not usu a baseball fan, but i did get to go to the opening day florida marlins v ny mets game at dolphin stadium. @39,000 people. $7 budweiser. very fun.
marlins lost that day, won the next, lost the third.
or perhaps, take it easy this year, you guys have been working hard lately. Another season where tickets sold out for the entire season on day 1, scalped standing room only tickets cost upwards of $50 and I am content with listening to games on the radio. In baseball fandom, and particularly Red Sox Nation, there's always something to complain about.
fog....and they're sayin that next year people should expect significant ticket increases...they're tryin to keep up with the rumors of ticket pricing for the new yankee stadium.
crazy that detroit has started out so cold...their chances of making the playoffs at this moment is at about 16% because they lost so many games to start the season...crazy. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/statistics/ps_odds.php
first week of the season (in almost all sports) doesn't really mean much of anything...having said that, i hope the tigers continue to die a slow painful death...go yankees!
i think expectations for the tigers were way too high, especially with their bullpen. the bullpen may be one of the worst in the mlb. without zumaya and rodney, everyone else is really porous (with maybe the exception of bobby seay). cabrera scares the hell out of me. i know he's adjusting to a new team and all, but he's so young and they paid him so much, it could backfire big time.
larslarson, i'm curious how those odds are figured. if they are based on historical precedent, then do they take into account that for most of its approximately 100 year history that only two teams made the playoffs? i would think that in this era of expanded playoffs and weighted divisional schedules that the chance for a team to start badly and rebound would have grown considerably.
wasn't the st. louis cardinal team from a couple years back barely above .500 (83-79 maybe) for the regular season yet the ended up as world series champs. that would have been impossible in the old days.
at any rate, i don't think the first week of the season means much of anything...i'm not even the sure that the first month means much of anything.
i agree..the first week doesn't mean much..unless you lose or win a significant number of games...even then it's hard to argue that the tigers can't climb out of this hole..or that the orioles will remain on the pace they're on..
the numbers become far better predictors as the season goes on obviously...noone is over 54 percent to make the playoffs at the moment.
as far as how it's calculated..it says it there on the page:
"As the title says, the post-season odds report was compiled by running a Monte Carlo simulation of the rest of the season one million times. Current wins, losses and expected winning percentages are taken from the Adjusted Standings Report. "
and the cardinals were a huge anomaly...noone expected them to win the world series that year...they weren't playing great baseball going into the playoffs i believe..but got hot at the right time.
i agree that the expectations for the tigers were way to high. yes, they have a lineup stacked with talent, but its not ONLY their bullpen which is porous. their starting rotation is, at the most, the 3rd best rotation in the AL Central. Cleveland and the Royals clearly have a better starting 5, and i think at years end, the White Sox will show they have the better starting 5 as well.
As the old adage goes, good pitching beats good hitting, and there is A LOT of good pitching the central.
In the end, i think the tigers have too much talent and they will be in the hunt, but they wont win the division. I really believe that is down to the Indians, White Sox and Detroit, with Cleveland the clear favorite.
the most interesting thing to me, however, is how much this 1-7 tigers start changes the season. In a division thats likely to be decided by a few games, it could be the deal breaker. If the tigers were a 92 win team before, they are an 88 win team now... that brings the White Sox squarely into the picture.
lletdownl, you are the biggest homer. that's okay. i am too.
the royals have better starting pitching than the tigers?! ha. we'll see if that plays out by the end of the season. i'll take verlander, rogers, bonderman, robertson, and willis over greinke, meche, bannister, bales, and tomko. (who the hell are half those guys?)
right now the royals are pitching lights out, bannister is legit, and greinke could have that year when he finally busts out like he was supposed to do 2 years ago. gil meche had a fantastic year last year, and bales and tomko, though generally unknown are as reliable as you could hope for in a last place al central team.
i dont buy kenny rogers making it through an entire season healthy and i dont buy robertson or bonderman being better than bannister this year. after that, its a wash.
