April 23, 2005

In the Batter's Box

with Eric LeBlanc

Baseball's back in D.C.; Yanks falling

The mantle of red-headed stepchild of Major League Baseball rested firmly on the head of the Montreal Expos the past few seasons. But in light of the early success and the reception given to the reincarnated Expos, the Washington Nationals, that title can be passed on to some other worthy (or unfortunate) franchise.

After 34 years, baseball fans in Washington, D.C. finally have a team to call their own again. And how ironic is it that the winning pitcher for the Nats on their first night, Livan Hernandez, was a Cuban defector and the offensive hero, Vinny Castilla (who had four RBIs and was a single short of the cycle) was born in Mexico.

This team does not look anything like the beleaguered Expos we saw last season even though most of the personnel are the same. Last year's team had to endure lack of fan support, "home" games 2,000 miles away from Montreal in Puerto Rico and a travel schedule worse than Cher's farewell tours.

This year's team has a home, plenty of fan support and an invigorated player base. Bringing in Vinny Castilla, Cristian Guzman and Jose Guillen exemplified this organization's will to start anew. Even though those moves were not blockbusters, they sold the Washington baseball fans base on the idea that this team was trying to make itself better.

And that it has. With a record of 9-7 and sitting atop the National League East with the Florida Marlins, these Nats are here to play.

I was brave and selected four Nationals players for one of my Fantasy Baseball teams. And aside from one bad game from Hernandez, my gamble is paying off early.

While the Nationals are flying high, the New York Yankees are crashing and burning after losing three straight series to the Orioles and Red Sox. Yanks owner George Steinbrenner is already making threats, which is a little early even for him. But what this does show is that the Yankees and their $200 million payroll are not invincible and they aren't even the Yankees of the late 90s or even last year for that matter.

Offseason additions of Randy Johnson and Carl Pavano will do wonders for the rotation but if the Yankees can't score more runs, they are going to find it difficult to keep up with the Red Sox.

The Curse of the Bambino seems to have come full swing and the pendulum of karma may just be swinging the other way now.

Other surprises of this new season have been the electric Dodgers going 12-2 without closer Eric Gagne, the charging White Sox with a record of 12-4 and the less than great start of the San Francisco Giants. But this is April. And no team can tell you more about that than the Oakland A's who have had horrendous Aprils in recent years but have always bounced back into contention by the season's end.

Speaking of the A’s, one of the individual surprises, although early, are the fortunes of the Big Three of Oakland. Separated in the offseason by trades, of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito, only Hudson has a sub 4.74 ERA.

But a new development out of Oakland has opened a few eyes. New Oakland starters Rich Harden, Danny Haren and Joe Blanton all have ERAs under 2.37 and each has demonstrated enough stuff of an ace caliber that we may be talking about another "Big Three" soon.

But there is one big problem in Oakland: where is the offense? Their three biggest bats (Eric Chavez, Erubiel Durazo and Jason Kendall) are all hitting sub .230. And only three of their hitters in the lineup are hitting over .254. And no matter how much pitching you have, you have to score runs to win.

But never fear Oakland fans, Yankee fans, and even Devil Rays fans (well, maybe not Devil Rays fans) don’t worry. It’s just April. And all of you White Sox fans, Dodger fans and Angels fans, don’t you get too excited either. Because it’s just April.

Eric LeBlanc’s birthday is in April so to him it’s not just April. To shower him with presents, laud him with praise or burst his bubble of hallucination, he can be reached at (985) 758-2795 or by e-mail at EricL@heraldguide.com.