Climbing the Ladder with the American League 4/20/2008

As temperature’s rise, so do the Red Sox As the third week in the American League comes to a close, teams begin to settle into place and find their groove.

The Boston Red Sox are the hottest team in the American League right now. The Sox are 8-2 in their last ten and with both David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez hitting the way they are, Boston is back on top. Boston has climbed to second in the majors in runs scored with 98 and the offense has really caught fire in the last week. Boston will finish its series with Texas on Marathon Monday, then host a hot Angels team for a mid week series, finishing the week with a series in Tampa. The Sox have recovered nicely from their slow start to the season and look to be taking advantage of the sluggish American League East.

Baltimore continues to play well through the first three weeks of the season but have slowed a little going 5-5 in their last ten. The team’s regression seems to come at a time when Baltimore pitching started facing tougher competition. The O’s schedule stays tough for the rest of the week as the team travels to Seattle and Chicago. Look for Baltimore to continue their slide down the American League East ladder.

Toronto finishes the third week of the season at 9-9 and in third place. The team continues to score runs, ranking 6th in the majors with 89, but the team’s major weakness has been its bullpen. Jeremy Accardo struggled early in the closer role but should improve now that BJ Ryan has rejoined the club to take the ball in the 9th. Toronto also parted ways with slugger Frank Thomas earlier today and will fill his spot in the line up with Matt Stairs. It is unclear where Thomas will end up, but there are a lot of teams who could use a hitter like him.

So far in 2008, the New York Yankees have not shown the run scoring potential that many have predicted. The Yankees rank 12th in the majors with 78 runs scored and 8th in the majors in home runs. The Yankees have shown signs they can put up a lot of runs when they scored 15 against the Boston Red Sox last week, but were outscored 21-7 in the next three games. New York is on the verge of breaking out, but the slow starts of Mussina, Kennedy, and Hughes hamper the teams ability to increase their win total.

The Tampa Bay Rays can score runs. They can also steal bases and hit home runs. What the team can not do is put together a decent winning streak. The Rays are 5-5 in their last 10 and look to be on the cusp of heating up. Recent reports state that Scott Kazmir should be joining the team around May 3rd and if the Rays can keep it together until then, they should be in good shape for the remainder of the season. The Rays will host the Blue Jays this week at Disney’s Wild World of Sports, followed by a weekend series with the Red Sox at the Trop.

Chicago’s pitching had a good week and continued to keep the ball in the park. White Sox pitching leads all of baseball in home runs allowed with 5 and the results have kept Chicago in first place in the American League Central. The White Sox have continued to score runs, ranking 4th with 92. Muck of Chicago’s success in the early part of the season can be attributed to third baseman Joe Crede and left fielder Carlos Quentin, who have combines for 33 RBI’s and 9 home runs. Chicago hopes to continue its success at home when they host the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles during the upcoming week.

The Kansas City Royals can not score runs. The team ranks 20th in the majors with 62 runs scored but has relied on its early pitching success to keep the team competitive in the American League Central. The Royal pitching staff has posted a 1.19 ERA in games they’ve won and Zack Greinke and Brian Bannister have started the season red hot. It is only matter of time before the two pitching studs have a few bad games and we may have seen it already in Bannister’s last start in which he gave up 5 earned runs in 5.0 innings pitched. The Royals have been, without a doubt, the best story so far in the 2008 season. Anyone who watches baseball can see that the team has the pieces in place to be great. It just isn’t going to happen this year.

The Minnesota Twins are playing less than .500 baseball and their record stands at 8-10 after the third week of the season. The team ranks 17th in the majors in runs scored with 69 and ranks 10th in runs allowed with 77. The Twin’s statistics, like its players, aren’t flashy and don’t stand out as being extraordinarily good or terribly bad. If the Twin’s are truly trying to rebuild, they are in a good position in terms of core players. What the team needs is a power bad to compliment slugger Justin Morneau and Frank Thomas might be a good, inexpensive, fit for this team.

Cleveland’s starting pitching continued to struggle in week 3. CC Sabathia had another terrible outing and currently boasts a 13.50 ERA with 14 base on balls. Sabathia has gone through stretches like this before but has never had 5 consecutive bad outings in a row. If the Indian’s Ace continues to struggle in week 4 it may be time to panic. The good news is that Cleveland will face the Royals in a series starting on Tuesday. This would be a perfect opportunity for Sabathia to get his season back on track.

For some reason, the Detroit Tigers can not get their act together in 2008. The Tigers showed signs of improvement in week 3 and finished with 4 wins, the most so far this season. Detroit has been scoring runs at an increasing rate, but have also been giving up a lot. The Tigers rank 22nd in the majors with an astounding 112 runs allowed. Tiger pitching has been awful so far and will need to improve if Detroit hopes to turn its season around. After finishing the series with Toronto on Monday, Detroit hosts the Texas Rangers who have had a tough series with the Red Sox.

The Los Angeles Angels continue their offensive success in week 3 and now rank 3rd in the majors with 95 runs scored, third in stolen bases with 17, and first in team batting average at .295. Chone Figgins has been red hot so far this season and is batting .375 with 7 stolen bases. The Angel’s offensive success has come with excellent pitching from the Los Angeles starting rotation and bullpen. The combination has landed the Angels in first place in the American League West.

The Oakland Athletics were bumped out of first place by the LA Angels during week three and tough series with the Chicago White Sox and Seattle Mariners are to blame. Oakland’s pitching, without Rich Harden, was not able to carry over the success it had during the first two weeks of the season. This was mostly due to the offense’s inability to score runs. Oakland pitching pitched well enough to win but the tea failed to score more runs than their opponents.

Seattle fans received some bad news this week when newly acquired ace, Erik Bedard, landed on the DL with inflammation in his left hip. The weight of the team’s success has been thrusted back onto King Felix and so far, he’s responded well, going 9 innings against the A’s for the W. The Mariners have been a good offensive team so far in 2008 thanks to Raul Ibanez, Jose Lopez and Richie Sexson….yes, Richie Sexson. Despite a .226 batting average, Sexson has hit 4 home runs, has driven in 13 runs and walked 13 times. Not a bad start for a guy who was written off after back to back dud seasons in 2006 and 2007.

The Texas Rangers continue to struggle in week 3 and are on the verge of being swept by the surging Boston Red Sox. The schedule doesn’t get much better for the Rangers as the team will travel to Detroit after leaving Boston for what could be considered the Tiger’s turning point to a successful season. The Ranger’s remain in the middle of the majors in runs scored and allowed and look to be the American League punching bag in 2008.