The Rundown: Slumping

April showers bring May flowers, in your garden, as well as in baseball.  We don’t think much when a quality player or a team struggles out of the gate.  It’s early.  We figure that with the proper amount of seasoning that they will eventually blossom and prosper.  The problem is that sometimes, inexplicably, they never begin to bud.  Sometimes last year’s hardiest plant will just wither away the following summer.  Just because a team has the most talented players it doesn’t mean they’ll hit.  Sometimes the conditions just aren’t right, or the egos, at times, choke each other out.  It’s still early in the season, there’s plenty of time to turn things around, but if these teams don’t start budding soon, it might be time to start clipping them back to and focus on the future.

San Diego Padres

The pitching has been solid- well, at least the starters have been.  You can always count on Jake Peavy is going to post a sub-3.00 ERA and contend for the Cy Young Award.  At 42, Greg Maddux has turned back the clock and is pitching as well as he has since leaving Atlanta five years ago, and Chris Young has been as good as advertised.  Unfortunately, about the only way the Padres are going to win a game these days is if those three pitch a nine inning shutout.  Trevor Hoffman has been inconsistent.  He’s converted his last three opportunities, but he’s a pair of blown saves away from joining Jason Isringhausen and Eric Gagne on the closer-turned-mop-up-men list.  Then there’s the offense, which currently ranks dead last in average, slugging, OBP, runs, and extra base hits.  If it weren’t for Adrian Gonzalez (.290/.345/.525, 9 HR, 29 RBI) you could tack homers, RBI, and hits on that list.

Detroit Tigers

When they limped into the season with a 0-7 record I didn’t think much of it.  I figured this team was far too talent to slump for long.  I still feel the same way, but I’m starting to believe that I could be proved wrong.  After a horrible start, as expected, their offense has begun to hit and now ranks in the five in virtually every offensive category.  Coming into the season a few brave people wrote pieces stating that the Tigers pitching would lead to their demise.  The other school of thought acknowledged their deficiencies, but believed they could slug their way out of it.  So far, the minority has been right.  With the way this staff is pitching, they currently rank in the bottom three in everything, even the ’27 Yankees couldn’t swing their way to winning record.  Jim Leyland has tried his hand with the early season blow up in hopes of motivating his team to turn it around, but this isn’t 2006, that isn’t going to work with this cast.  Anyways, this team doesn’t need to have a fire lit under it, they need arms- healthy ones.  With talent.  Justin Verlander is eventually going to break out of his funk (1-7, 6.05 ERA), but who’s going to help him when that happens?  Todd Jones? 

Rockies

We’ll never forget last September and Rock-tober.  Not only because it was one of the most unprecedented runs in all of sports, but because it was also one of its biggest flukes.  Everyone seems to forget that for the better part of six months this team was simply ordinary last season.  They were never this unbeatable force that the romanticized version of the story would suggest, and that’s what you’re seeing now:  an ordinary team with ordinary talent.  It’s gotten so bad that Clint Hurdle has had to march out a new line-up nearly every day in an effort to optimize performance, but nothing has worked.  Matt Holliday and Garrett Atkins have been stellar, as always, but the rest of the guys have yet to find their groove.  The major issues lie within the pitching staff.  Aaron Cook has been out of this world thus far (6-1, 2.26 ERA), but the rest of the staff has been pedestrian.  Jeff Francis, Ubaldo Jimenez and Franklin Morales currently have ERA’s of 6.27, 5.53, and 6.39.  Mark Redman (7.84 ERA) was so bad that the team waived him after demoting him to the pen.  Manny Corpas (7.40 ERA, 4 BS) doesn’t look like he deserves a major league roster spot, let alone the $8 million contract he was given.  Brian Fuentes, who replaced Corpas as closer, has faired much better, but he has already blown two opportunities.  Rock-tober was fun, but these things have a funny way of eventually rearing their ugly head.

Other Slumps

·         Barry Zito has become the definition of slump.  The former Cy Young winner is currently 0-7 with a 6.58 ERA, and National League hitters are currently teeing off on him at an alarming .336 clip.  It got so bad that the Giants briefly moved him to the bullpen, until Peter McGowan could no longer stomach paying someone $10 million for mop-up duty.

·         I’m not too worried about Robinson Cano yet, he’s destined to win a few batting titles over the next decade, it’s just not going to happen this year.  He’s a career .237 hitter in April, his current mark of .205 is pretty bad, but if history tells us anything, he’ll start hitting real soon.

·         David Ortiz’s power dissipated last season but he had his best all around season at the plate.  This year the power’s back (7 homers, 29 RBI), but he isn’t hitting for average (.234), or getting on base like he usually does (.335 OBP).  I’m not ready to say that Ortiz is on the wrong side of his prime, but at 32 he’s bound to start slowing down sometime soon.

·         What’s up with Ted Lilly’s 5.33 ERA?  Oh, wait, what’s that you say?  Lilly has only posted an ERA under 4 twice in his career, and last year’s 3.83 was a fluke?  The guy’s 32.  His career ERA is 4.49.  He’s not slumping, he’s back to normal.  I wouldn’t expect much.

·         Can the real Travis Hafner please stand up?  I’m starting to wonder if this guy peaked and fell off already.  He was one of the games most feared hitters from 2004-2006, then last year he inexplicably went from being an effective hitter to a mere slugger.  Now, the proud owner of a .218 average and three homers, he’s nothing.

·         Fausto Carmona is thriving.  He’s currently 4-1 with a 2.40 ERA despite having absolutely no control.  His strike out to walk ratio is nearly 1:2.  Yes, that’s right; it’s not a type-o.  He’s walked a league leading 35 hitters and has only struck out 18 batters.  Something else to look out for, he’s currently allowing 8.33 hits per nine innings.  It could get ugly.

·         Ian Kennedy made his way back to bigs last night after being demoted following his May 1^st start.  I hope he didn’t unpack his bags.  After giving up five runs to the Rays in as many innings he’ll likely be headed back down to the farm.

·         Jason Isringhausen begged his way out of the closer role after blowing his fifth save of the young season.  With Chris Perez dominating hitters at Triple A Memphis, you have to wonder if this is the end of an era in Saint Louis.  Isringhausen was one the games most effective closers last season, but, at 35 with a damaged psyche, it may be time for the organization to move along in a different direction.

Front Office Notes

·        A few weeks ago I wrote that Brian Cashman was a marked man after Ian Kennedy was demoted.  This seems to be coming closer to reality.  He won’t get fired, but the Baby Boss, Hank Steinbrenner, has been hinting that they won’t be renewing his contract after this season.  Hal Steinbrenner is a huge Cashman supporter, so he won’t be removed easily, and if the kids in the rotation turn it around this will all be moot.  It’s worth keeping an eye on; this has the potential to be an explosive situation.

·        Peter McGowan is expected to announce that he will be stepping down from his post as the Giants’ managing general partner.  I just hope that everyone can remember what he did for baseball in San Francisco.  He built one of the game’s finest parks with private funds, and led them on their best run since moving from New York.  Unfortunately, most people will remember him as the man that held onto Barry Bonds too long and failed to improve through the draft, leaving the franchise in horrible shape.  Or worst, they’ll remember him as he was described in the Mitchell Report, which states that he more or less turned a blind eye to Bonds’ steroid use.

Worth the Read

·        Tom Verducci explores the power outage in the American League
·        Look out for Yu Darvish, he’s better than Dice-K, and could be coming to stadium near you.
·        Is Jimmy Rollins worth his salt?  One says yes, the other says no.
·        Can we get Clayton already?
·        How bout them Rays?