Add new comment

1

Honestly, this team, as constructed, I believe has the inate makeup to be one of the streakiest clubs in history.  But, it works both ways.
The offense is - to be honest - bad.  BUT ... the offense is also super heavy on high-K guys with sputtering power strokes.  (Smoak may DEVELOP the "realiable" power stroke, but he certainly doesn't "own" it -- not yet).
Bradley, Cust, Smoak, Saunders ... heck, even Olivo ... all have "sneaky" 20-HR power.  But, they don't have the Branyan-esque kind that will knock the occasional mistake pitch out even when they're slumping. 
I think this club has the OBP potential that Z was hoping to get from last year's club.  But, it's also got significantly more power potential.  What it gives back is consistency - EXCEPT in the walk rate.  Even when scuffling, this club will run counts up and draw some walks.
But, with a rotation that arguably has ZERO number 5 pitchers, (heck, depending on how highly one wants to mark Fister and Vargas, you could make a case that it doesn't have a true #4, since Vargas and Fister both have profiles that suggest either could be an average #3 pitcher).
And that's the thing.  If you've got an offense that CAN get rolling - coupled with a rotation with 5 pitchers capable of throwing 3 or 4 QS in a row ... you've got a recipe for a team that COULD be very streaky. 
That combo of steady pitching (rotation at least) - and on-again, off-again offense has created a very slow start.  But, I think the 10-12 game win streak is just as plausible.  I think the bullpen is the part which is more likely to extend the losing streaks (and cut short the win streaks), but I expect the bullpen to get better.
What I don't expect is a lot of time with a 5-5 in-the-last 10 readings on the streak-o-meter.
 

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><p><br>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

shout_filter

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.