Albert Pujols did his best Chris Shelton impersonation, Brett Myers and Aaron Cook were hypnotized to think they were pitching in Dodger Stadium, and Barry Bonds is hitting like David Eckstein (who he admires so much). Week Two is just as important Week One, yet all the papers still include Week One games in the Week Two standings. I’ll fix that. Which teams showed that Week One was a fluke and which teams would we be talking about if Week Two was really Week One? Week Two, Week One, I feel like I’m writing a Dr. Seuss story.
Boston went 4-3, yet was outscored by four runs. The Yankees managed a 4-2 record by outscoring their opponents by 16 runs. Based on run differential, the Yankees should be enjoying a padded lead right now, but it’s the Sox that have received timely quality pitching. Ahh, it’s nice to know the rest of the division is inconsequential already (although, the media could have told you that in January).
Excellent pitching and three million homeruns from Jim Thome propelled the White Sox to a 5-1 record on the week, making a mockery of demise-predictors like me. (Oh wait, it’s just one week.) Minnesota also posted a 5-1 record, but Week One Cinderella story Detroit decided Chris Shelton homers were the only runs they needed (they were wrong). The Tigers went 2-4 on the week, only one game better than the Royals. Can we conclusively conclude that Kansas City will have a 1-5 record every week this season based on their accomplishment of the feat the first two weeks?
Out west, Texas nearly eliminated its negative run-differential, but its 3-2 record couldn’t out-suck the 2-6 first week. Oakland was outscored again, but this time it led to a 1-5 week, falling behind the Mariners who have been lead by Steady Eddy to a pair of 3-4 weeks. The Angels complete a fairly awful week for the West, which won only nine games against 15 losses.
In the National League, the Mets and the rest of the NL Central made everyone ask, “Milwaukee who?” New York outscored opponents by 19 runs on their way to a 6-1 week. Had Week Two been Week One, we’d have seen ESPN.com stories touting Brian Bannister as Pedro II and Carlos Delgado as the team leader the Mets had always wanted. The Phillies admirably recovered with a 4-1 week, while Atlanta, Washington, and Florida got lazy and just repeated their Week One performances. There’s just no creativity in baseball these days.
As for those Brewers, Prince Fielder remembered the object of the game was to make contact with the ball, but only pulled out two wins playing run for run with their opponents. Pittsburg continued to lose, and the rest of the division had winning weeks. The NL Central has five teams with winning records right now. I don’t think I’ll be writing that sentence in my Week Three review.
For the second straight week the Giants had a 4-2 record while being outscored by their opponents. When Bonds starts hitting all that might change. Although, is a 2-4 record while outscoring opponents anything to shoot for? The Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles eeked out a 2-5 record while being outscored by one measly run and the whole division in general showed why it’s not NL Central. If the season keeps going like this (and it’s on pace to), I’d like to suggest that the Giants and Pirates switch divisions.
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Sky is a baseball fan and racket sport afficianado living in upstate NY. His favorite color is orange and is just about ready to give up on his life-long dream to become the next Magnus ver Magnuson (World's Strongest Man). His favorite baseball teams are the Yankees and Red Sox, proving that there's hope in the Middle East.