Martinez, Pollock and Carpenter excel in bigs

Nick Martinez /Zimbio

Take away the month of April, and former Vermont Mountaineer Nick Martinez holds a 1.54 ERA in May for the Texas Rangers in a mix of starting and relieving. In his last appearance, Martinez went five one-run innings against Toronto and looks to continue his solid month as he faces off against Rick Porcello and Detroit.

He's struck out 16 in eight games (three starts) and has remained in the rotation on a decimated Rangers team that just saw star first basemen Prince Fielder head to the DL for the rest of the year.  Martinez, a 2009/2010 Mountainer, soared up the minor league system and jumped from Double-A to the majors this year.

Rangers beat reporter T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com wrote that injuries to Derek Holland, Matt Harrison and Colby Lewis has caused manager Ron Washington to juggle his rotation. Sullivan also added in a notebook update that Martinez has had a favorable impression on the Rangers as he pieced together a 11 1/3 scoreless inning streak, causing Washington to comment on his success.

"He did a good job," Washington said after Martinez mopped up a mess left by Harrison. "That could have gotten wild. You have to give him a lot of credit. He wasn't fazed. I hope he continues to have that mindset."

Another former Mountaineer has found success on the mound- Atlanta Braves reliever David Carpenter. A 2005 Mountaineer, Carpenter holds an impressive 2.66 ERA in 22 appearances out of the bullpen with 24 strikeouts over 20.1 innings. He also leads the Braves in bullpen appearances.

A.J. Pollock /Zimbio

The month of May has been good to Carpenter as well, as he has a 1.00 WHIP and a 11:2 strikeout to walk ratio and started with six straight appearances without allowing an earned run.

Finally, the third Mountaineer up in the majors is enjoying an impressive start to the season. 2008 Vermonter AJ Pollock (right) has been a bright spot in his sophomore campaign for the 18-31 Arizona Diamondbacks.

His production has increased drastically over the past few weeks and he's brought his line up to .303/.349/.514, numbers that are huge improvements over last year and draw comparisons to his dominance in Triple-A Reno in 2012.

Inside the 'Zona, a blog focusing on Diamondbacks baseball, wrote an article on Pollock this past week- some of the points focused on how he's punished right-handed hitters at a .313 clip and is hitting .377 in May. 

An interesting side note, for all those fantasy baseball players out there- Pollock went from being owned in 11.1% of the leagues on ESPN.com to 60.8%, a +49.7 increase.