Team Grades at the Ten Game Mark

[Mr. Happy]

Offense: D (offensive; moribund; PENCE!!! has an OBP that equals his BA)
Defense: B+(Bourn real good in CF)
Starting Pitching: C (Would have been higher if not for Ozwalt's performances)
Bullpen: D (Middle guys have not been good; closer's been a vulture)
Managing: A (Cooper's made good decisions; players play the games)

[juliogotay]

Offense: D (offensive; moribund; PENCE!!! has an OBP that equals his BA)
Defense: B+(Bourn real good in CF)
Starting Pitching: C (Would have been higher if not for Ozwalt's performances)
Bullpen: D (Middle guys have not been good; closer's been a vulture)
Managing: A (Cooper's made good decisions; players play the games)

Good marks but me thinks the starting pitchers deserve a little more credit. Maybe a B-. But that's nitpicking.

[pravata]

Preseason myths that havent held up

Mclane would not allow a player he owed $6 million to be cut
Tejada will be distracted by the substance investigation
Tejada is a bad shortstop
Wigginton is a bad 3b
Pence is The Natural
Chemistry will be an issue
The starting pitching will Oswalt and nothing
The relievers will be the strength of the pitching staff

[Towlie]

Offense: C-; aside from Pence's play the majority of our batters at least look like they know what they are doing, production will come at an high output once it all gets rolling. Also, it would be nice to have Wigginton and Matsui back in there.
Deffense: B+; I don't think we've lost a game due to a lack of fielding yet. Tejada has been better than what most of you guys expected and Bourn has been relatively excellent.
Starting Pitching: B-; All of our starters other than Roy O have pitched well enough and better than expected...and the one thats not pitching that well is Roy Oswalt.
Bullpen: C-; Mostly the pen has been ok...aside from Mohler and Villarreal. Valverde has the passion but he needs to have better control than he has shown.
Managing: A; Coop hasn't made any real glaring mistakes, its just a matter of having his players produce.

Overall: C; Ten games is ten games of 162...the team is looking better than what I expected especially in the starting pitching. The offense will be fine if all our established players continue their steady trends. 

[Gizzmonic]

Isn't 10 games a bit hasty for grading? 1/16th of a season?  That's not much to go by...

Anyway, I think the bullpen has been bad, but the hitting seems to be coming around and the starting pitching (besides Oswalt) is exceeding expectations. 

[Mr. Happy]

Isn't 10 games a bit hasty for grading? 1/16th of a season?  That's not much to go by...

It's just an aritrary slice and something to discuss on an off day.

[Jacksonian]

Isn't 10 games a bit hasty for grading? 1/16th of a season?  That's not much to go by...

Anyway, I think the bullpen has been bad, but the hitting seems to be coming around and the starting pitching (besides Oswalt) is exceeding expectations. 

I dunno.  It depends whether you're writing a seriew preview or not.

[das]

Isn't 10 games a bit hasty for grading? 1/16th of a season?  That's not much to go by...

Anyway, I think the bullpen has been bad, but the hitting seems to be coming around and the starting pitching (besides Oswalt) is exceeding expectations. 

I don't think so.  That's 331 AB's, 85 innings pitched and 30 hours of watch time.  While it's not a massive amount of time/data, you can certianly get a sense of things.

[Arky Vaughan]

I don't think so.  That's 331 AB's, 85 innings pitched and 30 hours of watch time.  While it's not a massive amount of time/data, you can certianly get a sense of things.

There are almost certainly going to be other spans of equal length this season when the results will likely be much different.

[das]

There are almost certainly going to be other spans of equal length this season when the results will likely be much different.

Let's hope so.  To extrapolate out x16 and assume that will be the production of this team is not logical.  But you can see some things.  Tejeda is a professional hitter.  Carlos is pretty slow and will not get to some balls.  Bourn will get lots of SB's.  Backe could very well be a serviceable 4.00era pitcher, etc...

[Towlie]

Let's hope so.  To extrapolate out x16 and assume that will be the production of this team is not logical.  But you can see some things.  Tejeda is a professional hitter.  Carlos is pretty slow and will not get to some balls.  Bourn will get lots of SB's.  Backe could very well be a serviceable 4.00era pitcher, etc...

Backe and Wandy.

[SaltyParker]

All these ratings together comprise an above average grade. How does a 3-7 team rate a composite above an average of C? Especially puzzling, is rating Cooper's performance as an A. Just as he doesn't deserve to be graded as an F because players fail to perform, I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary from him that deserves praise for an above average management rating of an A.  Cooper is in a learning process of how the pieces of this team best fit together for success. Please elaborate why it is that Cooper's performance is A level from what we have seen so far in 10 games. Thanks.

[Mr. Happy]

All these ratings together comprise an above average grade. How does a 3-7 team rate a composite above an average of C? Especially puzzling, is rating Cooper's performance as an A. Just as he doesn't deserve to be graded as an F because players fail to perform, I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary from him that deserves praise for an above average management rating of an A.  Cooper is in a learning process of how the pieces of this team best fit together for success. Please elaborate why it is that Cooper's performance is A level from what we have seen so far in 10 games. Thanks.

I gave Cooper an A based on the totality of his performance, i.e., in spring training, for his obvious input on personnel matters (e.g., Williams), his setting of lineups, his handling of pitchers thusfar, his handling of the press and his in-game decisions. I like his style.