<<maybe ol' U.L. Washington and his 20 year old toothpicks come out of retirement for the party? >>
i LOVED that guy. though they could better use a reincarnation of Frank White's glove, or Willie Mays Aikens' bat.
division does not suck. Twins are gonna win almost 100 games. whole starting lineup on the right side of 30, so on average they're all likely to play better. Torii Hunter is a legitimate star (despite his bad start) and Jacque Jones had his bust-out year last year and is playing even better this year (i am sorry to say, though i am sure you will disagree, that Jones is a MUCH better hitter than Beltran). every player in the line-up (excepting Rivas, who can't hit at all) has an above-league average OPS; i'm not sure why you think they're light hitters. plus they play gold-glove quality defense at nearly every position on the field.
on the other hand, the Royals have 3 gigantic black holes in the lineup in Mayne (who is on the wrong side of 35 and getting worse than his already-terrible stick), Febles, and Berroa (though we should cut Berroa some slack 'cause he is young), and Michael Tucker and Joe Randa are unlikely to suddenly become decent at the age of 32 and with 7500 not-even-league average at-bats under their belts. i don't care how good your pitching is, you are not gonna finish over .500 with 5 out of your 9 hitters not even performing at a league-average level (with three of those guys below 75% of league average); Sweeney is great, but he ain't Barry Bonds. Royals do not have a prayer's chance of scoring 800 runs this year, not with that lineup. OK, i take that back; they don't have a prayer's chance of scoring 650 runs this year against teams that are not the Detroit Tigers <g>
again, though, look forward to the future; add a couple of bats....
Cheers |
