This offense is cooking right now.

[CCard]

They look very different when they hit and score runs. Whatever the reason(s), if they keep hitting like this it'll make up for a lot of pitching shortcomings. And of late, Gray, Pallante, Libertore have been pitching exceptionally. That debacle in Boston really hurt but they seem like they've rebounded real well.

This team could easily be 11-6 but, it's baseball, that's why they play 162. I don't think this is shocking, as the reason each of these guys is getting at bats is, they've shown in flashes--some longer than others--that they can put up numbers in MLB. Some guys like Pozo have been a surprise and some of these guys will come back to earth a little BUT... imo, the surprise isn't this year, it's the tragedy of 2024.

For whatever reason, and I hope it was a change in approach spurred by BB, they couldn't get a hit with RISP and especially the bases loaded last year to save their life. If I'm not mistaken, they were something like 1 for 40 with the bases loaded last year at some point.

I haven't heard any of the "look for my pitch and hit it as hard I can" insanity that we heard ad nauseum the last few years, so hopefully the change in approach is all it took, because that is sustainable.

The problem is the pitching. Was last year and will be this year. You've got Sonny Gray, maybe a young pitcher to step up and then a bunch of back of the rotation guys at best. No team looks at this rotation in fear. For good reason.

Looking forward to a possible future rotation of Pallante, Liberatore, Mathews, McGreevy, and Roby.

How many young pitchers never pan out though.

Pitching is very difficult to predict. I had basically written off Libby and Pallante as starters. Going back to 2017, MLB.com had Alacantara as our 6th best prospect and Gallen as our 24th best prospect.

True.