tigers starting 5 will have a higher era at seasons end, thats my bold prediction
1-7 start or 7-1 start...what-fucking -whatever. I'd have to double check this but I wouldn't be surprised if the tigers finished the 2006 season (their world series year) with a 1-7 mark in the last eight games of the season. They made the world series and probably should have even won it (if it hadn't been for a week off between games in which everyone except puddles himself was blowing serious smoke up their asses)...I'm rambling...but the point is that a 5-10 game stretch is not really indicative of anything. How many teams have finished the season with one win in last eight games? For what it's worth I believe in fundamental analysis not technical analysis. and I beieve in whisky and vodka...not these rum drinks.
There's no way that the white sox have an even remotely decent season...they've clearly peaked already. Cleveland is incapable of repeating their lucky season last year too. Deteoit's starting pitching will easily exceed that of the other division teams...
...And that annoys the hell out of me since I wish that team would fail. Maybe they'll explode in a painful plane crash and have to forfwit many gamesa.
Did I mention that my favorite actor is kurt russell? I love his work in 'captian ron', 'escape from new york', and anything with goldie hawn, especially 'overboard'
the only reason I knew baseball season was back was the other day when I was riding my bike to work and made the mistake of getting within 10 blocks of Fenway Park. I'm a horrible Bostonian.
puddles:
you should check out Municipal Waste's split with Bad Acid Trip, Tango and Thrash. all songs are about Kurt Russell movies.
puddles i have to disagree with you. its a 162 game season yes but you are missing the big picture.
1-8.
say they play as they were expected to do from here on out at about a 92 or so win clip. having already dug themselves this hole, they need to play at a 96-97 win clip to get back to their base level. That seems unlikely with their lack of pitching depth.
so what this really means, whether you accept it or not, is that if the tigers play really well for the rest of the year, their 1-8 start is going to cost them several games by the end of the year. they might win 88 now instead of 92. do you think 88 wins gets in the playoffs? probably not... does 92 wins? probably.
as for your complete dismissal of the white sox and indians... that means to me that you need to study up a bit more on the teams in the division, because you clearly aren't that familiar with the make up of either team. If you were, you wouldn't be able to write them off. unless of course you dont care about reality, which i completely understand. Tis baseball and one must be eternally optimistic.
the detroit baseball club is a team that i have very bitter feelings about (reference the latter stages of the 2006 pennant race thread) and i doubt i'll feel satisfied with the local team until every member of the 2006 squad is history. having said that, i still don't believe a slow start is a major concern.
you wouldn't think 88 wins would make the playoffs but as i pointed out earlier an 83 win st louis cardinal team recently won the entire world series. go figure.
regarding the current state of the central division, i see no reason to believe that any recent success of cleveland or chicago is anything other than fluke. minnesota was the only real threat in the division but they surrendered when they let go of johan santana. kansas city is pleasant but detroit is by default the only team left and despite their sluggish start they will probably win the division with barely trying...but i can't wait until the yankees smoke them in the playoffs and all the little fans of the kittys are crying their eyes out. oh that will be sweet!
wow puddles... you are so far wrong its funny. the central is the deepest division in baseball along with the east. Perhaps you dont understand how baseball works, you have to win your division or the wild card to get in the playoffs. and 88 wins hasnt won the central in a long time and it sure as hell wont win a wild card. The fact that you consider clevelands recent success a fluke is mystifying when they likely have the the best 1-2 starting pitching in the AL, behind MAYBE toronto, im not even sure about that though. Id take Carmona and Sabathia over anyone. And the fact that you would bring up an 83 win cardinals team is even more odd, because they happened to play in the far inferior league, and the worst division in that league. 83 wins wont get eve get you 3rd place in ANY of the AL divisions (except maybe the west)
as for the white sox, they have solid starting pitching, not spectacular but steady, a strong bullpen and a potentially potent offense. Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, Jermaine Dye, Nick Swisher, Joe Crede might all hit 30 bombs, and they will likely have 4 players with 30+ home runs.
as for your yankee's... they are on very thin ice. soooo many old dudes on that team, and so thin in both the starting 5 and bullpen. only way the yankees win the east is by miraculously staying healthy all year. that almost never happens. And i cant wait for the mid season realization that you have 1 lefty in your bullpen, and a weak starting five.
