Diamond Dust: The Tigers and Mets are Making Me Look Like an Idiot, Part II

LWAL's preseason pick of Tigers over Mets in the 2008 World Series is in critical condition. Granted it is still May, but for how long can one continue to say "it's only April," "its only May," its only the All Star break?" Before breaking out today, the Mets had lost 5 in-a-row, falling to two games under .500 and 4.5 behind the super surprising Marlins. You know things are going bad when Fernando Tatis is starting in the outfield. Bad bullpen pitching and injuries in the outfield are seriously slowing down this offense. Also, Jose Reyes has not been able to evolve into the dominate lead-off hitter it seemed like he would be at this time last year. As for the Terrible Tigers, they still reside in the basement of the AL Central, 6.5 behind the White Sox (another surprise at the top). The only team with a worst team ERA in all of baseball is a team everyone expected to be there, the Pirates (5.05 compared to the Tigers robust 4.98). For the record, it does not matter how many runs you score if you give up five runs a game (Detroit is third in the AL in runs scored and team batting average). There is still a lot of time, but time is of the essence in Detroit and Queens.

The Not-So Crappy Cardinals have weathered a storm of bad play, winning 5 out of 6 and currently sit .5 game behind the Cubs for the best record in the league. The story for this team has been the play of Ryan Ludwick, which was chronicled here two weeks ago. Ludwick started the season splitting time with Skip Schumaker (who has also played surprisingly well). Currently, Ludwick is fourth in batting average (.347) and home runs (13) and fifth in RBIs (37). His play has been a pleasant surprise for those of us who thought this team would struggle mightily offensive outside of Pujols' normal production. Now for some random thoughts:

• Josh Hamilton-Williams and Lance Berkman-Ruth are playing out of their minds right now. Talking triple crown this time of year is about as productive as talking about Chipper Jones-Hornsby hitting .400 (.415 currently), but it is worth taking note of the way these guys are playing. Hamilton-Williams is currently tied for the league lead in average (.335) and home runs (12) and leads the league in RBIs by 13 (53). Berkman-Ruth is second in average (.387) and leads the NL in home runs (16) and RBIs (45). Somewhere Carl Yastremski is getting uneasy.
  
• Francisco Rodriguez has saved 20 of the Angels' 29 wins. Somewhere Bobby Thigpen is feeling uncomfortable.
• Brandon Webb is a loser.
  

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.

Diamond Dust: The Tigers Have a Pulse and the Crappy Cardinals Rear Their Ugly Head

It is amazing how much easier it is to win when you hit. The Tigers have finally realized this in winning 3 in a row and 7 of their last 10. It is safe to say that two weeks from now the teams that are currently fourth and fifth respectively in the AL Central (Detroit and Cleveland) will probably be at the top, as the White Sox, Royals, and Twins have already started to fade into oblivion. The Not-So Crappy Cardinals are trying their hardest not to morph into the Crappy Cardinals, but losing 6 out of 10 will not help. The team ERA is slowly ticking upward (still 6th in all of baseball at a respectable 3.72). This team's ability to pitch has been its diagnosed issue, thus this trend is concerning. Mark Mulder is making rehab starts and could be back soon. Needless to say I am not holding my breath. Other points of intrigue include:

• Baltimore, Oakland, Chicago White Sox, and Florida continue to play way above their heads.
• The Phillies have the two best players in the league right now--Chase Utley is hitting .368 with 10 HR/21 RBI and Pat Burrell is hitting .351 with 8 HR/23 RBI.
• Brandon Webb and the Diamondbacks are attempting to run away and hide--Despite Johan Santana and Jake Peavy, Brandon Webb reminds us that he is pretty good too (5-0/2.31 ERA/29 K) and the Diamondbacks have found that pop that yours truly said did not exist and are 6 games up in a seemingly very overrated NL West.
• John Smoltz got to 3,000 K's, imagine how many he might had he not had to pitch out the bullpen for three seasons. In mentioning the great NL pitchers above, I failed to mention the guy who tops that impressive list. No one is enjoying a better start to the season than Old Man Smoltz. He is 3-1 with a .79 ERA and has struck out 31 in only 23 IP.

Check out LWAL's Senior Baseball Correspondent's take here.

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...

