Scott Garceau: Easter No Time To Panic
Sometime during the Orioles 1983 season I asked manager Joe Altobelli if he was worried about some forgotten aspect of his club, Joe paused for a few seconds to tell me he might be concerned but was never worried. Good answer skipper! Joe was right, the Orioles wound up winning the World Series in 1983.
With the 2014 Orioles spending this Easter weekend at Fenway Park I'm not worried or concerned. By the Fourth of July maybe, mid-August sure and by Labor Day it might be OK to go full panic mode, but please no mid-April panic. To the caller who is concerned that Chris Davis has only hit one home run I say sure but The Deputy is on pace to steal 23 bases.
Last year Davis, Adam Jones and JJ Hardy combined to hit 111 homers, this year they're on pace to hit 24. My gut tells me that group will be closer to 111 than 24. Sluggers like Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Evan Longoria, and Robinson Cano some of the best in the game all have exactly 1-home run entering the Easter weekend. Then there's Toronto slugger Edwin Encarnacion he hit 36 last season, he's still searching for number 1 this year.
Please don't panic! Numbers don't mean much in April, baseball is the ultimate grind it out game. For six months day after day, East coast to West coast, from 30 degrees in April to 110 in the Texas heat of August. Right now Chris Davis is projected to hit 12 homers, Zach Britton is pitching well, but really, the numbers tell us he'll win 23 games out of the bullpen and Ubaldo Jimenez won't win a game all year. I'm calling B.S. on the numbers.
Miguel Cabrera the best hitter in the game with a .320 lifetime average is hitting .250; Big Papi has a little .222 average. The Royals Billy Butler a .296 career hitter is hitting .160, Carlos Santa .157 and Kyle Seager .143. The man who leads the league in RBI's is the Twins Chris Colabello, he's 30 years old and prior to this season had a grand total of 7 rbi's for his career. The Twins Brian Dozier is a nice player, but not this nice, he's on pace to hit 54 homers! Minnesota's Kyle Gibson is tied for the league lead in wins, prior to this season he had 2 for his career.
Enough with the nerdy numbers, the point is don't pay a whole lot of attention to them and certainly don't worry about them. The schedule is only 10% played. When the dog days of summer get here then maybe you can be concerned but please not in April. For the boys of summer it's a marathon not a sprint.
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