Kelly Johnson

There are 30 teams in baseball. Arizona is 23rd in batting (.240) and 23rd in on base percentage (.312), but that doesn't stop them from being free swingers (and this is in a year that Mark Reynolds is sucking it up in Baltimore instead of in the desert). Armando Galarraga getting sent to the cleaners for future reassignment not withstanding (something about a 5.91 ERA and just not getting the job done), let's be honest... the Diamondbacks have a lot of problems other than just their pitching staff and wondering about the future of the guy who should have had a perfect game, but was robbed of it.
That said, their pitching also is in the bottom dozen of baseball, but they're not out of it YET (for that matter, only 3 teams - Houston, Minnesota, and the White Sox are out of it - hell, even Seattle's still in it with a record of 17-24 as is San Diego who is 18-24).
But for Arizona, the key word is yet. They're actually 4.5 games back in a division where nobody stepped up to lead just yet, and they're not improving, so... it's not like we're going to be partying like it's November of 2001 just yet.
One of the reasons is that Arizona is 7th in strikeouts - they're 13 down from league leader San Diego (on the other hand, Texas has 236, which is partially due to Nelson Cruz's injury) - in no small part due to league leader Kelly Johnson whose 52 whiffs in 152 at bats (the true mark of futility being more than 1 every 3 at bats) has him headed into Reynolds territory. Granted, Chris Young also has 39 strikeouts, and we don't tend to expect much from our number 9 hitter in the NL (or number 8 if you're Tony Larussa), but still...
On the good side, they are 5th in home runs with 45, which is 18 behind the Yankees, who are pretty much being kept alive by pitching and aura + mystique. Unfortunately for the Diamondbacks, there is no aura and mystique.
There are other usual culprits as well in this problematic world of Chase Field. They are 13th in RBIs, which is pretty much a sign of being 23rd in batting average. They may get the home runs, but they're solo shots, and those don't win ball games. Considering that the Reds lead the league with 213 runs, there is definitely more cause for optimism in the Queen City than in Arizona, but so it goes.
Justin Upton also has a fair bit of whiffs 36 for his 8 home runs and .259 average, but Johnson only has 4 - and he's batting .184. Chris Young has 8 homers for his 39 whiffs, which isn't much better since he's batting .225.
With Kelly Johnson's futility added, in the top 40 strikeout victims, there are now 6 hitters under .200. If we take this to .225, we have 5 more guys. David Wright sits at .226, and with his injury, he won't be going anywhere anytime soon. For this free swinging, only 7 guys have 8 or more home runs. Most are better at batting average save Young.
Rickie Weeks, Howie Kendrick, and Matt Kemp are at least over .300 for their free swinging with Kemp leading the pack .321.
But this is the story of Kelly Johnson, a man who struck out 148 times while batting .284 as soon as he hit the place where he was free to swing away. He took his career highs of strikeouts from 16 to 26 and his former career high of whiffs (117) was also dwarfed.
This year, the sky or should we say the wind is the limit.
For Kelly Johnson, he's just following orders... into the cellar.

