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Tuesday, May 10, 2005Hail to the Chief WahooWell, the Angels got their "offense" back, in time for an effective game from Paul Byrd. The offense consisted essentially of a GA 2-run home run in the first (after Vlad singled), a Josh Paul 2-run home run in the 5th (inexplicable), and an AK single with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the 8th. The team just does not seem capable of stringing together multiple hits in a row right now. This makes sense as the only people that have been particularly useful on offense are Vlad (all year until the last few days), GA (who goes through hot and cold spells), Figgins (who started cold, turned scalding, and is cold again), Erstad (who started hot and is now living in Antarctica), OC (who had about a 2 week period of hotness), and Bengie Molina (who has been on the DL for about 3 weeks. This means that only 6 batters have even been hitting well for a single week, and making them all lineup for a single inning has proven next to impossible.
As the Chronicler mentions, this must be seen as temporary because the only person currently living up to their normal standards is Vlad. Is it possible for a completely healthy team underperform to a man for a whole season? Maybe for a young team, where they had a single good year and several players drop off with more time in the majors, or an old team, where everybody breaks down at once a la the 2004 Mariners, but certainly not a relatively young veteran team. It is certainly possible that the team will remain in its offensive doldrums all season, but the pitching will not be able to contain the flood of opponent runs forever. I think it is quite reasonable to expect every single player to pull themselves off of their asses and start hitting. If each player ends the season at their career averages, the Angels offense will be fantastic for the last 4 and a half months of the season. We can only hope this actually happens. On another note, this is going to be my last post until Sunday or Monday, while I schmooze with scientists in New York. Have a great week! Comments:You asked "Is it possible for a completely healthy team underperform to a man for a whole season?" Well, funny you should ask since the Indians are trying to do just that. They are a fairly young team, though, and many of their players haven't played long enough that you can say what their average performances should be. Or at least that's the feeling I have, I don't know enough about the Indians. |
