On the flipside (sorry!), Lee, Bourn, Pudge, Pence and Tejada are all playing better than expected. Pence and Bourn might sustain since they are young and should be improving, but the other three are likely to regress some. And, of course, Wandy isn't likely to stay at a sub-2.00 ERA, as good as he may be. So overall, the team is probably performing about as expected, with some players underperforming and others overperforming. While they are only 5.5 games back, that's in just 36 games. If all the teams were to continue their current page for 162 games, that would project them to finish 24 games out of 1st...
all true. i don't expect this team to win the division, and never have. i don't think they're nearly as bad as many here thought they would be, though.