It's always pitching. Defense and Timely hitting. In that order. You could write a thesis in an argument about O.B.P. Or any of the latest trendy sabermetric principles. Or wax poetic about the good old days when men were men. It's Pitching. Billy Beane hasn't won s***, Moneyball or otherwise. It's also chemistry. You could argue that forever too. This team is a sack of nothing signifying nothing. It's just the waxing and waning of baseball. Or in the words of Carole King...sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I think there is a general malaise over the whole sport at the moment. It's like the whole nation has entered into a fugue state. As a fan, I went some 20 odd years without making the playoffs. Now, they can just Caribbean Island backdoor it. Have thumb injuries, back spasms, mental defects, chicken and beer, pitch counts. Which I think have been the bane of everything. It's pitching. That's it.