what has surprised you in the first month of the baseball season

xavier mcdaniel
xavier mcdaniel Somewhere in NYC Posts: 9,475
edited May 2008 in All Encompassing Trip
A couple of things have surprised me, things like the following:

The good:

That Ervin Santana is 6-0

Mike Mussina has been a pleasant surprise, although my confidence in him hasn't been as low as others

The Cardinals, I'm not Tony LaRussa fan but credit is due for a 20-12 team, when very few if any picked them to be good.

The bad:

The way the Mariners have played of late, especially over the weekend

The Tigers being 14-19 and not hitting consistently

The Indians struggling to score runs
Reading 2004
Albany 2006 Camden 2006 E. Rutherford 2, 2006 Inglewood 2006,
Chicago 2007
Camden 2008 MSG 2008 MSG 2008 Hartford 2008.
Seattle 2009 Seattle 2009 Philadelphia 2009,Philadelphia 2009 Philadelphia 2009
Hartford 2010 MSG 2010 MSG 2010
Toronto 2011,Toronto 2011
Wrigley Field 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Philadelphia 2, 2013
Philadelphia 1, 2016 Philadelphia 2 2016 New York 2016 New York 2016 Fenway 1, 2016
Fenway 2, 2018
MSG 2022
St. Paul, 1, St. Paul 2 2023
MSG 2024, MSG 2024
Philadelphia 2024
"I play good, hard-nosed basketball.
Things happen in the game. Nothing you
can do. I don't go and say,
"I'm gonna beat this guy up."
Post edited by Unknown User on
«13

Comments

  • South of Seattle
    South of Seattle West Seattle Posts: 10,724
    Ryan Howard is a Dog.

    Someone traded me Nady for Brad "I can't hit lefties" Hawpe last week.

    Prince Fielder needs a T-Bone Steak

    JJ Putz is being a Putz.
    NERDS!
  • LONGRD
    LONGRD Posts: 6,036
    The Bad: The Tigers and Mariners have been a disappointment. I had both winning their division.

    The Good: The Rays are pretty damn good before getting swept by Boston during their last series! :p
    The Twins after losing stars Santana and Hunter, they're playing pretty good in the tough AL Central.
    PJ- 04/29/2003.06/24,25,27,28,30/2008.10/27,28,30,31/2009
    EV- 08/09,10/2008.06/08,09/2009
  • xavier mcdaniel
    xavier mcdaniel Somewhere in NYC Posts: 9,475
    LongRd. wrote:
    The Bad: The Tigers and Mariners have been a disappointment. I had both winning their division.

    The Good: The Rays are pretty damn good before getting swept by Boston during their last series! :p
    The Twins after losing stars Santana and Hunter, they're playing pretty good in the tough AL Central.

    I didn't have the Mariners winning but didn't think they would lose 19 of their first 32.

    And that's a good point with Minnesota, especially the way they just swept Detroit and have won 12 of their first 18 divisional games.
    Reading 2004
    Albany 2006 Camden 2006 E. Rutherford 2, 2006 Inglewood 2006,
    Chicago 2007
    Camden 2008 MSG 2008 MSG 2008 Hartford 2008.
    Seattle 2009 Seattle 2009 Philadelphia 2009,Philadelphia 2009 Philadelphia 2009
    Hartford 2010 MSG 2010 MSG 2010
    Toronto 2011,Toronto 2011
    Wrigley Field 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Philadelphia 2, 2013
    Philadelphia 1, 2016 Philadelphia 2 2016 New York 2016 New York 2016 Fenway 1, 2016
    Fenway 2, 2018
    MSG 2022
    St. Paul, 1, St. Paul 2 2023
    MSG 2024, MSG 2024
    Philadelphia 2024
    "I play good, hard-nosed basketball.
    Things happen in the game. Nothing you
    can do. I don't go and say,
    "I'm gonna beat this guy up."
  • Porchsitter
    Porchsitter Loganville, GA Posts: 1,092
    I can't believe how many injuries the Braves pitching staff has taken.....I mean aside from Hampton which came as no shock.
    We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.--Bill Hicks
  • Fighting Hellfish
    Fighting Hellfish Posts: 3,175
    Cliff Lee

    Melky Cabrera leading the Yankees in homeruns

    Ryan Dempster

    Manny Corpas having a meltdown and losing the Rockies closer job a few weeks into the season
  • Trailer
    Trailer Posts: 1,431
    Zito is now a RELIEVER!! :eek:
    Whoa, chill bro... you know you can't raise your voice like that when the lion's here.
  • LONGRD
    LONGRD Posts: 6,036
    Trailer wrote:
    Zito is now a RELIEVER!! :eek:
    Curse of Bonds in SF?

