The only hitter who isn't performing well above league average is Marwin Gonzalez, but he's been perfectly fine after a rough start. And in the meantime, Sano has returned and Arraez has looked like Astudillo with walks so it's not like they don't have options. And though it's almost certainly true that teams will be more successful adjusting to them, there's a kind of stunning diversity to the stuff this offense is doing well. To take the just-mentioned examples, Arraez and Sano are like, literal opposites as hitters. Sano has returned and fully sold out for power, taking utterly garbage at bats - except that the stuff he hits is hit incredibly hard. Like some sort of shitty Gary Sheffield. Meanwhile, Arraez is poking liners all over the field like he's... this is where I wish I knew a deadball era player named "Gary" because that would be funny.

Garver out? Fine, Castro will just put up a 151 OPS+. Pineda is the only guy getting regular work who is underwhelming, and he's coming back from TJ and has, at times, looked like his old self.

So how do I stop being excited about this, because I don't really want to be just yet? Best answer that I can come up with at the moment is that the good team that it most reminds me of is the 2005 White Sox. Defense, pitching, lots and lots of early scoring via homeruns.

They won the world series so this isn't going to do the trick, but I was living there at the time and it's probably my least favorite baseball team in history. So since I can't really find good reasons to deflate my hope (I'm sure they'll come through eventually) at least I can say they remind me of a team I hate.