THE OUTER EDGE

By James Floto

WEEK FOUR SEES SEVERAL RECORDS; MONTH ONE FULL OF SURPRISES.

Tuesday, May 1. The first month of the 2001 season is in the record books and what a month it has been. Every year a few unknown players start off hot while some established players cool their heels, but this year saw a deluge of Albert Pujols and Doug Mientkiewiczs and Wendell Millers. It also saw 2000 division leaders Oakland (8-17) and Chicago (8-15) so far out they must feel like they were abandoned on a certain island off the coast of China. The other 2000 division leaders are making a mockery of Bud Selig's snivelling about small market inequalities. The Yanks are in third, just two games above .500, the Mets and Braves are below .500, while the Giants and Cards are right at .500 with 12-12 records. Selig's former team, the Brewers (now run by his daughter) are 13-11, only 2 games behind the surprising Cubs. Minnesota is going crazy at 18-6, Seattle is setting records at 20-5, the Psychodelphia Phillies are three games ahead of second place Atlanta. Sure, "It's Early," but so what, the season is 15% concluded and there are lots of trends emerging that no one could have predicted.

WEEK THREE: A pretty colorful week. Some highlights:

On MONDAY, April 25, it was announced that Deion Sanders was the Minor League Player of the Week as he hit .700 and prepared to return to the Reds. Randy Johnson threw a 6-hitter vs. the Marlins, a 9-0 shutout, the 29th of his career. Larry Bowa brought his rejuvenated Phils to San Diego, his first appearance there as a manager since the Padres canned him and his men won, 5-3.

TUESDAY, Rickey Henderson tied the Babe's walk record with the 2,062th free pass of his career. He also won this month's Pinocchio Award with this statement: "I'm the type of guy that individual stats don't mean much if you're not winning ballgames." . It was also the day that Kevin Tapani, one of the Cubs' new "Big Five" staff, watched his ERA climb from 0.96 to 4.91 in one game, as he gave up 10 runs in 3 1/3 innings.

Check out The Five, though: Julian Tavarez, 2-1, 1.53; Jon Lieber, 2-1, 2.92; Kerry Wood, 1-1, 3.72, and with 46 K's in 29 innings (!); Tapani, 3-1, 4.91; Jason Bere 3-0, 5.67.

WEDNESDAY sees Rickey pass The Babe with his 2,063 walk. Curt Schilling of the D-backs did some passing of his own, dethroning teammate Randy Johnson as NL strikeout leader with his 50th strikeout to the Big Unit's 48. And Cal Ripken, just days after learning he is a platoon player from here on out, hit his first 2001 homer.

THURSDAY: Nomo almost had his second no-hitter of the month. At the top of the 7th, with the Twins hitless, Tori Hunter hit a fly to Darren Lewis, who lost the ball on the edge of his glove, a base hit, the only one of the game. Down the coast, the Mariners swept the Yankees in New York for the first time in four years. And Luis Gonzales tied the ML April home run mark with two shots, giving him 13 for the season--the homers coming of no less a luminary than Gregg Maddux. Luis' statement rang a little truer than Henderson's: "It's almost embarrassing to get the attention that I get, because I don't consider myself a home run hitter." That same day, Henderson hit his first homer of the year, just as the Pads announced he was on "special waivers," meaning they were trying to clear a spot for Mark Kotsay when he came off the DL. Henderson said he would quit before going back to the minors. By week's end he had raised his average to .244, had a .354 OBP (those walks gotta count for something, right?), and he had swiped 4 bases. San Diego wisely decided to keep Rickey, as he should pass Ruth's runs scored record and join the 3,000 hit club this year, probably the biggest fan magnet that a feeble SD team will have this year. Chris Gomez was sent down instead. Tony Gwynn, by the way, struggling with hamstring aches again, and eventually placed on the DL, still can hit, as his average is .344 in limited time.

Kevin Brown (3-1) of the Dodgers pitched his fourth game of the season, and for the fourth time gave up no more than one earned run, a single run in 7 innings as the Dodgers won 6-3 and quietly inched to within a half game of first.

FRIDAY the Mariners tied the all time April record with their 19th win (12th of 13), the best start since the Brewers began 1987 with a 20-3 record (but some of those games were in May). The greatest April ever had been the '97 Braves and their 20 wins.

Another 19 mark reached this day was Jose Cruz' career best 19 game hitting streak. The streaky Blue Jay's slugger hit a 3-run homer and boosted his average to .356, with 6 homers and 18 RBI. His teammate Carlos Delgado is hitting .293 with 10 homers and 22 ribbies, while Shannon Stewart is solving AL pitching with a .390 BA and .455 OBP. Brad Fullmer is hitting .288 with 2 homers but has driven in 23 runs. And Raul Mondesi, another streaky type, is at .278 with 5 homers and 16 RBI. No wonder Toronto is giving the Red Sox a run for it in Division East, AL.

