American League East Breakdown

Baseball is a hard topic to cover because nearly every day, from February 25th to late October, there will be a baseball game played. Need not worry fans of Shaun Gallagher, I WILL WRITE AS OFTEN AS YOUR LITTLE HEARTS DESIRE!

Any who, today I break down the AL East. Last year was a shocking turnaround from the usual Red Sox/Yankees duel that is very media friendly. Frankly, the Bo Sox-Yankee rivalry has lost some steam in the past few years. The Tampa Bay Rays came roaring from the caboose of the division all the way to the top. They had a 32 game swing from 2007 winning 97 games in 2008. Not only that my friends, but they had the second lowest team salary in the league! Take that Steinbrenner! Truly astonishing, BUT they still lost to those Phightin’ Phils in the World Series…ah it feels good.

The signing of Pat Burrell will help them get some more power in the lineup. His stats from 2008 put him as top five in the Rays lineup in average, RBI’s, Homers, and Slugging/On Base percentage. But, don’t forget about that infamous Pat Burrell Shuffle that I am all too familiar with (136 strikeouts was second on the Phils in 2008 behind strikeout King Ryan Howard). This year look for them to stay competitive and maybe vie for a Wildcard spot. The Wildcard is nearly sealed to come out of the AL East seeing as they are the most competitive division in their league.

The Bo Sox are friggin haaadcooore…c’mon I had to. Really though, this offseason they made some good pickups with Rocco Baldelli, who when healthy, is a great hitter. The trick is when he is healthy. He hasn’t played over 100 games since 2004 and I can’t blame him. The man has mitochondrial myopathy…I don’t know what it is either but from what I have read it is a disease that causes damage to the small energy producing structures that serve as the cells “power plants.” These are very important to the energy that your brain and muscles need. Also, symptoms can range from muscle weakness all the way to blindness or heart failure…pretty serious and this guy still goes out and plays ball. Plus, with Kevin Youkilis on the field you know that you are guaranteed a huge goateed single at the right time. Need I mention their pitching staff? Because I’m gonna…they picked up Brad Penny from the Dodgers and his stats do not prove how good a pitcher he can be. That said he is still at the very best a number three pitcher on the Red Sox staff behind Dice-K, Josh Beckett, and could flip flop with Jon Lester, and don’t you forget one of my favorite pitchers, The 42 year old knuckle ballin’ sensation Tim Wakefield. Wakefield may have been rocked during the playoffs but I still love the man…and ask around, I can throw a pretty mean knuckle ball as well (in wiffle ball, but still). Bo Sox will go to the playoffs, but whether it’s the Wildcard or first place is up to the Rays.

Sigh…time to talk about those damn Yankees. Alright even though I hate the team they did do a lot of big things this offseason to improve their team from last year. I mean they had to give away their first born sons to do it but still. While some find it sad that Mike the Moose Mussina retired, less than a month later the Yankees signed CC Sabathia AND A.J. Burnett. That should solve some of the rotation problems they had (other than Mussina, no big starting pitcher had an ERA better than 4.00). Sabathia and Burnett will be a strong one, two in the lineup with the possibility that Joba Chamberlain could join them. Don’t count on it but it could happen. They also, recently resigned Andy Petite which gives them a solid three man rotation. Also, the Yanks signed Mark Teixeira in the offseason. This signing was big news in the media but didn’t do much for me. Teixeira is like Andruw Jones to me, in that he has a big bat but just doesn’t produce when the time is right. He’ll hit 30 home runs this year but more than half will be when his team is either up big or down big and the game is already decided. Yanks playoff hopes depend on the Rays this year. Wildcard or nothing for these guys.

Fortunately, for Blue Jays and Orioles fans they have other sports teams that are contenders in their respective sports…well sort of. The Blue Jays just might be the best team in Toronto which isn’t saying much because the Raptors are in dead last and the Maple Leafs are 11th in the east with no hopes of heating up (4-9 in January). So Toronto, keep on keeping on in your beautifully clean city. The O’s aren’t much better. I mean they picked up David Pauley…umm well how about Felix Pie? No? Tough crowd. Well how about the re-signing Nick Markakis? 6 more years in B-more! And don’t forget CESAR IZTURIS! He is a great Shortstop so look for that to brighten your year. Ok that’s a good note to go out on. Next up NL Central.