We mostly sucked, yet we got the sweep. I'll take it. The bats were horrible all weekend, but our horribleness was hugely trumped by the overall stink-bomb that the Rangers laid. If a team played like that in the first week of spring training you'd worry a bit; when they play like that two weeks into the season they should probably have their franchise contracted.
Any time we go into Arlington, I hold my breath and hope to leave with at least one win and with the entire roster intact. So this was good, on the whole. A few quick thoughts:
- our offence looks pretty troubled at the moment. Vernon and Hill (and, of course, Joe Inglett) are the only guys hitting at an acceptable level. Without them we'd be seriously fucked. Rios and Hurt haven't looked good for a week; Lyle hasn't looked good in twelve months (of note: last April I remarked to someone that his gorgeous swing makes him "slump-proof". He has been in a slump pretty much since that day); and we're getting very little production from C, SS, 3b, or LF.
- good on J.P. for deciding that Scutaro's production to date has been unacceptable and making a change. I doubt Joe Inglett will be the second coming of Mike Schmidt, or even Kelly Gruber, but there's no reason we should have to grin and accept 0-for-4 from the 3B position every night till Rolen returns. Even if Inglett never plays for us again once the man is back, at least he played a big part in an important series sweep.
- B.J. looked good, the leadoff triple notwithstanding. He buckled down and absolutely dominated the last three guys. I still worry that he's back too soon, but fuck it, we're going all in this year, and if it means taking a few risks along the way so be it. The rebound effect on Accardo will hopefully be huge as well.
- we need to come up with a term other than "stealing home" for what Zaunie did the other night. It was a nice play, but it's an insult to the memory of Jackie Robinson and Rod Carew and Aaron Hill to compare that to the situation in which a guy actually outraces the pitch to the plate.
- the Texas TV guys were surprisingly good. I was initially pissed at Rogers for relegating the games to some backwater channel and forcing me to listen to the other team's TV crew, but now I wish we could have them every night. They made more witty comments in one night than Jamie Campbell has in his career (I enjoyed their reference to Frank Thomas "moonwalking into third base" and their repeated insistence that Joe Inglett, while doing a good job, was "no Buck Coats". Both sounded funnier than they read, I swear.).
- Leroy is so fucking good, he makes me weep. He was absolutely filthy on Saturday night.
- We're back in town on Wednesday. It's supposed to be somewhere between 15-20 degrees and sunny. If the roof is closed I will stage a one-man Attica uprising that will make them wish for simpler times when all they had to worry about was toonie Tuesday riots in the upper deck. You've been warned, Will Hill.
3 comments:
Did BJ really look good? I heard he was only hitting the upper 80s with his fast ball. Color me doubtful. Initially, I was going to argue "why is he coming back as the closer right away?" And then I remembered my whole "saves are overrated argument." So I guess it's really an question of whether BJ's good enough to pitch in non-blowout games. I guess the answer is yes? (Please insert a "BJ" and "blowout" joke here.)
Razzer you once argued that League should be a starter. If we were ever going to make that move, now would be the time. Our bullpen looks solid and we could use a pitcher to replace Burnett next year. (Even if Casey J comes back, you'd think they would only want to tax 70 relief innings on his arm, and not 180 starter innings.) What do we think? League to SP? Seems like an obvious move to me. It's not Papelbon we're talking about here.
BJ's never been a flamethrower, has he? I seem to remember a 91 mph fastball.....
Somewhat amazingly, as a Battersbox commentator pointed out today, we lead the league in OBP. We're also 4th in runs scored. Our offense might not be as bad as we perceive it to be......
We're definitely under performing our Pythagoras. Which is a stat way of saying we're better than we look. Let's hope we're at .500 for one run games by the end of the year.
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