Speaking of the Red Sox, Carl Everett selected that day to blast his second grand slam in 3 days. This gives him 4 homers and 18 RBI on the year, with a .312 BA,. .405 OBP and .531 SA. Combine that with Manny Ramirez' .408, .482, .735 and 9 homers and 31 RBI and the Red Sox have a serious one-two punch here. Brian Daubach's 7 homers and 19 ribbies aren't too shabby, either.

Finally, Kerry Wood, making a bid for Comeback of the Year, if not the Cy, whiffed 14 Giants in a 7-3 win in San Francisco.

On SATURDAY, Seattle sets the record, with their 20th win in April, an 8-5 victory over the reeling White Sox that also gave Kazuhiro Sasaki a record 13 saves for the month...Joe Torre notched his 500th managerial victory as the Yanks dropped the A's, 7-6...Hawaii's Benny Agbayani returned, knocking in the go-ahead run with an 11th inning single as the Mets dropped the Cards, 6-5...Geoff Jenkins hit three homers as his monster year continues, while the highly touted Ben Sheets gained his first big league win...In one of those classic pitching duels, Tom Glavine outlasted Randy Johnson. The Unit was sharp, sawing holes in 12 Braves' bats, but Glavine's' airtight control and stingy pitching gave him the 3-1 victory and lifted his record to 4-1 (RJ is 3-3).

SUNDAY. Clemens (3-0) nails the A's. Although he only strikes out five on the 15th anniversary of his 20-strikeout game, it's enough to place him one above Gaylord Perry for 6th place on the all-time whiff list with 3,535 special K's.

And that is your weekly review. Now let's look at some

STATS:

In addition to the Cubs' pitcher and Red Sox sluggers, how about some of these units:

Rangers: Heart of the order: I-Rod is hitting .309 (.356 OBP, .574 SA), 6 homers and 11 RBI. And since they haven't worked out a contract (he's a free agent after the season), rumors of a huge Ivan Rodriguez trade are surfacing...A-Rod may not win any popularity contests in Seattle, but he is hitting .305 (.419 OBP), .589 SA with 7 homers and 21 RBI, pretty much what he was signed for...Rafael Palmeiro is hitting a weak .239, but his OBP (.349) is nearly 100 points higher, and he is slugging .457, with 5 homers and 22 RBI...Randy Velarde came over from Oakland at age 38 and is hitting .333 (.407 OBP), with 4 homers and 10 RBI, and a .552 SA.

We mentioned Geoff Jenkins and his three homer day. At month's end he was hitting .363, .433 OBP, .692 SA, with 9 homers and 23 RBI. He was supposed to be the weak link of the Jenkins-Burnitz-Sexson triumvirate. Like so many other things this year, the expectations have been turned on their head, at least so far. The giant Richie Sexson is hitting only .236, with 4 homers, 18 RBI and a .416 slugging avg. Burnitz is doing okay, with 7 homers, 18 RBI .613 slugging and .275 average, but Jenkins is the one carrying the team. Not many people even noticed that Tony Fernandez returned from Japan (why he was let go in the first place, after another near .300-season, remains a question), and in 41 at bats, he is hitting .293.

Minnesota pitchers: Brad Radke is 5-0, 2.23, Eric Milton is 3-1, 2.72 and Joe Mays is 3-1, 2.80. Been a long time since the Twins had pitching like that.

How about some young surprises? Albert Pujols of the Cards. He played in single A last year, was a 13th round draft choice in 1999, is a large man who was trained as a shortstop. When the season began, Bobby Bonilla, the expected left field starter, went on the DL. Pujols started hitting and has yet to stop. He is at .370 with 8 homers and 27 RBI, has hit in 20 of his last 21 games. He is a clutch guy, with a .433 average with runners in scoring position, and a .500 (6-for-12) average with bases loaded. And he has played 13 games at third, 4 at first, 4 more in right and two in left.

Then there is Baltimore's Willis Roberts, 4-0. He was cut loose the last couple years by Detroit, then Cincinnati. Doug Mienkiewicz may be the single most important player on the Twins so far in 2001. He had a few hunderd ABs going into the year and a couple hundred points in his batting average (.235). Nothing to suggest that he would conclude April with a .375 average, 6 homers and 21 RBI. He also is fielding like he wants a Gold Glove on his mantel.

Closers: LaTroy Hawkins is doing his job for the Twins, having saved 8 of 8. Right behind him is a resurgent Billy Wagner, 5 of 5, giving the 'Stros hope that if they can stay in the game, he'll shut the door. But Mike Williams of the Pirates, Bob Wickman of the Indians, Troy Percival of the Angels, the A's Jason Isringhausen, plus Tim Crabtree of the Rangers, who has the unenviable job of replacing John Wetteland, have all been successful in four of four save opportunities.

The first month of the season has drawn to a close. It's an interesting year containing some of the most bizarre surprises in many a year. Stay tuned.