Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2010 22:57:29 GMT -5
After all the hope, hype, and hoopla of spring training, the regular season finally arrived with a bang---particularly for Angels castoff Vladimir Guerrero who sent a message to his former employer (and David Aardsma, Luke French, Brandon Morrow, and Jason Vargas) by belting four home runs in the opening week.
Guerrero showed there's still pop in his bat, helping the Rangers jump out to a tie for the best record in the American League with four home runs.
The Rangers surge kicks off the initial segment of who's hot and who's not.
The Hot
Texas Rangers: You would think that by having two of their four starters beginning the year with ERA's over 11, the Rangers would be in trouble. But led by the aforementioned Guerrero, a lights-out bullpen, and an ace-worthy start to the season by Rich Harden, Texas has grabbed the AL West lead with a 4-1 start.
Elvis Andrus has gotten on base, and Guerrero has knocked him in, but the bullpen has been just as big a factor. Texas relievers delivered a record of 3-1 with a 1.86 ERA over their first 19.2 innings, numbers that look even better when you factor out Matt Harrison's four runs in a third of an inning last Thursday. The bullpen is a major reason why the Rangers won two games in extra innings last week.
New York Mets: The Mets sensed that they could be competitive this season if they just added a power bat at 1B, a hole for the Mets since Carlos Delgado's decline several seasons ago. The Mets traded away a bright prospect in Jenry Mejia to acquire the big bat of Adam Dunn and it paid off in a big way with three opening week home runs.
The Mets also got a nice boost from their slugging center fielder. No, not Carlos Beltran---Angel Pagan is the surprise of the season with a .455 average, three homers, and 11 RBI's, tops in baseball.
Kansas City Royals: With dominant starting pitching, anything can happen. Fortunately for the Royals, Kyle Davies spun a sharp eight innings against Detroit, holding the Tigers' potent offense to five hits and two runs in eight innings, while phenom Zach Grienke laughed off Boston's high priced lineup with a one-hit masterpiece.
Meanwhile, Mike Aviles only has four hits but he's made them count with three homers and an unlikely AL-leading 10 RBI.
Milwaukee Brewers: Yovani Gallardo wasn't fazed by the number of quality left-handed bats in the Colorado Rockies lineup, blanketing the Rox with an eight-inning, two-run, four-hit performance. Meanwhile, the Brewers bats were beating up Ubaldo Jimenez, while Trevor Hoffman was cleaning up the leftovers with a pair of wins and a save in four early appearances.
New York Yankees: The Yankees fired off the first volley in the ultra competitive Al-East, taking four of their first five games against Boston and Tampa Bay. C.C. Sabbathia set the tone with his opening night, one-run, four hit, complete game against the Red Sox, following it up with a three-run, eight inning gem against the Rays.
Offensively, only Nyjer Morgan and Brett Gardner have batting averages below .290 among regulars.
Barrett Snipes:
Trading Away Dan Haren, yet making the D-Backs better, Arizona has gotten prime early returns on its recent offseason pickups. B.J. Upton has six runs, two steals, and a .400 batting average. Plus we think Wade Davis will make D-Backs fans forget all about Dan Haren if he keeps firing three-hit shutouts every start.
Brandon Wood:
Wood has made things hard for opposing pitchers, leading the AL in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS to start the season. While Wood’s large .533 average is certainly impressive, it’s reasonable to expect that number to grow flaccid as the season continues.
Aaron Cook:
In his start against the Brewers, Cook had his sinker working at peak capability, reeling off 15 ground ball outs in his eight-inning, four-hit, one unearned run, work of art against the Brewers.
Baltimore’s Offense:
The Al team that’s scored the most runs hails from the AL East. Not the Red Sox. Not the Rays. Not even the Yankees. The Baltimore Orioles have scored 34 runs, an average of nearly seven runs a game. Four players have scored at least five runs, while Matt Wieters has driven in a team-leading six. The Orioles have enough talent to put out a respectable offense, especially when facing Toronto’s pitching staff.
