Baseball’s opening week has come and gone, and most of the hype that was heard during the offseason did not come true.
The Phillies’ “Phantastic Phour” rotation did not have their best stuff, throwing an overall 3.93 ERA as of Sunday, only 11th best in the NL. In the American League, the Boston Red Sox are off to a bad start despite having an electric lineup with the acquisitions of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez. And Manny Ramirez retired. Why you may ask? Because he would not stop taking performance enhancing drugs. Though it’s still early, and we fans are only privy to a small sample size, they may be indicators of things to come.
National League
The Philadelphia Phillies are in first place in the NL East, but it is not because of their pitching. The starters have not been throwing like the best rotation ever — as some have made them out to be. Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt have pitched well, but Cliff Lee now has a 7.84 ERA. This is definitely bound to improve, and Phillies fans do not expect him to struggle like this the rest of the way.
The team has done so well this first week because their offense has stepped up. Despite all of the uncertainty, with the Jayson Werth departure and Chase Utley’s knee injury, the team is off to a great start with the bats, hitting .337 as a team. Sure, it was against some of the worst teams in the league, the Astros and the Mets, but that does not invalidate their accomplishments.
On the bottom of the NL East are the Washington Nationals, who thought they would be closer to becoming a contender this year with the signing of Jayson Werth at the low, low price of $126 million. So far, he has only produced seven hits in 27 at bats, one RBI and is batting at .259. I’d say, when all is said and done, he’s not “Werth” the money. Sorry for the pun, but how could I resist?
In the NL Central division, the Cincinnati Reds have been on fire, winning seven out of their first nine games. As of Sunday, they lead the NL in runs scored per game with 6.7. Their starting pitching has been serviceable with a 4.79 ERA collectively.
The reigning World Series Champions, the San Francisco Giants, have been struggling during opening week as last place in the NL West. The Giants lost their closer, Brian Wilson, for the first few games, and when he returned Friday afternoon, he blew a save against St. Louis. I think it’s time for him to shave the beard. It’s obviously not so feared anymore.
American League
The question everyone has been asking all week is what is wrong with the Boston Red Sox? The team lost their first six games for the first time since 1945. They are supposed to have the best offense in the league, but have only hit .181 overall. Carl Crawford has had only four hits in 28 at bats with a .143 average. Of course, everyone knows they’re a much better team than the way they’ve been playing
The Red Sox pitching staff as of Sunday had the worst ERA in baseball at 7.46. To put this into perspective, they have allowed 12 home runs in 41 innings.
Boston’s archrivals from the Bronx, the New York Yankees, have started off the season in good form. The team is built around a great offense, and the pitching staff came into the season with some big question marks. They have yet to use their new fifth starter, Freddy Garcia, which will be a big indicator of what problems the team has down the road. For now, the offense has been supporting the shaky rotation.
The big news and big surprise at the top of the season has to be Manny Ramirez. He retired on Friday after he tested positive for PEDs for the second time in his career. He would have faced a 100-game suspension, but he decided to hang up his cleats instead. It makes one wonder what he was doing before the MLB implemented testing. The 2004 World Champion Red Sox come to mind. I’m certainly glad that another slugger from the steroid era is calling it quits. Good riddance.
At this point in the season, my predictions for the World Series are the Philadelphia Phillies versus the New York Yankees or the Texas Rangers. Of course, there is still a whole season to play where anything can happen.
sports@theeagleonline.com