    Well, they never did win a title with him anyways. Hehe :p
    PJ- 04/29/2003.06/24,25,27,28,30/2008.10/27,28,30,31/2009
    EV- 08/09,10/2008.06/08,09/2009
  • markymark550
    markymark550 Columbia, SC Posts: 5,247
    With as average a first season that he had last year, I'm a bit surprised Daisuke Matsuzaka is 5-0 with a 2.43 ERA. I expected another season much like the one he had last year.

    Josh Hamilton leading the AL in RBI is a bit surprising too...
  • patrickredeyes
    patrickredeyes Posts: 8,834
    The Cardinals
  • tvismyfriend
    tvismyfriend Posts: 2,118
    Blue Jays releasing Frank Thomas.
  • Phantom Pain
    Phantom Pain Posts: 9,876
    Suprised : The Phils in 1st place with Howard doing nothing and Rollins being out

    Plus their bullpen has been rock solid and Lidge has been lights out

    Not suprised : Utley tearing the cover off the ball.....let's make this 3 for 3 on the MVP's

    :D
    My drinking team has a hockey problem

    The ONLY thing better than a glass of beer is tea with Miss McGill



    A protuberance of flesh above the waistband of a tight pair of trousers
  • PureandEasy
    PureandEasy Posts: 5,818
    Pleasantly surprised - the great start Pat Burrell has had. After the last half of the seaon last year, I kind of knew he had his swing back, but I never imaged he would have 11 doubles, 9 homeruns and 30 RBI's after the 1st month

    yeah Pat! :):):)
    Don't come closer or I'll have to go
  • gregkitefan
    gregkitefan Posts: 1,122
    markymark550 wrote:
    With as average a first season that he had last year, I'm a bit surprised Daisuke Matsuzaka is 5-0 with a 2.43 ERA. I expected another season much like the one he had last year.

    Josh Hamilton leading the AL in RBI is a bit surprising too...


    Dice was far from average last year.
    He had 15 wins, 200K's and over 200 IP's.

    Only (17) people had more wins and only (7) people had more K's.
    Only (28) people pitched over 200 innings.

    There are (150) starting pitchers in the majors.

    Far from average.
    38
  • olderman
    olderman Posts: 1,765
    My KC Royals have been competetive. Great pitching.

    How about Joakim Soria

    13 Innings pitched, 3 fucking hits, 8 out 8 on saves, 0.00 ERA, 1 W, 15 SO!!

    If you let the Royals get ahead in the late innings, you are fucked

    Unfortunately, until the bats get going, the Royals will remain at or about .500
    Down the street you can hear her scream youre a disgrace
    As she slams the door in his drunken face
    And now he stands outside
    And all the neighbours start to gossip and drool
    He cries oh, girl you must be mad,
    What happened to the sweet love you and me had?
    Against the door he leans and starts a scene,
    And his tears fall and burn the garden green
  • markymark550
    markymark550 Columbia, SC Posts: 5,247
    gregkitefan wrote:
    Dice was far from average last year.
    He had 15 wins, 200K's and over 200 IP's.

    Only (17) people had more wins and only (7) people had more K's.
    Only (28) people pitched over 200 innings.

    There are (150) starting pitchers in the majors.

    Far from average.
    15-12 record with a 4.40 ERA last year....that's average and not indicative of the start he's having this year

    also, last year he had the 12th most walks and was one of 19 players to give up over 100 earned runs
  • Solat13
    Solat13 Posts: 6,996
    markymark550 wrote:
    15-12 record with a 4.40 ERA last year....that's average and not indicative of the start he's having this year

    also, last year he had the 12th most walks and was one of 19 players to give up over 100 earned runs

