The Arachnid That Is Baseball & The Disabilities Some Teams Suffer From

When I look at baseball, I see it as a spider, with each major division of a team (Starting Pitching, Hitting, Bullpen) as two legs a piece.

Starting pitching is the front and back two legs, as it is the most aspect of a championship-caliber team.

Without these limbs, movement is difficult, but possible if the other sets (Hitting & Bullpen) are strong enough.

The Chicago White Sox are a team like this. 

They have an impressive 'pen with Bobby Jenks closing things out in the back, and an incredible line-up, featuring four or five guys that could top 25 home runs.

The middle-left legs are the offense.

Without these two, a team will only go in circles.

The San Francisco Giants represent this problem well.

From Tim Lincecum to Matt Cain to Brian Wilson, the Giants have all the pitching in the world, but the offense is holding this team from greatness.

The middle-right legs are the bullpen.

Even with the greatest offense and starting rotation, if there is no bullpen there to hold everything that the other two divisions have put together, then the team, once again, will move in circles.

The Atlanta Braves are a team that are appearing to suffer from this deficiency.

The offense, to this point in the season, has been spectacular, as has the starting staff.

But the bullpen, using April 8 as an example, appears incapable of supporting whatever they are called upon to hold (outside of Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano).

It may be only three games into the season, but some team's issues are already (or have been for some time) becoming obvious.

Very few teams have all three, the Phillies had all eight legs moving in the right direction last year.

The only question is, can extremely talented teams with these deficiencies overcome their weak links to succeed in their divisions.