The white sox play detroit this weekend. If the sox can take 2 out of 3 or maybe even sweep them again, the tigers could be 1-11. Do you realize that would mean 10 games to make up JUST TO GET TO 500? let alone into the playoffs... you're kidding yourself if you think a major slide like this isnt significantly hurting their chances season long.
you have to look no further back than the 2007 yankees to find a team that got off to a terrible start and ended up in the playoffs. the yankees didn't really crack .500 till july last year. that yankees and this tigers team are very similar, lacking chemistry because of new additions, but both with tons of talent. as worried as i am about cabrera, he's not going to hit a buck 24 the rest of the season nor is magglio or sheff or polanco. just you wait, lletdownl, when the bats start to light up, your sox and the rest of the division are going to take a thumping.
hypothetically speaking lets say they lose 2 of 3 to the sox this weekend.
they would be 2-10. that leaves 150 games to play.
lets assume an AL Central winning team needs 92-95 wins to get the division. that would mean that they need to go 90-60 for the rest of the year to have a shot at the division title, and realistically 95-55 to win it for sure (as the central has been won by a team with at least 95 wins in recent seasons). thats almost 100 win pace for a full season... im not saying they are done, im just saying its a very tough road back if they dont start winning right away.
no, its 95-55. 12 games played of 162 means 150 games left. theyd need to play 95-55 for those remaining 150... that was my point... it IS 40 games over...
the al central is not one of the best divisions in baseball. detroit is clearly the most talented team...and they are awful! i wouldn't be surprised if they won the division and finished with a losing record for the season. moreover the tigers starting pitching is clearly superior to that of other central division teams...any combination of their 3rd, 4th and 5th starters (boderman, robertson, maroth, minor, etc) would win head to head matchups with #1 and #2 pitchers of cleveland such as carmona and fausto.
moreover, it's completely delusional to think that the white sox even have a chance. other than ossie guillen, I doubt that anybody outside of chicago (delusion-ville if there's ever been one) could even name a single player on the white sox. And here's the kicker...guillen doesn't even play anymore!!! He just sits on the bench running his dumb mouth all the time...total moron.
I'm sure that ther are some nice statistics indicating otherwise...but the bottom line remains that even a 2nd division east team like boston will feast on the teams of the midwest.
But hey, it's only april...keep dreaming if you want feel better. all we really need is hope!
i appreciate the Rays and their plucky young talent. i would prefer to appreciate them whupping some boston ass, but whatever.
the yankees have a tough road ahead of them, but are surprisingly at about .500 given the injuries and spotty pitching. i think kennedy has great stuff and will hopefully gain some confidence and control in the majors, phil hughes i'm not as sold on. joba could be a starter sure, but he needs to listen to his catchers and coaches. he shakes off too many signs...not to say he doesn't know what he's throwing, but i want him concentrating on the throwing, not the sequence.
with the rays surging, the red sox stumbling a bit, and the yankees never really out of it, and toronto as potentially good as anyone in baseball, i'd say this season is FAR from decided yet.
Well the only certain thing is that the AL is upside down. oakland? tampa? baltimore? the twins? who knew any of those teams would be over 500 and leading divisions (or close) this far into the season.
