Thursday, May 26, 2005
Twelve Is The New Eleven
The Diamondbacks would've lost this game last year.
Dicey starting pitching, shaky bullpen work, defensive miscues. Those are all familiar. The offense, powering a season-high 12 runs en route to a 12-11 win over the Padres Wednesday night, less so. Last year, it just seemed like the Diamondbacks would've collapsed after an opponent's big inning (5 Padres runs in the 5th) or let the opponents sneak through (5 Padres runs in the 7th through 9th innings).
But not this year.
So back on top of the National League West the Diamondbacks go in advance of what promises to be another stellar Webb-Peavy tilt tonight. Both are having very good seasons -- even though they've never met "off the field", if they keep this up they could easily be on the same All-Star Squad in Detroit later this summer.
Ironically, both teams once again had 15 hits, same as Tuesday night, but scored 9 more runs than Tuesday night.
***************
One follow-up to my comments yesterday on Russ Ortiz. Like Jim, I always thought that the 4-year, $30+ M contract to Russ Ortiz was overpriced and overlong, but that was all. I figured overpaying was the "price" associated with getting free agents to join a team with 51 wins. But that assumption was based on the idea that Russ Ortiz would be a decent, better than average (but not by much) pitcher -- in other words, $18 M for 3 years would be OK
But one look at the National League averages:
ERA RA H/9 BB/9 SO/9 HR/9 WHIP G/F
4.27 4.62 9.07 3.41 6.48 1.02 1.386 1.655
versus Ortiz' averages:
5.20 5.37 11.2 5.0 3.7 1.3 1.807 1.262
... show he's been anything but... his park-adjusted runs-against score is 88, less than league-average 100.
At this point, I'd gladly take league-average.
Dicey starting pitching, shaky bullpen work, defensive miscues. Those are all familiar. The offense, powering a season-high 12 runs en route to a 12-11 win over the Padres Wednesday night, less so. Last year, it just seemed like the Diamondbacks would've collapsed after an opponent's big inning (5 Padres runs in the 5th) or let the opponents sneak through (5 Padres runs in the 7th through 9th innings).
But not this year.
So back on top of the National League West the Diamondbacks go in advance of what promises to be another stellar Webb-Peavy tilt tonight. Both are having very good seasons -- even though they've never met "off the field", if they keep this up they could easily be on the same All-Star Squad in Detroit later this summer.
Ironically, both teams once again had 15 hits, same as Tuesday night, but scored 9 more runs than Tuesday night.
***************
One follow-up to my comments yesterday on Russ Ortiz. Like Jim, I always thought that the 4-year, $30+ M contract to Russ Ortiz was overpriced and overlong, but that was all. I figured overpaying was the "price" associated with getting free agents to join a team with 51 wins. But that assumption was based on the idea that Russ Ortiz would be a decent, better than average (but not by much) pitcher -- in other words, $18 M for 3 years would be OK
But one look at the National League averages:
ERA RA H/9 BB/9 SO/9 HR/9 WHIP G/F
4.27 4.62 9.07 3.41 6.48 1.02 1.386 1.655
versus Ortiz' averages:
5.20 5.37 11.2 5.0 3.7 1.3 1.807 1.262
... show he's been anything but... his park-adjusted runs-against score is 88, less than league-average 100.
At this point, I'd gladly take league-average.
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