Over the course of this season, fans will have the pleasure of witnessing the talents of some young stud or another.

We might start with the youngest player in the game, a mere 21-year-old. In his previous two seasons of pro ball he's batted .272/.354/.481 with 42 homers, 29 steals and sterling outfield defense. So far this season in the majors, it's been more of the same.

He's not yet a complete work, this youth. His new manager, discomfited with his nonchalance on the basepaths, pulled him from a game against the Cardinals Saturday. They'll both get over it and the youngster will get back to the outfield Sunday, newly humbled, to wreck more havoc against the opposition. 

Keep that context in mind when you consider the news about Bryce Harper. Two hundred seventy-three games into his career, he remains the youngest player in the game.

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Tim Hudson continues to deliver, even at age 39. In 30 innings so far, he's recorded 20 strikeouts. His next walk will be his first. That's a K/BB rate of, um, infinity.

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A 30-year-old first baseman named Chris Colabello, with three doubles in 160 MLB at bats on his MLB resume entering the season, presently paces the majors with nine two-baggers. He's hitting .359 and leading the AL in RBIs.

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Isn't April great!