It’s funny, just about a month ago, everybody, including myself, was ripping the American League East division apart. At one point, the Yankees were the only team with a record over .500, and it just looked like nobody else brought anything to the table. You had to think that at some point at least one of the other teams would wake up and play up to their capabilities.
Well, that happened and then some.
The Toronto Blue Jays tore it up, going 18-8 in the month of June and improving to 41-37, which is good enough to sit in 4th place in the division but just 1 game behind the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays for first. Their offense just absolutely exploded with Chris Colabello coming onto the scene out of nowhere hitting the cover off the ball, as well as Josh Donaldson continuing his MVP caliber play not only at the plate but in the field as well. Donaldson, along with Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, make for one of the most fearsome middle of the lineup hitters a team could possibly hope for. Even though their pitching hasn’t exactly been phenomenal, their bullpen picked it up big time during their 11 game winning streak this past month. Their lineup just flat out out-slugged everybody and the bullpen was able to close games out. Unfortunately, I don’t see them as serious contenders for the division because their starting pitching is so inconsistent. They play their final game of the month tonight against the Boston Red Sox.
The Baltimore Orioles were right up there with the Blue Jays for the best teams of the month, going 18-9 thus far. Baltimore is currently 41-35 and tied for first in the division with the Rays. Their surge has been led by their high powered offense with Adam Jones, Chris Davis, a finally healthy Manny Machado who’s hitting .307, and 26 year old Jimmy Paredes who has really emerged. In my opinion, Paredes was the key piece to their comeback. He’s hitting .321 with 9 home runs, has driven in 36 runs, and has an on base percentage of .350. Their starting pitching has surprisingly been one of the better staffs in baseball this season, led by their ace Ubaldo Jimenez who has pitched to a record of 7-3 and has an earned run average of 3.09. Wei-Yin Chen has been phenomenal as well even though his record doesn’t show it, his ERA is at 2.90, and Miguel Gonzalez has pitched well too. Those top three plus their high powered offense could make them contenders yet again in the American League. They need to make a move for an arm in my opinion in order to be serious contenders.
The Tampa Bay Rays, during the first two months, were kind of hovering behind the New York Yankees for first place this season, but they have had a very good June as well, going 16-11 to tie the Orioles for first place. The main reason for the Rays success this month was the emergence of their starting pitching. Right hander Chris Archer has become of the best pitchers in the Major Leagues this season, pitching to a record of 9-5 with an ERA of 2.31, striking out 133 hitters and walking just 25 in 109 innings. Nathan Karns has stepped up big time as well, and even though young Jake Odorizzi has been sidelined for the last couple weeks, the two of them have helped make this one of the better young rotations in the league. Second baseman Logan Forsythe has broke out, hitting 8 home runs, driving in 32, and hitting for an average of .293. Steven Souza and Evan Longoria have provided some power to the lineup, but the pitching from the rotation, to the bullpen with Steven Geltz, Kevin Jepsen, Brad Boxberger, Brandon Gomes, and Xavier Cedeno all pitching to an ERA of 3 or lower has really been the glue to this team’s success. Do I think they can hang around in the division? In this division, absolutely, but I don’t see them going much further if they do make the playoffs.
It’s been an up and down month for the Bronx Bombers, as they have games or series in which is looks like they’re going to take off and then others where they just get blown out. For them, it all has to do with starting pitching. They got Masahiro Tanaka back from injury. Okay, good. Now, can he show a little consistency? Because in order for this team to go anywhere this season, he needs to be the man, the ace at the top of that rotation. Same with Michael Pineda. The 26 year old got off to a great start this season, and I believe that he has the best stuff in the rotation, but lately he’s been hot and cold. Pitches great one start and then the next one he gets shelled. Consistency is key. We all know CC Sabathia is nowhere near what he used to be, so that puts even more on the backs of Tanaka and Pineda to bare down. Ivan Nova came back and he pitched well in his first start of the year, so if he can continue pitching well it’d be a huge plus for this team, but the Yankees need help in their rotation. Dellin Betances has been Dellin Betances. There almost isn’t anything to say about him. All I have to say is he has given up an earned run in two outings this season. In three months. That’s another level of impressive. As long as they can get Andrew Miller back healthy the bullpen will be one of the better ones in baseball. The lineup, with Brett Gardner becoming one of the better players in all of baseball driving in 39 runs out of the leadoff spot, Mark Teixeira going back in time to when he was in his prime and playing at an extremely high level, and Alex Rodriguez continuing to shock everybody by swinging the bat well, has been pretty solid, but this team isn’t going anywhere without consistency in the starting rotation. The Yankees are currently sitting in 3rd place with a record of 41-36, just a half game behind the Rays and Orioles.
Then there are the 35-43 Boston Red Sox. All I have to say is their offense has underperformed, their pitching has been horrendous outside of Clay Buchholz. Everybody else in their starting rotation has an ERA over 4, and two of them have over a 5. They are looking everywhere to try to find pitchers but nothing seems to be working. Joe Kelly, Justin Masterson, Rick Porcello, Wade Miley, they have all struggled so mightily that there’s no point in even looking at the Red Sox right now. They attempted to build an offensive powerhouse, but that’s gone up in flames. Dustin Pedroia, Xander Bogaerts, and Hanley Ramirez have produced enough offensively to keep the ship from completely sinking, but it’s close to doing just that. Boston acquired Pablo Sandoval in the offseason to put up big numbers, he’s struggled this season, and David Ortiz is currently hitting below .230. They’ll probably wind up losing 90 games this season. The only reason they wouldn’t is if the other teams in the division revert back to what they were doing in April and May.
I feel like I owe an apology to the American League East. They’ve been impressive for the most part in June, and they deserve credit for making that division interesting again. Keep this up and it will be a great race to the finish line.