San Francisco’s Pitching:
With as many good young arms as the Giants have, it’s natural to see them on this list. The team is first in ERA, and has only allowed one home run this season.
The Not
Boston Red Sox:
Losing two of three to the Yankees is bad. Allowing 21 runs in two games to the Royals may not be quite as bad, but it’s certainly a cause for alarm for a squad that was pegged to be a possible championship team this season.
The culprit has been an abominable pitching staff which, aside from Jon Lester’s 6.2 scoreless innings, has ERA’s that can only be found in the plus-size department. Josh Becket? ERA over 12. Clay Bucholz? Ditto. Tim Wakefield? His 24.30 ERA is merely big boned. Hideki Okajima needs help fitting into his 27.01 ERA, while John Lackey strained his hamstring slipping into a 13.50.
The offense has only one home run—from .136 hitting Jacoby Ellsbury. Three regulars have batting averages over .222.
It will get better. It can’t get worse.
Toronto Blue Jays:
Their starters have been bad. Their bullpen has been worse. Their two horses in the pen, setup man Shawn Camp, and closer Scott Downs, are a combined 0-3, with one save, one blown save, and a 7.5 ERA. The rest of their bullpen sports an ERA of 7.83. That won’t be good enough against AL East lineups.
Their offense isn’t that bad, with eight homers tying for the AL lead in dingers, but if they aren’t going to get any pitching besides Shawn Marcum and Carlos Zambrano, they’ll fade quickly in the league's most cutthroat division.
Pittsburgh Pirates:
An ugly start to the year for the Pirates, who are in rebuilding mode. Ross Ohlendorf and Charlie Mortan were shelled in their opening starts, as were their secondary relievers. Without immediate help in the upper reaches of their farm system, they’ll have to hope their starters can buckle down and last the season before their farm system can rebuild.
They’ve hit for some pop early in the year, but they’ll need Andrew McCutcheon to hit far over .100 to finish anywhere close to .500.
Los Angeles Dodgers:
Beating up the Pirates is one thing, the Dodgers have been vaporized over the first two games of their three-game series against the Marlins. Their star-studded outfield of Manny Ramirez, Matt Kemp, and Andre Ethier are hitting .211, .286, and .188 respectively. Those three comprise the meat of the Dodgers lineup, a lineup which has turned to gravy against Florida.
Houston Astros:
This categorization has more to do with the Astros offseason than its first week—most weeks with two victories will be causes for celebration for the Astros who are in a full-fledged rebuilding mode.
They’re hoping Felipe Paulino and Bud Norris can be serviceable, while Brian Moehler and Jamie Moyer are simply stopgaps. Stopgaps for what, nobody knows, as the Astros won’t have pitching help in their upper farm for several years.
The Astros have the right strategy, but it’ll be a small miracle if they don’t lose 95 games this season.
Erick Blasco:
The Rockies will platoon their outfield heavily this year, but due to the structure of the opening week of the year, Carlos Gonzalez only has 3 AB’s. Instead, Seth Smith has struck out seven times in 22 at bats and is hitting .136, while Dexter Fowler has a .111 average leading off. You’d think Blasco would get it and simply start Gonzalez full time?
Ryan Franklin:
The PBL-magazine power rankings have the Cardinals ranked dead last. In fairness, Franklin has brought the Cards down nearly all by himself. Two games, one blown save, two losses. Not the way he wanted to start the season.
Philadelphia’s Aces:
Both Roy Oswalt and Roy Halladay surrendered six runs in 3.2 innings against the Nationals, as the Phils have needed young’uns Cole Hamels, Kyle Kendrick, and J.A. Happ to get hitters out. Who knew the two Roy's would be the weak links of the Phillies’ staff?
Leo Nunez:
See Ryan Franklin.
