Rounding the bases

By Dr. Jekyll

A weekly feature on the good, the bad, and the ugly happening around the diamond

Single: Good for you Barry Zito. You get a single. Do you deserve this single after your past three years? No, you don’t “deserve it”. You were paid to do it, and for the first time in a long time you’re producing. But now that you are, it’s at an elite level again: 5-0, 1.49 ERA, curveball once again one of the strongest in the bigs. This is the Barry Zito we knew and loved. And while that $126 mill will forever be regretted by the Giants, you and Timmy have put together another set of absolutely vicious top of the order starters in the division.

Double: As in the ones coming off the bat of the middle of the Tigers order. If Verlander can get his act together and Dontrelle Willis or anyone else in that mess of a pitching staff get their act together, this is a potent lineup. Between Miguel Cabrerra, Austin Jackson, and Brandon Inge, this team has enough solid pieces to be able to give the Twins a run if they can get the help on top of the rotation. Until then, the middle of this tiger lineup will find itself clawing to stay in contention as the season wears on.

Triple: To the lead leader in the category, and a pleasantly not-awful team this season, Nyjer Morgan. The Nat’s have a winning record after the first month, a solid man in the leadoff order, and Stephen Strasburg is inching closer and closer to the rotation. With Livan Hernandez throwing like a 50 year old with a record of a man still in his prime, all’s unexpectedly well in the nation’s capital.

Home Run: On a team with Matt Kemp and Man-Ram patrolling the outfield, you’d think it would be easy to overlook Andre Ethier. But he’s making that quite difficult. In addition to leading the Dodgers in all three triple crown categories, he’s also either tied for the league lead or leading in the same for the entire National League. Ethier had a very respectable sluggers year last time around, but with 32 RBI’s through 31 games, the kid is playing out of his mind.

Strikin’ them out: With no offense to Will Ferrell, Francisco Liriano is on an absolute tear in the American League. An afterthought in the Twins organization after releasing Johan Santana, Liriano is having a bounce back year so far in an incredibly winnable division. As though the 4-1 record and 1.19 WHIP aren’t impressive enough on their own, Liriano also treated us to a dazzling 23 straight scoreless innings for a three week span to chop in with a sub 2.50 ERA. If Liriano keeps this pace up the Twins can be a real threat with him starting a series come playoff time. Johan who?

Popping Up: The Seattle Mariners went from being a trendy pick to take the division to the makings of another disappointing season. Cliff Lee is looking at a Zack Greinke scenario, all the stats but no W’s. King Felix and Lee are being absolutely robbed. As the Red Sox have demonstrated this season as well, the pitching and defense is swell, but not at the cost of no offensive production. There is no pop in that lineup, and in a year where the division looks to be one of the worst in baseball, there is no excuse for them not to turn this around soon.

Caught Looking: It was going to be the Rays, as they’ve absolutely torn through the first month of the season so far. But now they’re the ones looking, at a spot in the record books and at a whole bunch o’ pitches. Just a few months short of a year after being shown perfection by Mark Buehrle, they replicated the feat with a far less renown pitches, Dallas Braden of the Oakland A’s. His season split isn’t that fantastic, but you have to take a note of perfection when the opportunity arises. The A’s have plenty of pitchers capable in the future of putting together these sorts of records, and it’s always a nice reminder to watch Moneyball at its best. Congrats Braden.