[CBeisbol]

STARTING PITCHING
One of the top rotations in baseball. Nobody has an ERA over 3 or, more importantly, a FIP- of 100.

Mark Langston has been phenomenal. With Tim Belcher right behind him. Orel Hershiser maybe isn't quite the Hershiser of old, but we'll take the 200 innings of 80 FIP- pitching he's on pace to give us. Ramon looks like last year's injury took a bit out of him but a 92 FIP- out of your 4th starter will play. Pedro Astacio has jumped right in and shows that he belongs in this rotation. And Nolan Ryan seems to be about ready for minor league rehab. The rotation is deep and good.

Right after saying that, I'll back track a bit. David Nied and John O'Donoghue are both on the minor league DL hurting the depth a bit, but O'Donoghue should be back soon. Nied really struggled before his injury, both in LA and in AAA, so we can't count on his return. O'Donoghue had a 70 AAA FIP- before his injury. Pedro Martinez (79 AAA FIP-) continues to flash amazing stuff, but his control both drives up his pitch count getting him out of games too soon and puts more batter on base than we'd like. But when we're talking about 7th and 8th starters, you know things are going ok.

RELIEF PITCHING
The bullpen has been a slight disappointment. When they have the league's 4th best ERA, you know there were lofty expectations.

Rod Beck's numbers are skewed by a terrible first week puncutated by 4 home runs allowed. He's only allowed 4 since and has a nearly 10:1 K/BB rate. John Wetteland has been good, but we feel like he hasn't quite reached his full potential. Jim Gott has done just what we expected from him – racking up 10 saves in 10 opportunities.

Left-handers Tom Bolton and Tony Fossas have both been an improvement over previous versions of our lefties. Each is walking fewer than 2.5 per 9 and Fossas, especially, has been great so far. Though neither is that player you bring in and have 100% confidence that they'll sit the opposing team's best left-handed hitter back on the bench in the late innings of a close game.

Darren Holmes and Mike Christopher have both contributed to the big league team. Holmes got his first career save this week though he's struggled with control – though he was much better in Albuquerque. Christopher got his first MLB win earlier in the year but the home run has been his problem – though just 1 in 26 AAA innings.

Mike Munoz and Jim Poole have kept runners from scoring, but 7 walks in 9 innings between them doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. Poole has a 100 FIP- in AAA which is a bit better than Munoz' 104. Neither guy has performed like we expected.

Lastly, we were starting to get excited about the stuff that Angel Miranda was showing in AAA but he's expected to miss most of the rest of the season.

Mike Mimbs has acquitted himself well to AAA since being called up a few weeks ago with a 72 FIP-and left-hander Omar Daal has shown flashes as Albuquerque's closer, but I'd be nervous giving either meaningful innings in LA down the stretch.

There's no such thing as too much good pitching.