One of the more promising young pitchers in the majors is Max Scherzer, a 24-year-old righthander for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
So far in his brief career, Scherzer has shown signs of living up to his potential. In 66 innings, he's struck out 73 batters while compiling a 3.14 earned run averages.
He also has five losses and has yet to earn his first major-league win.
The D-Backs haven't given him much offense. In his seven starts last year, Arizona scored a total of 16 runs. Scherzer's team did score seven runs in his first 2009 start, a victory over the Cardinals, but he was gone by the time the game was decided. And on Sunday, he lost when the Diamondbacks were blanked by the Giants, 2-0.
If he keeps pitching well, his luck is bound to change. But until he earns that first win, no one can blame him for feeling frustrated.
Speaking of frustration, let's take a look at the Washington Nationals. They've played a dozen games and have two wins to show for it.
And few people expect the situation to improve much throughout a long summer in D.C.
On paper, the Nationals don't look that bad, especially at the plate. Nick Johnson, Adam Dunn, Elijah Dukes, Austin Kearns and Ryan Zimmerman all have shown ability to hit, and all are 30 or younger. Another Nat who's currently in the minors, Lastings Milledge, is supposed to be pretty good, too.
As for the pitching … well, that's what usually builds winning teams, and Washington looks to be suffering. Heralded 23-year-old righty Jordan Zimmermann provided a bright spot by beating the Braves Monday in his major-leage debut. But beyond him, the pickings look rather slim, even with ex-Pirates Joe Beimel and Kip Wells in the bullpen.
Frustrating for certain New Yorkers, but not for the rest of us, are the travails of the Yankees in their new stadium.
Aided and abetted the team's 22-4 pasting at the hands of Cleveland on Saturday, the New York pitching staff is putting up some truly ugly numbers: 6.53 earned-run average, lowlighted by ex-Pirate Damaso Marte (21.00 ERA), formerly reliable Chien-Ming Wang (34.50) and Anthony Claggett (43.20), whose only career appearance to date was mopping up in that Indian massacre.
Some of the pitching problems have been caused by the large number (so far) of what looks like routine fly balls landing in the stands. Engineers who designed the new stadium have been consulted about why this is occurring, but the totals are in the books: four games, 11 homers surrendered by New York pitching. At that pace, opponents would hit 223 home runs at Yankee Stadium this year.
Also frustrating for the Steinbrenner clan are attendance figures, with more than 5,000 seats not sold for Sunday's game. TV cameras are showing plenty of emptiness, especially in the areas where tickets are going for hundreds of bucks per seat.
Couldn't happen to a better team …
Trivia #9: What pitcher lost the most consecutive games at the start of his career? For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.
