I thought I'd throw out a correlary to Spencer's post about whether or not my pitching is this good. To start out, I never thought my staff could sustain a sub-3.00 ERA. That would mean I had all Cy Young candidates. But I do feel like my staff (especially in terms of WHIP, ERA, and wins) is the best. Of late Schilling has fallen off (and now he's going back to Boston for an MRI on his shoulder, which is bad news for the Sox. Fortunately if he's out they have Lester ready to step in) and I don't expect Haren to keep his sub-2.00 ERA going, but Sabathia and Schilling are both actually underperforming their expected ERA's.
Now to the title of the post. Is my offense really this bad? After a horrid start the team has slowly worked itself into contention in HR and to a lesser extent average and RBI. And of course, by contention I mean I'm within striking distance of second to last place. On the whole my team is in last place in four of the five offensive categories. Konerko and Wells have significantly underperformed, but other than that I don't have any absoulte dogs on my team. I think part of the problem is that I don't have a slugger to fill my utility spot - which is a pretty big disadvantage when 1/3 of the teams in the league sport David Ortiz and Travis Hafner there.
5 comments:
Fact is, everyone (cough: almost everyone) is pretty darn close in enough categories that poorly performing in one or two doesn't put you out of contention. You can have a "bad" offense and still win this thing with solid pitching.
Down the stretch I think the winner will be decided by a smart trade that marginally increases a teams value in a few key categories. I think all of the teams (cough: almost all) have the potential right now to get to 40-42 points, but no one will be able to climb closer to 50. The talent is too spread right now for that to happen. As long as the leaders hover around 40, it's anyone's game (cough: almost).
30 runs behind me is "striking distance"? Haha, I was back there with you for a while so it certainly can be done.
You'd *think* that the White Sox and Konerko would break out of it but you just don't know - if they trade Dye and a bunch of other players maybe they start sitting people and trying out some prospects...who knows. Manny will probably hit for more power and Beltre should be good in the 2nd half. On the other hand you've gotten great production out of Posada and Kinsler that probably won't last (I guess Kinsler is already there).
Well, you'll notice that I didn't say anything about runs. I guess it is posible for me to catch up in runs, but the fact of the matter is I'm not going to chase runs.
I think the key will be if/when anyone decides to play for next year. The non-keeper talent moving around could easily tip the balance one way or another.
I just want to throw in a little plug for my offense. Leading in everything but SBs is not too shabby. Thanks, A-Rod.
See most of you this weekend!
Hey come on you don't have to cough everytime you mention my team. My team sucks and you're allowed to say it. I'll take it like a man.
I think I deserve props though for getting above 20 points.
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