Worthless and Weak

Well, after 16 games, we're 10% of the way through the season, so I thought I might look at where we're going.

At 10 and 6, the Sox are on pace to win 100 games, a good mark. They've allowed merely 62 runs, only the ChiSox have allowed fewer in the AL. In addition, the sox have scored 87 runs, only the Blue Jays, Yankees, and Tigers have scored more (but not much more).

Looking at the players individually, Varitek Ramirez, and Nixon all look very good, Ortiz isn't bad (although he's been in a bit of a slump lately) Millar is acceptable but not too good, and Damon, Mueller, Bellhorn and Renteria have done quite poorly so far.

Obviously, Varitek won't end the year hitting .367, and Renteria won't end the year hitting .210 either.

In terms of backups, Payton and Mirabelli have been nice, Vazquez has been horrible.

The starting pitching has been wonderful, while the bullpen suspect so far. After a pair of rough starts, Wells has dominated for his past two games, shutting down the powerful Baltimore and better than you think Devil Ray lineups, bringing his ERA down to 3.51. Arroyo has been fine, and Wakefild has been awesome, with a Gibsonesque 1.37 ERA. The only dissapointment so far has been Schilling, with a 6.75 ERA, but thats only over two starts. All told, the starting 5 have pitched exactly 100 innings with a 3.15 ERA, which, if that held up, would be incredible. Of course, it won't, but its still awesome.


As for the bullpen, its been the weak spot on the Sox so far. 39.1 innings pitched so far with a 4.81, including dissapointing contributions so far from Matt Mantei and John Halama, and Foulke has yet to find his groove. Only Timlin and Myers (in limited playing time) have been impressive so far.

Of course, the flip side to that is that so few of the relievers have any number of innings pitched to make any sort of conclusion yet, but as a whole, they haven't been too good.

Of course, with everything here, its waaaaaayy to early to draw any conclusion about anything. Manny will continue hitting, not like he has this season so far, but like he's been hitting these past several seasons. Varitek could have a breakout season, but he probably won't hit above .330.
Looking at MLB so far, the biggest suprises are...

The demise of the Yankees
The Dodgers are at 12-2
Florida has scored 33 more runs than it allowed
The Chicago White Sox are at 12-4

The Yankees probably aren't really any more dead now than they were at the start of the season. They'll most likely come back.

The Dodgers are for real, and will finish first in their division.

Florida is too early to call (of course, everything is way too early to call, but whatever)

And the Chicago Sox will fall back to earth, although they might compete for the division.

For the awards, if the season ended today...

AL MVP Brian Roberts (Varitek as a runner up)
AL Cy Young Rich Harden (Wakefield runner up)

NL MVP Jeff Kent (Edgardo Alfonzo runner up)
NL Cy Young Josh Beckett(Roger Clemens runner up)