Weekend Round-Up – 4/10/2011
The Weekend Round-Up returns after being off for the past couple of Sundays! There are a ton of really great…
Author: chipbuck
The Sky is Falling!
Every so often, I come across an article that’s so appropriate for the current environment that I feel compelled to provide my take on the matter. On Tuesday, Paul Jannace of the Wellsville Daily Reporter in Wellsville, NY (about two hours away from where I grew up) provided that article. In his piece, Jannace discusses the trap that fans, mainstream media, and baseball blogosphere fall into every season—they take too meaning from the first few games.
“The Red Sox have to hear the dreaded stat — only three of the last 80 playoff teams over the last decade have made the postseason after starting 0-3. Sound the alarms and pack up the bats and balls because there’s just no sense in even continuing the season. (snip) That fact about the three 0-3 playoff teams is true, but go back a little further to 1998 and there’s another team which made the playoffs after a similarly bad start. The 1998 New York Yankees started 0-3 and finished with 114 wins and coasted to a World Series title. Every year media and fans fall into the same trap of judging a baseball team’s season far too early. It’s what makes baseball great, but also frustrating at the same time because it does so much time to truly see who will be the cream of the crop. In this very space just about a year ago, you may have read about the 2005 season in which the Baltimore Orioles were 14 games over .500 and on top of the A.L. East in late June, but finished 14 games under .500 and in fourth place out of five. During that same season, the Washington Nationals hit the exact midway point of the season on track for 100 wins, but ended up going 81-81 and finished last in the N.L. East despite being in first place as late as July 24.”By the time you read this, the Red Sox are 0-4, not 0-3. Last night, the Sox lost a 3-1 game to the hapless Cleveland Indians on a night where fringe major league starting pitcher Josh Tomlin limited the offense to a single run in the second. Josh Beckett, who pitched well through the first couple of innings, didn’t settle anyone’s nerves by allowing three runs and nine base runners (four walks) in five innings. To date, the Red Sox starting pitching staff has failed to record a quality start. Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford, Kevin Youkilis, and Marco Scutaro all failed to record a hit, thus keeping their batting averages under the Mendoza line. Sounds pretty bleak, right? Every so often, I come across an article that’s so appropriate for the current environment that I feel compelled to provide my take on the matter. On Tuesday, Paul Jannace of the Wellsville Daily Reporter in Wellsville, NY (about two hours away from where I grew up) provided that article. In his piece, Jannace discusses the trap that fans, mainstream media, and baseball blogosphere fall into every season—they take too meaning from the first few games.
“The Red Sox have to hear the dreaded stat — only three of the last 80 playoff teams over the last decade have made the postseason after starting 0-3. Sound the alarms and pack up the bats and balls because there’s just no sense in even continuing the season. (snip) That fact about the three 0-3 playoff teams is true, but go back a little further to 1998 and there’s another team which made the playoffs after a similarly bad start. The 1998 New York Yankees started 0-3 and finished with 114 wins and coasted to a World Series title. Every year media and fans fall into the same trap of judging a baseball team’s season far too early. It’s what makes baseball great, but also frustrating at the same time because it does so much time to truly see who will be the cream of the crop. In this very space just about a year ago, you may have read about the 2005 season in which the Baltimore Orioles were 14 games over .500 and on top of the A.L. East in late June, but finished 14 games under .500 and in fourth place out of five. During that same season, the Washington Nationals hit the exact midway point of the season on track for 100 wins, but ended up going 81-81 and finished last in the N.L. East despite being in first place as late as July 24.”By the time you read this, the Red Sox are 0-4, not 0-3. Last night, the Sox lost a 3-1 game to the hapless Cleveland Indians on a night where fringe major league starting pitcher Josh Tomlin limited the offense to a single run in the second. Josh Beckett, who pitched well through the first couple of innings, didn’t settle anyone’s nerves by allowing three runs and nine base runners (four walks) in five innings. To date, the Red Sox starting pitching staff has failed to record a quality start. Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford, Kevin Youkilis, and Marco Scutaro all failed to record a hit, thus keeping their batting averages under the Mendoza line. Sounds pretty bleak, right? <a href=""> [ Read More → ]
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