    True, but he also had the 8th best hit per innings pitched ratio in the AL and held batters to a .246 average against him which was also 8th in the AL.
    - Busted down the pretext
    - 8/28/98
    - 9/2/00
    - 4/28/03, 5/3/03, 7/3/03, 7/5/03, 7/6/03, 7/9/03, 7/11/03, 7/12/03, 7/14/03
    - 9/28/04, 9/29/04, 10/1/04, 10/2/04
    - 9/11/05, 9/12/05, 9/13/05, 9/30/05, 10/1/05, 10/3/05
    - 5/12/06, 5/13/06, 5/27/06, 5/28/06, 5/30/06, 6/1/06, 6/3/06, 6/23/06, 7/22/06, 7/23/06, 12/2/06, 12/9/06
    - 8/2/07, 8/5/07
    - 6/19/08, 6/20/08, 6/22/08, 6/24/08, 6/25/08, 6/27/08, 6/28/08, 6/30/08, 7/1/08
    - 8/23/09, 8/24/09, 9/21/09, 9/22/09, 10/27/09, 10/28/09, 10/30/09, 10/31/09
    - 5/15/10, 5/17/10, 5/18/10, 5/20/10, 5/21/10, 10/23/10, 10/24/10
    - 9/11/11, 9/12/11
    - 10/18/13, 10/21/13, 10/22/13, 11/30/13, 12/4/13
  • myhook
    myhook Posts: 284
    Here is a quick list

    Surprised:
    Cliff Lee and Zak Greinke leading the AL in ERA
    C.Wang being 6-0
    Chase Utley having 13 homers already
    Josh Hamilton leading all of baseball in RBI
    Chipper Jones batting .425 with 9 HR and 27 RBI
    The way the Florida teams have played. They are a combined 4 games over .500
    Cleveland and Colorado playing way under .500
    Not one win between Hughes and Kennedy
    Xavier Nady
    TB sweeping Boston (although got swept right back)


    Not Surprised:
    A.Jones still sucks
    the NY 1st basemen are terrible. Giambi and Delgado.
    Pedro got hurt
    Hey, you wouldn't hire a clown to fix a leak in the jon so why do you let these hooligans tear down the biz? YEEAAHHH. I don't care if he is Mr. Notorious BIG, can he croon?
  • markymark550
    markymark550 Columbia, SC Posts: 5,247
    Solat13 wrote:
    True, but he also had the 8th best hit per innings pitched ratio in the AL and held batters to a .246 average against him which was also 8th in the AL.
    so basically, all the good and bad cancel out, showing that he had an average season last year ;)
  • gregkitefan
    gregkitefan Posts: 1,122
    markymark550 wrote:
    15-12 record with a 4.40 ERA last year....that's average and not indicative of the start he's having this year

    also, last year he had the 12th most walks and was one of 19 players to give up over 100 earned runs


    15 wins is average.
    Once again there are 150 atarting pitchers in MLB.
    The average starting pitcher in MLB had 9 or 10 wins last year.

    My point is he was very very far from average.
    38
  • Solat13
    Solat13 Posts: 6,996
    markymark550 wrote:
    so basically, all the good and bad cancel out, showing that he had an average season last year ;)

    Very true, but if you take out September when both he and Oki had dead arms, he would have had an era of 3.88 which would have been a really good year for a rookie. Or if the Sox wouldn't have blown two games for him in September, he would have been 17-12. (One was the infamous Gagne game when Dice-K left up 5-1 after 7 and Gagne came in and gave up 4 runs in the 8th. The other was the game against the Yanks when he left up 5-2 in the 6th and Oki and Papelbon gave up 6 runs in the 8th.)

    I think he an above average season personally, but unless he won 20 there was no way he was going to match the hype he had going into the year.
    - Busted down the pretext
    - 8/28/98
    - 9/2/00
    - 4/28/03, 5/3/03, 7/3/03, 7/5/03, 7/6/03, 7/9/03, 7/11/03, 7/12/03, 7/14/03
    - 9/28/04, 9/29/04, 10/1/04, 10/2/04
    - 9/11/05, 9/12/05, 9/13/05, 9/30/05, 10/1/05, 10/3/05
    - 5/12/06, 5/13/06, 5/27/06, 5/28/06, 5/30/06, 6/1/06, 6/3/06, 6/23/06, 7/22/06, 7/23/06, 12/2/06, 12/9/06
    - 8/2/07, 8/5/07
    - 6/19/08, 6/20/08, 6/22/08, 6/24/08, 6/25/08, 6/27/08, 6/28/08, 6/30/08, 7/1/08
    - 8/23/09, 8/24/09, 9/21/09, 9/22/09, 10/27/09, 10/28/09, 10/30/09, 10/31/09
    - 5/15/10, 5/17/10, 5/18/10, 5/20/10, 5/21/10, 10/23/10, 10/24/10
    - 9/11/11, 9/12/11
    - 10/18/13, 10/21/13, 10/22/13, 11/30/13, 12/4/13

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