-Well, this was pretty underwhelming. Then again, so was this, this, and this. Are you sensing a trend?
In all seriousness, with today being an off-day, Javy Vazquez' lackluster start to the season is going to be the main topic of conversation, and I want to try to nip this in the bud (at least as much as one person can).
So far this season, Vazquez has allowed a .303/.378/.576 batting line to his opponents. Think about that for a minute. It basically means that the average AL hitter turns into Mark Teixeira or A-Rod when they're facing Vazquez. It's ridiculous, and it can't last.
Why do I say this? Think of a random bad pitcher from last year...I'll go with Livan Hernandez. He posted a 5.44 ERA last season over 31 starts, and was generally unspectacular in every way. Despite his unspectacular-ness, opponents "only" posted an .833 OPS against him. Say want you want about Vazquez, but he is clearly a better pitcher than Hernandez.
It's about 99.9% impossible that opponents will keep this up. Vazquez is too good a pitcher to have fallen this far, this quickly, and while a move to the AL rarely helps a pitcher's ERA, it doesn't make this much of an impact.
Vazquez can beat good teams; he posted a 3.00 ERA in 5 starts against the Phillies last season, and he's been league-average for his career while pitching for AL teams.
So, all I ask that we keep the discussion reasonable. The sky is not falling, Vazquez doesn't have any mortal character flaws, and he will improve, simply because very few pitchers are actually this bad. Most importantly, 2004 was six years ago, and he's pitched over 1,050 innings since. He's over it, we should be too.
-In other news, The Yankees have a league-average payroll. Well, not really, but it's an interesting read. When discussing salary caps and revenue sharing, it's easy to forget that a dollar isn't worth the same thing everywhere.
-Somebody posted a few weeks ago about Josh Towers getting his World Series ring and not feeling like he earned it. Don't feel bad, Josh, you actually helped the cause in a small way with your 3.38 ERA. Cody Ransom, on the other hand, should feel really cheap.