Average ERA: 4.50

Angels 3, Seattle 11

Early season mediocrity is generally viewed as a much more serious issue than it really is. Managers are fired in the season's opening month, players are DFA'd, and fans start looking for bridges to jump off. It's understandable, but largely wrong.

Look, Endy Chavez is not Albert Pujols. His home run last night was one of the (maybe) five he'll hit all year. His career OPS is below .700. Ken Griffey Jr. is a more likely source of power, but he'll be lucky to play 125 games with his injury history. I also don't expect Yuinesky "Fatty" Betancourt to hit .400 all season.

With that said, the Angels need to figure out what the hell they're doing out there. For the second consecutive game, they allowed a crappy starting pitcher to throw three perfect innings out of the gate. Outside Bobby Abreu and Torii Hunter, nobody seems capable of getting on base via a batted ball, and pitchers' inability to field bunts shouldn't even be an issue at the major leage level. Vlad Guerrero is so clearly not Vlad Guerrero it's sad. The best third outfielder on the team might be Gary Matthews, Jr.

The league average ERA is always around 4.50. This means you must be able to score 5 runs/game if you plan on winning anything.

It's early in the season, as evidenced by division leaders Seattle, Kansas City, Toronto, Florida, St. Louis, and San Diego. The team is, like the fans, still reeling from the loss of Nick Adenhart. We'll know whether they'll be fine by the end of April.


Miscellaneous:

• Here's a letter from Thiessen adressed to the university...a nice touch. I've said it before and I'll say it again: You've got some big skates to fill, Chris Rawlings.
• Awesome commercial. Just awesome.
• Kobe's commute. Seemingly everyone in LA sees Kobe at some point, yet when he comes to Northeastern, I'm not around, and when he goes to Disneyland, I'm at home. It's just not fair, man.
  
• The "everyone wear 42!" thing is nonsense and dilutes the meaning of the number. Instead of forcing everyone to wear it, why doesn't baseball look for equality in the number of minority managers? Why don't more players contribute to the Jackie Robinson foundation? It's a bunch of crap, really.
• Sad, but the guy's old. The team is old. I would hope Boston fans expected this.