As for the tigers, its happened before and it will happen again. Pitching wins in the league, it always will. Good pitching can keep even the most ridiculous offense down, and once teams go into full 'press' mode, hitting gets harder and harder and pitchers throw you less and less to hit. Ask toronto, cleveland, white sox or rockies about that.
puddles, youre clearly someones homer, im not even going to debate you on baseball as im not sure you actually know anything about it. judging from your post from last month... im guessing you dont... so ill just say this. the central and east are playing 500 against each other so far this year.
who knew any of those teams would be over 500 and leading divisions (or close) this far into the season
i did...
the rays are not a fluke... they're playing great baseball every day... swept the sox a few weeks ago... and are currently three outs away from taking 3 of 4 from the yankees... not only are they on top of the al east, but they also have the best record in the whole al...
the veteran leadership of percival out in the 'pen and cliff floyd in the dugout has really brought this team together... and they're really helping to bring along the young core talent of crawford, upton, and longoria...
the surprising thing is that they haven't really been firing on all cylinders... they've had more people on the dl than any other team... longoria's in a slump... pena's in a slump... iwamura and bartlett are finally starting to hit over the last week or so...
early predictions... if longoria can get back on track, he should be this year's ROY... and if hinske keep up his early start he'll take come back player of the year...
it figures that they're finally putting together a good team now that i'm getting ready to move from a couple of blocks from the stadium to philadelphia...
BASEBALL IS BACK!!
join me in watching my SF gigantes get thier ass whupped all year long!
go cubs!
this is your year!!
saw the Dodgers kick the Redsoxs ass yesterday
mdler -was that the game at USC? 115K fans?!? Must've been cool...
baseball sucks...but go yankees!
I saw them at Dodger stadium...day after USC game
go cards!
Let's GO Mets!
let's go rays!!!! new name, new uniforms, new attitude...
we're coming after the AL east this year...
man I miss the big fishy...
Brewers 4
Cubs 3
Go Brew Crew
mmmm. beer n brats.
how do the o's have the best record in baseball thus far? (granted, 4 easy wins v. the mariners...)
not usu a baseball fan, but i did get to go to the opening day florida marlins v ny mets game at dolphin stadium. @39,000 people. $7 budweiser. very fun.
marlins lost that day, won the next, lost the third.
the tigers are on fire.
and it may be too early to ask this, but is miguel cabrera the second coming of juan gonzales? say it ain't so.
Go BoSox!
or perhaps, take it easy this year, you guys have been working hard lately. Another season where tickets sold out for the entire season on day 1, scalped standing room only tickets cost upwards of $50 and I am content with listening to games on the radio. In baseball fandom, and particularly Red Sox Nation, there's always something to complain about.
fog....and they're sayin that next year people should expect significant ticket increases...they're tryin to keep up with the rumors of ticket pricing for the new yankee stadium.
crazy that detroit has started out so cold...their chances of making the playoffs at this moment is at about 16% because they lost so many games to start the season...crazy. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/statistics/ps_odds.php
first week of the season (in almost all sports) doesn't really mean much of anything...having said that, i hope the tigers continue to die a slow painful death...go yankees!
i think expectations for the tigers were way too high, especially with their bullpen. the bullpen may be one of the worst in the mlb. without zumaya and rodney, everyone else is really porous (with maybe the exception of bobby seay). cabrera scares the hell out of me. i know he's adjusting to a new team and all, but he's so young and they paid him so much, it could backfire big time.
tell me when we're at about 165 games. then i can get excited about the football season.
larslarson, i'm curious how those odds are figured. if they are based on historical precedent, then do they take into account that for most of its approximately 100 year history that only two teams made the playoffs? i would think that in this era of expanded playoffs and weighted divisional schedules that the chance for a team to start badly and rebound would have grown considerably.
wasn't the st. louis cardinal team from a couple years back barely above .500 (83-79 maybe) for the regular season yet the ended up as world series champs. that would have been impossible in the old days.
at any rate, i don't think the first week of the season means much of anything...i'm not even the sure that the first month means much of anything.
puddles
i agree..the first week doesn't mean much..unless you lose or win a significant number of games...even then it's hard to argue that the tigers can't climb out of this hole..or that the orioles will remain on the pace they're on..
the numbers become far better predictors as the season goes on obviously...noone is over 54 percent to make the playoffs at the moment.
as far as how it's calculated..it says it there on the page:
"As the title says, the post-season odds report was compiled by running a Monte Carlo simulation of the rest of the season one million times. Current wins, losses and expected winning percentages are taken from the Adjusted Standings Report. "
and the cardinals were a huge anomaly...noone expected them to win the world series that year...they weren't playing great baseball going into the playoffs i believe..but got hot at the right time.
i agree that the expectations for the tigers were way to high. yes, they have a lineup stacked with talent, but its not ONLY their bullpen which is porous. their starting rotation is, at the most, the 3rd best rotation in the AL Central. Cleveland and the Royals clearly have a better starting 5, and i think at years end, the White Sox will show they have the better starting 5 as well.
