Major League Baseball: 1/3 Season Review: The American League

Cafe Society
1

Well, the MLB season is at about the one third mark. Let’s talk baseball. First, the AL.

EAST

Boston 35-18
Toronto 27-29
Baltimore 27-30
New York 24-30
Tampa Bay 23-31

The story here is of course the scorching hot Red Sox as compared to the horrible Yankees. The Sox have been a little lucky and the Yanks very unlucky, but Boston has legitimately been much better. Most notable is Boston’s league-best pitching. Don’t count the Yankees out yet though; they are probably the unluckiest team in baseball (a 24-30 record against an expected record of 29-25) and nobody’s running away with the wild card. Toronto has disappointed largely because the entire roster has pulled, broken, ruptured or sprained one thing or another, and their chances are saved only by the miraculous development of several young pitchers. Baltimore is just an average team - they’re so boring I can’t think of a single thing to say about them. Tampa Bay has, with grim predictability, gotten off to another awful season, thanks to a starting rotation about which people say “Kazmir and Shields and then lose three games in a row.” Edwin Jackson: 0-7, 7.77.

CENTRAL

Cleveland 34-19
Detroit 32-24
Minnesota 28-27
Chicago 25-27
Kansas City 21-36

Cleveland has apparently returned to 2005 form, featuring big time hitting, and they could immediately improve themselves if they’d just replace the atrocious Josh Barfield; surely they can find a better second baseman somewhere. They’ve been a little lucky though and the numbers suggest Detroit may in fact be the division’s best team, with even better hitting. Minnesota’s better than their record suggests, or so I believe. The White Sox feature about the worst offense you can possibly imagine and a pretty bad bullpen dragging down a legitimately first rate rotation, but have been saved from last place by the dependably brutal Royals, who lack two critical kinds of pitching: right handed and left handed.

WEST

Anaheim 36-22 (Los Angeles, LA of Anaheim, whatever.)
Seattle 28-25
Oakland 28-27
Texas 20-37

The story here is not the Angels, really, but the shockingly good play of the Mariners, who many expected to be atrocious, and the terrible play if the Rangers, who many expected to improve. The Mariners have been untroubled by position player injuries since breaking camp, using onyl 13 hitters, but have used 18 pitchers; still they’ve kept their heads above .500 even with Jeff Weaver imploding, as he usually does; 0-6, 14.38. Jesus Christ. Do not for one instant think Oakland is not a contender; they do this every year, and the stats say they’re better than the record indicates. Texas, in what I consider to be an amazing feat of personnel management ineptitude, has given all but four starts to starters with ERAs of at least 6.28. The four other starts were all made by Mike Wood, whose ERA is 5.40, and he’s gotten lucky to have it that low. There is no immediate reason to think there is any hope for the Rangers.

2

Great round-up RickJay, thank you for this thread. This is a year for much rejoicing by Yankee haters. Almost everything that could go wrong has.
The Red Sox are much better than I expected them to be. The rest of the AL East is pretty bad either because of too many injuries (Jays and Yanks) or terrible teams to start with.

The Seattle thing has caught me off guard, I expected Angels to win the division, but I expected Seattle to be really bad. Texas is playing about how I thought.

The Central is going to fun all year. I still think all 3 top teams have a good shot at ending up on top of the division.

Jim {Disappointed Yankee Fan, but somehow, I knew this was not likely to be a good year, it is the first year in 6 years, I have no ticket plan at all. I have only been to one game, I will probably only go to 2 more this year.}

3

Wait, so you only go to games if they’re winning? Sounds like you’re not so much a fan of the Yankees as you are a fan of winning.

4

RickJay:

I disagree. The Royals are dismal, of course, but this year, for a change, it’s their hitting that’s awful - superstar rookie Alex Gordon is well below the Mendoza line, Ryan Shealy, expected to provide some pop, has been pathetic until very recently, and as bad as they have been in general, they’re WORSE with runners in scoring position. The pitching staff, on the other hand, has been decent - Gil Meche has not yet been a disappointment, Odalis Perez and Jorge DeLaRosa have had mostly quality starts, Joakim Soria held down the closer’s job nicely until Octavio Dotel’s return.

