A year ago, the Chicago White Sox went 8 – 11 in April, including a demoralizing opening series sweep at the hands of the season’s soon-to-be World Champion Kansas City Royals.
During that month, second base was manned by the likes of Micah Johnson and the occasional Emilio Bonifacio. Johnson actually closed out April with a respectable .271 average, but ended the season hitting .230, and was part of the three-way December 2015 trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds that netted Todd Frazier.
But this year, the Sox have a gutsy grinder at the position in the form of Brett Lawrie. The Canadian native is hitting .290 with four home runs – three of which have occurred over the past three games. That’s four more than Johnson hit all of last year (i.e., he hit zero). And how about Lawrie’s .377 and .505 for on-base and slugging percentages? Admittedly, the new second baseman has yet to find his inner Joe Morgan when it comes to defense (.971 fielding percentage), but it’s not for lack of trying. Lawrie’s eaten his share of turf, and actually made a couple of highlight reel plays.
And, really – the guy makes things happen.
In the April 30 game against Baltimore, Lawrie walked and stole second in inning number two before hammering his second home run in as many days in the fourth. Then yesterday (May 1), he went three-for-three, hitting another homer in the fourth and a double in the eighth in support of Chris Sale’s major league-leading sixth win in as many starts.
A look through his career stats finds that Lawrie has been a slow starter in April, often barely breaking .200 for the month. So what’s the 26 year-old’s secret this year? Sox fans don’t care. They have to love seeing such production from a position that has had very little since 2008, when a rookie named Alexei Ramirez manned second base and hit .290 with 22 home runs.
Paul Nuccio is Editor-in-chief of Outside Pitch MLB. Follow him on Twitter, Tumblr, or contact him via e-mail at paul@outsidepitchsports.com
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