The Jargon’s “Take Five” from Saturday.
1. REALITY CHECK
Yesterday, I spent the afternoon/evening at a good friend’s
house celebrating his daughter’s third birthday. It was a glimpse into my near
future, and there’s nothing I can do to change that — the Baby Jargon is on its
way.
At the same time, on my phone, I watched the ERA battle I’m
having with Otto Parts, and it became equally as clear that there’s nothing I
can do to change that either — Otto is going to win.
With another 10 innings in the books on Saturday, Otto Parts
gave up just one run with five pitchers to drop his ERA for the week to a
League-best 1.94. I also gave up just one run, mind you in 20.2 innings of
work, but sadly, it only brought me down to a 2.17 ERA.
That ranks second in the League, and of course, it would be
beating anyone else in the JLB. Just have to hate the schedule maker at this
point.
Both of us have starters going today, so we’ll see if that
wavers in the matchup that sits currently at 11-10-1 in favor of Otto Parts.
2. LA FRONT-LINE
BLUES
The Dodgers and Angels have something in common: Their staff
“aces” are off to bad starts.
The Angels’ Jered Weaver is 0-2 with an 8.71 ERA and only
six strikeouts. He lasted only 4.1 innings and gave up six runs in a loss to
Kansas City Saturday after giving up four in a loss to Seattle on Opening Day.
Across town, Clayton Kershaw got knocked around for another
five runs against Arizona where rookie Archie Bradley out-dueled him. Kershaw
is now 0-1 in two starts with a 5.84 ERA. He’s given up 16 hits and five walks
for a 1.70 WHIP.
3. KINSLER LANDING
Ian Kinsler, of House Tiger, is off to a torrid start,
batting in the two-hole in that monster lineup. He’s consistently getting on
base ahead of the four-headed RBI machine of Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez,
J.D. Martinez and Yoenis Cespedes. That has led him to a JLB-best eight runs
already in 2015 and he’s atop the second basemen in the League in hitting with
10 base knocks in 22 at-bats. Add in two walks, a sacrifice and seven RBIs, and
the Bombers are looking good after one week.
4. BRING OUT YOUR
DEAD
I believe that guy from Monty Python is seriously walking
around the Jerk’s locker room with a cart filled with DL players, and every
day, he’s looking to throw another player on top.
On Friday, he threw Yan Gomes on the cart, and Jerk
protested: “He’s not dead yet!”
“He’ll be stone cold any minute now,” the man replied.
As foretold, Gomes went down with an injury Saturday and it
doesn’t look good; it looks like the fifth and final DL spot will be his.
And at this point, we need to question the Jerk’s
conditioning program.
5. KEY PICKUPS
Vandelay made a pair of draft choices that I really liked.
If he didn’t grab these players when he did, I would have tried to get them later.
Both Kendrys Morales and Jose Igesias are off to strong
starts, and they’re helping Vandelay stay in his matchup with Steroid.ERA.
Morales is batting .400 (8-for-20) with three doubles, a
homer, four RBIs, four walks and five runs scored, while Iglesias is batting
.600 (9-for-15) with four runs scored, an RBI, a SAC and two stolen bases — all
from the bottom of that fierce Tigers’ lineup.
They will look to get the start today over some other
slumping/injured players who were keepers.
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