From
Bob Klapisch:
Trying to call a division race in late May is the exercise of fools, not to mention professional suicide. That disclaimer aside, who here gets the feeling this just isn’t the Rays’ year in the AL East?
Better question: why does it feel like this war will come to a couple of familiar superpowers – the Yankees and Red Sox? Maybe because it is. Going into Tuesday night’s action, only a game separated the two, which wouldn’t normally mean much except the Rays slipped under .500 after blowing a 10-0 lead to the Indians on Monday night. Meanwhile the Blue Jays have seen their pitchers get smoked at a .302 clip during an eight-game losing streak.
For all the preseason predictions that the East – the AL’s true Beast – might be too closely packed to produce a 95-game winner seems to have less traction now. Incredibly, the Sox have the AL’s third-best slugging percentage, even though David Ortiz is no longer a threat, while the Yankees are on a pace for 914 runs, a 14 percent uptick over last year.
These are both surprising trends, but it’s the Rays’ struggle that really raises the eyebrows. It was logical to assume the defending AL champs wouldn’t catch anyone by surprise in 2009, but even so, the bullpen has outright sabotaged Joe Maddon, if not embarrassed him.
If history has taught us anything since the early days of the Bombers’ renaissance, repeating is a near impossibility, especially in the AL. Instead, baseball seems to run in precious cycles.
It’s just a hunch, but it might be time for a renewal of the Northeast-corridor tong wars, Yankees-Red Sox circa 2003-2004. It’s hard to root against that.
When the season began
I predicted that the division race would come down to the Yankees and Red Sox and I still feel that way, so obviously I agree with Klapisch on this one. Do you?
7 Comments:
i believe the division will come down to the yankees. yes, just the yankees. if we can keep up how were playing now, no injuries, or keep em to a minimum, and minor distractions from here on out, then we can wrap this division up early and head back to october glory!
preach
The world is full of rocket scientists!
You could pick Yanks and Sox for years and always be right.
Im going to go on record as saying if the Yanks continue playing the way they have been there wont be any race come September. They are playing with confidence like Boston had been for several years. And Boston is playing with frustration. I believe the early season offensive spike for Boston will come down and their pitching will get worse.
I can see the Yanks winning the division by 4+ games.
Would have been wrong last year, Anon.
It was only a matter of time before Toronto fell apart. They haven't played many games in the AL East before they played the Yankees recently. And the AL East is the hardest division. They had an easy schedule so far up until the yankees played them then boston swept them.
On a RARE ocassion rockets fail. Last year was a dud launch!
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