pension333: MLB: five things we learned in week four

Fish stink up Miami; Mike Trout and Bryce Harper land in the Bigs; Baltimore's Orioles fly high; Bucs score big; Andy Pettitte is ready to return

Stinky Fish hearing it from their crowd

Question: When is it good to be booed by your home fans? Answer: When you're a Miami Marlin. Why? Because when you're being booed, it means that people care about your team, and even better, there are actual living, breathing fans in your ballpark. The Marlins have a brand new stadium, and finally are out of last place. Not in the National League Eastern Division, but in National League attendance, where they are eighth out of the 16 Senior Circuit teams, a dramatic improvement over 2011. The Marlins drew 304,488 through ten games in their new park, while last season at Sun Life Stadium, Florida drew 176,278 in their first ten games. Don't ask me how much of a percentage leap that is, but let's just say it's a big difference.

Now, to the booing. The team stinks, and are dead last with an 8-14 record despite their fancy new uniforms and their fancy new players. We are hearing an awful lot about how bad Albert Pujols has been, and considerably less about Jose Reyes' awful start. The ex-Met, who won the batting title last season in Queens, is earning $106m over the next six seasons, and currently hitting .220 with four stolen bases. Now, if you want to make excuses for Pujols, you could say that he switched leagues and coasts and is the player making the greater adjustment. What can you say about Reyes? He is still in the NL East, facing the same pitchers and the same teams while putting up the worst numbers of his career, including a 1-12 series vs. his old team in his first visit back to New York. So far, only Reyes' salary and the Marlins outfield walls have been greener for the all-star shortstop.

Meanwhile, only the Pirates have scored fewer runs (more on them in a bit), and they have lost eight of their last nine games. Hanley Ramirez has four homers, but is also flirting with a .200 batting average. Generally speaking, there is a grotesque odor emanating up and down the Fish lineup, while the pitching has been adequate. Manager Ozzie Guillen, who has been somewhat muted by Fidel-gate, said after a 9-5 loss to Arizona on Monday:

"Can you blame them? I was booing too," Guillen said. "Too bad they can't hear me. It's a shame, because we have a better ballclub than we've shown."

Heading into May Ozzie's Marlins are strictly paper tigers.

Booming Bucos

Pittsburgh fans around the globe are celebrating today after their Bucs managed to do something last night that they hadn't done all season long. The Pirates ransacked the Atlanta Braves by the score of 9-3, and with that run total, ended a 21-game streak of scoring five or fewer runs. If you're wondering how a stretch like that is even possible, you might want to take a quick look at Pittsburgh's lineup, where you'll find two regulars, catcher Rod Barajas, shortstop Clint Barmes hitting under .150, while third baseman Pedro Alvarez flirts with .200, and right fielder Jose Tabata hits under .250. Andrew McCutchen is the only regular hitting over .300, and that comes without a single home run. Not a one.

All this coincides with some of the best Bucs pitching we've seen in a few years. Pittsburgh hurlers haven't allowed more than six runs in a game all season long and the current rotation has been nothing short of stellar, with current starters AJ Burnett, Kevin Correia, James McDonald, Erik Bedard and Charlie Morton have a combining for a 2.34 ERA. With a bullpen nearly as stingy, it's no surprise that the Pirates are in every game despite their awful offense. If they had any kind of output, at the very least, they would have three or four more victories. You have to think that if they can squeeze just a tiny bit little juice out of their bats, the Pirates have a legitimate shot at finishing over .500 for the first time since 1992.

Advice for Mom

Mother's take note. Baseball offers fewer injury risks than football, and the contract is guaranteed. Then there's the pressure. Quarterback Andrew Luck is about to follow in the footsteps of Peyton Manning in Indianapolis, and QB Robert Griffin III is following, well, let's just say that he'll be expected to make some noise in Washington. Both of these top draft picks come with sky high NFL expectations, and if success doesn't follow, it can get very ugly, very fast. Remember Ryan Leaf?

Then there's the Bryce Harper and Mike Trout, two highly anticipated baseball draft picks. Harper was drafted number one overall by the Washington Nationals in August of 2010, signed a five-year $9.9m deal and went to go play in places like Hagerstown, Maryland to develop and learn to play the outfield. Mike Trout was drafted 25th overall by the Angels a year earlier, got $1.215m to sign and then head for destinations such as Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Both players, especially Harper, have scouts and fans drooling, but they didn't have to face the bright lights and big cities straight away, and they certainly don't have to scramble from 350 pound linebackers. Mike Trout came up for 40 games last season and put up some lousy numbers. Not to worry, he's young and just getting going - no big deal. You think Andrew Luck and RG III are going to get that kind of rope? No chance. They'll be performing in front of 70,000 on their first day as a pro, and there's no going down to the minors for "seasoning" in the NFL, just a lot of hard knocks. OK moms, take your pick.