As the old adage goes, good pitching beats good hitting, and there is A LOT of good pitching the central.
In the end, i think the tigers have too much talent and they will be in the hunt, but they wont win the division. I really believe that is down to the Indians, White Sox and Detroit, with Cleveland the clear favorite.
the most interesting thing to me, however, is how much this 1-7 tigers start changes the season. In a division thats likely to be decided by a few games, it could be the deal breaker. If the tigers were a 92 win team before, they are an 88 win team now... that brings the White Sox squarely into the picture.
GO SOX!!!!!
lletdownl, you are the biggest homer. that's okay. i am too.
the royals have better starting pitching than the tigers?! ha. we'll see if that plays out by the end of the season. i'll take verlander, rogers, bonderman, robertson, and willis over greinke, meche, bannister, bales, and tomko. (who the hell are half those guys?)
fear the green mon-stahh
right now the royals are pitching lights out, bannister is legit, and greinke could have that year when he finally busts out like he was supposed to do 2 years ago. gil meche had a fantastic year last year, and bales and tomko, though generally unknown are as reliable as you could hope for in a last place al central team.
i dont buy kenny rogers making it through an entire season healthy and i dont buy robertson or bonderman being better than bannister this year. after that, its a wash.
tigers starting 5 will have a higher era at seasons end, thats my bold prediction
but ja, you are right
i am a homer
i love the sox above all, but im not blinded by it... i know we wont win the division, but i think we are going to be better than most anticipate.
the sox will still be hanging around when September starts
1-7 start or 7-1 start...what-fucking -whatever. I'd have to double check this but I wouldn't be surprised if the tigers finished the 2006 season (their world series year) with a 1-7 mark in the last eight games of the season. They made the world series and probably should have even won it (if it hadn't been for a week off between games in which everyone except puddles himself was blowing serious smoke up their asses)...I'm rambling...but the point is that a 5-10 game stretch is not really indicative of anything. How many teams have finished the season with one win in last eight games? For what it's worth I believe in fundamental analysis not technical analysis. and I beieve in whisky and vodka...not these rum drinks.
There's no way that the white sox have an even remotely decent season...they've clearly peaked already. Cleveland is incapable of repeating their lucky season last year too. Deteoit's starting pitching will easily exceed that of the other division teams...
...And that annoys the hell out of me since I wish that team would fail. Maybe they'll explode in a painful plane crash and have to forfwit many gamesa.
That would be satisfyimg.
I hate detroit tigers.
Go yankees!!! My true love...sigh
Did I mention that my favorite actor is kurt russell? I love his work in 'captian ron', 'escape from new york', and anything with goldie hawn, especially 'overboard'
the only reason I knew baseball season was back was the other day when I was riding my bike to work and made the mistake of getting within 10 blocks of Fenway Park. I'm a horrible Bostonian.
puddles:
you should check out Municipal Waste's split with Bad Acid Trip, Tango and Thrash. all songs are about Kurt Russell movies.
Captain Ron is one of my favorite movies...of all time.
"You bet your little booty, you wasn't. You want a beer, you get your own beer."
words to live by.
Also, I just realized that this was not a Captain Ron thread, but a baseball one. Close enough.
So, have the Cubs been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs yet?
no one's excited about the nhl playoffs?
now we're talking...
puddles i have to disagree with you. its a 162 game season yes but you are missing the big picture.
