One Cool Team

Post April 15 Monday off today, with golf and poker on the menu. The Pecklers have 2 starters going tonight, Webb and Tomko, so it should be a full day. Meanwhile, we had a fine day yesterday, moving above 60 points mostly on Mike Hampton's monster outing which popped us into first in ERA and 2nd in Ratio. Keep saying the mantra: the hitting will come around. Cliff Floyd says he's playing tonight, and we hope he feels good enough to start on those 25 steals he promissed, because that 1.0 in SB's is glaring at us.

Today it's time for another team report, and where better to start than with those guys at the top, the surprising .300 Pounders, sporting a big lead with 72 points. The Busch Leaguers, by the way, dropped into 10th with 39, which could easily be their low water mark. Bad news on Gagne today: out at least another month.

Back to the Pounders. They have 43 hitting points this morning. That is a big number. So is this one: 217. That's $217 spent on hitting, only $63 on pitching. Kevin had only 4 average hitting keepers (Estrada, Overbay, Jenkins and Clark) none of whom are setting the world on fire (well, Clark is hitting .390, but his other numbers are pedestrian), so it must be that money talks for this team.

Joe Randa has been the surprise so far for this team. That's a pretty good ballpark to hit in, but it's hard to think of him among the league leaders in anything at the end of the season. He spent big money on Carlos Lee (way over PECK and INF at 38) and Rafael Furcal (pretty decent price at 30, particularly if he steals 30). Luis Gonzalez looks healthy and may have something left if is start is to be believed.

I saw Valentin power out a no doubter on Opening Night at SBC. It's a little hard to believe a jump from .216 to .370 in BA, but he has real power and a little speed. Eight bucks was a nice price even if he hits .216 again. I still don't get Taveras at $19, but maybe he really will steal 30, so it will be worth it. Methinks Michael Tucker will not be among the league's RBI leaders in September, or even June, but he will get a lot of at bats apparently.

One obvious thing - Mabry is the only player who won't get AB's on this team. The Pounders should be up there with us among the BABI AB leaders at season's end. And that is a sign of good things.

So how about that pitching staff? Kevin kept 6 cheap pitchers, paid 15 for Thomson (reasonable price in an inflationary environment) and bought three nothings. Thomson, Weaver, Williams, Zambrano is a decent staff for the money, though we don't know what to think of Floyd, who seems destined to spend most of the season at AAA. We would have thrown him back.

It's hard to imagine this team hanging in the pitching categories. And there isn't a lot of obvious trade bait on this roster for the end game. Best guess here is middle of the pack. But it should be fun to look at box scores for this team each morning.