5

There’s still time for the M’s to show their colors. Starting pitching (with the exception of two players) is hugely inconsistent, and is skating on luck and prayer; the bullpen is taxed. Offense is similarly up-and-down, ten runs one day and a shutout the next. Win total is up because of a run of games against bottom feeders; performance against contending teams has been mediocre to bad. Clubhouse chemistry is also flat, with lots of off-the-record grumbling about leadership (even the close-to-the-vest Ichiro has taken an uncharacteristic shot or two at manager Hargrove). I’m still predicting a third place finish.

6

If you give them your money when they aren’t winning, there’s less incentive for them to win (see Cubs, Chicago).

7

Look for Steinbrenner to give Torre the ax before the All Star game. The heir apparent is Don Mattingly, which make zero sense to me since he hasn’t managed at any level. I like Mattingly as much as the next guy, but I’d prefer Girardi.

8

No, I have been going to games since 1975. I have been watching since I was 5. I do not live close to the stadium and this year, I did not bother to get a package before the season started and when I thought the Yanks had the best team in the East. I was just tired of the commitment of a package and I could no longer get out of work an hour early to make weeknight games before the first pitch. If what you said were true, I would not be going to Baltimore for a Yankee game in September or bothering with any more tickets at the stadium this year. I am just not regretting not spending hundreds of dollars to see my normal 7-12 games. Especially being that my friends for six straight years relied on me to make all the arrangements. No one stepped up and took over the duty of being the organizer and I was burnt out. Quite a leap from my little throw away line to only a fan of winning.

Jim

9

Hey, my beloved O’s lasted longer than usual. They can reliably be counted on to be out of contention much, much earlier than now.

10

I see your point on an individual level, but the sad truth is that they have the worst pitching/defense by runs allowed in the division, and the third worst in the AL. They’re second worst in runs scored (the White Sox are worst in virtually every conceivable way) so I guess, really, they’re bad either way.

As to the interesting side issue that’s popped up of whether you’re a “fan” if you don’t go as much twhen the teams lose, I think that’s a big old pile of crap. That’s like saying I don’t like food if I stop going to a crappy restaurant. I go to the Blue Jays far more often when they’re playing well because I only have so much money, and it costs a fair amount in cash, time and trouble to go to a ball game. If they want my money, I want a good chance of seeing some quality baseball. Otherwise I’ll watch it at home. That doesn’t make me less of a fan, it just makes me a smart consumer.

11

I’m not a Texas Rangers fan, but I live in Dallas and thus get their games on tv. Wow, this team has seriously underperformed. Look for them to start dealing players real soon. This season is over for them.

I’ve spent some time listening to the Devil Rays on XM and MLB online. They impressed me as well when I watched their sweep of the Rangers in the Orlando Series. This team has some young talent and I’d rather watch them than the Rangers. Kinda reminds me of some of the Oakland A’s teams.

I’m glad to see the Yankees struggling. I hate that team and hate the fact that almost every FOX and ESPN game has the Yankees. Hopefully, Clemens will embarass himself and Mr. Torre will find himself collecting unemployment.

12

I was at the Angels game yesterday, and I had a couple of thoughts.

First- Aybar’s head wasn’t in the game AT ALL. Bad base running decisions, bad fielding, mediocre hitting. I don’t know what’s up but he needs to get a grip.

Second- Figgins still isn’t 100%, and I wonder why Scioscia is playing him too soon.

Third- my man Vlad! Hell of a walk-off homer to win it! That man just keeps on winning games for us.

I am very, VERY happy about our depth at every position. Our farm system is filled with talented guys, and I think that may come from Scioscia’s Dodger roots. Back in the day, the Dodger farm system was the envy of every team- now, not so much… Every guy on the team knows that if he can’t produce, there are guys lined up ready to have their chance. It’s such a sea-change for the Angels- way back when, this was a team where once-great players came to die…

13

My brother’s prediction for the upcoming weeks in sports:

The Cleveland Cavs will be leading the Spurs in the finals.