1-8.
say they play as they were expected to do from here on out at about a 92 or so win clip. having already dug themselves this hole, they need to play at a 96-97 win clip to get back to their base level. That seems unlikely with their lack of pitching depth.
so what this really means, whether you accept it or not, is that if the tigers play really well for the rest of the year, their 1-8 start is going to cost them several games by the end of the year. they might win 88 now instead of 92. do you think 88 wins gets in the playoffs? probably not... does 92 wins? probably.
as for your complete dismissal of the white sox and indians... that means to me that you need to study up a bit more on the teams in the division, because you clearly aren't that familiar with the make up of either team. If you were, you wouldn't be able to write them off. unless of course you dont care about reality, which i completely understand. Tis baseball and one must be eternally optimistic.
the detroit baseball club is a team that i have very bitter feelings about (reference the latter stages of the 2006 pennant race thread) and i doubt i'll feel satisfied with the local team until every member of the 2006 squad is history. having said that, i still don't believe a slow start is a major concern.
you wouldn't think 88 wins would make the playoffs but as i pointed out earlier an 83 win st louis cardinal team recently won the entire world series. go figure.
regarding the current state of the central division, i see no reason to believe that any recent success of cleveland or chicago is anything other than fluke. minnesota was the only real threat in the division but they surrendered when they let go of johan santana. kansas city is pleasant but detroit is by default the only team left and despite their sluggish start they will probably win the division with barely trying...but i can't wait until the yankees smoke them in the playoffs and all the little fans of the kittys are crying their eyes out. oh that will be sweet!
wow puddles... you are so far wrong its funny. the central is the deepest division in baseball along with the east. Perhaps you dont understand how baseball works, you have to win your division or the wild card to get in the playoffs. and 88 wins hasnt won the central in a long time and it sure as hell wont win a wild card. The fact that you consider clevelands recent success a fluke is mystifying when they likely have the the best 1-2 starting pitching in the AL, behind MAYBE toronto, im not even sure about that though. Id take Carmona and Sabathia over anyone. And the fact that you would bring up an 83 win cardinals team is even more odd, because they happened to play in the far inferior league, and the worst division in that league. 83 wins wont get eve get you 3rd place in ANY of the AL divisions (except maybe the west)
as for the white sox, they have solid starting pitching, not spectacular but steady, a strong bullpen and a potentially potent offense. Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, Jermaine Dye, Nick Swisher, Joe Crede might all hit 30 bombs, and they will likely have 4 players with 30+ home runs.
as for your yankee's... they are on very thin ice. soooo many old dudes on that team, and so thin in both the starting 5 and bullpen. only way the yankees win the east is by miraculously staying healthy all year. that almost never happens. And i cant wait for the mid season realization that you have 1 lefty in your bullpen, and a weak starting five.
The white sox play detroit this weekend. If the sox can take 2 out of 3 or maybe even sweep them again, the tigers could be 1-11. Do you realize that would mean 10 games to make up JUST TO GET TO 500? let alone into the playoffs... you're kidding yourself if you think a major slide like this isnt significantly hurting their chances season long.
you have to look no further back than the 2007 yankees to find a team that got off to a terrible start and ended up in the playoffs. the yankees didn't really crack .500 till july last year. that yankees and this tigers team are very similar, lacking chemistry because of new additions, but both with tons of talent. as worried as i am about cabrera, he's not going to hit a buck 24 the rest of the season nor is magglio or sheff or polanco. just you wait, lletdownl, when the bats start to light up, your sox and the rest of the division are going to take a thumping.
all im saying is the numbers dont lie...
hypothetically speaking lets say they lose 2 of 3 to the sox this weekend.
they would be 2-10. that leaves 150 games to play.
lets assume an AL Central winning team needs 92-95 wins to get the division. that would mean that they need to go 90-60 for the rest of the year to have a shot at the division title, and realistically 95-55 to win it for sure (as the central has been won by a team with at least 95 wins in recent seasons). thats almost 100 win pace for a full season... im not saying they are done, im just saying its a very tough road back if they dont start winning right away.
