What's Gonna Happen Next?

[Cronos]

Our offense will improve. Significantly.

The point I'm trying to make is that its too early to be especially pessimistic. Barring Rolen, Edmonds, Duncan and Pujols all experience monumental drop-offs in production from their career, thereby leading this offense to become historically unrivaled, things will improve and we will at least show semblance of competitiveness -- something that doesn't really seem to be existent right now.

Seriously. If it didn't improve much at all, it would go down as one of the worst in history, and the odds of that happening are quite low.

[GatewaySnayke]

I don't think anyone is saying that they are going to be historically bad or even the worst offense in the league.

But they also aren't going to hit enough to be better than a ~ .500 team.

[longhornbaseball]

I don't think anyone is saying that they are going to be historically bad or even the worst offense in the league.

But they also aren't going to hit enough to be better than a ~ .500 team.

That's your opinion. I think 730 runs will be enough to be better than a .500 team. The pitching is for real IMO. I expect at least 750 runs with 775 a reasonable possibility.

But I'm a blind homer.

[JL21]

It's just too early in the season to start worrying too much, thats all I'm saying.

We are, right now, averaging 2.82 runs per game. TWO POINT EIGHT TWO! The most anemic offense in the league last year was the Pirates. Their average? 4.26 runs a game.

But hey, maybe we're historically bad? During the worst offensive season of all time, the Dodgers managed just 3.38 runs per game (548 runs) over the course of an entire season.

Of the 16 players that logged over 100 at-bats, just five of them had an OPS over .700; Brett Butler led the team with an OPS of .804.

.804 was their team-high OPS. Pujols will eclipse that. Duncan will eclipse that. Rolen will eclipse that. Edmonds is a good bet to be around that, if he doesn't eclipse it.

Currently, we have four position players who will get 100 or more at-bats that have an OPS over .700: So Taguchi, Chris Duncan, Gary Bennett and Albert Pujols.

Our offense will improve. Significantly. Maybe it will at / below league average when it is all said and done, but from our current state its going to improve big-time. And yes, our pitching will fall back to Earth... but the fall its going to have is less than the leap our offense is going to make, I think.


The point I'm trying to make is that its too early to be especially pessimistic. Barring Rolen, Edmonds, Duncan and Pujols all experience monumental drop-offs in production from their career, thereby leading this offense to become historically unrivaled, things will improve and we will at least show semblance of competitiveness -- something that doesn't really seem to be existent right now.


I am frustrated like everyone else, but I'm also aware that we aren't even 10% done with the season.


You have to take the entire Dodgers comparison with a grain of salt because the league OPS in 1990 was .704; by comparison, it was .778 last season.

This is the best post in this thread, IMO. Especially the part about Rolen, Albert, and Edmonds and just how poorly they're performing. In fact, this seems like a good idea for a new thread.

[omaha_red]

Nope, instead we're thinking that our chances at a World Series are growing even further.

Yeah, too bad we won the WS last year.

I giggled.

I just wish I could be more optimistic about this team right now. If only they hadn't won it all last year... Last year's WS title is ruining the 2007 baseball season for me.

A sarcastic shot aimed at me?

probably, RC's a jerk

[TGantz]

Do you guys really believe the offense will be this bad all season?

Offenses are streaky, especially this one. Obviously, they are in a very bad slump right now. It happens. Players go into slumps. For whatever reason, they are all going into slumps at the same time.

But these guys are too good of hitters and too experienced to let this go on very much longer. That line-up that was out there today, is potentially a much improved line-up from last year (except Wilson switching with Juan). The players outside of the core (Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds) are much better than last year. Juan and Eck are pretty much the same.

Molina has become a much better hitter than last year. He's hitting the ball to the opposite field, he's not striking out too much, and he has found his niche in the #7 hole.

We have an actual 2B this year, a very solid #8 hitter. It's taking him awhile to get things going because he barely had a ST (soreness). But he has rock solid defense, decent speed, and is a good contact hitter.

We have a bonified LF. Last year we threw out a mixture of Bigbie, Taguchi, Gall, Schumaker, Rodriguez, Spiezio... you name it. Then a guy by the name of Chris Duncan came around. The guy has ridiculous power, and has improved his defense.

Remember that Juan had a terrible start to the season. Wilson isn't much different right now than what Juan was to start the season last year.

The difference is that the core players aren't producing.

Pujols is very unlike himself so far this season. But what is it that he is known for? Adjustments. How can a guy be considered one of the best hitters of all time one day, to a guy hitting under .225 with a lot of strikeouts? He'll break out of it soon.

Rolen has been in and out for weird reasons. Back spasms, food poisoning... that kind of stuff... But his average is also much lower than it should be. But remember, he finally has his shoulder at full strength. He should find his stroke soon and maybe even hit better than he did last year.

Edmonds is hurting bad right now. He's not doing anything offensively, and he has a ton of minor injuries bugging him. But he has always been a streaky player. He plays well in the second half most of the time, and can still do some damage from the clean up spot. I'm not too worried about Jimmy, he is too good of an athlete to let this kind of thing go on for much longer.

So I guess what I'm saying is... I think we'll be fine. It's April last time I checked.

Which means they still have May, June, July, and September. That's quite a lot of time to be able to get the offense going. Also, Walt could get a bat at the deadline. Remember that with Mulder coming back, we would have six starters, even seven if you count Thompson.

[Old_Timer_1944]

We are, right now, averaging 2.82 runs per game. TWO POINT EIGHT TWO! The most anemic offense in the league last year was the Pirates. Their average? 4.26 runs a game.

At this point if it was against the law to have an offense there wouldn't be enough evidence to convict the Cardinals.

With all that, I won't give up hope until someone tells me the season is over and the Cardinals didn't make the playoffs.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Nope, instead we're thinking that our chances at a World Series are growing even further.

Yeah, too bad we won the WS last year.

I giggled.

I just wish I could be more optimistic about this team right now. If only they hadn't won it all last year... Last year's WS title is ruining the 2007 baseball season for me.

I know what you mean. Those bastards.

That's really how I feel.

I mean, the team said they were sorry to the White Sox for beating them when they weren't planning to. But they NEVER apologized to us fans. Arrogant bastards. They RUIN our 2007 season like that and don't even think enough of us to say they are sorry. And they STILL want us to come out and root for them?

I'm sorry, but I've just about had it with this team. Whitey never would have let it get this far. Never.