The Indians will be 10 games ahead of everyone in the AL Central.

A meteorite will hit the earth in the plaza right between Jacob’s Field and Quicken Loans Arena, killing off two of the best Cleveland sports teams in recent history (or, ever), and taking out Brady Quinn as well, who was there to watch a game.

  • ZipperJJ, long-time Cleveland diehard fan, cannot deal with the stress of success.
14

The Indians are funny. They are scoring runs without having Hafner and Sizemore firing on all cylinders. Lee is having the kind of year I think most people expected of Byrd, and Byrd is having the kind of year maybe more expected of Westbrook, who is having the kind of year I expected of Sowers who is having the kind of year of someone who stinks.

And woe betide the bullpen yet again.

15

Cleveland has been pretty much injury free. The tigers have lost Zumaya, Rogers and have had 7 to 9 players out much of the time. The Indians should have spread apart from the Tigers if they wanted to hang on.
Royals are in a bad place. Everybody ahead of them is clearly better than they are.
Red Sox might have trouble keeping an edge if the Yanks don’t put a run together. Sox are the only team over 500 in their division. Must be some kind of lesson there.

16

According to stats from The Hardball Times, the Yankees are tied with the Cubbies as the 2 unluckiest teams in baseball. They’ve scored more runs (293) than they’ve given up (271), usually enough to keep a team over .500.

BUT: To be in the Wild Card, they’ll probably need to get to 95 wins, which would mean going 71-36 the rest of the way. a .663 clip. Not their year, it seems.

I’m an NL guy, but I’m kind of rooting for the Indians to make the Series, as they haven’t been there for a while compared to the other front-runners and “Fausto Carmona” is one of my favorite baseball names in ages.

17

My curse upon the Rangers is coming to fruition. They will have nothing but failure as long as Sammy Sosa is on their roster.

18

There *is *something delightfully melodious about Fausto Carmona. Though it sounds like food.

19

Angels scored 16 runs on 23 hits last night.

That was nice.

20

Starting local, then moving further afield:

The A’s are on a 5 game winning streak, though at this moment being no-hit by Curt Schilling. It’s a miracle they’re over .500, since they’ve had only about half their team on the field. They should get better with more healthy guys in the lineup. I think they’re positioned well; six games or so back of the Angels, but the Angels have been winning like crazy lately and still haven’t quite pulled away. Vladimir Guerrero has been hot lately; when he goes cold, will LA keep winning? They didn’t last year when he cooled off. I think Seattle is in it for the rest of the season, though probably more in a “just hanging in there” mode than actual contention. I know there’s some doubt there, but they have talented players who just haven’t performed recently, augmented by young guys like Betancourt who are getting better. A three team race until the end, with the Angels probably coming out on top.

The Rangers, of course, are pathetic.

Other divisions:

The more I see of the Tigers and Indians, the more impressed I am. They can bring it however you want to play. You want a pitching duel? Fine, let’s throw. Light up the scoreboard? Sure, we can do that, too. Probably the two toughest teams in the league, and I have the feeling they will be in the ALCS this year. Not sure who will come out on top.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Boston has been “the team” this season. Up till now. But I’m not convinced. They’ve been on a losing streak this week–notwithstanding the up to the minute 8 no-hit innings–and what I’ve seen the last three days against the A’s hasn’t really shown me much. I didn’t see a team that’s more than the sum of its parts. Of course, since no one else in the AL East has decided to show up this year, Boston’s probably safe until the postseason. Still, I’m not sure the seeds of destruction haven’t already been sown.

I sure hope someone breaks up Schilling’s no-hitter. I don’t want to have to turn on my TV this evening and witness the collective orgasm that will happen in Bristol, Conn. if a Red Sox pitcher throws a no-hitter. “Next on SportsCenter: Linda Cohn with a 15 minute video essay on the quivering in her thighs every time someone on the Red Sox roster takes a deep breath.” Yeesh.