Rox Talk

A 2-4 week against the D-backs (I hate those guys) and Twins (Interleague Play!). Still can't win in the desert and frankly at 1 - 8 have we padded the D-Backs record or are they that good? Before they played the Roxs they were swept in Chicago. It would appear they have our number this early in the season. The Roxs currently stand at 17-27. Eleven games back from division leading D-backs in third place. Currently 9-11 at home and 8-16 on the road, the Roxs have been outscored by its opponents 187-226 (expected wins is 18 versus historical wins at 20). On pace for 63 wins with 689 runs scored and 832 runs against. Roxs graphical wins (home in Purple, away in grey). 2008 has been a season of hot and cold streaks!

Weekly WPA leaders (overall as well):
Reynold second pitching performance was the big gainer of the week. Barmes continues to impress looking to have his stroke back that was there before falling down the stairs (or falling off an ATV!). O'Dowd should be commended for holding on to him. Guess he will be moving to 2B once Tulo comes back. Last week the Roxs hit the quarter post with 40 games in the books. Before the season began I looked at projections, so taking the player's marks at 40 games and projecting out to 162 game season to see how they are all progressing versus what we started with (see graphs below).

Well as much as the pitching has been to blame for the slow start I think the offensive has to take some responsibility. Really only Atkins and Holiday have been meeting expectations. On the positive side, Atkins was projected to score 87 runs but is on pace, based on his start, to score 97 while at the opposite end, Helton who projected to score 92 runs is on pace for 77! Obviously the two big holes is that Nix is no longer in the picture and Tulo is on the shelf. At this point the Roxs are on pace for 693 runs versus a projected run total of 825.

Well starting pitching hasn't been much better but overall pitching has at least stayed on pace based on projections. At the start of the season it was projected that pitching would allow 802 runs and currently they are on pace for allowing 851. Redman, Morales, and Wells are all gone with Rosa and Reynolds stepping in. Cook has been great and Francis and Jimenez awful. Hopefully with warmer temperatures the arms start keeping the team in contention so that when the bats wake up we make a run.