Maddux Sports Blog

The Major League Baseball season is more than a month old. Here’s what’s happening with just 136 games to go in the season.

Humanly Possible?

Kansas City Royals starter Zack Greinke cannot be real. In six games he is 6-0. In 45 innings, he’s notched 54 Ks. He has allowed just 30 hits, no homeruns and three runs, making his ERA 0.40! Machine, ghost, android—what is he? Right now the five-year, six-foot-two veteran who is all around astounding. He’s just 25 years old. The future is now for this kid and he could propel this club into the post-season. I know it’s early, but there’s no one better on the mound right now.

Got Pitching?

The series between Boston and New York stands at 4-0 as last night the guys from Beantown won their first ever game at the new Yankee Stadium. The Sox arrived in New York on a four-game skid. The cure to that skid was a game against their longtime rivals. Three of the four games that the Sox-Yanks have played this season were relatively close, but here’s a troubling stat for the Bronx Bombers. Their RS/RA against the Red Sox stands at 21/34, making them minus-13. The Yankees’ overall RS/RA differential over 25 games is also minus-13. By the way, Yankee pitchers have given up 159 runs—second most in MLB. Someone tell GM Cashman the key to winning is “pitching.”

Deep in the Heart of Texas

I am rooting for these guys to take the AL West. Right now they are in second place just behind Seattle. As expected, their hitters are hitting. They’ve knocked 46 long balls and have scored a healthy number of runs—146.  Even better is the fact that team pitching is, thus far, looking pretty good. The best news may be that closer Fran Francisco, in his first full season in that role, has eight saves, no loses and an ERA of zip. He’s allowed six hits in 12 games and 13 innings. He also has one win and no loses. Last season, as a part-time closer, he notched five saves and blew six. As Francisco goes so too will these Rangers.

The Nationals’ Disgrace

Okay, the Washington Nationals are simply tough to watch. It’s not so much the 7-17 record, or the minus-24 run differential or even the fact that they are already seven games out of first. Overall, the hitting is good. But the pitching is sketchy. Closer Joel Hanrahan is the antithesis of the Rangers’ Francisco. In 12 appearances, he’s pitched 11 innings, giving up 8 earned runs, 3 homeruns and 5 walks. His ERA is 7.20. He has just two saves while posting three blown saves. As a team, the pitching staff is ranked 14^th in ERA, 13^th in BAA and 14^th in Ks. It looks to be a long, hot season in our nation’s capital.

St. Louis Ain’t Blue

The St. Louis Cardinals are playing excellent baseball. Their pitching staff is performing well, they’re scoring a boatload of runs and hitting for both power and percentage. You can’t help but look to Albert Pujols and wonder if the Cards will win their second World Series in four years. Pujols is hitting .344 with 29 RBI, 9 HR and .700 SLG%. He’s consistently been one of the best in baseball for eight years. He is an amazing day-in and day-out talent.

Dodger Ball

Okay, here’s an amazing stat. The Los Angeles Dodgers have scored 148 runs and allowed 102. The first number is the best in the National League and the second ranks them third in that category. Everyone expects the Dodgers to have good pitching and decent hitting. But their RS/RA differential is plus-46, which is the best in MLB. A major reason for the upswing in offense has to do with the player who confounds both pitchers and fans—Manny Ramirez. Ramirez is hitting .360 with 18 RBI, 31 hits and 6 homeruns. He has also drawn 24 walks. Add to that Andre Ethier’s .316 BA, 6 homers and 25 RBI and Orlando Hudson’s .336 BA, 37 hits and 15 RBI and you start to get a picture of this team’s potential to put runs up on the board. Watch out—these guys are dangerous!

The Ol’ One-Two

The New York Mets possess two of the best performers to date—Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana. Beltran is hitting at a .400 clip with 36 hits, 18 RBI and an OBP of .500. His batting average is the best in the majors. On the pitchers mound, Santana has a league leading 1.10 ERA. He’s also notched 44 strikeouts and allowed just 22 hits. These two guy’s individual efforts are noteworthy, but the team’s efforts have them in third place at 11-13 with a RS/RA difference of just plus-3. A lot more is expected from the Mets but they can’t expect much more from these two guys.

Soon the only sport in town will be MLB. Let the summer roll in and the baseball season roll on towards October. As usual, there’s exciting and unexpected stuff happening on the 30 MLB fields of green. 

Related posts:

1. The American League After the All Star Break Each year in the second-half of the MLB season, some...
2. The National League After the All Star Break Last week, I considered where teams were in the American...
3. National League: How Hot is Hot? It’s early in the MLB season. But two teams are...

Tags: Albert Pujols, Boston Red Sox, Fran Francisco, Manny Ramirez, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals, Zack Greinke

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 10:50 am and is filed under Baseball Handicapping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.