Diamond Dust: Version 8.00

Jason Isringhausen's season is spinning out of control. After being relieved of his closing duties, Tony LaRussa has inexplicably continued to use him in close games. This has not worked out. In his last five outings, the much maligned veteran is 0-3 with 3 blown saves. During this time, he has allowed 6 earned runs in 4 innings pitched. For the year, he has an ERA of 8.00 and 6 blown saves. Paging Tony LaRussa: Stop putting this guy in the game unless you are up by 10!! The Not-So Crappy Cardinals are playing a very crappy brand of baseball recently, losers of 7 of 9 and falling to third behind the Cubs and the surging Astros. Pitching has been a struggle as of late, which is not surprising considering the excellent start. All teams will struggle, the key is how does a team weather the struggling. This might require LaRussa's best coaching job yet, which begins with the immediate cessation of putting Izzy into close games. Some random thoughts from around baseball:

• The top pitchers from last week's power players continue to excel. Volquez pitched 6 innings, allowing one run in picking up his sixth win of the season on Tuesday. Brandon Webb got his ninth win in as many starts last night. Cliff pitched 9 scoreless innings on Monday in a no-decsion, lowering his ERA to an obscene 0.67.
• As for the hitters, Pujols was left off of last week's list to avoid claims of bias, but he currently ranks fourth in the league with a .357 average , first with an OBP of .503, and first in walks with 41. Experience tells us that the power numbers will come. The two biggest sticks are still Jones-Hornsby and Lance Berkman-Ruth. Chipper's season has been well-chronicled here, but Berkman-Ruth has been sensational. He ranks second in average at .391 (Chipper leads at .418), and is first in home runs and RBIs with 15 and 43 respectively (Nady is second in RBIs, nine behind).
• A quick look at the standings shows the Devil Rays as the story of the year thus far with the A's a close second, and the Marlins a distant third. New York baseball is not good right now, the Yankees are in the cellar and the Mets are in the middle. Cleveland is where most thought they would be, while LWAL's prediction for World Series champ, the Terrible Tigers, continue to inexplicably struggle. The two worst records in baseball belong to Seattle and San Diego, no one had this.

+Go here and consider the best players of this generation and here for thoughts on the sad state of veteran players from my childhood.

Whoa Baby!!

Meet Cliff Lee. Cliff is the best pitcher in baseball. After a terrible season last year where he only made 20 starts (5-8, 6.29), Cliff is clearly feeling a whole lot better. Granted it is early, but Cliff's numbers are so impressive through his first four starts that they are worth our attention. He is 4-0 with an ERA of 0.28. That is not a typo, it is a 0, not a 1, 2, 3, or 4 (or 8 if you happen to be Eric Gagne) in front of the .28. He has struck out 29 in 31 innings, allowing 1 earned run, while only walking 2 batters and allowing 11 hits. To put this into perspective, the disreputable Eric Gagne has allowed 16 base runners in only 10.2 innings, while Cliff has allowed only 13 in 31 innings. Obviously this cannot last, he will probably go out and pitch terribly on Wednesday against Seattle, but it is worth noting.

To Juice Or Not To Juice...

After blowing another save yesterday against the Not-So Crappy Cardinals, Eric Gagne has now blown three of nine save opportunities this season and has an ERA of 8.31. Right now, he is so inept that he makes the injured Joe Borowski seem like Rollie Fingers comparatively. This guy needs a shot in the arm at this point in his career. Literally, he needs an injection of those steroids that fooled many into believing he was a legitimate big league closer between 2002 and 2004. And not those B-12 shots that Miguel Tejada was passing out in the Orioles clubhouse or that weak flax seed oil that the same trainer gave to both Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield. He needs the hard stuff, the kind that took Lyle Alzado's life prematurely. Gagne's 84 straight saves and 2003 Cy Young Award are as legitimate as Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds' combined 1,345 home runs. During the aforementioned period where he was consistently injecting himself with steroids, Gagne converted 157 out of 163 save opportunities, appearing in an average of 75 games a year over this three year span. Since the 2004 season, Gagne's right arm has broken down about as often as my old 1984 Chrysler LeBaron used to. Since the juice has run dry, Gagne has converted 31 of 38 save opportunities and appeared in only 80 games total. For those of us that were on to this guy from the get-go, it is nice to watch him struggle now that he is playing at the same level as others.

