It still feels like the rotation will fall apart at some point and the team along with it. Just hope this season isn't a repeat of 2021 where they started 41-31 and finished 80-82.
On the one hand, the team should be even better when Gavin Williams and Sam Hentges get back. Also, we have four guys hitting below .200 in Freeman, Florial, Laureano, and Bo Naylor - they will all improve along with Brennan who is at .222 and Jose at .247/.691. We have six hitters who are far below their norms.
Bibee, Allen, and McKenzie have ERA's of 4.82, 5.06, and 6.23. I have to believe those numbers will come down.
OTOH, Kwan won't continue hitting .372 and Arias won't hit .313/.896 for the season. The bullpen as a whole is due for a regression - we're already seeing it with Beede.
But considering we have six position players and three starters who are well under their norms plus Williams and Hentges coming back, I'd say if anything this team is only going to get better.
Scoring 14 runs in 20 innings (not counting the ghost runners who also scored) against Boston is pretty impressive. The Red Sox had the best ERA in the majors at the start of this series.
Arias's stats look great so far. He's hitting for average and power with a very acceptable K rate of 24%. He does however need to draw a few more walks as he's only drawn 1 walk in 33 PA's.
Florial is striking out in 33% of his PA's but drawing walks 12% of the time. As long as Florial continues to command the zone he should be fine because the power is there.
Arias' walk percentage may be only 3.0% but he's hitting .313/.896! He has 7 RBI's in 32 at-bats. That's 140 RBI's in 640 at-bats if he played every day. He's 4-for-8 against lefties, who owned him last year. He's hitting .385 with RISP! And we're criticizing him for not walking more?
Look at Kwan. His walk rate is 3.7% but he's hitting .372 with on OBP of .395. He's scored 18 runs in 17 games. He's hitting .429 with RISP! I don't care what his walk rate is the way he's hitting the ball. With a runner on second or third I'd much rather see a hit than a walk.
Florial and Laureano are the opposite of Arias and Kwan. Florial has 4 walks and 5 hits with a .185 average. Laureano has 5 walks and has been hit by 5 pitches, but only 6 hits for a .176 average. Every time these guys come up I'm hoping for a walk because they're hitting under .200.