NL Preview: Not My Year, But Probably My Brother's

The 2008 baseball season started early this morning with a whimper. Will professional sports stop playing regular season games overseas, especially the opening games of the baseball season. In case you weren't aware, the two games in Japan will in fact count as Oakland home games, not Boston. When talking about the National League, it is important to remember how vastly inferior this league is to the American League. I say this as a long time NL guy. It is difficult to envision a scenario where any NL team is competitive with any AL team in the World Series, but let us not forget how absolutely wonderful the 2006 season was when many thought the same thing (see here, in case you forgot). What is going to be particularly troubling about this year in the NL is how my beloved Cardinals are not going to be too competitive, even in the worst division in the history of professional sports. A lack of decent starting pitching (at least until June), guys who can hit more than five home runs, and no speed to speak of is not a recipe for success. The biggest story in the offseason in the NL was the New York Mets acquisition of Johan Santana. This team already had solid starting pitching and Santana replacing Glavine seems like a pretty good upgrade for the Mets. With that being said, here is the latest installment of picks that are sure to be wrong:

NL East
1. New York Mets
2. Atlanta Braves
3. Philadelphia Phillies
4. Washington Nationals
5. Florida Marlins

The Mets are the class of the NL. They will win this division by at least 10 games. The Phillies backed into the playoffs last year when the Mets imploded in the final weeks of the season. It has been argued by some that one player cannot make the difference. This might be true in certain cases, A-Rod could not make the difference on bad Texas Rangers teams. But with the Mets and the acquisition of Johan Santana you have a team that lost the division by one game to a team that was not that good. I will go out on a limb and say that Johan adds at least two wins to the Mets win total of a year ago. The Braves and Phillies will compete for the Wild Card. The Braves have the edge here because of a better pitching staff. Their offense will be an unknown until we get to see it in action. I like giving Yunel Escobar a chance at shortstop with the league's best hitting catcher, Mark Texeira, and the league's most underrated player from last year, Chipper Jones (.337/29/102). The Phillies will score but not pitch well. The Nationals will be a non-factor for the near future as they are equipped with a collection of minor league pitchers posing as a big league staff. At least they have a new stadium. The Marlins will compete for the worst record in all of baseball. If the Mets stay healthy (I mean you Pedro), they will not face a team in its class until the World Series. This is more of a testament to how bad the NL is than how good the Mets are.

NL Central
1. Chicago Cubs
2. Milwaukee Brewers
3. Houston Astros
4. St. Louis Cardinals
5. Cincinatti Reds
6. Pittsburgh Pirates

As mentioned above, this is the worst division in the history of professional sports. The Cubs get the nod here because of their offense and pretty good starting pitching (Zambrano, Lilly, Hill, Lieber). This team has serious issues in the bullpen. Any time your closer's first name is Kerry with a last name of Wood, you should be concerned. The Brewers will make the race interesting with what is probably the best lineup in the NL, but pitching is this team's Achilles Heel. Eric Gagne as a closer is never a good sign at this stage of his illegitimate career. The rest of the division will be below .500 by year's end. Houston has a decent lineup with Hunter Pence, Lance Berkman, and Carlos Lee and one good pitcher (Roy Oswalt). Albert Puols will have a great year in a bad lineup. He might get six pitches to hit all year long. This will be a big year in the development of Adam Wainwright who pitched pretty well last year. He is the Obi-Wan Kenobi of this staff until at least June, he is "our only hope." The Reds have Dusty Baker as a manager. I am not sure if that is good or not. Adam Dunn will probably hit a lot of home runs and strike out even more. The Pirates are the odds on favorite to finish with the league's worst record. If they played in the Carolina League's Northern Division I would pick them to finish behind the mighty Wilmington Blue Rocks and the scrappy Potomac Nationals.

NL West
1. San Diego Padres
2. Los Angeles Dodgers
3. Colorado Rockies
4. Arizona Diamondbacks
5. San Francisco Giants

This division contains the most Wild Card hopefuls. The Padres are the second best team in the NL and should win this division comfortably. What amazes me about this division is how one division can possess suck a lack of power. These teams have had this same issue over the last five years and done little to address it. The Dodgers have a good staff that could get better if Schmidty can get it together and stay healthy for more than a minute. The lineup lacks pop, but the addition of Andruw Jones should help. He needs to hit for a much higher average if this team is going to make the playoffs. Nomar is already out, so get ready. The Rockies got into the playoffs by seemingly winning their last 50 games. They are in the same boat as the Phillies, Letdown City, population 2. The Diamondbacks meteoric rise last year had nothing to do with the team's ability to hit. It is difficult to envision a repeat performance. The Giants begin the post-Barry era with a bad team that will not be competitive.

For all things baseball predictions, go here.