AL West

By Dr. Jekyll

AL West

Texas Rangers: Behind Josh Hamilton and Michael Young, this team was always going to score runs. The offensive addition of Vlad Guerrero has been a surprise, as he’s absolutely lit it up in Arlington this year. But what no one expected was the pitching to help out. Cliff Lee makes this team an instant World Series contender, with much thanks to the Angels for selling away the core of their team this past year and making way for a new face to emerge from the west. Welcome to the foray, Rangers.

Los Angeles Angels: Speaking of those Angels, Jered Weaver has given this club a chance to remain competitive for a lot longer than some (me) expected them to be this season. Mike Napoli is a stud behind the plate and with him leading up future young pitchers this will be a club that can still make threats even when in a rebuilding year. The loss of core players has definitely made an impact on the season, but this is a gritty club that has a bright future. Just not this season.

Oakland Athletics: At the start of the season I wrote that a healthy Ben Sheets made this an average team. Well, at their current record, I’d like to toot my own horn and say this is one of the few predictions I got right. They have a top order pitching staff, not that anyone who knows Billy Beane would expect any different. The team is still well of being strong, and the constant revolving door of characters that seem to take over this lineup makes it hard to get a feel for the direction of the club. This lineup needs pop, but with a few bats in the lineup they could make noise and play the spoiler role in this division.

Seattle Mariners: I hoped in this bandwagon and jumped off almost immediately. The Ken Griffey show was an awkward farewell, and was probably the most memorable part of the season for Seattle as well. The Cliff Lee trade was meant for a club looking to break through. All the Mariners did was break down. They couldn’t get Lee the run support, let alone any of their other starters, and have one of the worst records in the league because of it. King Felix and Ichiro haven’t gotten much mention this season, and this isn’t a fault of their own. Ichiro is still the best pure hitter of our generation, and will break 200 hits yet again this season. The lone bright spot in what’s otherwise a wash of a season.

MLB award predictions

By Dan Rodgers

This is just a continuation of the previous post. However, this one will only be dealing with the awards races.

AL MVP candidates: Robinson Cano (NYY), Miguel Cabrera (DET), Vlad Guerrero (TEX)

NL MVP candidates: David Wright (NYM), Albert Pujols (STL), Joey Votto (CIN)

AL CY YOUNG candidates: David Price (TAM), Jon Lester (BOS), Andy Pettite (NYY), Jered Weaver (LAA)

NL CY YOUNG candidates: Ubaldo Jimenez (COL), Adam Wainwright (STL), Chris Carpenter (STL), Mike Pelfry (NYM)

AL ROOKIE: Brennan Boesch (DET), Austin Jackson (DET), Mitch Talbot (CLE), Neftali Feliz (TEX)

NL ROOKIE: Gaby Sanchez (FLA), Jason Heyward (ATL), Ike Davis (NYM), Jaime Garcia (STL)

AL MANAGER: Ron Washington (TEX), Cito Gaston (TOR)

NL MANAGER: Bobby Cox (ATL), Bud Black (SD)

Here is a nice clip from a July 4 that happened just a few years back...enjoy...





Rodgers That

Rounding the bases

By Dr. Jekyll,

A weekly feature on the good, the bad, and the ugly happening around the diamond.

Single: A nice little win streak, mostly the sweep of the Rays, have the Red Sox dreaming of a turnaround. Yes, they’re better than .500. But no, they’re not good enough to sweep the Rays all year round. Look for a regress to the norm, but way to stave off selling the farm boys!

Double: The Cincinnati Reds are in sole possession of first place. This is not a misprint. The loveable losers (sorry, not you Cubs fans), are atop the NL Central podium for what feels like the first time in years, and they’re celebrating. And why not? It’s been 20 years since a World Series ring and they haven’t made the playoffs since ’95. With Phat Albert doing his best disappearing act (and still hitting over .300), the big boy at first has torn things up. The Central is going to be won on sheer power, and with Pujols struggling, there’s no power outage for the Reds.

Triple: Even though he can’t leg ‘em out anymore, and he was considered a wash-up and the odd man out in a very crowded outfield, Vlad The Impaler is back and doing what he does best for the not surprisingly AL West front running Rangers: raking. Leading baseball in RBI’s and amongst the leaders in homers, Vlad is taking a nice little victory lap in Arlington, giving the league a friendly reminder of why he’s so, so good.

Home Run: Ozzie Guillen, no matter what you do in your career as a manager (now that you have that ring, of course), you will always be quotable and entertaining. This little tirade following your ejection just goes to show your passion, drive, and really, just how funny it is to watch you blow up. No matter how relevant the state of your team, you, Mr. Guillen, will always hold a place in our hearts.

Strikin’ them out: Josh Johnson, the unheralded pitcher on the we-only-win-every-7-years Florida Marlins, is trying to bring some peace to the OTHER team from the sunshine state. Sitting pretty at 5-1 with an ERA under 2.50, Johnson is reminding us all of why the Marlins are able to go on the little tears that they do. With the Phillies recent struggles, the NL East is more open then ever (the Marlins are in LAST and still above .500 and down in the standings by under 5 games). If the fish are going to make a swim for the division title, look for JJ to be reelin’ um in (ok, I get it, too many fish jokes).

Popping Up: It’s not shocking that the Toronto Blue Jays are having trouble keeping pace in the 3-legged race that is the AL East. They’re still clobbering the ball like nobody’s business, leading the league in team homers, but the average is tinkering near the bottom. It was a nice little run from our Canadian friends, but without a truly stable pitching rotation and so many free swingers at the plate, it’ll take a bat and another arm for them to stay within striking distance as summer rolls in.

Caught Looking: If you missed baseball’s night games this week, you’re hardly at fault. With series finales of great shows like Lost and 24, there was plenty going on to excuse yourself. I mean, that’s what the Cubs did. Just a few days after celebrating the anniversary of the night time baseball game, the folks at Wrigley reminded us of why we couldn’t do so in the first place, treating us to a lovely blackout on the ivy. Of course, Wrigley wasn’t at fault, but this may be the most exciting thing to happen to the Cubs all year.