Sour Grapes of Wrath

(Note: I changed the title of this blog entry. Originally it was "The Drapes of Roth," from an Allen Sherman song "Glory, Glory Harry Lewis." Noel emailed me this much more obvious and fitting title. I give Noel my ultimate compliment: I wish I had thought of it myself.)

One of the greatest lines in movie history is delivered by John Carradine (daddy of Grasshopper David Carradine) in the all time great flick “The Grapes of Wrath.” The family has loaded up the truck to move to Beverlee from the Okie dust bowl. Carradine, playing the preacher is standing on the ground and is asked “Don’t you want to come along?”

His answer: “There’s something goin’ on out there in the west, and I’d kinda like to see what it is, if you’ve got the room.”

That’s still true today.

The Giants were swept by the Phillies and have bounced at the bottom of the NL West standings. The problem is their pitching, which, for the most part, stinks. Noah Lowry is coming off the DL today, and Schmidt looked like the Schmidt of old in his last start. Morris, Wright and Cain are pitching worse with each outing, though Hennessey has pitched well since being brought up as has Correia, who has yet to start.

What was supposed to be a strength, the relief staff, is pretty unbearable. Munter, Worrell and Fassero are all over 6.00 in ERA. Benitez has yet to give up an earned run, but he’s only pitched 5 innings. Interestingly, a number of these guys are in BABI, including the entire starting staff.

What I find amazing is the first place Colorado Rockies. And the reason that they are in first is their pitching hasn’t fallen apart. They have a team ERA of 4.11, way better than the Giants at 5.30. It’s also better than 6 of the 12 teams in BABI. Their WHIP of 1.40, while not terribly attractive, is better than 5 BABI teams.

If we limit the staff to 10 players (as in BABI), check out these numbers for this 10 man staff comprised of 4 starters, 5 relievers and a closer:

Starers: Byung-Hyun Kim, Aaron Cook, Jeff Francis and Jason Jennings
Middle: Ramon Ramirez, David Cortez, Scott Dohmann and Ray King
Setup: Jose Mesa
Closer: Brian Fuentes

Fuentes was kept, but he would have gone for say 26 in the auction. Everyone else would have been a buck (I don’t think any of them were drafted). A $35 pitching staff. Here are there numbers:

Wins – 14 (8th, 5 points)
Saves – 9 (9th, 4 points)
ERA – 3.11 (2nd, 11 points)
WHIP – 1.260 (4th, 9 points)

The wins are only 5 out of first place, and the saves are only 2 out of fourth. We have a total of 29 points for a $35 staff. That’s good for 4th in pitching points in BABI WITH NO KEEPERS! Presumably spending $245 on hitting, and assuming a few decent keepers would make this a contending team.

Now nobody actually believes this is going to continue. But here is a team with only one expensive player on it (Helton), a bunch of young guys in the lineup, a bunch of pitchers with horrible career stats, and Jose Mesa, for cryin’ out loud, looking down at the Giants and laughing their asses off. It’s a great story, and could prove to be a model for rebuilding.

Or, of course, they might just turn out to be the Rockies. But there’s something goin’ on out here in the west.