Return of the Cheers

Reader Alert: This is an entirely self-indulgent entry about baseball.

May is coming to an end in a triumphant comfirmation of the fact that the first two months of the baseball season are largely preamble. All the sturm und drang of fans unhappy with their team's performance over the first third-or-so of the season is soon to be forgotten in the sturm und drang of the final two-thirds. Records are still based on a small sampling of the season's challenges, but a sufficiently large sample by which, at least, to gauge general trends.

A perfect example is that of the Yankees, so thoroughly lambasted in an earlier blog, after losing 19 of their first 30 games. Too old, too fat, too rich, too complacent, the critics and I screamed. Well the team apparently took it all to heart, and after a weird line-up adjustment whose main contribution was removing Bernie Williams as a regular, the Yanks scooted ahead to win 16 of the next 20 games--a precise mirror image of the first two months of their largely successful 2003 campaign. Brian Cashman also saw fit to introduce two minor leaguers to the team for more than the usual showcase purposes. Pitcher Chien Min Wang (sic) and second baseman Robinson Cano helped rejuvenate the Yanks with their energetic application of talent despite earning only a few thousand dollars per game. Kevin Brown returned from the Dead, his hand apparently now healed, to win four straight. Tino Martinez hit eight homers in eight games, though not consecutively. Arod started to hit hard and frequently, and occasionally even meaningfully, as he raised his stats to triple-crown-threatening levels. Gary Sheffield--well he was always good, and boy are his homers interesting to watch.

On the down side, Randy Johnson has muddled through but not impressed as the Hall of Famer he will be (or as Roger Clemens is still performing in Houston). Mike Mussina and Carl Pavano have been good but subject to inconsistency bordering on the awful. The admirable Hideki Matsui hit three homers in his first two games in April, but not one since. Jaret Wright is slowly recovereing, but not slowly enough for this team. And despite their overdue standings correction, they are still struggling against the Red Sox, who massacred them in two of the three games they played over Memorial Day weekend. (The Red Sox have their own problems, mostly pitching, and seem to flag when not hyped by the Yankee rivalry).

A new element to the Eastern Division mix is the continuing success of the Baltimore Orioles, whose pitching and young hitters are maturing concurrently. They have a very competent blend of youth and experience, from Brian Roberts and Jay Gibbons to Sammy Sosa and Miguel Tejada. Throw in the underrated Melvin Mora and Raphael Palmeiro and a good closer in B.J. Ryan, and this is a team that should stay neck-and-neck with the older warhorses from those northern cities. It will make for a very good pennant race, but the upshot is that since these teams will be slicing and dicing each other so many times, their records will reflect it, with the second-place team probably not be winning enough to make the Wild Card. That team will probably be Los Angeles or Texas.

As for my other divisional selections, my success is a mixed bag. I foresaw the preeminence of the finely-tuned San Diego Padres and the Angels, but entirely missed the revival of the White Sox. The Sox took a page from Florida and amped up their speed at the cost of some power. Helped by a sturdy pitching corps this formula has worked tremendously and they have baseball's best record, even without Frank Thomas. Minnesota is still in the race, but Cleveland, a team I touted, got out of the gate slowly with a disappointing offense, especially form their catcher Victor Martinez.

Down in Florida the Marlins are playing well in a strong division. There's no bad team there, but somehow I expect the Braves to sneak ahead again. The Mets haven't quite put their pieces together. Maybe it will help when Carlos Beltran gets familiar with the league's pitchers. I also liked the Cubbies, but their pitchers all crashed and even a triple crown surge by Derrek Lee will not overcome that problem, not to mention the Cardinals, who are great again.

But enough about real baseball, let's talk Fantasy. As discussed in a recent blog, our team jokingly renamed itself The Beatles when all the other teams started re-dubbing themselves after famous singers or prophets. "Let's see how fast we can rise in the charts" I said to Kevin.
We agreed that we still liked our old name but would wait until The Beatles got bigger than Jesus before we'd return to the original moniker. Well, it took exactly two weeks for our team not only to pass Jesus but to rise to the top of the heap. In all we went from 11th place to First in three weeks. Part of this steep climb is attributable to an early season, when huge shifts are possible. Part owes to the cleverness of our team management. Part is dumb luck (okay, a large part). But how much to the salutory effect of the Name Change? I guess we will learn as we plunge into the summer months, as the Bronx Cheers Redux.