Maybe we didn't need the humidors after all. The universal DH was supposed to bring us more offense, but that hasn't been the case, and the ball certainly isn't flying out of the yard right now.
Sure, a few players are enjoying great starts to the 2022 season, but the vast majority are not.
Right now, the League average is at .232. That's way below last year's putrid .244, which was the worst batting average since 1972. MLB has been on a steady decline since hitting .271 in 1999. The last five years have been the worst — .248, .252, .245, .244 and now .232 this year.
So of course, most of us are feeling that pain in the JLB this year.
Everyone had at least 23 homers at this point last year and I led the way with 30. This year, six teams have 20 or fewer, and Breakfast leads the way with 27.
It somehow hasn't hurt four of the six teams that sit in the top three in each division. Breakfast, Lebowski, Nutz and Slammers all find themselves sitting in the bottom half of the JLB in batting average.
Still, not one of them are dealing with the .203 average that the Cheese Steaks boast.
"These guys are proven," he said. "They can't be this bad forever."
That's what I keep telling myself, but here I am, sitting here with a 1-for-11 to start to matchup 3. (Update That was Monday. Now it's Tuesday and I'm 4-for-20 to start tonight.)
When will this end?
Strangely enough, a pair of the teams that happen to have the offense going faced off against each other last week. The Sex Panthers beat Topton 12-10-2 in a matchup that saw Gina's .301 average best Tommy's .276. (Anyone else start singing Bon Jovi after that sentence?)
Ty France and Byron Buxton were among the leaders for the Panthers, combining for 20 his, 12 runs, 6 homers and 17 RBIs. Believe it or not, the majority of that came from France (.500, 13-for-26, 7 runs, 3 homers, 10 RBIs).
Tommy certainly could have managed some more wins against some other teams — he said as much to me after the loss — but he has to take a glass-half-full approach here. If he were slumping like the rest of us, he'd be staring at a big loss to the Panthers. Instead, he still managed double-digit wins in a loss.
He knows all too well how important it is to get those wins.
And that is why it was big for Breakfast, Lebowski, Choo and myself to scratch out close wins. Several matchups were teetering on going the other way. It was quite the luck of the draw for many because had the magic hat drew up a different schedule for this week, there certainly would have been some more lopsided scores.
So for all, even the losing teams, the damage was limited in Week 2.
Now, we have to wonder, will these close battles continue in Week 3.
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