I watched that game last night, and I give credit to the Brewers' hitters--they were hitting some really good pitches. The only big mistake that I saw was the ball up in the zone to Braun on his homer. A's starting pitchers are dominating right now. It's fun to watch. I'm close to saying that Gio/Anderson/Cahill is better than Hudson/Mulder/Zito was.
They definitely can and will be, I think. Mulder and Hudson was oft injured and Zito, while having an absolutely knee crushing curveball, only hit upper 80's on his fastball making him rather predictable at times. Hell, McCarthy hasn't been that bad and neither has Braden. For the starters it's as if they can plug any bum off the street and he'll have an ERA below three. Problem is, Fuentes, Balfour, and most importantly Breslow have been coughing it up at times. Still not convinced that the offense will keep their end of the bargain though.
I think Breslow has blackmail info on Geren. He comes in every game. I'm not particularly high on Fuentes, but it looks like Bailey will be back soon so, he may be pretty good trade bait at the deadline.
I'm sure Adam Dunn doesn't help. 3 hits in two weeks? Who cares if he's doing a .333 for HRs. That's horrible.
The Brewers have been known to be a hitter team, 1982 is a great example of a typical Brewer team, as well as the emergence of Braun, Fielder, and to a lesser extent, Hart and McGhee, reestablished it.
The reason isn't cosmic: they flat-out can't hit. Pennington and Kouzmanoff are terrible at their positions....maybe the worst in all of MLB combined. They have zero power in the OF other than Willingham, who is not the 30-40 homer guy you'd like out there. What really sucks is the potential to let this great pitching be all for nought when it's all said and done.
The reason isn't cosmic: they flat-out can't hit. Pennington and Kouzmanoff are terrible at their positions....maybe the worst in all of MLB combined. They have zero power in the OF other than Willingham, who is not the 30-40 homer guy you'd like out there. What really sucks is the potential to let this great pitching be all for nought when it's all said and done.
I don't have a word to describe the Twins level of suck right now. Them being this bad, I mean really not even competing most nights, is really a surprise to me.
Following the team closely though I can't buy that. Liriano is a disaster but here, take a look: Duensing 2-0 3.00 Baker 1-2 3.24 Pavano 2-2 5.12 Blackburn 1-4 5.14 Liriano 1-4 9.13(He needs to go away, far away) Now look at the hitters Morneau .232, 8 RBI Cuddyer .235, 4 RBI Young .228, 6 RBI Thome .226 7 RBI Mauer .235, 4 RBI Casilla .179 The pitching could be better but sometimes you just have to beat someone 7-6. They should have a lineup that can do that. They make Oakland's offense look like that of the 1927 Yankees.
As a White Sox fan, I'm also upset. At least I can take solace that the other 2 teams picked to win the division (Twins and Tigers) are also having lackluster starts to their year. This division is going to come down to the wire again. The first team to set themselves straight will win it. My assessment date in baseball is usually Memorial Day for contenders and pretenders. As wise baseball men say, "You can't win a pennant in April, but you can certainly lose it."
I feel like I'm in bizarro world this season. Liriano pitches a no hitter. Guess his 9.00 plus era will go down a bit.
Not enough tho. It looks like the team defence gets more credit for that shutout considering he only got 2 strikeouts.
I didn't say the hitting wasn't the problem, but that the pitching would be...eventually. They need to trade for another arm if they're going to make some real noise in a postseason....and provided they avoid the Yankees for once. I thought before the season started that Cleveland was better than everyone thought, and they definitely are. I'm not sold on their pitching yet, but clearly they're not a 90-loss team as many anticipated.
Hell, I'm just happy the Royals aren't eliminated from realistic contention yet. There haven't been a lot of seasons to be optimistic about in the last 20 years, and it's nice they are least in striking range of the Indians for now. Though realistically they'll be out of it at the All-Star break and next year looks to be the year they take a bigger step forward. I'd be happy with a .500 season or a year in which we DIDN'T take it as a given that we'd end up with 100 losses
That claim would be valid for every team except the Phillies. I stand by my claim that this exact pitching staff has been good enough for the past several years to win the division(or get really close). Losing a couple mop up guys from the bullpen won't be a big hit long term. Post season is a different story, but worrying about that right now is putting the cart before the horse. Oh and the Twins might need a catcher. Nice start for Blackburn today. I hope he can keep it up! Thats a little unfair. The guy certainly wasn't Roy Halladay out there but most No hitters have some solid defence helping them out. Right now I care more to see if he can follow this performance up or if he'll be mental jello the next time out.
