Look, things are going well, we’re sitting on a 13-5 record, at the top of the pops, and have a comfortable 4-game lead on the second place Chiba Lotte Marines… these are all great things. But I have issues… we’ve not been blowing teams out of the water, in fact, so far this month, 7 of our 9 games have been decided by two runs or less. Our expectation was that we’d run roughshod over all comers – running things like a far east, ‘roided up version of the ’98 Yankees… but, that’s not what we’ve seen so far. And, yeah, you’re right, we’re trending to earn 104 wins which would be a better winning percentage than that club, and, if you’re counting, a better winning percentage than the 2001 Mariners club that crashed, burned, and broke every young baseball fans fragile little heart when they were summarily dismissed from the playoffs.
Really, I shouldn’t complain – I’m being too greedy here – as the offense has started to come around and the pitching has been superb. Our hurlers are ranked 1st in almost every category that matters and must look like a knuckle-dragging, chesty, behemoth straight out of the Maxx comic to each batsman who is unfortunate enough to step in the box against them.
Some early surprises… Taijuan Walker and JP Crawford have each been something of a low-key problem for our opponents thus far. Nice to see Taijuan realizing some of his early promise, even if that realization is happening in the ***.
Also, your boy Jabari Bash took home the JPL player of the week award. #69 put it down last week, hitting .500 with 5 jacks, and 8 RBI over 5 games. At already 1.1 WAR so far, I think that $1.7M Orix is paying the guy will be money well spent. Of course, they are currently 5th in the JPL, so, they need their pitching to meet their #1 ranked offense at least halfway if they are to make any real noise this season.