Our Starting Pitching is Looking Real Good...

Should the offense come around, I hope the pitching doesn't take a dive. Now THAT would be a bummer.

Alex, since the 11-1 start the team is 9-25. Game after game the offense is pitiful. 5, 6, 7 hits a game. Last night 1 hit from a minor leaguer. What makes you think the offense is going to come around? Finley pitches great and this team can only get 1 hit for the guy. I am certainly not a Finley fan but he proved last night that there are much worse problems on the team than him.

Has anyone else noticed how many teams are offensively struggeling?
Probably the only teams not struggeling are the ChiSox, BoSox, and well possibly the Yanks to a little extent, although earlier in the month they seemed pretty pitiful. Mariners seem to be having problems now too since Edgar got hurt.
A's are in the tank as well...they are doing some major shaking up...time for the Tribe to do the same?

Swanny, you kind of ended up saying what I said. Our pitching is pretty good this year.

We just need a speedy guy in the two spot who can get on base. It's turning out to be a huge hole for us.

You are right Alex. Alex I am really curious as to your thoughts on what has transpired so far this season. Do you believe in Shapiro's plan? Granted our starting pitching could be very strong down the line but you have to score some runs to win games. That's why I keep waiting for the teacher's projected 2004 lineup that is going to be back on top. Why should we believe that Dolan is going to use the freed up $$$ next off season on the team? I'll believe it when I see it. The part that really sickens me is that we could have easily contended in the Central THIS YEAR even without Gonzalez and Alomar. All Shapiro had to do was get a couple of decent bats who can drive in some runs. If we win the Central and go into the playoffs anything could happen. If Finley could put in a performance in the playoffs like he did yesterday I would like our chances with the rest of the staff. Shapiro is the one who destroyed any chance of that happening. Sad really!

MY biggest fears about Ricky G have so far come true. Basically, when Ricky G was in the 7th spot, I didn't mind.

But Ricky is not a table-setter. Tablesetters HAVE to have speed. The Sac hits are fine, although he has gotten very few of them.

Allegedly Ricky can bunt but so far has bunted very few times. Frankly bunts are a little overrated because there is the threat of breaking a finger.

I am a fan of the intentional chopper as the best way to get a runner over to second.

I'd like to see Lawton and Thome and Burks coming to the plate with a runner on second a couple of times a game.
Lately that has not been the case. These guys have messed up lately when there was a chance to get back into a game, but one way to notice mess-ups less is to give the big bats more opportunities to come through.

Ever since Branyan got ejected in his first at bat after he had homered in 3 consecutive games, his performance has dropped. I was afraid of that.

Travis has started to hit. If we picked up one plus .300 hitter with speed and put them in the two spot, we could still win the division.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 23, 2002 10:45 PM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>

This team is far from just a #2 hitter to win this division. I agree the 2 hole is a problem, but Thome, Burks , and Fryman have not done any kind of job in knocking in runs. Thome no longer has the protection he has thrived under, Fryman isn't hitting and Burks has been out for a while. As far as Branyan goes, get rid of him, the experiment failed just like Brady Anderson, the guy is no longer even listening to Murray because he has own idea of what hitting is. Branyan is a bad apple out of the bunch, get some AA propsect for him in return

It's important to not let bad play overide the intangibles.

Burks, Thome and Lawton are solid. Burks provides protection for Thome, and Fryman has been hitting in the sixth spot.

The Angels didn't crumble when they started the season 6-14. They are now 27-17 and closing in on Seattle.

I guarantee they don't have that much more talent then we do. What they do have is two very strong table-setters at the top of the line-up, not one. We only have one.

Ricky G in the two spot is ineffective. He needs to bat 7th. At this point in time, if we could fix the number two spot, the effect would be felt up and down the line-up.

Branyan will come back and play well, but before he does, the top of the line-up has to do it's job.

By the way, Thome and Fryman are both hitting over .300 for the last 8 or 9 games.

What has gone a bit less noticed is both Lawton and Burks have been in very deep slumps.

Once again, a fine pitching performance, is that 18 straight games where our starting pitching has made it until at least the sixth inning?

One thing I have noticed about Lawton, he really gets on top of the ball a lot. His timing seems to be all right, but whenever he swings, he gets on top of the ball and pounds it into the ground. If he hit the ball a milimeter lower he would probably be lining it up the middle and to the gaps. I wonder if he notices this himself.