And yet, 9-14 for April.
Pessimism’s no fun when it comes true.
At this point with the Cubs, any mention of the words “pitching staff” should unfortunately be preceded by the words “injury riddled.” That said, combine all of those issues with the loss of Nomar and I am more than a little shocked to be hovering at .500. If they can sustain that level, get a little healthier on the pitching side, and make a trade for a bat, they can easily win the wild card.
That said, if it mortgages the future for a shot this year, I say pass.
We Houston Astros fans missed the World Series by one game last year to the very talented Cardinals. We don’t expect to be anywhere near that close this year and probably even further away next. We almost climbed through the window but now it’s closing on us… and fast.
Beltran’s gone. Huge loss there. Clemen’s starting off with a much worse record this year and he’ll undoubtably retire at season’s end. Bagwell’s shoulder is shot. Berkman’s still yet to play because of a flag football knee injury in the off season. Andy Pettit’s numbers aren’t impressive either, coming off surgery as well.
Overall, '05s looking very forgettable.
The Phillies will take home their second straight “disappointing underachievers” crown; they’re the Dodgers of the new millenium.
Once again my Mets will do what I predicted, suck. At least right now they have a better record that the damn Yankees. And if it stays that way, I’ll be happy. But I wouldn’t bet the farm on that one.
Yankees
Looks like it could be the first non-playoff year in Jeter’s career. There are some definite holes now:
CF Bernie Williams is old and sore. Can Matsui play CF? Not sure he has the range or the arm.
LF Womack? Huh? Where’d that come from? I thought he was a capable 2B but can he play outfield? Not a great offensive threat in any event.
2B Robinson Cano. Can he play in NY? This move could be brilliant or it could be disaster.
1B Martinez is aging and Giambi is a shadow of his former self.
P Jaret Wright and Kevin Brown are too brittle.
Rivera is now officially a stiff.
Bench Andy Phillips? Rey Sanchez? Bubba Crosby? Not much beef on the bench these days.
I’m predicting as of now:
ALE: Baltimore
ALC: Chicago
ALW: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
ALWC: Detroit
NLE: Philadelphia
NLC: St Louis
NLW: Brooklyn Dodgers of Los Angeles
NLWC: Arizona
I didn’t notice this thread when it first came up. If i had, i probably would have predicted a good, but not great year for the Orioles. I definitely thought they could go over .500, but probably not much more.
There’s no way i would have predicted the sort of April they’ve had, especially given how difficult their April schedule was (based on last year’s stats). Tejada and Mora’s figures aren’t too surprising. Mora had a bad start but is picking up, and Tejada is flat out one of the best players around. He’ll be right up there at the top of the RBI list at the end of the season. Javy Lopez is also hitting the ball well, and is over .300.
Brian Roberts is the really amazing story; he’s just off the charts right now. Sure, he’ll probably slow down as the season goes on, but he just seems to be so much more comfortable at the plate this year, and his swing seems so smooth and easy, that i really think he can keep putting up decent numbers all season.
Sammy Sosa is going OK, i guess, at .275, but he’ll need to do better than that to justify his purchase, in my opinion. And i think it’s almost time that they kicked Rafael Palmeiro’s viagra-laden ass off the team. Maybe, once he gets his 3000th hit (which, at the current rate, cold take the rest of the season) the Orioles will stop feeling like they have to treat him as a charity case and dump him.
The starting rotation doesn’t look too bad right now, although in a few games they’ve been saved by the strength of the Orioles’ bats. Ponson gave Tampa a four-run lead on the weekend, but then shut them down and the hitters clawed back the deficit to win the game. One good thing about having such a great hittin line-up is that the pitchers don’t feel they have to go out every game and pitch a shut-out in order to win. The bullpen’s doing well, with Jorge Julio and B.J. Ryan looking good.
The Orioles face the White Sox in a four game series in Chicago in about a week. It should be interesting to see two of baseball’s in-form teams coming up against one another. It will be especially interesting to see Baltimore’s hot batters go up against Chicago’s strong pitching staff.
So, in summary:
Let’s Go O’s! Let’s Go O’s! Let’s Go O’s!
Born a Red Sox fan, and I’ll die a Red Sox fan. That being said, I pretty much go into every season with the same thought pattern:
“Well, we’ll probably get the AL wildcard and lose the first round of playoffs.”
Certainly don’t think we have a chance to follow up with another big win, but I bet we’ll once again get the wild card and lose in the first or second round of playoffs.
The Giants’ limbs are falling from their bodies. The average age on this team is something like 38, who is surprised here? I hope we have some good young prospects in Fresno. :: sigh ::
OTOH, they’ve just won four in a row.
OTOOH, three of those were against the Rockies.
So has the pessimism been so imprinted into your genetic sequence that no matter how much success the team may have, the above post is what you come back to?
Oh, and Kyla, the Fresno Grizzlies are currently 10-15 and holding down last place in the Pacific South Division of the PCL.
Gah. We’re doomed.
Uh, anyone want to trade for an old guy…I mean, uh, veteran?
Since the Sox finally won last year, I’m absolutely LOVING what the Orioles are doing so far this year. mhendo already put up some pretty good analysis of how they’ve done so far, so I’ll just say that I hope they keep it up (especially Bruce Chen - it would be great if he could finally have a great season to go with all that potential he’s had for so long), and I look forward to being in a city charged with the energy of a pennant race this fall.
My Dodgers are doing just what they have done before…raise up my hopes, giving me the hope that this might be the year…before dashing said hopes…crushing them like so many empty beers cups in the parking lot. On top of that, the restructuring of Chavez Ravine has turned my 12th row seats into 30th row seats. The new concessionaire sucks, and Gagne still isn’t healthy.
Oh, well. At least the Giants suck worse!
No year at all for my baseball team – when I was a teenager living in Montreal I was an Expos fan, and still kept up my loyalty to some extent even though I moved to California many years ago.
–Sniff–
Ed
I can’t root for the Red Sox any more cuz they won :smack:
I’m bored with the Giants.
but baseball is back in Washington. This is the year the championship comes back to D.C.
Go Nats!
Tigers. and they will revel in their well honed suckiness.
I haven’t paid attention to them since 1984. (or the rest of the sport for that matter.)
Just to follow up on this, so far the great Beltre is batting .242 with three homers, and the Mariners are in last place.
Dodgers, 19-11, first place.
Paul DePodestra has made one great move after another and he still gets no respect.
Green, meanwhile, is hitting a sizzling .256, four homers.