The Week That Was
A 3-4 week against the Padres, Giants, and Marlins (oh my). The Roxs currently stand at 12-18. Eight and half games back from division leading Los Angeles in fifth place. Currently 6-8 at home and 6-10 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 146-143 (expected wins is 15 versus historical wins at 14). On pace for 65 wins with 788 runs scored and 772 runs against.
As we are 5 weeks in and 30 games into it I think we can look at the fact that the one glaring issue staring at the Rox is the fact they have outscored their opponents and yet they have only won 11 of the 30 games. One in nine in one run games is certainly an issue and a lot of these runs have been scored when the offense has clicked on all cylinders. This team is not bad, it has some potential, but why is it that a similar team in the division does not meet expectations they don't hesitate to bring in something new? How long is it going to take to determine that maybe the something missing isn't on the field but sitting in the dugout night after night making out the lineup card...I think if O'Dowd wants his job he'd better start making the tough decisions and find someone who can win on the field!
For a 3- 4 week the team on the field certainly did what it needed to, at least in respect to past probability! And if only we could just simply rely on this simple metric...For Week 5 we had decent pitching and hitting and yet we could only drudge up 3 wins. Perfect example of the past week was de la Rosa's 12 strikeout game. You'd figure if you can manage 12 K's you should be in good shape...yeah not so for the Rox who proceeded to lay in egg in the batter's box and stranded de la Rosa awesome performance (a 77 game score...highest since Jimenez had a 77 in Game 162 of the 2008 season).
What a Week Means in the Baseball World...
May 6 Dave Cameron from FanGraphs announces that the Dodgers, a mere 4 weeks into the season, are already the NL West Champs...May 7, MLB announces Manny will start a 50 game suspension for taking a banned substance. And what does this all mean...well the demise of the Dodgers didn't happen has the Rox actually lost a game in the standing last week but life without Manny might give someone in the division a glimmer of hope? Realistically probably not. The NL West has become dysfunctional again. Case in point...Giants, no offense; Padres, no owner; D-Backs, fired manager; Rox, clueless management. Heck in the big picture of things maybe Manny actually wanted to get caught...who wants to slog through 162 game season. Manny will plop back into Dodger blue in July and only have to play 80 more games or so. When October comes he will be just getting started against those hapless pitchers who had to play the entire season. Heck a better punishment for Manny would be to stick him down in the minors in the South and make him ride buses around and sweat for 50 games so he doesn't come back fresh!
Anyway another nail in the steroid era of baseball. At this point, as a fan, I am just ready to move on. Mistakes were made, baseball was hurting, management and players got caught up with the almighty home run, and the game was given a blackeye. Baseball much like America goes through these periods. Hopefully we can learn from the mistakes and move on. I have said it before every generation of baseball lovers grow up in era. I will be stuck with the Steroid Era. Life goes on...arguments will continue but all in all we still love the game. The interesting thing will be who will get the HOF nod? Griffey certainly (please don't let the Kid be guilty!) and a slew of pitchers who faced juiced players day in day out. It should be interesting to see how history will look back at this time.
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