re: DAT 7/17: Astros (Cole) @ Angels (Pena) | 9:07 CT

My take is that Luhnow expected to win a lot of games on offense and have “just enough” pitching.

What he didn’t expect is the entire lineup worth a shite going on DH. I also think he expected Whitley to be a stud with the big club starting in June.

And most importantly, he didn’t expect the juiced balls. You’re seeing excellent pitchers like Verlander and Cole give up tons of long balls. This makes their starts less effective. But the biggest impact is to the decent pitchers like Peacock and McHugh... not stars, but reliable and decent. With those guys, and the other BP arms, you’re seeing them get torched by mediocre hitters over and over again. Some of it is bad pitching, but a lot of it is mediocre hitters benefiting from juiced balls.

Sure, it’s happening to other teams too, but it’s less noticeable because most of those teams are supposed to suck anyway.