Add new comment

1
Sandy - Raleigh's picture

Lots of valid points above, Matt.  But, also some major problems with your observations.
1) Not a fast team?  They're #2 in both SBs and 3Bs.  Exactly how fast do they have to be to qualify for fast?
2) This is a team that has every right to except to IMPROVE offensively in the 2nd half.  Their BEST hitter (Vlad), has missed 40 games, and only posted an 89 OPS+ in the first half.  Vlad has FOUR (4) HRs, (one less than Ronny Cedeno).  Everything you note about Beltre is true about Vlad - except with a much higher upside.
3) They've won 5 of their last 7 with NEITHER Torii or Vlad playing.  So, missing their TWO best hitters, they not only swept the Yankees, they managed to score double-digit runs 3 times. 
4) Injuries have suppressed BOTH the offense and pitching.  The club has 6 guys posting over .800 OPS and none of them is Vlad.  The 104 OPS+ UNDER-sells the team's actual offensive potential.  The Ms have had to deal with lots more injuries this season, yes.  YuBet, Joh, Beltre, Chavez, (Griffey and Sweeney twinges).  So, which team has more 300 PA guys?  Trick question.  They're tied - 5 each.  Howie Kendrick hit 100 points below projection and was sent back to AAA.  The only area that LAA is truly deficient is in HR power - and Vlad is a major (non?) contributor to that short-coming. 
In the short-run, with Vlad and Torii on the shelf, maybe Seattle does have an edge.  But, if those two come back at standard projection, then the LAA team OPS+ CLIMBS -- it doesn't drop.

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.