[TonyLima]

 Unfortunately, I don't think we have the team to win it all. We are weaker on offense than last year although I think there's a slight uptick in our pitching over last year.

That doesn't appear to be true, at least the team at this point in the season (40 games played)* seems to be better on offense and worse on pitching/defense than last year at the same point. It's true that last year the offense got hot late as the weather warmed up, and it remains to be seen if it will this year or not. 

* the team has actually played 41 games but the stats for today's game aren't added in yet. Though since the team scored 10 and gave up 7 today, I don't think the trend will be any different. 

A few stats:
Stat               2022            2023
runs/gm           6.6              7.8
HRs/gm           1.35            1.58
AVG               .289             .299
SLG               .491             .500
PITCHING/DEFENSE
ERA               3.89             5.39
Hits/gm**       8.17             8.63
BB/gm           3.87             5.17
ERR/gm         1.0               1.1

**For simplicity I used hits, walks and errors per game instead of per 9 innings.

Many thanks.  That's consistent with my intuition.  This team lives (and dies) with the long ball.

---

I will be very happy if we get to the CWS. Unfortunately, I don't think we have the team to win it all. We are weaker on offense than last year although I think there's a slight uptick in our pitching over last year.

On offense, we lost starters:

Jones
Crampton 
Huff
Barrera 

Replaced by:

Moore
Cobb
Rios
Various

The only player I think we replaced (by position) without dropoff is Huff. Moore is playing very well. 

Jones, of course, can't be replaced by someone new. Even with the improvement of returning players from the previous year, I don't see the bottom of our order being feared as it was last year. No easy outs in our lineup last year. 

Not the case this year as we have seen with some glaring offensive dry spells. Our bottom of the lineup doesn't have the same pop from what I have seen so far.

Our pitching has improved as last year we had 1 terrific starter and 1 or 2 reliable bullpen pitchers. This year we have 2 good starters (although Scott may be hitting the freshman wall) and around 3 reliable bullpen pitchers.

Speaking of Brock Jones, a couple of guys asked about him at the Saturday game.  He's currently playing A-ball with the Charleston (SC) Riverdogs.  He's gotten very adept at working walks.  Or maybe nobody wants to pitch to him.  Anyway, here's his stats:

[TonyLima]

 Unfortunately, I don't think we have the team to win it all. We are weaker on offense than last year although I think there's a slight uptick in our pitching over last year.

That doesn't appear to be true, at least the team at this point in the season (40 games played)* seems to be better on offense and worse on pitching/defense than last year at the same point. It's true that last year the offense got hot late as the weather warmed up, and it remains to be seen if it will this year or not. 

* the team has actually played 41 games but the stats for today's game aren't added in yet. Though since the team scored 10 and gave up 7 today, I don't think the trend will be any different. 

A few stats:
Stat               2022            2023
runs/gm           6.6              7.8
HRs/gm           1.35            1.58
AVG               .289             .299
SLG               .491             .500
PITCHING/DEFENSE
ERA               3.89             5.39
Hits/gm**       8.17             8.63
BB/gm           3.87             5.17
ERR/gm         1.0               1.1

**For simplicity I used hits, walks and errors per game instead of per 9 innings.

Many thanks.  That's consistent with my intuition.  This team lives (and dies) with the long ball.

---

I will be very happy if we get to the CWS. Unfortunately, I don't think we have the team to win it all. We are weaker on offense than last year although I think there's a slight uptick in our pitching over last year.

On offense, we lost starters:

Jones
Crampton 
Huff
Barrera 

Replaced by:

Moore
Cobb
Rios
Various

The only player I think we replaced (by position) without dropoff is Huff. Moore is playing very well. 

Jones, of course, can't be replaced by someone new. Even with the improvement of returning players from the previous year, I don't see the bottom of our order being feared as it was last year. No easy outs in our lineup last year. 

Not the case this year as we have seen with some glaring offensive dry spells. Our bottom of the lineup doesn't have the same pop from what I have seen so far.

Our pitching has improved as last year we had 1 terrific starter and 1 or 2 reliable bullpen pitchers. This year we have 2 good starters (although Scott may be hitting the freshman wall) and around 3 reliable bullpen pitchers.

Speaking of Brock Jones, a couple of guys asked about him at the Saturday game.  He's currently playing A-ball with the Charleston (SC) Riverdogs.  He's gotten very adept at working walks.  Or maybe nobody wants to pitch to him.  Anyway, here's his stats: