Friday, April 23, 2004
Too Soon to Tell...
A 2 game slide and the blogosphere is back in hand-wringing mode it appears. Here's our season so far.
vs Texas: 2-1
vs Oakland: 3-4
vs Anaheim: 1-5
That's it. We played terribly against Anaheim and not gotten off to our usual hot start against the AL West. So does that mean we are a terrible team? No. I think we are a team still trying to find itself. Our bullpen has missed its two best pitchers (Guardado and Soriano) for most of the season, our top two pitchers in the rotation have been terrible, our defense (from the new guys and from stalwarts like Gold Glove Bret Boone) has been sloppy, and our veteran bats have been slow to heat up.
On the encouraging side is that our #3 and #4 pitchers have been AWESOME. Our new guys have goten some clutch hits and seem to bring a fire to them that might help us through this tough time and ward off our usual August swoon. Guardado and Spiezio are back and Soriano will be back soon. Boonie is gonna heat up. If Jamie and Joel don't turn things around, we have damn good options available in Tacoma. We have money available to take on a big salary.
We have a lot of "upside potential" that other teams in our division don't have. The A's are showing all they got, and will be in trouble if another injury strikes. The Angels have two Kevin Jarvis' on their staff in Ramon Ortiz and Aaron Sele. And the Rangers will come back to Earth starting this weekend.
This weekend's series against Texas (if the games get played - we are expecting a lot of rain in Austin) may show a lot about where the M's are going. Win the series or better yet, sweep the series, and it shows that we will beat the teams we are supposed to beat.
Today's picks:
Mets (Seo) +160 over Cubs (Maddux)
Reds (Wilson) +120 over Pirates (Wells)
Padres (Eaton) -130 over Diamondbacks (Daigle)
Rockies (Jennings) +110 over Astros (Duckworth)
Money to date: $469 (picking dog/favorite = +654/-175, 13-13, 11-8) - Lost $339 including $210 on Astros extra innings loss and for some reason I bet on the Yankees. Thank goodness for Ismael Valdez and the Pads.
vs Texas: 2-1
vs Oakland: 3-4
vs Anaheim: 1-5
That's it. We played terribly against Anaheim and not gotten off to our usual hot start against the AL West. So does that mean we are a terrible team? No. I think we are a team still trying to find itself. Our bullpen has missed its two best pitchers (Guardado and Soriano) for most of the season, our top two pitchers in the rotation have been terrible, our defense (from the new guys and from stalwarts like Gold Glove Bret Boone) has been sloppy, and our veteran bats have been slow to heat up.
On the encouraging side is that our #3 and #4 pitchers have been AWESOME. Our new guys have goten some clutch hits and seem to bring a fire to them that might help us through this tough time and ward off our usual August swoon. Guardado and Spiezio are back and Soriano will be back soon. Boonie is gonna heat up. If Jamie and Joel don't turn things around, we have damn good options available in Tacoma. We have money available to take on a big salary.
We have a lot of "upside potential" that other teams in our division don't have. The A's are showing all they got, and will be in trouble if another injury strikes. The Angels have two Kevin Jarvis' on their staff in Ramon Ortiz and Aaron Sele. And the Rangers will come back to Earth starting this weekend.
This weekend's series against Texas (if the games get played - we are expecting a lot of rain in Austin) may show a lot about where the M's are going. Win the series or better yet, sweep the series, and it shows that we will beat the teams we are supposed to beat.
Today's picks:
Mets (Seo) +160 over Cubs (Maddux)
Reds (Wilson) +120 over Pirates (Wells)
Padres (Eaton) -130 over Diamondbacks (Daigle)
Rockies (Jennings) +110 over Astros (Duckworth)
Money to date: $469 (picking dog/favorite = +654/-175, 13-13, 11-8) - Lost $339 including $210 on Astros extra innings loss and for some reason I bet on the Yankees. Thank goodness for Ismael Valdez and the Pads.
