A strong enough start by the lads sees us win 8 of our first 10 before we regress a bit.
We get an early scare when Barry is hit on the wrist by a pitch but thankfully it is only bruised and he misses just a couple games.
A 9-1 run in early May gets us headed in the right direction again and we finish that month 35-17 and marginally ahead in the NL East.
We re-up with John Smiley on a 5-year deal at an AAV of about $2.4m and Zane Smith for the same duration on less than $1m per, which looks a bargain.
We also sign a 1-year deals with Ron Gant for $1.17m and Jay Bell for $1.1m.
IRL World Series combatants Oakland and Cincinnati both stumble out of the blocks with 10-20 starts to the season.
The Yanks and Brewers, meanwhile, move to the top of the AL East with handy win streaks of 11 and 9 respectively.
Monthly Award Winners
April
American League
Batter – Travis Fryman (Tigers): 372 / 10 HR / 31 RBI
Pitcher – Scott Erickson (Orioles): 4-1 / 1.98 / 19 K / 41 IP
Rookie – Travis Fryman
National League
Batter – Kevin McReynolds (Giants): 386 / 8 HR / 23 RBI
Pitcher – Alejandro Pena (Pirates): 3-1 / 1.38 / 8 SV / 9 K / 13 IP
Rookie – Alex Fernandez (Giants): 2-1 / 3.34 / 23 K / 32.1 IP
May
American League
Batter – Howard Johnson (Yankees): 297 / 13 HR / 38 RBI
Pitcher – Gene Nelson (Brewers): 3-0 / 1.98 / 8 SV / 6 K / 13.2 IP
Rookie – Chris Nabholz (Twins): 4-3 / 3.17 / 45 K / 48.1 IP
National League
Batter – Will Clark (Giants): 383 / 6 HR / 16 RBI
Pitcher – Dennis Martinez (Giants): 5-1 / 0.91 / 23 K / 49.1 IP
Rookie – Randy Tomlin (Expos): 3-2 / 2.51 / 25 K / 46.2 IP
News and Leaders
Milestones and Observations of Note
2500 Hits: Dave Winfield
2000 Hits: Dale Murphy
Ivan Calderon of the Rangers has two 3-homer games.
Howard Johnson has 20 HR thru the first 40 games.