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The Toughest League in Baseball

Posted by Rob Boudreau Categories: Editorial, MLB

Mariano Rivera

Baseball has been widely criticized in recent years for its “unbalanced” schedule. Thanks to 18 interleague games per season, teams in each league face teams in other divisions an unequal amount of times, which seems unfair since every team not in first place competes for the same Wild Card playoff berth. This makes it extremely hard for some teams to compete, especially in a division such as the American League East, which is arguably not just the toughest division in baseball, but also the toughest division in professional sports.

If you’re a fan of the Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, or Baltimore Orioles, you need to face a grim reality. There are 27 other teams in the majors who have a better chance at making the playoffs than your team. With money-spending powerhouses like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, teams with smaller payrolls need a lot more to go “right” for them in order to compete. A lot of people argue this with the fact that the Rays made it all the way to the World Series in 2008, but face it – that was the only AL East team in the last 11 seasons who were not the Yanks or Sox to make it into the playoffs, and it was also the first time in franchise history that the Rays had a winning record.

The Toronto Blue Jays have had six winning records in the last 11 years, but have only finished better than third once. With an 86-76 record last year, they actually finished in fourth place in the AL East. It took the Los Angeles Dodgers 84 victories to win the NL West by two full games. The Orioles haven’t been as fortunate. Ever since Cal Ripken Jr. left town, the O’s haven’t finished with more than 78 wins and have only reached as high as third place once.

It’s very likely that the AL East has three or four of the best teams in the league, but only two can get into the playoffs. The only way to make it fair – to give the four best teams a chance to be in the playoffs – is to eliminate divisional play. But we all know that isn’t going to happen. At the very least, balancing the schedule and eliminating interleague play would give every team a chance to face every other team an equal amount of times, giving value and fairness to the always important Wild Card team. But while baseball stands to make money by sending the Yankees and the Red Sox to any city in the majors, don’t hold your breath.


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Yanks Take Home Opener 3-2

Posted by Milo Taibi Categories: Athletes, MLB, Scoreboard

Melky Cabrera Hits a Home Run
Chien-Ming Wang proved his place as the New York Yankees’ ace of 2008. Tonight, on the night of the last ever (old) Yankee Stadium home opener, Wang went 7 innings strong striking out only 2 but giving up just 6 hits and 2 earned runs. Toronto Blue Jays’ starting pitcher Roy Halladay was just barely outdueled; Halladay went 7 innings as well giving up 7 hits and 3 runs, all of which earned. Mariano Rivera notched his first save of the 2008 season, striking out one.

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American League Fantasy Notes:  A.L. East

Posted by Tom Massimo Categories: Fantasy, MLB, News

BOSTON RED SOX

Mike Lowell has just three extra-base hits in the month of August.  He is still batting a solid .289, thanks to a strong 90% contact rate and .79 batting eye.  In his disastrous 2005 season, when had just 8 home runs, his G/F ratio remained low at .66 and in-line with previous seasons.  This year it has risen to a still low .88.  But with 15 home runs in 460 AB this season, it is starting to look like last season’s complete power outage was not a fluke, but rather the beginning of a decline in his power.


Alex Gonzalez is out until early September with a strained oblique muscle.  Alex Cora and Dustin Pedroia should share time at shortstop until Gonzalez returns.  Cora is completely devoid of power.  His high contact rate and good batting eye could get him on base enough to generate a few steals, but it is probably not worth the trouble.  Pedroia’s defense is better suited for second base and with Mark Loretta in and out of the line-up he could pick up some starts there.  As a hitter, he makes excellent contact and has a very discerning batting eye.  He does not have much power and with 4 caught steals in 5 tries in Triple-A, don’t count on any stolen bases either.

Jon Lester was scratched from his scheduled start today because of a sore back.  Kason Gabbard will step in for him against Oakland.  He is not recommended.

Manager, Terry Francona does not seem pleased that Manny Ramirez has missed 3 of the last 4 games with a sore knee.  In any event, he should be safe to use this week.

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