Pat Burrell:
Pat the Bat may need a new nickname after his awful 1-18, six strikeout opening week. With Ben Zobrist eligible to play the outfield, we suggest, Pat the Bench.
Guerrero showed there's still pop in his bat, helping the Rangers jump out to a tie for the best record in the American League with four home runs.
The Rangers surge kicks off the initial segment of who's hot and who's not.
The Hot
Texas Rangers: You would think that by having two of their four starters beginning the year with ERA's over 11, the Rangers would be in trouble. But led by the aforementioned Guerrero, a lights-out bullpen, and an ace-worthy start to the season by Rich Harden, Texas has grabbed the AL West lead with a 4-1 start.
Elvis Andrus has gotten on base, and Guerrero has knocked him in, but the bullpen has been just as big a factor. Texas relievers delivered a record of 3-1 with a 1.86 ERA over their first 19.2 innings, numbers that look even better when you factor out Matt Harrison's four runs in a third of an inning last Thursday. The bullpen is a major reason why the Rangers won two games in extra innings last week.
New York Mets: The Mets sensed that they could be competitive this season if they just added a power bat at 1B, a hole for the Mets since Carlos Delgado's decline several seasons ago. The Mets traded away a bright prospect in Jenry Mejia to acquire the big bat of Adam Dunn and it paid off in a big way with three opening week home runs.
The Mets also got a nice boost from their slugging center fielder. No, not Carlos Beltran---Angel Pagan is the surprise of the season with a .455 average, three homers, and 11 RBI's, tops in baseball.
Kansas City Royals: With dominant starting pitching, anything can happen. Fortunately for the Royals, Kyle Davies spun a sharp eight innings against Detroit, holding the Tigers' potent offense to five hits and two runs in eight innings, while phenom Zach Grienke laughed off Boston's high priced lineup with a one-hit masterpiece.
Meanwhile, Mike Aviles only has four hits but he's made them count with three homers and an unlikely AL-leading 10 RBI.
Milwaukee Brewers: Yovani Gallardo wasn't fazed by the number of quality left-handed bats in the Colorado Rockies lineup, blanketing the Rox with an eight-inning, two-run, four-hit performance. Meanwhile, the Brewers bats were beating up Ubaldo Jimenez, while Trevor Hoffman was cleaning up the leftovers with a pair of wins and a save in four early appearances.
New York Yankees: The Yankees fired off the first volley in the ultra competitive Al-East, taking four of their first five games against Boston and Tampa Bay. C.C. Sabbathia set the tone with his opening night, one-run, four hit, complete game against the Red Sox, following it up with a three-run, eight inning gem against the Rays.
Offensively, only Nyjer Morgan and Brett Gardner have batting averages below .290 among regulars.
Barrett Snipes:
Trading Away Dan Haren, yet making the D-Backs better, Arizona has gotten prime early returns on its recent offseason pickups. B.J. Upton has six runs, two steals, and a .400 batting average. Plus we think Wade Davis will make D-Backs fans forget all about Dan Haren if he keeps firing three-hit shutouts every start.
Brandon Wood:
Wood has made things hard for opposing pitchers, leading the AL in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS to start the season. While Wood’s large .533 average is certainly impressive, it’s reasonable to expect that number to grow flaccid as the season continues.
Aaron Cook:
In his start against the Brewers, Cook had his sinker working at peak capability, reeling off 15 ground ball outs in his eight-inning, four-hit, one unearned run, work of art against the Brewers.
Baltimore’s Offense:
The Al team that’s scored the most runs hails from the AL East. Not the Red Sox. Not the Rays. Not even the Yankees. The Baltimore Orioles have scored 34 runs, an average of nearly seven runs a game. Four players have scored at least five runs, while Matt Wieters has driven in a team-leading six. The Orioles have enough talent to put out a respectable offense, especially when facing Toronto’s pitching staff.
