60th Game League Roundup: Part 1

For many teams in the MLB, game number 60 is rapidly approaching or has just vanished into history. That means that we’ve got just  little bit more than 100 games left in this 2012 baseball season, which, if you believe the ancient Mayans, might be the last one ever. (Very bad news for Josh Hamilton by the way) I was thinking that there is no better time to do a quick league roundup on some random and noteworthy things from the season so far. Tonight, I will do 3 and in my next post I will do a few more and if I feel the need, I will do even more in my next post.

1. The Boston Red Sox are 3 games under .500 and are 6.5 games out of first place, and in fact, are in last place. If this story wasn’t 60 games old, it would be huge news. Who’d of guessed that Boston would be this bad? Carl Crawford hasn’t played a game, Adrian Gonzalez has been awful (.266 AVG, only 5 homers (though a league high 22 doubles)), the pitching has been worse, there is no closer to speak of, Kevin Youkilis is going to get traded and, apparently, the Red Sox really haven’t sold out every game since 2003.  We are a long way from the Terry Francona- Theo Epstein Sox of old. Boston has lost 4 in a row, including getting swept by Washington at Fenway over the weekend. How is this not a bigger story? Does everyone realize that the Boston Red Sox are bad? They’re bad! This is huge news!
2. The Washington Nationals are 36-23 and are 3 games up on the NL East. The Washington Nationals. The ex-Expos. Apparently, being bad has its benefits as all those top draft picks are now finally paying of for the boys from the capital. Stephen Strasburg is 7-1 with a 2.41 ERA, Bryce Harper is in the major leagues and is making a case for NL rookie of the year (he’s no Mike Trout, but whatever), Adam Laroche is making a strong case to be the 2nd best 1st basemen in the NL,  and Gio Gonzalez is trying hard to win the NL Cy Young (8-2, 2.35). What’s more, Mike Morse hasn’t played 10 games yet and Drew Storen hasn’t even played 1. This team has actual, legitimate, October potential. And they’re the Nationals.
3. The Philadelphia Phillies are 29-33 and are 8.5 games out of first place. Roy Halladay is on the DL and Cliff Lee doesn’t have a win as of the second week in June. What is going on here? This is a team that won 102 games last year. They played an actual game with Hector Luna hitting behind Hunter Pence. Carlos Ruiz is suddenly their best hitter, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley haven’t played a game and Charlie Manuel has built up a track record of questionable bullpen decisions. If you told me last October that the Phillies and Red Sox would be in last and Washington would be in first in mid-June I would have told you that that would surprise me. The Phillies aren’t terrible but they are bad and in a division as strong and the NL East that is big problem.

More roundup notes coming in my next post.

Stat of the Day: The word “porn” is googled more often than the word “weather.”

-Max Frankel