yanks were 8 games under .500 at the end of may last year...
and it's 95-65, 30 games over .500, not 40, but you're right, first they have to start winning.
no, its 95-55. 12 games played of 162 means 150 games left. theyd need to play 95-55 for those remaining 150... that was my point... it IS 40 games over...
sheesh, man, okay, never question a baseball junky's love of statistics;)
hehe, im just excited cause i see a window of opportunity for my boys...
you have to admit though... thats a daunting stat...
the al central is not one of the best divisions in baseball. detroit is clearly the most talented team...and they are awful! i wouldn't be surprised if they won the division and finished with a losing record for the season. moreover the tigers starting pitching is clearly superior to that of other central division teams...any combination of their 3rd, 4th and 5th starters (boderman, robertson, maroth, minor, etc) would win head to head matchups with #1 and #2 pitchers of cleveland such as carmona and fausto.
moreover, it's completely delusional to think that the white sox even have a chance. other than ossie guillen, I doubt that anybody outside of chicago (delusion-ville if there's ever been one) could even name a single player on the white sox. And here's the kicker...guillen doesn't even play anymore!!! He just sits on the bench running his dumb mouth all the time...total moron.
I'm sure that ther are some nice statistics indicating otherwise...but the bottom line remains that even a 2nd division east team like boston will feast on the teams of the midwest.
But hey, it's only april...keep dreaming if you want feel better. all we really need is hope!
well it's been a delicious start watching the tigers struggle so far.
it's also looking more realistic that an 83 win team might capture the american league central division.
now if only the yankees could start winning
The Pirates are (nearly) playing .500 ball - no pigs flying outside my window yet.
Parity is a good thing - I'm digging how well the Rays and the Marlins are doing...
i appreciate the Rays and their plucky young talent. i would prefer to appreciate them whupping some boston ass, but whatever.
the yankees have a tough road ahead of them, but are surprisingly at about .500 given the injuries and spotty pitching. i think kennedy has great stuff and will hopefully gain some confidence and control in the majors, phil hughes i'm not as sold on. joba could be a starter sure, but he needs to listen to his catchers and coaches. he shakes off too many signs...not to say he doesn't know what he's throwing, but i want him concentrating on the throwing, not the sequence.
with the rays surging, the red sox stumbling a bit, and the yankees never really out of it, and toronto as potentially good as anyone in baseball, i'd say this season is FAR from decided yet.
and that's just the AL east.
Well the only certain thing is that the AL is upside down. oakland? tampa? baltimore? the twins? who knew any of those teams would be over 500 and leading divisions (or close) this far into the season.
As for the tigers, its happened before and it will happen again. Pitching wins in the league, it always will. Good pitching can keep even the most ridiculous offense down, and once teams go into full 'press' mode, hitting gets harder and harder and pitchers throw you less and less to hit. Ask toronto, cleveland, white sox or rockies about that.
puddles, youre clearly someones homer, im not even going to debate you on baseball as im not sure you actually know anything about it. judging from your post from last month... im guessing you dont... so ill just say this. the central and east are playing 500 against each other so far this year.
... cue personal attack from puddles
i did...
the rays are not a fluke... they're playing great baseball every day... swept the sox a few weeks ago... and are currently three outs away from taking 3 of 4 from the yankees... not only are they on top of the al east, but they also have the best record in the whole al...
the veteran leadership of percival out in the 'pen and cliff floyd in the dugout has really brought this team together... and they're really helping to bring along the young core talent of crawford, upton, and longoria...
the surprising thing is that they haven't really been firing on all cylinders... they've had more people on the dl than any other team... longoria's in a slump... pena's in a slump... iwamura and bartlett are finally starting to hit over the last week or so...
early predictions... if longoria can get back on track, he should be this year's ROY... and if hinske keep up his early start he'll take come back player of the year...
it figures that they're finally putting together a good team now that i'm getting ready to move from a couple of blocks from the stadium to philadelphia...
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