AND SO IT BEGINS...AND SUCKS

The Gunslingers are off to a typical start for 2010.  Ramon S. Ramirez came in to face Derek Jeter, and gave up a single.  He retired Nick Johnson to end the 6th inning, but then came back in the 7th to ignite the Bombers third and final scoring rally of the night by giving up a leadoff walk to Mark Teixeira and a double to A-Rod before giving way to lefty Hideki Okajima.  Okajima allowed both inherited runners to score on a ground out and a single.  Thus, while Okajima's line looks good, Ramirez's looks like day-old doody (0.1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO).  The vagaries of relief pitching strike again.  I wouldn't mind it if I also had Okajima and got the benefits of his "scoreless" inning of work, but of course, he is on another team.  I can't really complain, though.  My guy came in to face four batters and three reached base.  Any way you dissect it, it's not a good outing.

On to better news.  Here are the final Spring Training stats for the Gunslingers:

How about that Mike Trout?  Nobody has torn through the southwestern US like that at such a young age since Billy The Kid.  All four hits were for extra bases!

The offense and pitching both finished strong, if you recall from last week's numbers.  We raised the OPS from .830 to .868 and lowered the ERA from 5.05 to 4.24.  The WHIP is still pretty bad at 1.42, but I love the SO/BB ratio.  I'm still very concerned about Adrian Gonzalez and Bobby Abreu.  Bobby had all sorts of aches and pains and could be in his first big decline year, and Adrian is only half-heartedly thinking about his future with the Padres, which should be brief.  I also don't like the looks of Kevin Millwood.  We'll find out a lot more about him this afternoon.