Climbing the Ladder with the American League 5/4/2008

Hamilton American League Player of the Month Despite Texas Size Lead by the Angels and A’s

The Boston Red Sox have won 4 of 5 in this home stand and are looking to finish off a sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays this afternoon. Last Friday’s win moved Boston into first place and the Sox currently stand 2 games ahead of the Orioles and Rays. Clay Buchholz is tied for the major league rookie lead in strike outs with 33, matching Johnny Queto of the Cincinnati Reds and the Red Sox rookie pitchers are getting the job done. Despite having an awful offensive beginning to the week where the Sox went 23-150 with 4 runs and 4 extra base hits, the offense exploded for 28 hits and 19 runs in their last two games. Boston ranks 5th in the majors in runs scored and 2nd in batting average. After finishing its series with Tampa Bay, the Sox will travel to Detroit and Minnesota. The Sox will hope they face the same Tigers team they did in when they opened the season at Fenway in the beginning of April.

The Baltimore Orioles 15 wins in April were the most for the team since 2005, despite allowing 9 more runs than they scored. The O’s can thank their 8-2 record in 1 run games for their success in the beginning of 2008. Closer George Sherrill is second in the American League in saves with 11 saves and the Baltimore bullpen leads the league in wins with 7. Baltimore will continue its road trip after the team finishes it series in Los Angeles. The O’s will then travel to Oakland and Kansas City.

Despite losing their last two games, the Rays are off to their best start after 30 games since the team entered the American League. So far, Tampa Bay is 2-3 on its 9 game, 10 day road trip and are in the midst of streak in which the team has won 8 of 11, including a 6 game win streak. Tampa Bay looks to avoid their first sweep of the season today in a game in which Scott Kazmir will make his first start of the season. Kazmir leads the majors in k’s per 9 innings from 2005-2007 with 9.65 , ahead of Jake Peavy and Johan Santana. If it weren’t for injuries, the Rays could be one of the best teams in baseball. So far in 2008, the Rays have used and major league leading, 35 different players and have had 11 players on the disabled list, 6 since opening day. Tampa will travel to Toronto after their game with Boston today and then host the Los Angeles Angels over the weekend.

The New York Yankees are looking to make their first sweep of the Seattle Mariners since 2005. Like the Tampa Bay Rays, the Yankees have also had to deal with a number of injuries. Last week the Bronx Bombers placed Jorge Posada, Alex Rodriguez, and Phil Hughes on the disabled list. Their offense looks to be the one who will take the biggest hit from these injuries. So far in 2008, the Yankees are the only team to not score 5 or more runs in an inning, something they did 31 times last season. New York have been outscored 143-140 so far this season and are one of only three teams who have yet to play an extra inning game. Things will get worse before they get better while some of teams major contributers get healthy.

The Toronto Blue Jays pitching has kept them in the few game they’ve won. The Jays boast a major league best 1.17 ERA since 4/26/08, allowing 3 runs or less in 17 of their 31 games. The Toronto offense is to blame for their last place standing in the American League East. The team ranks 19th in the majors in runs score and 11th in the AL with a .251 batting average. The one bright spot in the Jays line up is Scott Rolen’s performance since returning from the DL. Rolen has gone 8-26 (.308) with at least one hit in each game, 5 for extra bases. Toronto will finish it’s series with the White Sox on Monday then host the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Minnesota Twins started their homestand with a two game sweep of the White Sox and went on to take the first two from the Detroit Tigers. The steak of wins against divisional foes has put Minnesota in first place in the American League Central for the first time this season and for the first time since 10/1/06. The offense has got a lot of help from two hitters in its last few games. Since returning from the DL on 4/25/08, Michael Cuddyer has hit safely in every game and has extended his hitting streak to 7 games. Joe Mauer had his 9th multi hit game of the year last night and has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 games. The offense has been helped by its stingy pitching, which ranks 6th in the majors with 123 runs scored. The Twins will travel to Chicago after an off day on Monday then host a weekend series with Boston beginning on Friday.

The Chicago White Sox have lost a season high 4 straight games and 7 of their last 10. Chicago has been clutch in situations where there have been runners in scoring position in 2008 but their luck has taken a turn for the worse as of late. The White Sox, who previously hit at a .281 clip with RISP have since dropped to a .104 average in the last 7 games. Chicago ranks 3rd in the majors in runs allowed with 115 and are tied for the American League lead in quality starts with 18. The White Sox rank 3rd in the majors in home runs thanks to Joe Crede (7), Carlos Quentin (8) and Jim Thome (6) and lead the American League in solo home runs with 27. Chicago’s offense can put up runs and their luck should change in the up coming week.