San Francisco’s Pitching:
With as many good young arms as the Giants have, it’s natural to see them on this list. The team is first in ERA, and has only allowed one home run this season.
The Not
Boston Red Sox:
Losing two of three to the Yankees is bad. Allowing 21 runs in two games to the Royals may not be quite as bad, but it’s certainly a cause for alarm for a squad that was pegged to be a possible championship team this season.
The culprit has been an abominable pitching staff which, aside from Jon Lester’s 6.2 scoreless innings, has ERA’s that can only be found in the plus-size department. Josh Becket? ERA over 12. Clay Bucholz? Ditto. Tim Wakefield? His 24.30 ERA is merely big boned. Hideki Okajima needs help fitting into his 27.01 ERA, while John Lackey strained his hamstring slipping into a 13.50.
The offense has only one home run—from .136 hitting Jacoby Ellsbury. Three regulars have batting averages over .222.
It will get better. It can’t get worse.
Toronto Blue Jays:
Their starters have been bad. Their bullpen has been worse. Their two horses in the pen, setup man Shawn Camp, and closer Scott Downs, are a combined 0-3, with one save, one blown save, and a 7.5 ERA. The rest of their bullpen sports an ERA of 7.83. That won’t be good enough against AL East lineups.
Their offense isn’t that bad, with eight homers tying for the AL lead in dingers, but if they aren’t going to get any pitching besides Shawn Marcum and Carlos Zambrano, they’ll fade quickly in the league's most cutthroat division.
Pittsburgh Pirates:
An ugly start to the year for the Pirates, who are in rebuilding mode. Ross Ohlendorf and Charlie Mortan were shelled in their opening starts, as were their secondary relievers. Without immediate help in the upper reaches of their farm system, they’ll have to hope their starters can buckle down and last the season before their farm system can rebuild.
They’ve hit for some pop early in the year, but they’ll need Andrew McCutcheon to hit far over .100 to finish anywhere close to .500.
Los Angeles Dodgers:
Beating up the Pirates is one thing, the Dodgers have been vaporized over the first two games of their three-game series against the Marlins. Their star-studded outfield of Manny Ramirez, Matt Kemp, and Andre Ethier are hitting .211, .286, and .188 respectively. Those three comprise the meat of the Dodgers lineup, a lineup which has turned to gravy against Florida.
Houston Astros:
This categorization has more to do with the Astros offseason than its first week—most weeks with two victories will be causes for celebration for the Astros who are in a full-fledged rebuilding mode.
They’re hoping Felipe Paulino and Bud Norris can be serviceable, while Brian Moehler and Jamie Moyer are simply stopgaps. Stopgaps for what, nobody knows, as the Astros won’t have pitching help in their upper farm for several years.
The Astros have the right strategy, but it’ll be a small miracle if they don’t lose 95 games this season.
Erick Blasco:
The Rockies will platoon their outfield heavily this year, but due to the structure of the opening week of the year, Carlos Gonzalez only has 3 AB’s. Instead, Seth Smith has struck out seven times in 22 at bats and is hitting .136, while Dexter Fowler has a .111 average leading off. You’d think Blasco would get it and simply start Gonzalez full time?
Ryan Franklin:
The PBL-magazine power rankings have the Cardinals ranked dead last. In fairness, Franklin has brought the Cards down nearly all by himself. Two games, one blown save, two losses. Not the way he wanted to start the season.
Philadelphia’s Aces:
Both Roy Oswalt and Roy Halladay surrendered six runs in 3.2 innings against the Nationals, as the Phils have needed young’uns Cole Hamels, Kyle Kendrick, and J.A. Happ to get hitters out. Who knew the two Roy's would be the weak links of the Phillies’ staff?
Leo Nunez:
See Ryan Franklin.
Pat Burrell:
Pat the Bat may need a new nickname after his awful 1-18, six strikeout opening week. With Ben Zobrist eligible to play the outfield, we suggest, Pat the Bench.