A Red Haren

How can you not love watching Dan Haren pitch? Seriously. And I’m not just saying that because he demolished the Cubs this evening, which is always fun to watch, or because he’s pretty much demolished everyone he’s faced so far this season. I mean, if you want to compare first months of the season, setting aside win-loss records, which are dumb anyway, Haren April ’09 is an even better start than Webb April ’08. Yeah, that Webb April ’08, where Webb was on his way to winning his first 11 starts.

I mean, really- right now, Haren’s got the second best ERA in the National League, he’s second in strike outs, he leads the NL in innings pitched and WHIP, with a WHIP of 0.73. To put that in real numbers, that means that, on average, he allows fewer than three base runners every four innings he pitches. A large part of that is because he’s not walking people, only five this season. And three of those came against the Dodgers in his second start, other than that he’s got two walks in 29 innings. Yeah, seriously. Is it too early to start calling him Dan “2009 NL Cy Young Award Winner” Haren? Probably- we’ll wait until June.

On top of that, though, this guy is great for the team. He’s obviously had some terrible luck out there, getting near zero run support in his first few starts. But he’s gone out, and still pitched as well as he can, he’s supported the team, he hasn’t gone to the press and expressed the frustration he has to be feeling. No, he let it out on the field- as some have put it, “HAREN SMASH!” He’s stepped up in He feels like he’s not just another guy on the roster, he’s also a leader on the team. And, really, that’s something nice to have in a guy we’ve got for the next four seasons.

No offense, but…

Well, just that, I guess.

So, what’s the lessons learned from the first week of games? Well, when our offense is good, it’s very, very good, but when it’s bad, it’s bloody abysmal. In two wins, we’ve scored 18 runs. In four losses, we’ve had 19 hits.

That stunned silence is a pretty fair representation of what our bats sound like today.

It’s a pretty frustrating start to a season, really. You know, deep down, that it’s six games out of seven million- or one hundred sixty-two, whatever- but you want to start out strongly. Dropping the first two series? Not doing it.

Okay, bright spots- Dan Haren. He’s given us two great starts that, unfortunately, have earned him losses, thanks to that mime-quality offense. Jon Garland pitched a pretty good start- 7 innings, 3 runs, pretty much what we expected from him.

On the other hand, Webby. Oh, man. Rough week for anyone fond of Webby. First off, his start. That was painful. He started off well, but you could tell he wasn’t on his game- pitches left up, he looked like he wasn’t as confident on the mound as we expect from him, it was just awkward. And the news got even worse. First, a missed start yesterday, and then a move to the 15 day DL with shoulder stiffness. There’s rumors that shoulder concerns are why we didn’t offer him a contract extension last year, which is a bit worrying. We’ll have to see how that shakes down.

The bullpen has been rather sketchy, too- Jon Rauch, save for one decent appearance, has done nothing to regain any of our trust. Chad Qualls has looked good in his two appearances, but he’s the only pitcher who hasn’t given up any runs. Our team average ERA is 6.60. That’s not a good start.

As for the offense, well… There’s this:

Which is great for Lopez, welcome to the team. But we’re 13th in the NL in batting average, which means we’re suffering from the same problems last year. Justin Upton hasn’t even got a hit yet. It’s frustrating. Especially because we lost the series to the Rockies *and* the Dodgers, after starting out each series with a big win. I mean, is .500 too much to ask?

Of course, that’s dumb. Because it’s the first week of the season. A bad start in April isn’t good, but it is about as important as, I don’t know, a 20-8 start. Neither one is the end all, be all of the season, so we can’t give up yet. If things don’t improve, I say we fire Melvin and start coaching based off of 1980s sports movies- it can’t fail!

And, if all else fails, there’s still time to become an Indians fan- I like the bobbleheads they’re giving out this year….