The Cleveland Indians are just a game and a half behind where they were last season despite having 10 less errors (25 in 2007 vs. 15 in 2008). The Indians have won 7 of their last 11 games but have dropped 10 of their last 16 at home. The teams series win over the Royals marked their first since taking their opening day series against Chicago. Cleveland’s Cliff Lee leads the American League with a 0.96 ERA and has been named the AL pitcher of the month. Slugger Victor Martinez leads the league in batting average at .356 and the Indians rank 9th in the AL with 132 runs scored. Cleveland starters rank 4th in the AL with a 3.70 ERA. Cleveland will travel to New York to face the struggling Yankees this week and then return home to host a weekend series with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Last nights loss against the Minnesota Twins was only the 4th for the Detroit Tigers in the teams last 12 games. The Tigers have won 12 of their last 19 and now lead the American league in runs scored with 119 since 4/14/08. It took a while for the Tigers to heat up but they have made up for their slow start. Detroit has increased their ranking in runs scored for the season to 7th in the majors with 151, but have still given up more runs than they’ve scored (163). The teams offensive success has coincided with the recent success of Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera has hit in 18 of his last 20 games while hitting .316 with 13 runs scored, 5 doubles, 1 triple, 5 home runs and 20 RBI. The Tigers, who have been an excellent road team over the last few years, will travel to Boston and New York this week.

Despite being only 2 games behind the division leader, the Kansas City Royals are in last place in the American League Central. The Royals offensive woe’s have continued for another week as the team has been outscored 133-105 through their first 29 games. Kansas City had a season high 6 hits last night in their game against the Cleveland Indians and the team is off to its best start since 2003. You can see how bad it was in Kansas City and Royal fans have to be happy with the teams performance so far in 2008.

After winning 10 of 14, the Angels have gone on to lose 4 of their last 6. When the Angels are good they are good and when they are bad they are real bad. Los Angeles has held opponents to 6 runs in the last 4 wins but have given up 46 runs in their last 5 losses. The good news is that the Angels 18 April wins are the most ever in club history and was good enough to tie for the most in the American League. Ervin Santana and Joe Saunders are only the second two pitchers to go 5-0 or better in the month of April. The Angels hit 28 home runs in April and are off to a much greater start than they were last April when they hit 17. The Angel bullpen has been stellar and awful this season posting a 7.14 ERA in its first 12 games, a 1.80 ERA in its next14 games and a 9.98 ERA in its last 4. The Angels will finish its series with Baltimore today, then travel to Kansas City and Tampa Bay next week.

The Oakland Athletics have lost 4 of their last 5, but are 9-6 over their last 15 games. Before their loss last night, Oakland spent 12 of the last 13 days with at least a share of first place and a total of 20 days so far this season. This is a big improvement over last year when the team spent a total of just 9 days in first. Oakland has played in 10 one run games this season even though they’ve outscoring their opponents 156-120. In Oakland’s last 12 games, the team has scored four runs of fewer 9 times and 11 or more runs in the other three. Oakland’s pitching staff leads the major leagues with a 3.17 ERA and leads the American League in opponents batting average. The A’s posted their first winning record in April since 2003 and look to carry their success over to May. The A’s will host Baltimore this week then travel to Texas for a weekend series with the Rangers.

The Mariners are in the middle of a season high 5 game losing streak and are on the verge of being swept in every game of their 6 game road trip. Seattle has lead at some point in 9 of their 18 losses but has had trouble maintaining leads. The Seattle bullpen has blown 5 saves so far this season and Closer J.J. Putz, who is usually lights out, has blown 2 of 4 saves opportunities. Seattle has not hit a home run in its last two games and the team has not had a multi-home run game since April 24th. Seattle has a losing record when they fail to hit a home run and are in the middle of a power outage. The Mariners return home on Monday to host the Texas Rangers and Chicago White Sox.

The Texas Rangers did one thing right this off season when they traded for Josh Hamilton. Hamilton was named the American League Player of the Month for April and was the first Ranger to be named player of the month since Mark Teixeira in July 2004. Hamilton is leading the Majors with 33 RBI, 7 more than any other player. Hamilton has lead the Rangers to their first 4 game win streak of the season but the club remains at the bottom of the American League West. Texas will finish its series in Oakland today then travel to Seattle then return home for another series with the A’s.