I've always liked John Smoltz. I grew up watching the Braves more than any other team because of TBS, and Smoltz stood out to me. He seemed like someone you could trust, and as a young person I needed that. He's a standard bearer of the goatee and could without question teach a high school math class. He has looked exactly the same for 14 years and only bothers with one facial expression ("plain").
So the question is, why was he so dreadful with the Red Sox and so instantly fantastic with the Cardinals? Well, the real question is who didn't see that coming, because you just KNEW it was going to happen. But let's explore some possible answers to that first one.
A) The National League is terrible. This is a pretty universally accepted idea. The talent pool seems to be a little weaker, largely due to the absence of the Yankees and Red Sox. Those teams play Really Major League Baseball and the other teams mainly just stick to MLB. So without cash monsters like those, the NL sort of comes out looking like the pansy league. That's ok. Pansies are beautiful.
B) Smoltz is just now breaking through his rust. This makes sense. The guy didn't pitch much at all last year and didn't start until the middle of the summer this year. He's like 40. It wasn't surprising to see him struggle at first. I thought the Red Sox were a little hasty in giving him the boot, but his last couple of starts really were horror shows. Hard to blame them for axing him when W's are so crucial. But everyone thought he'd start to roll at some point and maybe that point is right now. If so, tough break for Boston.
C) The Russians.
Tough call. Comments about the pansy NL notwithstanding, the Cardinals are looking pretty good in October right now. They have the two hottest hitters in baseball (not including Joe Mauer) and an effective Smoltz really rounds their staff out. Tough matchup, even for the Yankees.
No comments:
Post a Comment