Matt Castillo
Last week I shared who I felt were the biggest surprising teams so far in this baseball season, now it’s time to look at the three biggest disappointments.
#3 St. Louis Cardinals
The third most disappointing team so far this season to me is the St. Louis Cardinals, who are sitting next to last in the NL Central and are nine games back from the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers. The Cardinals made the trade to add Nolan Arenado and looked to have a really deep lineup.
But offensively they haven’t been good they are near the bottom of the league in batting average and run scored and pitching has been mediocre as well. Coming into the season it didn’t appear that their division was going to be very difficult, but the Brewers have been very good and could’ve easily been on my most surprising list but the other teams, the Cardinals should be ahead of.
82 games in and being two games below .500 is not what I expected from this club and time is running out for them to turn it around.
#2 Atlanta Braves
The Braves were just one game away from the World Series last year and they had a 3-1 lead over the Dodgers, who went onto win the World Series. But this year has been a struggle for the Braves.
Like expected their offense certainly produces and Ronald Acuna Jr has played like an MVP and the offense has produced the 10 most runs in baseball this year and has hit the third-most home runs. But their problem continues to be pitching.
Particularly in their bullpen, the Braves have blown 13 saves this season, which is the 12th most in baseball. At this point in the season, they are two games below .500 at 39-41 so, they are another team that I wouldn’t have thought would be under .500 at this point in the season, but the good news is despite not playing great baseball yet their only 3.5 games out of the division lead.
For Braves fans that have been frustrated, trust me I get it, they haven’t played their best ball yet but the division is not out of reach, and with the lineup they have they can beat anybody. They just need to add some arms and I feel like the Braves can turn this around.
#1 New York Yankees
Remember a few years back Manager Aaron Boone was ejected from a game yelling at the umpire that he has “savages in the box” More like “BUMS IN THE BOX” this team is pathetic, and many had this team reaching the World Series.
The playoffs are looking highly unlikely at this point in the season with their 41-39 record and are nine games back in the AL East and 5.5 games out of a Wild Card Spot. Offensively they have hit into 81 double plays this year, which is on pace to set a single-season record. They have made 33 outs on the bases this year, which is among the most in baseball. They are ranked 28th in batting average with runners in scoring position, so they aren’t getting the big hits and 67 percent of their home runs are solo shots.
Starting pitching is a major problem because other than Gerrit Cole they don’t have a starter that can consistently go deep into games. Most of the time their starters are out before the fifth inning causing the bullpen to have to get a lot of outs.
I can go on and on about how disappointing this team has been because it’s been brutal. But to sum it up they are being led by a complete tool in Boone, who is simply a “Yes Man”, which means he will do whatever the front office tells him to do, which is why he was hired in the first place. The General Manager Brian Cashman has seemed to have lost his touch and if this team fails to make the playoffs he and Boone both need to go. But then again that won’t happen because Hal Steinbrenner is nothing like his father and has no backbone and he will probably give these guys a pass. George Steinbrenner has to be rolling around in his grave because of the way his son is running this organization, it’s disgraceful.
