I might be ready to call the Luke Scott experiment nearly done... but only because Berkman will be coming back within the next 2 weeks anyways. But, I'm not taking Tavares out even if he can't hit anymore... his defense in CF is too good for us right now. Other than that, the rest of the guys are pretty entrenched in their spots... Morgan/Lamb will probably start platooning a little more anyways, and Everett (as bad as he may seem) isn't going to be a .100 hitter forever, and his defense is still stellar (but Viz might see a few more spot starts here and there).
Its up to Baggy now.... and if I were the Braves, I'd just walk him to force Lidge out of the game....
Piss poor. This is going to be a loooooong season if we can't pick it up with the bats. Hopefully it won't take Berkman too long to find his groove once he returns. If not, we need to make a trade for a stick.
My bad... we went with a Quall Call instead. I guess 3 innings is too much for Lidge this early in the season... even if he hasn't really taxed himself too much tonight.
The way my rose-colored glasses see it is that while we expected the offense would struggle, no one really thought it'd struggle this bad. We won't be like last year, but we will be better than this and things will average out. If we can stay this close during this horrible offensive drought and win some games, then we'll be in decent shape once the bats inevitably come back to life, albeit a weaker one. Then, we get Lance back, our hitters start to see more pitches with him in the lineup, and we start winning more games. June comes around and the yearly list of future free agents who are available via trade will surface. At that point, if we're still within striking distance and it looks like the team has a run in it, we'll be adding a bat. No doubt about it. Go 'Stros.
I agree RM95... but as bad as the hitting has been to start the season, I definitely didn't think the pitching would be this GOOD. I mean, Clemens has now had three straight DOMINATING performances to start the year, Oswalt has had two straight, and Pettite and Backe have been steadily consistent. As far as the hitting is concerned, I guess its truly is still contagious for this team, either all hot or all cold. You'll see games like Friday where none of the players seem to miss the ball at all, and then games like last week against the Mets, where they can't get a run to save their lives. Tonight, they ran into a buzz-saw in Hudson who is just as bit as dominant as any pitcher on our team. He's just got nasty stuff, and if he's locating it well, he's almost unhittable.
Alright ORLANDO!!! Our pinch-hitters have outperformed our everyday hitters in just two AB's!!! (ew... bunt with Lane?)
The big "if" is that we need to be "within striking distance" come the trade deadline. We will not be in that position with our current production.
I don't think it has to be at the deadline, necessarily. I'm thinking mid-June, about the time we got Beltran last year. They knew if we were going to make a run, we needed to make that trade then. I think they'll do the same this year if we're in the position. 1st and 3rd, no outs. GIT-R-DONE!!!!
No, I say let Lane swing away. Look who's up behind him. The black hole that is our 7 and 8 hitters. EDIT: I'm a genius.
