May Day?

Is it time to abandon ship? Well, maybe. There are a couple of teams/players that are having early season troubles and are an injury away from phoning in 2010. I am not saying they can't turn it around, but early forecasts look bleak. Who are these teams/individuals you ask? Heck, I'll tell ya.

This may be too early into the season to dissect, but there should definitely be panic in the Nation. Your ace (newly resigned Beckett) has done nothing but get shelled, and you're already placing your hopes on a youngster (Buchholz), and a vet who is coming off of a major injury (Matsuzaka). Lackey has been ok (he beat my Twins), but not nearly enough to stave off a completely done Papi, ageing Varitek, and injuries galore (Ellsbury and Cameron to name a couple). Not to mention Drew, Victor Martinez, and Pedroia aren't hitting consistently yet. Since I am not sold on the Bill Hall/Jeremy Hermida platoon, unless their pitching starts to come around, abandon ship is right. Although seeing how the Rays can't lose and the Yanks are the Yanks, hope might need some help like the words if, maybe, or probably. (Yes, I did just incorporate Andre 3000 in my blog) Good luck Francona.

BTW, I am assuming those who chose Cano as AL player of the month didn't read my most recent blog entry. They should have. If so, then they wouldn't have been completely wrong in their pick.

Also, a quick aww shucks to the Royals for demoting Alex Gordon to the minors. He has not hit over 16 taters or batted over .280 in any one season, and number 1 pick or not, that just ain't getting it done. Something smells very Delmon Young about him. Maybe he'll turn it around eventually like Delmon has shown this season. Maybe not. I'm hoping for the latter. Unless he comes to Minny. Actually no thanks. We've had our fill of disappointing talent. See Santana trade.

Now there were a couple of people that pulled a Red Sox and almost made me leave them out of this edition. Quick "just-barely" noms to Peavy (yesterday's shutdown performance most certainly helped), D-Train (great game against my Twinkies no doubt. But we see him again tonight so he could get right back on the list), and Grady Sizemore (batting like .100 and might have a couple RBI's, if any). I would include the rookie Heyward (he hasn't quite made the adjustment, but does have 7 homers already), but he is only 20.

Now that we have the underachievers out of the way, here's a tip of the 'ol cap to those impressing the pants off of me right now.(My chinos are sans on my legs as we speak).

My two utter surprises are the Mets starting pitching and two rookies. The first, here's to Manual and the Mets brass for sticking with youngsters who had the talent, but had problems pitching consistently game to game. Santana (his usual self, minus the Philly game) and Pelfrey (finally finding his rhythm, also minus the Philly game)are a major reason the Mets aren't already out of it. And extra kudos must be presented to their young, overachieving pen. Mejia (1.50) and Nieve (2.81) both pitched their way onto the team in Spring Training and haven't disappointed. Feliciano (0.71!!) seems like he is rewarding the Mets for keeping him as their only holdover from the mid-2000's pen that sucked dick. And please pay attention to Ike Davis. He is THAT good. He could very well steal ROY right from under Heyward's nose. Unless of course Strasburg (promoted to AAA) decides not to pitch until August, which will never happen considering the Nats tough play so far.
Just for my main man Marbles, I must say I never expected Jaime Garcia (3-1, 1.13 ERA) to develop this quickly, but Jesus!, this kid is killing. Speaking of shutdown performance. Where exactly were the mighty Phils last night? Not in the batters box.

Lastly, my I-told-you-so dominate effort so far this season goes to two people. First, my Mauer replacement Wilson Ramos. 7 for 9, 3 extra base hits, and his first RBI, all in the first two games! Yeah, I said we needed to figure out what to do with him and I was right. My opinion. Trade him for major 3rd base talent because it seems that Valencia is never gonna see the Show. We need help at third like yesterday. Who's our starter? Uh Punto, Harris, sometimes Cuddyer, the rookie Luke Hughes? Exactly. We are solid everywhere else. Now if we could just find a player good enough. My pick is.....Valencia. And trade Ramos for a front of the line starter because Baker is no more than a 3 and Liriano is our only ace. If we are to compete with the Yanks, Rays, and M's we need a true number 2.
Second, Ethier from the Dodgers. Remember last season when Manny was killing and then got suspended. This of course led to a domino effect of lackluster play offensively from most of the Dodgers batters. All that is, except Ethier. Here we are now in 2010 and it seems as if times have not changed so much. Manny is out and all those hot bats have cooled, most notably Kemp, who I big uped in an earlier blog entry. All, that is, except Ethier. All he's done in Manny's absence is post Triple Crown numbers(as of May 3rd), leading the NL in homers, RBI's, and average. His sweet swing should be talked about more. He'll be an All-Star this year and in coming year's. Hey, does he play 3B?