My goodness-are we in June already?? As I usually say: Time flies when you're having fun and as a Cub fan, I am having fun this year (so far; knock on Wood; I can't even knock him). Mrs. jp23 usually can gauge my moods depending on how my teams are doing. As most of you know, it must been a terrible life I'm living, right? I'm not always bitter, just most of the time. Even as the Cubs are up in the penthouse as Baseball's best team (in record only), I have my complaints. Again, as mrs. jp23 says, I never seem to be satisfied, and it surprises her for not one second that I do have some quibbles with this year's Cubs. They need anywhere from 1-3 starting pitchers; the bullpen occasionally falters. They could use a better defensive left fielder. I could list more, but when you're in first place, how can you complain? Hell, even on Friday on their way to a rare Wrigley stinker, they came back from a 9-1 deficit to win. Destiny's children this year? Man, that would be something!- So for this week's recap, where is the love??
-Certainly not in New York as both teams are struggling. I expect at some point (I've been saying this for weeks now) the Yankees will turn it around; I don't expect the Mets to
-Certainly not in Kansas City, where Jose Guillen was told to temper his comments in the midst of a 12 game losing streak
-Not In Arizona this week, where surprisingly the Diamondbacks struggled through a 5 game losing streak.
-In the state of Florida, there should be love considering that both baseball teams are in first place. But the fans aren't showing it, as barely 10,000 fans a game are noticing...
-Show Manny Rameriez some love, no matter how you feel about Manny being Manny. 500 career HR's still means something. Also show Junior some love when he hits 600 (he's at 599 right now)
-Show Chipper Jones some love. At .418, he's making people wonder if he'll reach immortality.
-And how about Carlos Zambrano?? Not only is he 7-1, but he's hitting .316 this year.
- Now for the weekly feature: The Hunter Flops. And I'm not talking about what NBA players do when they want a foul called on them (that might be cool to do for the Finals-NBA's best Flops).
These are players and teams performing WAY under expectations. And yes, some have been here for most or the entire season.
Teams:
Usual Suspects: Detroit, and Seattle in the AL; Cleveland is the new team this week. At 25-30, the Indians are performing miserably in a bad division. For the NL, we have the NY Mets, Milwaukee (both are at .500, but we expected better), San Diego and Colorado. Should we expect these teams to start dumping players soon?
Players:
-Ryan Howard is finally hitting above .200 (.206). His 15 HR's make it hard to be a flop, but .206 is WAY under where he should be.
-Jim Thome. He's hitting .207, and while we don't expect him to hit .300, I'd have to think he's way under where he should be as well. Is he in decline??
-Carlos Delgado. At .228 and 8 Hr, I have to ask the same question as Thome: Is Delgado in decline?
-Barry Zito. We have not forgotten you, Barry. 1-8 and a 5.53 ERA for your $130 million.
-Nate Robertson. 3-5 and 5.92. Might get traded now...if anyone wants you....
-CC Sabathia. It's June now; time to heat up. Still cold at 3-6 and 4.74
-Jason Isringhausen/Eric Gagne. Former closers who are gack right now. Each with an ERA over 6.90. Gack!
I will have more baseball in a later post today.
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