Baseball talk--Local edition
The Diamondbacks got pounded yesterday in their season opener. There is no nice way to put it.
The loss highlights everything that even the big fans in media have said are the team's Achilles heel--pitching. Or in the case of opening day, the lack of pitching. The ray of hope is that Javier Vazquez, after getting ripped in just 1 1/3 innings, believes he may have been tipping his pitches. If that turns out to be true, it's correctable. But what of the pen that gave up 9 runs in 7 2/3 innings?
Not the kind of start that Bickley and Jarecki were envisioning yesterday morning at XTRA Sports 910 when they were ripping the over/under prediction for D-Back wins at 66.5. Once again, seems there's maybe a reason why Vegas oddsmakers set odds in Vegas and media guys talk on the radio.
I suppose that's unfair after one bad game against a very good offensive team like the Cubs. I've waffled back and forth all spring about the D-Back's chances. On the one hand, they did improve their offensive potential greatly over last year. But what of the pitching? Can Vazquez really replace Randy Johnson (as much as anyone can replace a sure-fire future hall-of-famer), and even if he can what about the 2-5 spots that have been a puzzle for each of the last 3 seasons?
I guess fans will have to wait for answers to that 161-pieces at a time.
3 comments:
Saw you swapped out Aquino for Lyon. You're so on top of Snakes baseball!
On a side note, don't forget that our trade also included Hideki Matsui, who has a dinger today and is off to a cool .714 start :)
Not all closers are created equal, but a closer in the hand is worth two middle-relievers in the bush...or something like that.
Matsui? [Mutters something about blind squirrel and a nut...]
Your closer angle rings true, unless it's a league that has HLDs.
Matsui will make you rue the day. I firmly believe it. Dude scored 100 runs last year. Never misses games. RBI machine. I even saw a couple of places that touted him for AL MVP. In that lineup, it's possible.
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