Terry Francona

While I watched a little bit of the Giants vs. the Dodgers on Thursday, I hadn't really gotten to truly sit down and watch baseball until last night. Unfortunately, being a Boston fan, my worst fears were realized as the Red Sox pitching was taken to the woodshed like a red-headed stepchild on a Sunday afternoon. Wacky Lackey let up 9 runs in less than 4 innings to a Texas team that just slams the ball around with total disregard for whatever pre-season rank that the team that they are playing against is supposed to have. Sure, Nelson Cruz, Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Adrian Beltre, and Michael Young (not playing yesterday) can really drive the ball, but Elvis Andrus was even 3 for 5. Yorvit Torrealba had a home run, and before it was done, the game was 12-3, though Jacoby Ellsbury had his first long ball since 2009 (he was out all of 2010).
And in the end, the decisions of Terry Francona ALWAYS come back to haunt the team. In the 4th inning, he walked Hamilton to load the bases for Beltre, and WHAM! (an excellent expression of onomatopoeia if ever there was one), grand slam and the Ballpark at Arlington is screaming and it's a celebration that Kool and the Gang would be proud of (because they are celebrating good times in Texas - it's not like the days of 3 and done in the division series against the Yankees as Juan Gone and Pudge aren't enough against the Yankees in da Bronx and there are no Texas pitchers who can withstand whatever onslaught is brought out against them.
This Texas team is for real, and Boston, while only 2 games in, is suffering from what I knew they would - a better pitching staff on paper than in reality.
The night before, Jon Lester gave up 3 home runs for the first time in his career. Mike Napoli and Kinsler each had one, and Nelson Cruz hit the first of his two home runs, so he's off to another sick OPS early season - as long as he doesn't get hurt.
Today is Clay Bucholz, who does have an upside, but as the week progresses, we get to wonder which Josh Beckett we'll see. I don't know if I believe in him. I do know that I have from time to time, but I don't go into the game easy - it's not as bad as the Daisuke adventure experience that sees a pitcher able to throw 150 pitches a game - mainly because he throws so many damn outside pitches that do result in walks or near walks. It's also not the knuckle ball of Tim Wakefield that baffles some hitters and leaves others (Cruz) to deposit it far behind the outfield wall. It's a pitcher who has been figured out and injured and beaten. For all of the heroics, there are too many questions.
And for that, it's hard to have a leader who sits calm in the dugout doing what Theo tells him. A man who is still around because Curt Schilling wanted him there and he's still there because Boston happened to win it all in 2004 and 2007, much the same was as Ozzie Guillen is because he won for the first time since 1919 when he took his title in 2005.
Sure, it's nice to see Big Sluggi hit a home run in both his first and second game so we don't have to wait forever for him to get started offensively. Sure, he hit a home run last year on April 23rd, but he was sub Mendoza until May 10. The year before, his first home run came May 20th, but he didn't press so hard and he was over Mendoza for good on April 20th. A notoriously slow starter, David Ortiz has seen better days, and once again, he's someone whose personality exceeds his current abilities. But that said, people not named Terry Francona are wising up to it. he's also looking pathetic in striking out (twice already - it's not the league lead - 5 - but it's not a good sign when he can't see how over the plate his called whiffs are). Jay Z for one is not putting up with the Sluggster stealing his intellectual property.
And this is not to say that David Ortiz wasn't once the hero, but it is saying that he didn't deserve an All Star appearance last year - hell, he didn't deserve a thank you contract in 2011. He needs to retire to greener pastures and get on with phase 2 of his adult life.
But that would involve a certain manager who can't make his own decision benching him.
And if that manager can't keep big name pitchers who have seen better days not getting huge contracts and not getting new life blood into the Boston pitching staff, you can bet that it's going to be a long season.

Alex Rodriguez

How 'bout them Butler Bulldogs?!!
But alas, since this isn't an NCAA basketball blog, we'll stick with the world of baseball and get right back to that.
There's pretty much not anything nice that we can say about Alex Rodriguez here, so if we have to say that we avoided him in YET ANOTHER fantasy draft, that's really not news, but to actually see him doing something nice - invite a 12-year old girl named Julianne Ramirez to a Yankee game because she rescued a 3-year old family friend by using CPR chest compressions - we have to look at the good things that a baseball player can do. Of course, there are other things a baseball player can do - get pissy when he and his movie star girlfriend are on camera in their Super Bowl sky booth or to come up positive for steroids and try to deny it and pass the blame - but alas, Rodriguez and his team killing salary (at least in the Rangers years) did something right this time, and since it's the only time we'll say it all year....
We'll say it.
And we'll take a look at who I did draft in the second of my fantasy drafts. I did draft Yankees, which as I said before is about the nature of this game - not my support for the Evil Empire. I ended up with Mariano Rivera, Robinson Cano, and Brett Gardner. Then again, I also got Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee again. They'll play alongside Nelson Cruz, Ichiro, and Buster Posey as well as Ryan Zimmerman, Jose Bautista, Dan Haren, and Andrew McCutchen (I've got him on both teams as I figure that he'll try to play his way out of Pittsburgh this July). Josh Johnson and Joakim Soria are also on the team, so we're primed and ready for action.
As is Colby Rasmus, who I had another trade request from the same guy who must either worship Rasmus as a god, or he must really know something.
All the same... I'm ready for Thursday and the start of the season.
Let the games begin!