More than halfway into the baseball season, we've finally gotten to that phase where flashes in the pan have had time to fade, the true horses in baseball have had time to right themselves after stumbling out of the gate, and basically, we have learned two things.
The Dodgers are very good.
The Nationals are very bad.
Most everyone else, while not necessarily on the beach-front real estate of a division leader, can see the ocean from here. Nineteen teams are within 5.5 games of the division lead. And that doesn't include the wild card-leading Giants, or the Rockies (second in the wild card, two games back) leaving just nine of 30 teams that are six games back of a playoff spot.
The reason the Giants and Rockies can't smell the sea air of division-front property? The Dodgers have been the exception to the iron-fisted rule of parity in baseball. (The Red Sox and Yankees are close, inching towards .600 baseball.) Now that they have had a great season so far has not been shocking. That they could amass the best record in baseball and a seven-game lead in the NL West, while Manny Ramirez was banned from baseball for 50 games, now that will strike some people as odd.
What has keyed the Dodgers' run in the absence of their apparent linchpin? The easy answer is pitching. It makes life a lot easier when you have the second best staff ERA in baseball. We knew Chad Billingsley would be the ace, and sure enough, he leads the staff in wins, ERA, and strikeouts. The emergence of Clayton Kershaw and resurgence of Randy Wolf (both ERAs under 3.50) have helped, and the scary thing is that they've been unlucky so far, with 5-5 and 3-3 records, respectively.
Part of the explanation is that Dodgers pitchers don't go all that deep into games. They rank just 22nd in the majors in innings pitched by starters. Then again, if you were handing the ball off to a bullpen as deep as the Dodgers', there is no reason to stretch a starter into high pitch counts and reduced effectiveness. Not with a 'pen that is 23-10 with a 3.31 ERA and a .226 batting average against. And that's in a lot of innings; this group is deep. Sure, John Broxton has saved 20 of 22 chances while striking out 65 hitters in 39.2 innings (yes, that's 14.75 per nine innings). But about five other guys have been guys the Dodgers can rely on to get outs.
Of course, the Giants have an even better staff ERA than the Dodgers, and yet find themselves seven games back. It turned out, though, that despite Manny Ramirez's absence, the Dodgers were able to score runs anyway. Like the staff, the offense doesn't rely on a Pujolsian effort from anyone, but a wave of professional hitters that make you work for each out up and down the lineup. Former whipping-boy Juan Pierre is hitting everything within reach and getting on base at a .386 clip, about 40 points above his career mark and about 55 points above what he posted for L.A. in his first two years. And from Andre Ethier to Russell Martin, from Matt Kemp to Casey Blake, from Orlando Hudson to James Loney, there isn't a free out in the bunch. Getting Manny back? Yeah, that shouldn't hurt.
This Dodger team has not only been surprisingly effective so far despite losing their best player. It has shown the type of depth that can withstand injuries and guys coming down to earth as the season wears on. And that should scare a lot of NL teams heading into September and October, especially as they all battle injuries and stretch pitchers as they fight and claw among the masses just to get into the postseason.
Some other interesting plot-lines from the first half:
Only agreement on all-star lineups: we don't agree with the all-star lineups. Perhaps an overstatement, but other than the fact that Josh Hamilton and Tim Wakefield have no business being there, you will find no consensus anywhere. I already put up an article on AL and NL starters at voting time a while ago, and enough people are weighing in that I don't want to dwell on it for too long.
But Dustin Pedroia passing Ian Kinsler in voting was wrong even with Kinsler's recent slump; coaches and fans fall into the traps of choosing closers (Ryan Franklin), reputation (Derek Jeter), personal bias (Cole Hamels, Ryan Howard), and complete lack of reason (Hunter Pence, Hamilton); meanwhile, they somehow whiffed on A.J. Burnett, John Lester, Adam Dunn, Nelson Cruz, Yovani Gallardo, Javier Vazquez, and Kevin Millwood. I know you can't get all of these squeezed in, but none of them?
The Mets wonder what went wrong with plan to ride aging lineup and thin pitching staff. Supposed to contend by most people's guesses, the Mets have been average at best and, scary as it seems, it could be a lot worse. Their staff past Johan Santana is a joke, and not a funny one. If you take Santana away, the staff has an ERA of 5.04 and WHIP at 1.52. You know it's bad when an AARP-qualifying Livan Hernandez is a stabilizing force. But hey, at least they bolstered that bullpen in the offseason.
So the Mets have a great chance of winning every fifth day, and on the rest, the offense better show with the lumber. Of course, the offense literally hasn't been showing up. It's never good when Daniel Murphy is second on the team in games played. And yes, his stats are as bad as you think. Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado have played in 52 games. Combined. Carlos Beltran has also missed time. And yet, somehow, the Phillies have refused to run away in the sea of mediocrity that is the MLB, and the Mets sit a mere 3.5 games out. Mind-blowing.