Mike Trout probably is facing a bit more heat than Harper right now. The Angels are a horror show, and he'll be expected to stay up with the Angels for the season, especially after Bobby Abreu was released. Still, the cameras will be firmly on Mr. Pujols for some time, allowing Trout some breathing room as he tries to discover his big league swing while learning to hit Uncle Charlie. He was hit-less in his first eight plate appearances this weekend in Cleveland.

Meanwhile Harper could be up for just a limited stint as the Nats recover from a few injuries...or not, after a rock solid debut for the Nats out in LA. Sure, they were swept, but Harper had two hits in the series, made a phenomenal catch in center field on Sunday and nearly gunned down a runner at the plate on Saturday. Despite Harper's expectations, he probably has a bit more rope than Trout, who is a year older and already has some big league experience. Should Harper falter fans in Washington will be patient. They'll be far less so for their new quarterback.

Are there holes in these O's?

"They could lose 20 in a row. So write about them now." says David Travers, a life-long friend and Baltimore Orioles fan. Well, they lost Monday night to the Yankees, 2-1, and that means that I can no longer call them the first place Orioles, which are now a game behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East. Still, they deserve a pop for sure, defying the expectations of nearly every baseball fan on the planet by coming within a whisker of ending April on top of their division. How are Buck Showalter's O's doing it? Amazingly it's their pitching, which expected to be one of the worst staffs in all of baseball in 2012. How do you explain Jason Hammel, a righty who never had an ERA lower than 4.33 during his time in Tampa Bay and Colorado allowing just five runs in his first 26 innings while averaging nearly a strikeout per inning? Who knew that Taiwanese hurler Wei-Yin Chen would be nearly as good upon arrival in the Majors? Closer Jim Johnson showed signs last season but seven saves with a 7.2 scoreless inning streak to start the season? A bullpen with a league best 1.88 ERA? Outrageous. On Sunday, the O's headed in to their final at bats down 2-0 to the Oakland A's and scored five runs, walking off after Wilson Betemit crushed a three run homer off of Grant Balfour, sending Camden Yards into happy hysterics, something that hasn't happened much since their last winning season of 1997. If this is going to keep up it will be down to the pitching as the Orioles issues are not bat related. Adam Jones is off to a torrid start, and may be in line for one of the biggest contracts in Orioles history if not the biggest Then there's Matt Weiters, the highly touted O's backstop whose finally starting to put up the huge numbers we all thought we would see just a touch sooner. Chris Davis is turning heads with the bat, as is Nolan Reimold who is crushing the ball with an OPS over 1.000.

Is a reality check coming soon to Baltimore? They've begun a stretch of 15 games vs. the Yankees, Red Sox, Rangers and Rays. If they can get out of that alive, we'll all have to start taking them seriously.

Extra Innings

? Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria left Monday night's game after the third inning of a 3-2 walk-off victory vs. Seattle, hurting his knee while attempting to steal second. He's day-to-day right now, while Tampa has won 10 of their last 12 games.

?�The night before vs. the Rays, Texas' Josh Hamilton left the game with a stiff back, also in the third inning, and didn't play on Monday vs. the Blue Jays.

? In even more Rays related news, Hideki Matsui was signed to a minor league deal with Tampa Bay, while former Rays outfielder Johnny Damon joins Cleveland on Tuesday to re-start his quest to collect the 277 hits he needs to reach 3000.

? Vladimir Guerrero is looking for work and Arizona are a team that took a look at the 37-year-old slugger down in the Dominican Republic.

? Yu Darvish was brilliant again on Monday and is now 4-0 with a 2.18 ERA after stifling the Toronto Blue Jays 4-1. Here's his line:

Yu Darvish 7IP 4H 1R 1ER 2BB 9K 1HR

He is getting more comfortable with each start, mortifying news for his AL opponents.

? Andy Pettitte says he is ready to return to a beleaguered Yankees rotation after throwing 96 pitches during an extended spring training game on Monday. His next start could be for the big club. That's good news for Joe Girardi's Yankees considering his rotation has been mostly abysmal.

? ESPN is reporting that MLB are considering revamping their Interleague Play format to be closer to the NFL model. That would mean that rivalry match-ups such as the Mets vs. Yankees and Cubs vs. White Sox would only take place when their division's line up every three years.

?�Ryan Braun blasted three home runs during the Milwaukee Brewers 8-3 victory over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park Monday night. He finished 4-5 with six RBI's.

David Lengel

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/may/01/jose-reyes-bryce-harper-baltimore-orioles

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