April's Good Month And Bad Month Pitchers
By Marc Lawrence

Ah. The smell is in the air.  Hot dogs, peanuts, and ice-cold beer are once being offered up at ballparks across the country as the 2009 Major League Baseball season is suddenly underway.

It seems like only yesterday when Tampa Bay stunned the baseball world, only to be swept away in the World Series by the Philadelphia Phillies. The question now looms - can the Rays earn a spot back in the playoffs, and can the Phillies repeat?  Only time will tell.

There's no doubt that the key to successful baseball handicapping is keeping a pulse on the starting pitchers.  And because they are human, pitchers develop a tendency to perform at optimum best, or minimum worst, capacities at various stages of the season.  Recognizing their 'good month' and 'bad month' tendencies goes a long way in becoming a winning handicapper.

Thanks to my good friend Tom Freese, handicapper par excellence from the playbook.com website, I present a list of the BEST and WORST pitcher performance records during the month of April over the past three years.  Note that the Win-Loss figures are team-start records, or the team's record in games started by the denoted pitcher.  To qualify, pitchers must have started a minimum of 10 games within the month. 

Keep this valuable list handy throughout the opening month of April, as well as future updates at the beginning of each month right here on this web site during the 2009 baseball season, as you'll soon beefing up on a diet of lip-smacking baseball delicacies and winning plays.  Hey beer man, pour me a cold one, would ya?.....  

APRIL GOOD MONTH PITCHERS:
Josh Beckett 10-4 Boston, Eric Bedard 11-3 Seattle, Aaron Harang 13-6 Cincinnati, Rich Harden 8-2 Cubs, Mark Hendrickson 7-3 Baltimore, Cliff Lee 9-1 Cleveland, Braden Looper 8-3 St. Louis, John Maine 8-2 NY Mets, Daisuke Matsuzaka 9-2 Boston, Scott Olsen 11-4 Washington, Wandy Rodriguez 9-4 Houston, Adam Wainwright  7-3 St. Louis, Brandon Webb 15-3 Arizona.

APRIL BAD MONTH PITCHERS:
Matt Cain 4-12 San Francisco, Edwin Jackson 3-7 Detroit, Oliver Perez 5-11 NY Mets, Andy Pettitte 5-12 NY Yankees, Barry Zito 3-12 San Francisco.

Note: Marc Lawrence is a 30-year veteran handicapper and publisher of the PLAYBOOK, a weekly handicapping newsletter.  His PREFERRED PICKS Late Phone Baseball Service finished No.1 in the nation (88-63 +25.7 Net Units) during the 2007 season as documented by Sports Watch in Las Vegas.