Hate McLouth

I am quickly becoming as sick of Nate McLouth as I am of any opposing player - as much as Rickie Weeks, as much as Rick Ankiel, Ryan Ludwick and Skip Schumaker, as much as any one of that coveted group of Players Who Have No Right to Beat You, a group far more annoying than all the Albert Pujols, Carlos Lees and Adam Dunns of the world. McLouth in particular is starting to make me wonder what they put in the Winstrol water over there in Pittsburgh. After his game-winning home run off Carlos Marmol today, McLouth now has 12 home runs in 42 games; this is almost half as many as he hit in his first 284 career games (25). His OPS is over 1.000 this season, for crap's sake. This is a guy who before this year looked like a decent fourth outfielder - acceptable defense, good baserunning (22/1 SB/CS last year), a little pop, but not all that good. Suddenly he's top five in the league in doubles, homers, total bases, runs scored, and RBIs? I don't think so. You know who I'm reminded of? Chris Shelton, who had 11 home runs and an OPS of over 1.000 as late as May 22 in 2006 (his age 26 season, as this is for McLouth). He hit just five home runs the entire rest of the year and ended up with an OPS barely above .800. McLouth may not have a Shelton-level collapse in him, but I don't buy for a second that he's the second coming of Willie Mays out there in center. Anyone can get hot for a couple months.

Speaking of which, Alfonso Soriano. My dad sent me an e-mail on May 2 - during a 5-3 loss to the Cardinals in which Soriano looked absolutely lost in left field before mostly redeeming himself with a game-tying homer in the ninth - with a subject of "Soriano," and a body that simply read, "They need to cut him."

Since the end of that game, Soriano has raised his average by 131 points, the last 30 of which was done by his 5-for-5 showing today. He now has seven home runs in the last six games. And lest you think he's only a homer machine, he has at least two hits in eight of his last nine starts, including 4-for-5 last Saturday and, again, 5-for-5 today. With seven straight starts with at least two hits, Soriano has set a career high (in 2003 with the Yankees, he had two or more hits in six straight); he's 19-for-33 in the seven games (.576), with 43 total bases.

Unfortunately, this has corresponded with a major slowdown period for Derrek Lee, whose average has dropped all the way to .294 after an 0-for-5 showing today, including flying out to end the game with Ryan Theriot on as the tying run. He's not getting on base either, going ten straight games without drawing a walk, his longest single-season streak with no walk (in games where he had at least two at-bats) since 2001, when he had 13 and 15-game streaks with Florida. That year, Lee had an OBP of just .346; since then, his lowest full-season OBP has been .356. At the moment, it's a mere .360; his batting average wasn't lower than .307 at any point in 2007, and excluding his post-wrist-injury 2006 stats and his first four games of this season, he hasn't had a batting average lower than .300 at any time since ending 2004 with a .278 mark. It's not looking so good right now for him.

There's also Zambrano, but I think he'll be okay. Still, in spite of Soriano's heroics, today was not the most enjoyable. Stupid Pirates.