Purpura needs to look in the mirror. This roster is not a good one. Other than Lance Berkman slumping and Jennings being hurt, the players aren't really underachieving. They just aren't that good.
Oswalt is underachieving. Qualls is underachieving. Wheeler is underachieving. Lidge is underachieving, then back to normal, then hurt. Ensberg/Scott/Burke/Biggio are all underachieving as a combo (put together, at least two of them should combine to be an average player... as Scott/Ensberg did last year... this year, they're not). Losing Everett led to more offense, but that certainly didn't mean more wins. There's only so much a team can do when 4 expected "great" players that were counted on to be dominant are all having their worst career years (or in the case of Lidge/Jennings... their first injury problems in the big leagues). He did pick up Loretta (which turns out to be more fruitful everyday), and he was behind converting Pence to a CF. His continued tenure will be based on the impending moves that he will be forced to make as a result of this team's current position.
Lidge/Ensberg/Scott/Biggio- I don't see how they are underachieving. They all sucked last year except for Scott, who at that time had half a year and not much else of a track record. Scott wasn't considered a promising prospect, was he? Qualls and Oswalt aren't that much worse, their ERAs are half an unearned run higher. And that is somewhat balanced by Wandy and Sampson doing better than expected. I do agree on Wheeler, he has dropped of bigtime. Overall, there has been some dropoff. But I think if they all played up to expecations they would still just be a .500 team at best. And yeah I am interested in what Purpura does next year. It's probably unfair to blame him for this year.
Ensberg was on fire to start last year... Scott was on fire to end it. Combined, they were more than adequate. This year, with Ensberg supposedly putting behind whatever injury that caused last year's stunning mid-season drop-off, it wouldn't have been irreponsible to expect somewhere in between 2005's MVP-type year, and last year's first half. Likewise, Scott (who nobody should have expected to completely duplicate his 2006 tear for an entire season) was expected to be reliable... he still may prove to be so (decent OPS, mediocre batting average). But for now, they're both dissapointments. Combine that with Burke/Biggio... Biggio, while always expected to suffer a drop-off towards the end of the season, had an MO of starting off seasons strong... that didn't happen this year. Burke was expected to at least put up the numbers he did in part-time last year (decent batting avg, OBP)... that didn't happen either. As for the rest of the team... Oswalt is not having a good year (by his standards). Sure, he's still (by far) the best starting pitcher on this team... but the club was expecting Cy Young type performance (and is paying him for that). They're not getting that... hell, they've lost 7 of the last 8 games he's started (some not all his fault, but he's certainly not as dominant as he had been in the past). Qualls problems are more due to his inconsistency... this guy went from being a sure-fire closer prospect that was on a lot of team's wish lists, to just an average middle reliever overnight. He has all the talent in the world... and the aresnal... but this year's inconsistency has been magnified due to the rest of the crappy state of the bullpen. The dropoffs are there... and they are stunning... but you still don't have to look far from the performance of their supposed two best players. Berkman and Oswalt having their worst years as a pro is bad enough. We already knew that without them in the mix for respective MVP/Cy Young awards, this team was not going to be a contender... the fact that these guys likely won't even make the all-star team is a BIG reason why the team is where it is. Finally, if the players that were here last year all played up to expectations, they likely are a .500 team again... like last year(with Wandy/Sampson duplicating Pettite's mediocre year last year, and Clemens on-again/injured half-season). Add Pence, Lee, and a hot Loretta to that... and they had a chance to be better (assuming Wandy/Sampson hold up... which is still a big assumption).
I missed this game tonight. When I got home I watched the highlights on the news. When they first started showing the highlights I told my friend i bet the bullpen lost it again.
i think they're snakebit. when one facet of the team starts to improve, another falls away. this has happened in cycles. i'm just preparing myself for them not making a miraculous comeback. but i'll be watching.
Disregarding walks, Ensberg was only "on fire" April 3rd - 18th where he peaked with a .429 average and was arguably the best offensive player in the NL. The rest of the month he hit around .190. He followed that with monthly averages of .216, .145, .200, .209 and had a nice September batting .273. Two weeks of a red hot Ensberg does not equal adequate when combined with 3 months of Scott (i.e neither was hot from April 19th - June 30th)
Of course we can't have all-world type production throughout an entire season from these two... I was just looking at their combined numbers as a whole (since both were part-time players). When you look at that, it was adequate (not neccssarily all-star level, but definitely above average). They're not getting anywhere close to that this year, thus far.
