The Fortnight – 5/21/13

A couple of weeks ago, you the attentive reader, will surely have observed the introduction of our depth charts and standings pages. It was a long time coming, and we remain pretty freaking excited about it. As such, we thought that every two weeks that we’d take a look at some sort of change or happening or goings-on that occurred.

We’re not going to cover every team, because let’s face it, there really is only so many times that one can write a variation of “the Marlins aren’t even trying” without wanting to scrape out your eyebones with a rusty screwdriver. But we’ll still try to pry out an objective look in some way. This week, we’ll take a look at the three biggest movers — one positive and two negative — in terms of ranking of projected full season winning percentage. (One note — the looks here are from last Tuesday, the 14th, to this morning, but in future editions we’ll likely use Monday as the cut-off day for a number of reasons, nearly all of which involve my sanity.)

Chicago White Sox
Projected Full-Season Record: 78-84, .482 (19th)
Last week: 76-86, .472 (25th)

Last week, I wrote that it might be a little too early for us to think about the White Sox selling off. Since, they took a series with the Twins, split one with the Angels and then smacked around Jon Lester last night. Does one of you want to pat me on the back, or should I do it myself? All kidding aside, the White Sox weren’t likely to have the worst offense in the league all season, so it shouldn’t be that surprising that three of their eight best run scoring affairs of the season in the time since.

The team’s nine runs on the 15th and 18th and its six runs last evening have helped bring their runs scored per game up in a big way — from 3.42 on the 14th to 3.72 this morning. That’s easily the biggest jump, and more akin to what we should expect from the team going forward. And Paul Konerko still hasn’t hit his stride. However, with the team playing better, and John Danks set to re-join the starting rotation on Friday, yeah, let’s not bury the White Sox. The projected full season standings for the AL Central as of this morning had Chicago pulled even with the Royals, who were the darlings of baseball not too long ago:

Team	W	L	W%	RDif	RS/G	RA/G
Tigers	93	69	0.575	145	4.95	4.06
Indians	84	78	0.518	22	4.61	4.48
White Sox	78	84	0.482	-26	4.20	4.37
Royals	78	84	0.482	-10	4.34	4.40
Twins	70	92	0.429	-101	4.23	4.86

Baltimore Orioles
Projected Full-Season Record: 80-82, .496 (18th)
Last week: 84-78, .516 (12th)

One spot ahead of the White Sox this week is the Orioles, though it’s not exactly the spot they want to be. A lot has changed for Baltimore in a very short time. The carnage has been most noticeable in the rotation. This month, they have had to shelve Miguel Gonzalez and Wei-Yin Chen with injuries. Gonzalez is set to return tonight, but in the interim the team had to turn to Freddy Garcia and Jair Jurrjens. Which would be fine if everyone else on the staff was performing as expected, but that has not been the case. Jason Hammel has only tossed one game with a game score better than 62, and in six of his nine he has fallen under the 50 points that a pitcher starts with in the first inning. His past two starts — in which he has allowed 13 runs in 8.2 innings pitched — have been particularly cringeworthy.

The keystone hasn’t been any prettier. After the inevitable Brian Roberts injury, the team turned to Ryan Flaherty and Alexi Casilla. Then they remembered that neither player can hit a lick, and sent Flaherty down in favor of Yamaico Navarro, who with a projected .303 wOBA for the remainder of the season, is suddenly the best option the O’s have:

2B Orioles

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Name	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	Bat	BsR	Fld	WAR
Alexi Casilla	178	.246	.299	.335	.281	-5.9	0.8	-0.5	0.1
Yamaico Navarro	178	.244	.310	.379	.303	-2.8	-0.3	0.6	0.4
Ryan Flaherty	127	.222	.279	.356	.278	-4.5	-0.2	0.8	0.1
Brian Roberts	25	.255	.318	.376	.305	-0.4	0.0	-0.2	0.0
Total	510	.240	.299	.358	.289	-13.7	0.4	0.7	0.6

Yes, this is the same Navarro who is on his fourth team in three seasons. But at least super closer Jim Johnson is still holding it down in the ninth, right? Damn. Won’t somebody please think of the children?

Washington Nationals
Projected Full-Season Record: 83-79, .512 (14th)
Last week: 86-76, .529 (9th)

It was a rough week in the Beltway, where we find that the outlook hasn’t grown any more bullish since I last looked at them. They are expected to be essentially what they are today — a .500 team that finds itself on the outside of the playoff picture. In fact, the hitting has only gotten worse since I wrote that aforementioned piece. Certainly Wilson Ramos and Jayson Werth on the disabled list didn’t help, but the charade that is Danny Espinosa’s season certainly isn’t helping. His isolated power and slugging percentage are way down, but he hasn’t changed his approach any — he hasn’t drawn a single walk in 56 May plate appearances. At this point it’s hard to see why he should be playing at all.

In other Nationals injury news, Ross Detwiler joined Dan Haren in the bad back club, which forced the team to turn to Zach Duke in the rotation. When he took the ball last night, Duke had only thrown 105.1 innings since the start of 2011, and he hadn’t started since July 20, 2011. Plan B didn’t even make it through the fourth inning, and the Nats were whitewashed by the Giants, 8-0. It’s supposedly just a spot start, as Detwiler isn’t expected to miss much more time, but this probably won’t be the last time the Nats need an extra starter. That that extra starter is — for the moment — Duke certainly doesn’t bode well for their future. But hey, at least they didn’t ruin Stephen Strasburg’s career by letting him pitch last fall.