At the conclusion of April...

Collapse

Recommended Videos

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • Chip Douglass
    Hall Of Fame
    • Dec 2005
    • 12256

    #1

    At the conclusion of April...

    ...surprise has been the main theme thus far.

    St. Louis, Chicago, Florida, and Oakland are leading their respective divisions, Baltimore and Tampa Bay are over .500, Arizona has already opened up a massive lead in the NL West at the end of April, and the Giants aren't in last place!!!

    On a more serious note, most of these division leaders will eventually fade down the stretch, but will one of them stay hot throughout the season? Will Arizona continue to play this well? Any hot starts by a certain player that surprise you?

    Interested in your thoughts.
    I write things on the Internet.

  • rsox
    All Star
    • Feb 2003
    • 6309

    #2
    Re: At the conclusion of April...

    Arizona is the most likeliest to stay on top of their division. They easily have the best offense in the NL West and their pitching is pretty good. St.Louis is another team that has a chance to hang around and make things interesting in the NL Central. Their pitching has been better than i think anyone expected, and with Mark Mulder expected back by Memorial day and Chris Carpenter in july it should only get better.
    Teams like Florida, Oakland, Baltimore and Tampa Bay will eventually come down to earth, they (except for Oakland) play in tough divisions which will make it hard for them to stay on top.

    A few players that i have been surprised by are:
    Cliff Lee, 5-0 0.96 ERA (considering how poor he pitched last season)
    Mark Hendrickson, 4-1 (has already matched his win total from last season and is only 2 wins away from matching his 2006 total)
    Emil Brown, 25 RBI's so far is almost half way to his total for all of last season (62) and he is killing left handed pitching (.361 AVG)

    Comment

    • themush
      Rookie
      • Mar 2008
      • 247

      #3
      Re: At the conclusion of April...

      The Rays have shone a knack for keeping teams down and coming back when needed. I would say if the Yankme's continue to struggle the Rays might make a push for the wildcard spot.
      There are 3 types of people in the world those who understand math and those who don't.

      Comment

      • Matteh
        MVP
        • Jun 2004
        • 1554

        #4
        Re: At the conclusion of April...

        I think the Rays will finish around .500 this year. I expect them to be near the wild card in August and then kind of taper off since they really haven't been there before. They're young pitchers are beginning to mature and they retooled the bullpen after having utter crap there the last few years. It's refreshing to see a competitive ball club and see an organization that's starting to commit to winning. It was rough watching this team in the years Namoli own the club when all he cared about was keeping payroll as low as possible instead of winning games. The big key is they went out and signed some veterans like Floyd and Percival. In the past they didn't do that so all these young guys had no one to show them the ropes. They've had success before and the young guys can calm down when you can get advice from someone like Percival who's pitched in big spots and won a championship. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I wouldn't be surprised to see this team competing for the division in a year or two. I hope the rest of the community starts to get behind the team. It happened with the Bucs and Lightning where some of those Packer and Flyer jerseys would turn in to home team jerseys. The Trop isn't an ideal baseball stadium, but there is a fun team to watch that deserves support.
        MLB: Rays
        NCAA: Michigan and Florida
        NFL: 49ers
        NHL: Lightning and Ducks

        Comment

        • SPTO
          binging
          • Feb 2003
          • 68046

          #5
          Re: At the conclusion of April...

          The Rays look like they'll flirt with being a couple or so games over .500 this year. It's amazing that this would be the team's first above .500 season if i'm right.

          The DBacks are for real. They're a mostly young team with some vets and the taste of the playoffs last year only adds to the enthusiasm they're playing with this year. They're gonna run away with the NL West and I have a strong feeling they may be in the World Series.
          Member of the Official OS Bills Backers Club

          "Baseball is the most important thing that doesn't matter at all" - Robert B. Parker

          Comment

          Working...