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All right, we're almost two months in, so it's time for a little review.
The biggest surprise of the season so far I'd say is the play of the Texas Rangers. We knew they'd hit, but they've just been pounding everyone. The real surprise has been their pitching. It hasn't been great, but it doesn't need to be great, and if it can hold up, they might actually be in the wild card mix late in the season, something that I didn't think had any chance of happening.
Baseball has been good to southern California. The Angels have the best record in the majors right now, despite their starting pitching still not playing up to its potential and despite some tough injuries that would have been devastating to any other team. I talked about the depth of their bench and their bullpen at the start of the season and they're making me look like a prophet right now. Ortiz struggle, so they pull in Sele, and he pitches well. They've still got Scot Shields, who can start. They lose Brendan Donnelly, the best setup man in the AL last year, and K-Rod comes in and posts an ERA under 1.00 and strikes out more than half of the guys he sees. Erstad, Glaus, Anderson, and Salmon are all out, and it's hardly put a dent in their production. They're the top scoring team in the majors right now, despite missing half of their starting lineup. A case can be made for Chone Figgins, Vlad Guerrero, and Jose Guillen as AL MVPs at this point, all three of them. Even Casey Kotchman has come up from the minors and given them quality at bats and run production. It seems like anyone they throw in there hits. All this while Adam Kennedy and David Eckstein are going through bad slumps. When they get their whole team back together, they might score 10 runs a game. If their starting pitching comes around, they're gonna start blowing people out like its nobody's business.
The Dodgers. They just lost three in a row to the Reds, and their hitting looked as miserable as last year, but so far, so good. They're finally getting production from Beltre, LoDuca has stepped up big, and both Cora and Izturis are giving quality at-bats. If Shawn Green can come around, they'll be an above-average offensive team. Heck, they already are in the top five in team hitting. The demise of Hideo Nomo is troublesome, as he was supposed to be the staff ace, and who knows if he'll ever get it back at this point? Ishii has pitched nicely, but has a tendency to fade in the second half. Weaver still hasn't shown much, and Perez has been good, but he's become Kevin Brown, giving good starts but getting no run support. So we'll see. There are still a lot of question marks and a lot of guys not playing the way they can, but the Dodgers still have the best record in the NL. They play in a terrible division, and should win it easily, so there's a great chance we'll finally see them in the playoffs. I have no doubt they can do some damage there if they can just bring it all together, but I still can't say I'm confident they will. It seems like they're always in the mix at this time of the year, then they disappear. I remember the July they had last year, when they went like 3-15 or something, and couldn't hit a volleyball. I'm hoping that doesn't happen again.
Going on the looks of the season right now, if it ended today, I'd have to guess that the Astros and Angels would meet in the world series. Both teams are powerhouses; we'll see if they hold up.
The biggest surprise of the season so far I'd say is the play of the Texas Rangers. We knew they'd hit, but they've just been pounding everyone. The real surprise has been their pitching. It hasn't been great, but it doesn't need to be great, and if it can hold up, they might actually be in the wild card mix late in the season, something that I didn't think had any chance of happening.
Baseball has been good to southern California. The Angels have the best record in the majors right now, despite their starting pitching still not playing up to its potential and despite some tough injuries that would have been devastating to any other team. I talked about the depth of their bench and their bullpen at the start of the season and they're making me look like a prophet right now. Ortiz struggle, so they pull in Sele, and he pitches well. They've still got Scot Shields, who can start. They lose Brendan Donnelly, the best setup man in the AL last year, and K-Rod comes in and posts an ERA under 1.00 and strikes out more than half of the guys he sees. Erstad, Glaus, Anderson, and Salmon are all out, and it's hardly put a dent in their production. They're the top scoring team in the majors right now, despite missing half of their starting lineup. A case can be made for Chone Figgins, Vlad Guerrero, and Jose Guillen as AL MVPs at this point, all three of them. Even Casey Kotchman has come up from the minors and given them quality at bats and run production. It seems like anyone they throw in there hits. All this while Adam Kennedy and David Eckstein are going through bad slumps. When they get their whole team back together, they might score 10 runs a game. If their starting pitching comes around, they're gonna start blowing people out like its nobody's business.
The Dodgers. They just lost three in a row to the Reds, and their hitting looked as miserable as last year, but so far, so good. They're finally getting production from Beltre, LoDuca has stepped up big, and both Cora and Izturis are giving quality at-bats. If Shawn Green can come around, they'll be an above-average offensive team. Heck, they already are in the top five in team hitting. The demise of Hideo Nomo is troublesome, as he was supposed to be the staff ace, and who knows if he'll ever get it back at this point? Ishii has pitched nicely, but has a tendency to fade in the second half. Weaver still hasn't shown much, and Perez has been good, but he's become Kevin Brown, giving good starts but getting no run support. So we'll see. There are still a lot of question marks and a lot of guys not playing the way they can, but the Dodgers still have the best record in the NL. They play in a terrible division, and should win it easily, so there's a great chance we'll finally see them in the playoffs. I have no doubt they can do some damage there if they can just bring it all together, but I still can't say I'm confident they will. It seems like they're always in the mix at this time of the year, then they disappear. I remember the July they had last year, when they went like 3-15 or something, and couldn't hit a volleyball. I'm hoping that doesn't happen again.
Going on the looks of the season right now, if it ended today, I'd have to guess that the Astros and Angels would meet in the world series. Both teams are powerhouses; we'll see if they hold up.
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