April can be the cruelest month. An ice cold start to the season sometimes lingers well into the summer. Here are five big leaguers who hope warmer temperatures help raise their production:
5. Carl Crawford, Red Sox » It is a story as old as free agency. Player signs a big contract in a large market and immediately struggles to live up to it. Right now, Crawford is batting .177 with a home run and seven RBI entering play Tuesday. It doesn’t help that Boston is bobbing along at a sub-.500 pace.
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4. Derek Jeter, Yankees » The captain isn’t exactly inspiring confidence after signing a new three-year deal in the Bronx. He had by far the lowest OPS of his career in 2010 (.710), and his first five weeks of the 2011 season are worse than your average minor league recall (.583). Only two extra base hits are troubling, too.
3. Raul Ibanez, Phillies » He signed a three-year deal during the 2008 offseason and was excellent that first season (.899 OPS) and still serviceable in 2010 (.794 OPS). But he’s fallen off a cliff, now, in the midst of an 0-for-34 slump. He’ll probably still torch the Nats this week. Ibanez owns their souls with 12 homers, 37 RBI and .966 OPS in 45 career games.
2. Adam Dunn, White Sox » We’ll cut him some slack — for all the bombs he hit in the District, but also because he had an appendectomy last month. Still, five extra base hits, including three homers, in 23 games aren’t what the White Sox were hoping for when they handed over a four-year contract.
1. Francisco Liriano, Twins » A rough start for a pitcher who started to look like the 2006 version of himself last summer. Entering Tuesday, Liriano had allowed 24 earned runs in five starts (9.13 ERA) and his 18 strikeouts are alarmingly low for someone who topped 200 last season.
