About 25% of the season is done and the big surprise, from my point of view, is the NY Yankees, in 1st place by 2 games in the tough AL East. I cannot understand how this team, old and with many injuries, has managed to not only stay in contention, but be in 1st place, especially with so many cast-off, emergency plug-in parts. Cano has been his usual self, but I hardly would have expected the contributions from Wells and Overbay. This is a remarkable story so far. Perhaps the best part of the whole thing is the complete recovery of Rivera to his pre-injury form. It's like he was never hurt. Still a long way to go but the run has been impressive. -- Al
Baseball 2013 (4 Viewers)
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Didn't figure the Padres to come to B-more and take both games from the O's.{eek3} The Padres beat one of the league's best closer's last night in Johnson and then the O's got another inadequate pitching start today, fell behind early and couldn't catch up. I'm beginning to sweat about the O's starting pitching a little bit. 40 games into the season and the O's starting pitchers are only averaging 5.2 innings per start, with many starts far short of that. Somehow the starters have got to pitch further into the game or the excellent bullpen is going to be worn out long before September. Chen, Tillman, and Hamel are decent pitchers, as is Gonzalez (DA right now). But none of them are really #1 type aces. Currently, the #4 and 5 spots are whoever is handy and they aren't doing well enough to warrent larger roles. Buck made the same basic staff work last year with the same musical chairs approach, but it isn't working as well, so far, this year. Still, as long as the hitting and fielding hold up, the O's will be in games. The worry is the stress on the bullpen over the long season. O's can't win if the bullpen goes south. -- Al
Just as the O's starting pitchers have become a big concern, so the Nat's offense has become an equally big concern. Currently the Nat's team BA is .228, 29th in MLB (30 teams), while they rank 28th in runs scored, 29th in On Base %, and 28th in Slugging %. Pretty miserable, and coupled with really bad fielding (the Nats lead the NL in errors), they are losing games they should be winning. True, the Nats are in 2nd place, and they are 23-20 overall, but this is all because their excellent pitching is performing as expected, for the most part. In the Nat's 20 losses they have scored only 26 total runs, having been shut out 5 times and scoring 1 run on six other occasions. Last night, Jordan Zimmermann, who is the Nat's best pitcher, threw his 3rd complete game of the season, and lost the game 2-1, on an unearned run. Zimm's ERA went down to 1.62, with a record of 7-2. Other Nat's starters are suffering because of the lack of run support in a big way. Strasburg is 2-5 with an ERA of 2.83, and Detwiler is 2-4 with a 2.76 ERA. The starting pitchers are doing their jobs well but the hitting and fielding are failing the team, big time. Time for Mr. Laid Back, aka Manager Davey Johnson, to start chewing some butts. The run-scoring is so anemic that Bryce Harper leads the team with 22 RBI's. No one else has more than 19 (2 guys). The O's have 5 guys with more RBI's than Harper. Perhaps a team merger should be considered between the BW corridor teams. Take the Nat's pitching, the O's hitting and fielding, rename them the Balto-Wash Beltways, and BINGO!, the World Series Champions are born! -- Al
Warrior
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Well we're about 1/4th of the way through the season and I am amazed the Red Sox are in second place, ahead of the Jays, Rays and the king of one run wins/extra inning wins Orioles. Even more amazed the Jays are in last place, proving once again the team that signs the biggest names does not always come out on top.
Still plenty of time for them to make a run, but passing everyone in the division is not going to be easy; then again, if the 1978 Yankees can make up 14 games in two months, then I guess anything is possible.
Still a long way to go, but at least the Red Sox have been entertaining, they are getting very good starting pitching and timely hitting, a nice combination.
Still plenty of time for them to make a run, but passing everyone in the division is not going to be easy; then again, if the 1978 Yankees can make up 14 games in two months, then I guess anything is possible.
Still a long way to go, but at least the Red Sox have been entertaining, they are getting very good starting pitching and timely hitting, a nice combination.
Warrior
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Tampa is the hottest team in the East right now, winning 8 of their last 10 to pass the Orioles in the standing and move into third place in the division.
The East is going to be a dog fight all year from the looks of things.............
Agree. If the Jays ever get their act together, it's going to be a 5 team race. Don't blink or someone else takes 1st. Still am impressed by both the Sox and the Yanks. Never figured either to stay in it. -- Al
O's closer Johnson blew his 3rd save opportunity in a row, and the O's lose a won game to the Yanks.
