I've found it useful to follow a team by breaking the season into ten game chunks. I realize it's an arbitrary bench mark, but comparing a team's performance over every ten games can highlight trends, show up consistencies as well as isolate the inconsistencies.
I always look at wins first... any number greater than five reassures me the M's are on the right track. Their 9-2 win over the White Sox gives them eight wins for this first set of ten. They have a +22 run differential, the team is hitting .268 and averaging 7.3 runs a game. Starting pitching has been strong, the two losses go to the bullpen.
Comparing things to last year, walks are up 5%, but the big difference is slugging percentage, up from .408 to .532. That's big, that's those homers, but more significantly all those doubles. The poster boy here is Ryon Healy, whose 2018 slugging percentage was .412 and who has started this season at .714.
So, first ten... they're winning and lots of people are contributing. It's not just Haniger, although he's doing just fine also. Among the regulars, everyone except Dee has a wRC+ over 100 and Beckham and Santana are well over 200.
Starters are averaging over 5 innings with 3.64 ERA, compared to 4.35 last year.
You don't have to look to see bullpen is shaky, but shows signs of stabilizing. Defense is terrifying. Less said the better.
*******
By the way, thanks to Jason Stark's research for the Athletic, I learned that three consecutive errors have been committed before, on May 10, 1981. Another third baseman, New York Mets, Hubie Brooks.
No comments:
Post a Comment