"I may regret writing this later, but Cliff Lee, Westbrook , Paul Byrd and Jeremy Sowers just don't impress me. I don't see any of them topping 14 victories. And the bullpen is still a mess, only now, thanks to the addition of Keith Foulke's corpse, its a supercrowded mess. Foulke, Betancourt, Cabrera, and Borowski won't so much compete for saves as rotate blown saves. This is your 2006 Atlanta Braves team right here, minus John Smotlze. See why I'm not excited?"
I wrote that about the Indians in my preview of the AL Central. Now, one month into the season, the Indians are 17-8, in first place in the Central, thanks to a 10-1 record over the last two weeks.
Stats? Leadoff hitter Grady Sizemore may only be batting .247, but that's old skool starts; his OBP is a stellar .417 (ideal for a leadoff hitter), thanks to his 23 walks drawn. He's tied with Barry Bonds, the most walked hitter in baseball history! And guess what? He has 9 SBs in 9 tries. He can slug a bit, too - 5 homers and 5 doubles equals a pretty nice .462 slugging% from your leadoff guy. Unfortunately, he also leads the strikeout happy offense in K's; we see that hurting the team in the long run.
Listen, explain this to me: Joe Borowski is 10 for 11 in save opportunities. He also has a 7.62 ERA. True, most of the damage came in that blown save against the Yankees (6 ERs in 2/3 IP), but he has allowed runs in 5 of his 12 April outings. This is the Indians closer?
Still, the bullpen is doing its job; during the team's current 10 of 11 streak, it is 6-0 in games that were decided by 2 runs or less. For the season, the team is 11-3 in close games (2 runs or less). But are they really winning close games, or are the games close because of the bullpens' weaknesses?
As for the aforemention quartet of starters, the best one has been Paul Byrd, with his 2-1, 3.50 ERA record. Otherwise they have struggled. But thanks to the emergence of Faustino Carmona (2-1, 3.76) and the team's hot hitting, they have been winning games. Will they be able to keep it up? Nah, not if the pitching doesn't pick it up. The hitting can mash, but one injury to Prone, Victor Martinez, or Sizemore, and they are in trouble. The rest of their hitters? Casey Blake (.202); Josh Barfield (.198, but he'll improve); Peralta is doing okay, with a .253 BA and 6 homers, 22 RBIs and a decent .353 OBP.
And now the White Sox. There they are in fourth place, rocking the 12-13 record. We were pretty on point about their hitting - Jermaine Dye is rocking a .214 BA (though his 6 HRs is decent); Konerko is toeing the Mendoza line, with a .202, and Crede (how did we forget to mention Crede!) is struggling with a .215 and only 8 RBIs. Well, struggling if you compare it to last season; otherwise it is right around a typical Crede start. And Thome was doing great, but he is out with "ribs" until mid-May.
Of course, they are on a 4-game losing streak, so we caught them at a bad time. Coming up next is Anaheim and then at the Twins. Outlook not so good, not for the next week anyway....
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My Sox are gonna be fine, no way does Paulie end with an average below .270. People forget how good Crede was offensivly last season, not to mention his glove was gold-glove worthy, he and Dye will come around too. I'm not too worried, Danks looks like a stud, and Gar Gar Binks has asserted himself as the best pitcher on the staff.