Ever since he homered in his big-league debut, we've raved on and on about Nomar Mazara and made proclamations that he won't be a real strong regression candidate given his smooth swing and veteran approach at the plate.
The one knock on Mazara coming up was his defense in right field, but he's well on his way to proving that to be a big swing and miss.
On Monday, a week after his 21st birthday, Mazara was named the AL Rookie of the Month for April after a spectacular start to his big-league career — one that doesn't seem likely to end, or put on hold, any time soon.
Mazara celebrated the big day with a huge night. He hit a go-ahead home run to dead center in the top of the eighth inning and then preserved the lead in the bottom of the eighth by throwing out Michael Saunders at home for the good ol' 9-2 double play with an absolute laser that never touched the ground on its way to Brett Nicholas' glove.
Mazara hit .333 with a .392 on-base percentage and eye-popping .852 OPS in April after getting called up for the Rangers' sixth game of the year following Shin-Soo Choo's injury.
Now, teams will start to have a book on him, and he is sure to regress a bit, but he doesn't come across as someone who will see a drastic drop-off. In fact, I think he's here to stay, and that's exciting.
