It’s a wild turn of events to start the season.
Fans in Philly are hitting — or have their hands close to — the panic button, while Mets fans are having a blast believing that their team will somehow, against all odds, stay atop the division.
Let’s all come back to Earth for a little bit here.
The Mets are playing great, yes, but this is not a club built to win 90 games. Maybe a few years from now it can, but not now. It’s just four games. Remember, the Indians and Royals were atop the AL Central and the Pirates led the NL Central early in the season during 2011.
As for the Phillies, it’s not time to panic.
I joked on Twitter early about how Ruban Amaro Jr. has to be thinking about trading Cole Hamels for a batter, and some whack-job replied with, “Yeah, trade Hamels and Brian Schneider to L.A. for Matt Kemp.”
For starters, that’s an awful trade for the Dodgers. Not even if you turned on your PS3, popped in MLB 12 The Show and turned on “Force Trades,” would that trade be allowed.
Second, Hamels is a major key to this season. He struggled Monday, but that’s not how it will be for the whole season.
So what’s going wrong with the Phillies right now?
Well, yes, offense, but in particular, I think Charlie Manuel hasn’t necessarily figured out how to put together this lineup. This was evident when he pulled Vance Worley for a pinch-hitter on Sunday. Worley was dealing and had a 2-1 lead. There was just one out and runners on second and third, but Manuel pulled Worley, who had just 78 pitches in the books, for Laynce Nix.
Nix grounded out, wasting the move, and Juan Pierre singled home the two runs to make it 4-1 making the move completely worthless. And with three innings to go and a limited bullpen with Chad Qualls unavailable, the Phils couldn’t close it out.
You have the lead and you have a pitcher who is rolling, why make the change?
This was a mistake that cost them a win. I swear Manuel was following Joe Girardi's notebook on Twitter when he decided to make this move.
Manuel is going to have to trust his starters to go seven innings, not six, and let the offense play out. This offense will come around, and with Ryan Howard fielding grounders on Monday, I imagine we’ll see him in two weeks if there aren’t any setbacks. Until then, the Phils have to play at least .500 ball to not far too far behind.
Wednesday will be a big game with Roy Halladay on the mound. They acquired him to end such losing streaks and he’s going to have to do that. He's going to have to be the stopper and the Phillies are going to have to play smarter baseball.
Yu kidding me?
Boy did Yu Darvish look awful.
Well, at least he did for 1 1/2 innings.
Forty-two pitches in the first inning and four Mariner runs had the Ranger crowd booing him with every ball and mockingly cheering him with what little strikes he threw.
But, he settled down after the second, allowed no runs over the final 3.2 innings he pitched and he got the win thanks to the Rangers’ offense that put 11 on the board.
This is why Yu Darvish will get 15 wins this season. This offense is too damn good to allow five runs to beat them.
They’re going to rock several pitching staffs and it’s going to lead to at least 97 wins and a division title. This lineup is merciless — it rocked four home runs Monday — and not many teams can get through a series without giving up runs to the Rangers.
Even the best staff in baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays, will have trouble. That is why I can’t wait for April 27 when the Rays head to Texas for a three-game series. That’s a must-see between the two best teams in the American League, according to me. Detroit is a close third, but with starting pitching issues, they're not going to crack the top two at this point.
Here's the rest of my early season Top 5 rankings, and I don't care if the records don't match where you think they should be:
American League
1. Rangers
2. Rays
3. Tigers
4. Angels
5. Yankees
National League
1. Cardinals
2. Giants
3. Reds
4. Diamondbacks
5. Phillies
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