i'm really trying to avoid making any rash decisions early on, especially since my team has floundered out of the gate. i've had three pleasant surprises; two i expected, one i didn't. brad penny and david wright have been spectacular and i figured as much (despite all the penny-haters). chris shelton has been even better, and i had no idea what i was getting in to w/ him. my offense in general has been fantastic - i'm leading the league in average and RBIs, and i'm very competitive in runs. SBs are my only weak offensive category. but what's really killing me is my pitching. I now have two bigtime starters on the DL: noah lowry, who looked great in the 0.2 innings he's pitched so far this season, and bartolo colon, who looked godawful in his second to last start but passable in the last before getting injured. so, with my staff consisting right now of jason schmidt (who's been alright), brad penny (who's been great), and brad radke (who's been brad radke), i'm very tempted to go out and unload some hitting talent to bring in a good arm or two.

but i shouldn't. that's exactly the kind of rash move that could hurt me down the road when colon and lowry come back and pitch well, giving me a solid but not spectacular rotation. i'm thinking if i keep my lineup the way it is, all i'll need is a decent pitching performance to be very competitive.

it's hard though. we're nearing hte point where early season excuses no longer hold water. "slow starter" will be turning in to "off-year" relatively soon.