Raul Ibanez, like Yankees, finds it easier to homer in little league park. After moving from the relatively pitcher-friendly facilities in Seattle to the less-constraining Citizens Park in Philly, Ibanez looks a lot like the MVP of the Non-Pujols League. Which the Phillies needed, because not only is he replacing Pat Burrell's production, but he was also trying to replace that of Jimmy Rollins, who has just recently re-emerged from the hitless protection program, along with David Ortiz. Still, pitching woes of their own leave the Marlins just behind them (again, the six-year plan: 1997, 2003 ... 2009?), and the Mets, who should have been mortally wounded by their first half, remain on life-support.
That thud you heard was the high-flying Jays returning to earth. Led by perennial all-star and chronically underrated Roy Halladay and a fierce hitting infield trio of Scott Rolen, Marco Scutaro, and Aaron Hill (of whom only Hill will be seen in St. Louis), Toronto sprinted to the top of the AL East, sitting at 27-14 by the morning of May 19. Then a combination of a slew of injuries and gravity took the Blue Jays off their perch. Now they sit just two games over .500 and losers of seven of their last nine.
Rays forget how to win, remember again, then forget a second time. The defending AL champs started out of the gate, finding themselves 16-20 and 6.5 games out of first by May 14. Then they ran off a stretch of 28-15 baseball to get back into the race before losing their last four ... and now they are just 5.5 games out. Let's just say they picked a good time to right the ship as the Yankees and Red Sox began their charges, and you have to expect the talent there to keep them in that race. Because the Sox and Yanks are far from perfect.
Ricketts to own Cubs; jokes write themselves in droves. It's just one of those cases where I've seen enough material in the immediate aftermath of the pending sale of the Cubs and Wrigley Field to Tom Ricketts that I just can't add much to it without flagrant plagiarism. That's what happens when an archaic disease finds a pun in the name of the owner of a century-long curse.
Manny returns; Dodger fan word for the week: hypocrisy. Look, I get it. Fans are going to root for their guy. But when you are the fan base that once buried a certain rival slugger with boos and 'roid chants, the irony hits you with the subtlety of a sledge hammer to the temple.
All indications are that Dodger fans are fine with their blatant double-standard; it remains to be seen how Giants fans react. But let's remember, they already took the Dodger route, unabashedly cheering their goosed-up hero like the second coming of Willie Mays, all while the only thing growing faster than his head and muscles were his already-prodigious numbers (while in his very late 30s no less) and list of people implicating him with PED use. The idea of serenading Manny with any more boos than usual, or even contemplating chanting anything drug related, will unequivocally make that booking in savage- hypocrisy-land a reservation for two.
Of course, if the rapid pace with which the Giants' organization sterilized and purged their ballpark of any mention of the increasingly guilty-looking Bonds the second they could no longer make money on him is any indication, Dodgers fans won't be dining alone.
Albert Pujols thinks he's Roger Maris; prepares for investigations and asterisk. As California fans grapple (or refuse to grapple) with their newfound role reversal, Albert Pujols is not far off the pace of being the first Testing Era hitter to eclipse 61. This story is getting relatively low level play compared to home run chases of yesteryear. I guess it's just another case of fool me thrice, shame on you, fool me four times...
Pujols, nevertheless, would be the first player to eclipse Ruth's 60 or Roger's 61 while having to deal with those pesky drug tests. As Manny can attest, that makes things a bit trickier. And it doesn't hurt that he's never been directly implicated by anything more telling than being an absurdly good hitter who hits baseballs into orbit. Then again, this chase can easily be derailed when pitchers realize that he is the only person in the Cardinals' lineup that can actually hit a baseball and stop pitching to him.
By the way, you think the home run chase is being side-tracked to sub-plot land, check out the Triple Crown he finds within his reach this late in the season. Right now, he's 10 points of batting average from putting himself in that position. Not saying it will happen, but if anyone can pull it off, he can; after all, his average-focused swing has already put him in position to cruise in the category toughest for him to win. My call as to what stops him? He's passed in RBI thanks to a weak lineup. Or, as mentioned, everyone stops pitching to him entirely.
In any case, try to enjoy an All-Star Game in St. Louis headlined by the game's premier hitter, one who is seen to have a chance to help bring baseball out of the shadows of an obviously tainted era into a more subtly and nebulously tainted era. Just hope that testing the MLB implemented helps prevent us from having to write the same thing about Cardinals fans turning a blind, naive eye a few years down the road.
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