Although it may be to early to tell, with 2 weeks on the books are there any teams that look like the favorites or will this be the first year where parity hits the league??
From the numbers that have come in so far, I predict that the teams with the best pitching and defense should be the teams in it at the end. It really appears as though all the teams are capable of scoring runs so it will be the teams who can prevent runs and only give three outs per inning who have the most success.
Most teams are only two games in so it's tough to say who has the best staff.
I can note that we've had a couple of great pitching performances. For example:
1. Andy Sardella and Ed Powell of the A's combined to shut out the Shaskys who turned around and hung 14 runs on the Highlanders.
2. Ron Massaroni of the Cubs held the Pirates to only 2 runs over 8 2/3 innings only to have Mike Kane and Chris Burnett combine for the nine-inning shutout win to beat Massaroni and the Cubs. The game had flawless defense until the top of the ninth when the Pirates scored two unearned runs to beat the Cubs.
3. Mick Novak, Jason Day and Joe Burns combined to allow only one run on three hits to the Reds in a 9-1 win.
It's difficult to say who the best staff is only 2 or 3 games in, but those were some impressive performances - the A's didn't commit any errors in the first example, the Pirates and Cubs only had two combined errors in a nine inning game and the Dodgers only committed one error in seven innings in the third example.
-- Edited by The_Hurricane on Thursday 12th of May 2011 11:40:24 AM
One strong pitcher and a couple of fill in guys is enough to give a team a good regular season, but when playoffs come around you better have two "aces" and at least one or more "fill-ins." As Rob said, the defense behind the pitching, becomes the great decider, when two teams have similar pitching strength.
What?? Perhaps you haven't looked over the Dodgers roster. They have a few aces, and a few in the hole. If everyone stays healthy on all teams. Cubs - Dodgers look to be the early season favorites for the finals. But, ya never know...that's why we play the games.
What?? Perhaps you haven't looked over the Dodgers roster. They have a few aces, and a few in the hole. If everyone stays healthy on all teams. Cubs - Dodgers look to be the early season favorites for the finals. But, ya never know...that's why we play the games.
And with all of that pitching the Dodgers lost to the Humm'n'birds the other night.
Maybe springtime1 is onto something with all of this parity. It certainly seems great for the division.
Unlike last year's rift with "Clubber Lang" this guy isn't asking any incendiary questions. Am I missing something here? This actually seems like a constructive thread. Why call someone out when he's providing good dialogue?