Joe Borowski is Not Good at Being a Closer

The Indians have one major weakness and it is the right arm of Joe Borowski. You could make a case that Borowski should not be saving games for any team in the majors, but he is, for a team many picked to win the AL. Last night provides exhibit A, as he managed to give up a walk-off grand slam to Torii Hunter. For any other closer, I would chalk it up to one bad game early in the season. But Borowski is terrible. In saving 45 games last season, his ERA was 5.07. As the Indians closer the past two years, he has saved 81 games while blowing 15 save opportunites. If one were to hit 81 out 96 free throws in the NBA they would be considered a very good free throw shooter, but when you save 81 of 96 opportunities in the big leagues, you should be pitching in the minors. I take pity on all who have this clown on their fantasy team.

Diamond Dust: Glaus' Glove and Pedro's Pain

Last night was probably an indication of what is to come for my beloved Cardinals. Kyle Lohse pitched five shutout innings taking a no-decision, as the Cards could manage only one run (on a Molina solo home run). For the games, the beleaguered pitching staff allowed zero earned runs. So, if the Cards have one and the pitching gives up zero "earned" runs how did they lose you ask? Let us go to the new "star" third baseman for the answer to your query. A Troy Glaus error in the eighth allowed two unearned runs to score. On Rolen's worst days over the past two season, when he could seemingly not hit the ball out of the infield, he always played a solid third base. Pair this error with his 0-4 at the dish and it is safe to say that this was not the best debut. I hated this acquisition, thus last night's game was particularly irritating. This team will be lucky if it scores 200 runs this season. I will just close my eyes and remember this. Also last night, the Marlins beat the Mets in dramatic fashion when Robert Andino (who?) hit a tenth inning walk-off home run, the first of his brief career. The story was Pedro's strained hamstring, which forced him to leave the game in the fourth after only 57 pitches. When he was out last season, I thought he seemed to have lost his edge and I will be curious to see how he responds. Other random thoughts from the season's first few days include Peavy and Johan starting their Cy Young duel in good order with an edge to JP after Round 1 and the guy I proclaimed to be the best closer in baseball, J.J. Putz blew a save opportunity on the season's second day. Granted it is early to get worried about these things, but what fun would the first week of the baseball season be if we couldn't say things like Jim Thome is on pace to hit 324 home runs and drive in 648 runs. Actually people that do this are annoying, the beginning of the season is plenty fun without such dumb projections...

The Seattle Supersonics Are Not Good at Basketball

How could the NCAA tournament selection committee not include the Seattle Supersonics? I am guessing Baylor got the 11 seed in the West because they have won five more games than the Sonics (21 to 16). The Sonics would probably lose in the first round to Purdue, but it is the NCAA tournament, thus they could have been this year's George Mason. Seattle lost by 52 to the Denver Nuggets last night, 168-116. This was the the fourth most points ever scored in a non-OT game in NBA history (Suns with 173 against the Nuggets in 1990 hold the record). Had it not been for a sluggish second quarter in which they only scored 36 points, the Nuggets would gotten the record. Are people in Seattle really too sad this team is going to move to Oklahoma City? Eight Nuggets scored in double figures, even Yakhouba Diawara (who?) scored 11. But the most impressive stat coming from this game other than the points scored is the fact that Marcus Camby was able to get a triple double in only 27 minutes (13/15/10/4 blocks). No one thought the Sonics were going to be all that competitive, but this team is pitiful. Kevin Durant has played good, not great, Chris Wilcox is the team's #2 scorer (13.5), and some guy named Johan Petro is the team's starting center. I know Shawn Kemp is a bit out of shape these days, but it is hard to imagine that this team would not be better if he made a comeback.