Hey Buck, wake 'em up! -- AlNats got blanked again. Now 6 times in 22 losses, leaving them 1 game over .500, 45 games in. I sure can't figure out what has gone wrong here. Basically the same team as last year that lead the NL in wins, but this year they can't get out of their own way. Maybe they really haven't gotten over the horrendous loss to the Cards in last season's playoffs or maybe they believed all the pre-season hype, or maybe they really aren't as good as everyone (myself included) thought they were, but whatever the reason, this record is not a 'slow start'. We are now 45 games in and the Nats can't field or hit worth a lick. The pitching is keeping their heads above water, but even that will wear down as the unearned runs pile up and the offense remains MIA. Davey Johnson has a dilemma to solve. Hope he can do it before the Nats bury themselves. -- Al
Guthrie's win against the O's was his high-water mark. He has now returned to earth and has lost his last 2 starts.
Well, the ride had to end sometime and I'm just glad he has done so well since leaving Colorado. -- Al
jazzeum
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Mets continue to seriously blow. At this point last season, they were five or six games over .500; they are now 10 games under and sinking and it's not even Memorial Day yet. At this rate, they will have a new manager. However, it's not his fault as that moron Alderson has given him lousy players. The outfield is Triple A at best and the starting pitching (except for Harvey) blows. Ike Davis is hitting .145, the lowest in the majors.
Geez {eek3}
Geez {eek3}
Brad, I kind of feel bad for Harvey. He is doing a remarkable job with the same team behind him that the other 4 Met's starters have, yet the other 4 starters are a combined 5-20. Harvey is beginning to remind me of Steve Carlton with the 1972 Phillies, when Carlton was 27-10 for a team that was 59-97. It was the most outstanding season that I have ever seen a pitcher have and Harvey could be headed for something similar, if the grind of the team losing doesn't get to him. -- Al
Another reason for the Nat's rather poor performance this year has been the lack of production from their 4 crucial bench players, Lombardozzi, Moore, Tracy, and Bernadina. Last season, these 4 guys were spectacular in their part-time roles, batting a combined .276, with 21 Hr's, 95 RBI's, and 92 runs scored in 860 at bats. This year, with 30% of the season gone, they are batting a combined .150ish, with 2 Hr's, 18 RBI's, and 17 runs scored in 257 at bats. This is a significant fall-off in production from the bench. Just another broken cog in a machine with several damaged cogs so far this season. Thank goodness the starting pitching is doing their job. -- Al
I'm a little surprised that we haven't heard from any Pirates fans on here. They are having a good year, standing at 29-19, only 2.5 games back of the Cards for 1st place in the NL Central. They have been getting some decent starting pitching and some sharp work out of the bullpen. Good to see them winning. -- Al
sammy719
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the AL East is back to the good 'ol days as I remembered it growing up in the mid 70's, early 80's, the O's, Sox, Yanks fighting it out all Summer, (sorry Rays, BlueJays) back then it was the sorry Indians, and the Tigers in the East, and for the most part it was the O's Sox, Yanks going at it as it is now, here it is Memorial weekend and all 3 teams are within 3 games of each other, each night/day I catch myself checking the scoreboard looking for how the Sox, Yanks faired as with my Orioles, as fun as it was last year I think it's even better this year, lots of ball left to play, but as June gets ready to roll over on the calander it sure has been interesting so far...Sammy
as I remembered it growing up in the mid 70's, early 80's, the O's, Sox, Yanks fighting it out all Summer, (sorry Rays, BlueJays) back then it was the sorry Indians, and the Tigers in the East, and for the most part it was the O's Sox, Yanks going at it as it is now, here it is Memorial weekend and all 3 teams are within 3 games of each other, each night/day I catch myself checking the scoreboard looking for how the Sox, Yanks faired as with my Orioles, as fun as it was last year I think it's even better this year, lots of ball left to play, but as June gets ready to roll over on the calander it sure has been interesting so far...SammyJust finished watching one of the ugliest losses by the O's that I can remember in a long time. O's led 5-2 going into the bottom of the 9th in Toronto. Brought in their closer, Johnson, who promptly blew his 4th save in his last 5 attempts and the game with it, giving up 4 runs on 4 hits. Final score was 6-5, Jays. UGLY, and a back breaker. Johnson has just lost focus and is going through a real rough patch. Enough to make me barf. -- Al
-- AlO's lost, but the Nats won a good one against the Phillies, 6-1, as Strasburg was on his game again. Still, his record is only 3-5 due to poor run support, but his ERA is down to 2.49. The Phillies losing pitcher, Cole Hamels, has a record of 1-8, also because of poor run support. For 6 innings, the game was a real duel, 0-0 after 6, before the Nats broke through in the 7th. -- Al