Column: A baseball over-analysis
April 11, 2008
For the record, I initially tried to write a column about the inherent absurdity of protesting the Olympic torch run, but I ended up finding it too tiring. Just remember this when you are out there picketing those silly little fitness gurus wearing those absurd pointy helmets while carrying a tiny torch, potential protester: You might ruin the fun for all the locals getting the thrill of their life carrying the torch, or the Indian badminton players or Croatian trampoliners getting ready for the games, but you’re not going to wake the Chinese government.
So anyway, the more pressing issue this week is knee-jerk reactions to the young Major League Baseball season. It is never too early to start reading too deeply into 10 days of games.
First: Them Cardinals is good. They probably won’t play this well all year long, but it is already obvious that the reports of the birds-on-bats’ demise were greatly exaggerated. It is unlikely Brad Thompson and Todd Wellemeyer will continue to be Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale but the pitching staff has already shown more than last year’s ever did. Losing the aging offensive deadweight of Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen and David Eckstein also appears to have set the gears in motion for a more exciting run-producing squad, where initiative, and not waiting for the long ball that never comes, is the team’s run-scoring modus operandi.
Second, and much more shockingly, is the hot start of Missouri’s “other team,” the Kansas City Royals. Trey Hillman has them playing like they’re the Twins or something.
A winning record still appears to be a stretch at this point, but their young talent has finally arrived. Billy Butler might end up being one of baseball’s best contact hitter’s since Brett Butler and Brian Bannister is shaping up to be the best pitcher the Mets let get away since Scott Kazmir.
Coupled with Zack Greinke’s resurgence, Alex Gordon’s continued emergence and Gil Meche’s omniscient steadiness, the Royals might finish as high as third in the competitive American League Central. Maybe they’re motivated by that humongous new TV.
Meanwhile, the most shocking story of the young season involves one of the team's seemingly poised to finish 20 games ahead of the Royals, the Detroit Tigers, who have looked nothing short of mind-numbingly awful.
The problem, as it usually is with underachieving yet talented squads, is the pitching. With Kenny Rogers continuing to show his age, Dontrelle Willis not in the same country code as the strike zone and Nate Robertson and Jeremy Bonderman proving that they are nothing more than slightly above-average innings eaters, the Tigers staff appears to be the worst in their division. Throw in the M.A.S.H. unit they have impersonating a bullpen, and it appears this early season slide might be more foreboding than people are giving it credit for. The runs will surely come, but unless drastic changes are on the way, and soon, their pitching staff appears to be likely dooming them to a .500 season and nowhere near the Cleveland Indians.
Man, I didn’t even have time to get to how shocking it is that Eric Gagne is imploding and Mike Lowell is regressing ...
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