Our Eighth Grade

We're 20 games in, 1/8th of the season is over (Close enough, at least!).

Excepting the three-game soirée with the D-backs, we've played 20 games intra-division, and pulled out a 10-10 record. We're 4-4 at home and 6-6 on the road. The 6-6 on the road against divisional foes is certainly great, and playoff caliber, but the home record needs work. After this homestand ends, we're on the road for most of May.

The bright side is there are some 'easy' teams in that stretch: Arizona, Cincinnati, SanFran. And our home-stand includes a four-game stretch against the apathy-inducing Brewers. We've got a decent chance to come out of May in a pretty good spot. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

This is a team that still has major issues on the mound. The starters don't go deep in games, and they walk far too many batters. I don't think we've retired an opposing pitcher in a non-sacrifice situation yet this year! And with the injuries and ineptness, the whole staff is in a state of turmoil. Hopefully Livan will figure out what's been bothering him, and Jon Rauch can add some fresh blood and some called strikes to this staff.

Offensively, the problems are obvious. When you look at some of the numbers of some of the players on this team, it's amazing we are where we are. (Guzman, Schneider--his overall numbers stink, but he's had some big hits, and Church in particular)

But, what's most troubling is our inability to beat the snot out of crappy pitching. We've certainly faced our share of aces, but we've also had three different cracks at replacements for fifth starters. And we've barely touched them either.

And, if you take away the few big 7th innings we had at the beginning of the homestand, we never get hits with RISP.

It hasn't been pretty so far, but it's been moderately effective. 10-10 is pretty close to the high water mark for reasonable expectations at this point. It's just frustrating knowing that they could be so much more if a handful of plays had turned the other way.

But, that's what makes baseball great. A seemingly-meaningless bounce of the ball in a ho-hum game in April could be the difference between October pleasures or September crying.

Runs Scored: 86
Runs Allowed: 85
Pythagorean Pace: 82-80
Actual Pace: 81-81

Brad Wilkerson: 73 doubles; 16 triples; 16 HR; 243 hits; 178 Ks. .418 OBP.
Nick Johnson: .412 OBP; 41 doubles; 97 BBs
Jose Vidro: 121 Runs; 32 HR; 49 doubles; 122 RBI; .410 OBP
Jose Guillen: 194 hits; 41 HR; 105 RBI; 32 Sac Flies; 16 BBs; .321 OBP
Vinny Castilla: 57 doubles; 24 HRs; 16 SBs; 97 RBI; .424 OBP
Brian Schneider: 41 doubles; 8 HR; 16 Es; .297 OBP
Cristian Guzman: 105 hits; 24 RBI; 24 BB; 24 Runs; 24 Errors; .208 OBP

Livan Hernandez: 16-16; 259 IP; 105 BB; 129 K; 5.34 ERA
John Patterson: 8-8; 170 IP; 32 BB; 137 K; 0.86 ERA
Tomo Ohka: 8-24; 162 IP; 122 BB; 57 K; 24 HR; 5.85 ERA
Chad Cordero: 16-8; 86.1 IP; 81 GP; 24 Sv
Luis Ayala: 89 GP; 92 IP
Joey Eischen: 105 GP; 67.1 IP