Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Omar Vizquel may just be the best player on the San Francisco Giants rights now. For as great as Vizquel has been in his career - this may be the first time he's the best player on his team. This also goes to highlight how bad the Giants are so far this season (don't let their record fool you - this is a bad team)... What has gotten into Wandy Rodriguez of the Astros? So far this season - the 5'11", 160 pound Dominican has been channeling a young Pedro Martinez. Yesterday Wandy won his second game of the season and lowered his ERA to 2.84 with 7 innings of shutout ball against the Diamondbacks.... Last April - Colorado's Todd Helton got off to an awful start. He hit just .267 with a lowly .776 OPS. That may be OK for Kevin Millar but not for a guy who has hit .337 with a 1.042 OPS for his career. This spring Helton is back on track with a .378 BA and 1.242 OPS in his first 11 games. Helton will probably end up being the first member of the Rockies inducted into the Hall of Fame... It is still early but I think Mike Piazza is all done. He's living on his reputation and the Padres would probably be better off with Doug Mirabelli as the full time starter at catcher... John Patterson of the Nationals is the real deal and maybe the only bright spot for the DC nine (well maybe Nick Johnson too). Patterson leads all MLB in strikeouts with 24... One of the big reasons the Reds are tied for 1st in the NL Central is Ryan Freel and his .514 OBP. Freel has been a huge spark plug for the Reds. You really have to watch him play to appreciate how much he has meant to the team.... I know Uggie Urbina had a very good year and a half in Boston (68 saves) but right about now - I'd love to have Tomo Ohka back with the Red Sox...