Astros Comet About To Strike, Crater Seattle
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Tacoma Rain, taking his own cyber-life in his hands, speaks of He Who Must Not Be Named:
I know we are sooo much better than the Astros, BUT what IF.... Then what?
Do we lynch Z? Is it Wedgie's fault? Can we trade Morales already?
Life has this wonderful way of giving you unexpected scenarios...
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Silentpadna and Dr. D have been pleasantly jousting with Benihana since about 2002; usually he's been about a 3 or a 4 on the 1-10 scale from |-- Cynic -- to -- Sunshine and Rainbows --| .
It's a treat to see him weighing in with his granite-steady point of view:
We're 3-4, and have only been outscored by 3 runs so far, despite some pretty abysmal performances from our 3, 4 and 5. Plus, now we get to come home and get healthy with a dose of the Stro's. The M's April schedule is a very difficult one, with series against the A's (94 wins), White Sox (85), Texas (93), Detroit, (88), LAA (89) and Baltimore (93). The two series against the 55 game winning Astros is where we need to make some hay. I'll take 5-1 against Houston and hope for a .500 month. Then the reinforcements will start to arrive.
I can't help but imagine a mid-July rotation of Felix, Iwakuma, Hultzen, Erasmo, Paxton dealing us down the stretch... just need to stay in contention. First away series: mission accomplished.
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Baker also, in his column, looks The Kids' OBP squarely in the eye but shrugs that it will be "at least a month" before any real assessments can be made.
(Am just guessing here, but if we repeat the readers' tip about the Times' paywall -- private browsing defeats the cookie, they say -- we doubt Geoff will object. The Times doesn't share its revenue with him, and perhaps through the summer, some of us will cave in and subscribe.
From an ethical standpoint, that being Matthew 7:12 in this gray-area case, I personally wouldn't mind if readers "worked around" my paywall for a short time, if (a) they were considering subscription and (b) they weren't systematically working to defeat my long-term objective. If I were grim-faced about the paywall, I'd be setting up something a tadbit harder to "sample."
Hopefully he'll chime in if he has a different take. His bosses are watching, so we'll take silence for what it's worth ...)
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=== 2012 Angels ===
On the morning of Saturday, April 27, 2012, last year's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim had 6 wins and 14 losses. First the Yankees, then the A's, then the Orioles, and then the Rays had left them for dead.
After that date, they won 83 games and lost 59, contending for the title. That was despite the fact that they never did get their starting rotation together.
That's one picture, selected because it's worth 1,000 words. You could find teams, every year, who get off to slow starts and then catch fire. The M's have played 7 of 162 games; if this were an NBA game, the score of the M's season would literally be 6-4 with 9:30 left in the first quarter.
If the M's lose 2 of 3 to Houston, the score will be 8-4 with 9:00 left in the first. I don't suppose you walk out of the building in that situation.
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That said, I'm liking the fact that the Astros are hitting .199/.234/.286 with 74 strikeouts and 9 walks.