What have we learned? I keep hearing that the pitching has caught up to the hitting and now it has surpassed it. "Four" no-hitters. Three perfect games and 1 no hitter by the most dominant pitcher in the game not named Halladay. Jimenez in Colorado is putting up numbers that no one in this generation has seen. I did not see Gibson pitch so I can not comment about a season when a guy has a 1.12 e.r.a. for the entire year. This season has been shocking because the teams that are winning mainly due to pitching. San Diego has pitchers that no one has ever heard of and they have won over 30 games. The Mets may be at .500 but their pitching has been outstanding. The Braves have Tim Hudson putting together a comeback player of the year type season. Roy Oswalt has had 12 straight quality starts on the worst team in the game. Tampa and David Price is having a great start to a season. Phil Hughes and Andy Petitte are carrying the Yankees. Clay Buchholz is doing the same for the Red Sox. I heard something today that really angered me. Buster Olney from ESPN said that the pitching is dominating because of the steroid testing. He believes that players are not digging in as much and not wearing armor and therefore the pitchers are taking full advantage of hitters fears. I could not disagree more. The one thing from the steroid era that I cannot agree with is that steroids made every player better and they hit for a higher average and made players eyes for some reason better equipped at hitting a baseball. Yes players were stronger and yes they hit balls farther, but why did the steroids not work for everybody? Why did Randy Velarde not 70 homeruns. Why didn't Fernando Vina or Marvin Bernard win any batting titles? Why is it so hard to say that baseball is a cyclical game and things just eventually even out? when all of the players of winning teams in the 80's were all doing cocaine allegedly, how come no one ever came out then and said anything about the effect cocaine on baseball players? Tim "rock" Raines stealing bases with drugs allegedly on him during games. I ranting too much but the point is I just wish that sportwriters would just once shut up and enjoy the game for what it is. Isn't it funny how the post season still comes down to pitching and umpiring and defense.
What is happening today is a simple case of great timing and young teams being exploited for their weaknesses. Cleveland is a minor league team. The Rays, Braves and Marlins may have more established players and are playing well so when they were no hit it was definitely a surprise. Steroids would not have prevented no-hitters on those days. So I wish that we can just drop that word form the baseball vocabulary.
Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Howard, have been very quiet so far. Adrian Gonzales, Miguel Cabrera have been quite great for their teams. Robinson Cano is having a season to remember for the Yankees. Troy Glaus just won player of the month for the month of May. Big Papi is quieting his critics in Boston. Ryan Zimmerman is keeping the Nationals afloat in the east.The Reds and Joey Votto are hanging tough. We will see what happens as the weather heats up what happens. Joe Mauer and the Twins need to avoid the Yankees and I cannot wait to see what is going to happen when baseball games are postponed because of snow. The Phillies cannot score more than 1 run a game. Before the season started all of the media was saying that the Phillies were the best team that the national league has seen in 30 years. I wonder who is saying that now. The Dodgers have finally woken up. Manny is still not the same since the suspension. Texas has a strong offense but they tend to wilt in the heat or get freakish injuries that will disrupt their season. The Angels usually start to come alive now. I will report back in 40 games....
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