Who's to blame

Since standing at 30-30 going into our game at Tampa on June 12th, we've dropped 17 of 23 and plummetted in the standings below everyone but the atrocius Reds in the Central (and we're just as close to them as we are to the closest team in front of us, Milwaukee). The question is, of course, why? And why two years in a row (remember after climbing to 23-22 on May 29th last year we dropped 21 of 25)? Although I think this is a very poorly run team from McClatchy down through McClendon and that certainly has something to do with the slide, the players haven't exactly pulled their wait. So who do we have to thank?

Two names immediately jump out for finger pointing when it comes to position, Daryle Ward and Rob Mackowiak. I've sung the praises of both guys this year, though right now one deserves the criticism and one really doesn't. Let's start with Mackowiak. After our 18-2 destruction of the Rays, Mackowiak's batting average stood at a season high .358. His OPS was an impressive .978, and he'd only struck out 31 times all year. Today he's hitting .286 with an OPS of .810. He's gone down on strikes 21 times in the past 23 games (having played in only 21 of them). Sure, if you'd have told just about anyone that Mackowiak would be batting .286 with 8 homers and 40 RBIs around mid-season you'd be inclined to think he was having a good year, but really that only puts him just about on pace for the same numbers as last year, with a slightly higher batting average (last year: .246, 17 homers, 75 RBIs, .810 OPS... CORRECTION: Mackowiak's OPS last year was .739, thanks Charlie). He doesn't need to .350 with 30 homers and 110 RBIs, but he does need to remove himself from this slump. The absence of his bat has effected us greatly. On to the D-Train. He had a power outage in June, with only one home run the entire month and none on the year since his huge homer off of Jorge Julio in our 5-run comeback against the Orioles. Despite that, he wasn't as bad as you'd think in the latter half of June. Starting with the Yankees series his has dropped only from .281 to .278. His slugging has dipped quite a bit from .520 to .474, but despite this sudden lack of power, he still put up his best month, RBIwise in June and they were distributed pretty evenly through the month. He's made some errors in the field, but it's still nothing compared to last year, or the alternative (Restovich and before him Wigginton). Bottom line, yes the D-Train has struggled, but not as mightly as you might think, and not as mightily as the next two guys I'll talk about.

Mark Redman and Kip Wells are the two giant sore thumbs on the pitching staff since our slide started. Combined they're 1-7 with one no decision since the start of the Yankees series (the one no decision being the game we blew in NY). Combined ERA (even with Kip's shutout): 6.07. We expected these guys to anchor the staff with Ollie struggling (then going down) and that's what they've mustered.

In the bullpen a familiar target looms, and it isn't Jose Mesa. Yep, I'm pointing at you double zero. His ERA hasn't been that bad in this stretch and he hasn't accumulated a ton of losses, but he's been unable to do what a reliever should do, keep his team in the game. Last night he entered a 1-0 game with the bases loaded and no outs. Giving up a run, maybe two would be fine here. White let all three runners score, then let one of his own score. Yeah, Ward threw an error into the mix, but White clearly had nothing last night. Same thing goes for last Friday's game against Milwaukee. White came in again in a 4-3 game with runners on first and third with no one out to clean up Redman's mess again. He gave up a three run homer to Rickie Weeks, then let the Brewers add another run the next inning. In fact, some of Redman's struggles have been due to White's inability to enter a game and not let everyone on the bases score.

So there you go, if you want to point fingers at players, I suggest you start with Mackowiak, Wells, M. Redman, and White.