One thing about April baseball that consistently drives me insane is the way some people take extreme stats at face value. When a player who's been a poor hitter in his career bats .400 for two weeks, it's because he hot or lucky or both, not because he tweaked the position of his back toe in spring training. Jack Wilson is apparently the exception to this rule. He's off to a 7-for-22 start with the Pirates this year and when the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review asked him what was responsible for such a good start after a bad spring training, Wilson just responded, "Luck." I presume he shrugged as well, though that wasn't actually reported by the paper.
It's probably true, too. Wilson's a career .269 hitter with an OPS below .700. He's hit over .300 just once in his eight-year career and at this point, apparently even he can admit that he's just not a very good hitter. I suppose it's still a bit infuriating for fans to hear a player throw his hands up and say, "Yeah, I'm just getting lucky," but it's nice to see some honesty.
Of course, since I've started typing this up, Wilson's added another single to his total in the Pirates' home opener, upping his average to .348. Since he's in a contract year, Wilson would probably like his luck to continue a bit longer.
