Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The Topsy Turvey Spring
Although I should be focusing my energies on the growing intensity in the Pens/Flyers series, or perhaps on some in depth analysis in the Steelers upcoming draft, I still find myself oddly drawn to the intriguing early spring of our #3 team, the Battlin' Buccos. With last night's shutout of the red hot Florida Marlins, the Bucs now own an astonishing four white washings in just 13 games. This figure actually exceeds the entire 2008 total for shutouts. With more analysis from the help of the world's greatest baseball bean counters, Baseball-Reference.com, you'll notice that the Bucs own the league's best era with an incredible nine quality starts in 13 outings. They've held their opponents to two runs or fewer seven times already, yet have yielded six or more runs in half of the other games. This roller coaster ride is surely to extend well into the season, but my protruding gut tells me that this year's season totals will be light years better than the dreadful returns of 2008. Ok, enough on the Bucs. More Pens and draft coverage coming soon. I promise.
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2 comments:
Buccos are on pace for 92 wins. If they could keep this pace up into July, they may be able to end on the plus side of .500. I know I bash the crap out of this team, but I would love to see a solid baseball squad in town. They would compliment the Steelers and Pens nicely.
Hopefully the Pirates are feeling the pressure of the other teams success and it makes them play better.
The down note for now is the injury to Ryan "no mitt" Doumit. The Buccos can't afford any injuries to their core players - but it seems Doumit spends a decent amount of time on the IR every year.
The good start has peeked my interests. And it is nice to see Adam LaRoche hitting well before June 1st.
Agreed on all counts. Before we rush out and buy season tickets, we should remember that this team always finds ways of slowing it down. However, we should take some encouragement in HOW these wins are coming: 1) 10 quality starts in 14 games. Awesome. For those that think QS's don't matter, check with baseball-reference.com. Teams win over 70% of the time they log QS's. Now, if they could only get Gorzo on track. 2) Federal Street Freddy is back to his 2006/2007 form. 3) And as Ad Rock pointed out, Adam LaRoche is far ahead of his typical .140 April BA. Being a contract year, it would be best for everyone if he had that big year...finally. 4) As Nyjer Morgan continues to erase his image of being a no-bat, defense only guy, he will gain more trade interests, as the team is clearly planning on bringing all-world prospect Drew McClutchen up soon.
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