It’s still early. It’s only been a month and a half. It’s only May.
I get it.
Even though the 2008 baseball season is still at a crawl, it doesn’t mean that the first month and a half haven’t provided a glimpse of what’s could be on the horizon for the rest of the year. After all, the Tigers and Yankees don’t look anything like the contenders they were supposed to be, and both clubs’ starting pitching staffs have shown zero signs of a turnaround.
On the flip side, the Rays and Marlins have provided excitement to not only fans in the state of Florida, but also baseball fans nationwide with their play thus far.
Below is a look at the good, bad and the ugly from baseball’s first month and a half. While the Diamondbacks and Lance Berkman offer plenty to gloat about, the Padres need a major injection of offense and Barry Zito and Ryan Howard look like they are in dire need of a hug.
The Good
The surprising Rays and Marlins
Nobody outside of the Sunshine State could have envisioned that the Rays and Marlins would both be first place clubs halfway through May. But they are, and even if it doesn’t last much longer, this is good for baseball. It’s nice to see young clubs come together and challenge big spenders like the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets. It gives a little hope to other low-salary teams and gives fans a break from all the Red Sox-Yankees banter that usually consumes the entire year (and will surely pick up in the second half).
The World Series-Contending D-Backs
Outside of a recent sweep at the hands of the Cubs in Chicago, perhaps no team in the entire league has played better than the Arizona Diamondbacks. Compared to other division leaders, the D-Backs’ 4.5-game advantage over the second place Dodgers in the NL West is rather commanding. If starter Brandon Webb (league leader in wins with eight) continues his domination over National League hitters and youngsters Justin Upton (.331 batting average) and Chris Young (nine home runs) continue to be big contributors, ‘Zona is going to be tough to beat after the All-Star break.
Lance Berkman is one bad man
Offensively, Berkman has come on like a bat out of hell, raising his average from .295 at the end of April to .392 as late as May 13. Thus far in May, he has eight multi-hit games, five dingers and 13 RBI. On the season, he already has 13 long balls, 38 RBI and an on base percentage of .470. He also leads the ‘Stros in every major offensive category including batting average, home runs, RBI, runs scored and on base percentage. More importantly for the club, he’s also helped Houston stay competitive in the NL Central, just 1.5 games behind the front-running Cubs.
The Bad
The Tigers are in what place?
Granted they’ve had injuries, but there’s no way a lineup that consists of Miguel Cabrera, Gary Sheffield, Curtis Granderson and Magglio Ordonez should be middle of the pack in runs scored. But run support isn’t nearly the biggest issue haunting this team right now – the pitching has been brutal. The Tigs’ pitching staff ranks dead last in ERA with a horrendous 5.03 mark and other teams are batting .269. You know things are bad when your best pitcher (Jeremy Bonderman) has a staff-best 4.80 ERA among the starters. It’s still early, but if this team doesn’t get better production from the pitching staff, then the Tigers are going to become a permanent fixture in the basement of the AL Central.
The Padres offense
It’s incredibly unfortunate for the Padres to waste such solid pitching in Jake Peavy, Chris Young and Greg Maddux on the worst offense in MLB. San Diego has scored a league-worst 135 runs and is averaging just over 3.3 runs a game. Over the past couple of years, this club could rely on pitching and playing small ball to stay competitive. But now it appears that strategy has backfired, and acquiring band aid-type fixes like Jim Edmonds (recently released) isn’t going to cut it anymore. Unless the Pads trade for another bat to complement Adrian Gonzalez, Peavy, Young and Maddux’s efforts will continue to go for naught.
Hank Steinbrenner’s meddling
It’s going to be a long season if every couple of weeks we have to listen to Yankees Senior VP Hank Steinbrenner complain about his club’s performance. First Hanky made it public knowledge that he wanted reliever Joba Chamberlain to be in the starting rotation and now just recently, the baby boss called out his squad for essentially not earning their paychecks. While it’s nice to see an owner care about his club’s performance, the bottom line is that it’s up to the players and manager Joe Girardi to turn around the Bronx Bomber’s lackluster play – not the meddling part-owner. And besides, haven’t we seen this before from the Yankees? Wait until the second half before pushing the panic button on this team, although the pitching is a major concern.
The Ugly
Barry Zito’s mental focus
Forget how much he makes ($126 million over seven years) and his current record (0-7), Zito just doesn’t look comfortable on the mound. Granted, he’s not getting any run support (barely 3 runs a game), but he’s just not making wise decisions either. Even when he’s had good stuff, he’ll battle a hitter for six-plus pitches and then he’ll throw his 83 mph fastball in the zone and then act surprised when it gets crushed. He looked better in his last two starts, but if Zito doesn’t start taking a better approach on the hill, he’ll not only continue to lose but the Giants will start thinking about unloading him, too.
Ryan Howard’s swing
In just 144 at bats, Howard’s hitting just .181 and even worse, he’s struck out a total of 56 times already. Pitchers are even challenging Howard in hitter’s counts (something that was unthinkable the past two seasons) and are still getting the ball past him. Part of the problem appears to be that he’s dropping his back shoulder, but in general, he’s just flat out not recognizing pitches right now. The Phillies haven’t needed Howard’s big bat thus far (they’re just 1.5 games behind the surprising Marlins in the NL East), but they’ll certainly need him as the pennant chase heats up. Hopefully Philly fans won’t boo him into submission before he finds his stroke.
