Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Rangers Shut Down Junkee Offense

Junkee fans are immediately going to cry over Shemp's injury, and the fact that Sheffield has been injured for a while, and that's why they scored only two runs. Ignoring the fact that Farnsworthless was terrible, of course.

But you know what? They still shouldn't whine. Let's see what they have position by position:

1B - Giambaby - above average (I know he may miss some time, but let's see some more positions)
2B - Canoe - above average (at least according to John Sterling)
SS - Cheater - above average
3B - A-Schmuck - above average
LF - Melky - this year's Chuck Knoblauch is below average
CF - Johnny Damon - current slump notwithstanding, above average
RF - Bubba Crosby/Bernie Williams - way below average
C - Ringo - above average

So 6 out of the 8 positions and above average. Keep in mind that when the Junkees won all their titles in the late '90s, they had plenty of average to below average players on their roster. Only recently do they need an all-star at every position. Then you look at a team like the Cardinals who have only one player above average, but they get it done. So now I have to be annoyed as every outfielder is rumored to be going to the Junkees.

Bottom line - you have to be able to win with 6 out of 8 position players above average. And even if you lose Giambaby, you have 5 out of 8, so no excuses, people! "Oh, but they're missing out on 60+ home runs, 200+ rbi...." So they won't score 1200 runs - they'll only score 1000. Boo hoo.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't say the Cards have only one above average player. Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen, though aging, are still very good players. And calling Albert the Great "above average" is a gross understatement, no?

But you're right in that the Yanks have no reason to whine about losing Matsui. Their whole lineup is full of All Stars--no other team in baseball can boast that. But they might have reason to be concerned, seeing as they've scored 12 runs in the five games since Shemp went down.

But they shouldn't whine. The Yanks have been godly lucky that they've basically avoided the injury bug the past couple years. That kind of luck isn't going to last forever.