The hometown Rainiers have reached the All-Star break. While not the actual midpoint of the season – that was about two weeks ago – this marks a good spot to take stock of the season.
Which, handily enough, is exactly what we'll be doing this week. Today, we look at the team as a whole. The Rainiers – thanks to four straight wins over Portland – have pulled out of last place. Tacoma stands at 40-51, 10 games behind division leader Salt Lake. They haven't seen .500 since the first week of the season. Tacoma ranks 12th in ERA, fourth in walks allowed, 13th in strikeouts. The Rainiers have notched no complete games and only two shutouts.
So, pitching may be an issue.
Sadly, the Rainiers don't hit all that well, either. They rank ninth in overall OPS, 12th in On-Base. The team K's a lot (645 times, fourth in the PCL) and never takes a walk. Tacoma is a pathetic 15th in walks. A team can't survive with a three-to-one K to walk ratio. And they haven't, ranking 10th in overall runs. This team has two incandescent bright spots in the line up (Our Favorite Rainier and Wlad Balentien) and some absolute dead zones.
But we'll cover that later in the week.
Labels: All-Star Squadron, Tacoma Rainiers