Eureka has been fortunate in the early going. Batting champion SS Hennessey, 2B Clement Milford, new acquisition and starting catcher Takaaki Hirayama, and new acquisition and starting DH Roberto Guzman have been injured for either all or part of the season so far. The pitching staff, a strength of the team, has been inconsistent and not very good. But the team is 14 and 5, and in first place. There has been some luck involved, because the projected record based on current performance is 11 and 8, and the team is 5-0 in 1-run games, 2-0 in extra innings, and 8-2 away from home.
It is time now for the team to assert itself with better performance. Cy Young winner Jake Nelson (3-0, 1.24 ERA) is the only consistent starting pitcher so far. The others (Anthony Atkinson, 1-2, 4.94 ERA; Royce Butterfield, 2-1, 5.95 ERA; Bob Smith, 2-0, 5.23 ERA; Toshiki Koda, 1-2, 5.65 ERA) have been woefully inconsistent, if not downright poor. The bullpen has not been much better (William Nolan, 7.71 ERA; Carlos Nunes, 7.27 ERA; Claude Howard, 4.66 ERA) headline the underachievers. There is some good news: long man Mike Miller (2.13 ERA), middle reliever Dave Goodwin (.93 ERA) and setup man Pat Short (0.00 ERA) have been quite good.
On the offensive side, rookie slugger Gary Ferris has been struggling mightily, with a .188/.240/.261 slash line. He has somehow managed 9 RBIs in 19 games, despite hitting near the bottom of the lineup. Michael Brown, logging a lot of plate appearances because of injuries, has a .175/.232/.238 line. A bright spot has been firstbaseman Dwayne Hatcher, hitting .382/.455/.706 with 5 HRs and 14 RBIs.
Kansas City has been tough, and is running neck-and-neck with Eureka. The Hornets have to become sharper to repeat as division champions.
