SHL: American Atlantic Weekly Overview

Checking in with the American Atlantic division.

Bos Red Sox-The Boston Red Sox are still the best team in the Seamheads Historical League and they’re even playing two games under their expected Pyt. Record.  Despite their great record, it could be a lot better.  The Sox have been relatively unlucky this season and have posted a 12-14 record in 1 run games. If a few things had gone their way in those games, the Sox could have a commanding lead in the Atlantic.  Pitcher Lefty Grovewas impressive back on Aug 19. when he pitched a 2-hit shut out against the divisional rival Athletics.  Grove is the only Boston starter yet to reach 10 wins on the season.  The Red Sox will need to finish strong if they want to keep their lead in the Atlantic.  With the A’s only 2 games back and Boston coming off their worst month of the season (14-10 .583 PCT) they’ll really need to bear down for the last month of the season.

Phi-KC-Oak Athletics-Since I last wrote, the A’s were able to chip 3 games off of Boston’s Atlantic division lead and were able to take advantage of Boston’s worst month of the season. The A’s have been able to keep the pressure on Boston by playing consistently good baseball over the last 2 months. Slugger Reggie Jacksonswatted his 300th career home run on Aug. 31st and had this to say,  “I didn’t see all of them out there,” Jackson said with a chuckle, “until I rounded third base.” He added sheepishly: “It was only a home run. It’s not like I won us a World Series!”  Jackson’s home run added to the 10-0 defeat of the Marlins/Rays team.  The A’s took a major hit on Tuesday, August 26th, when they lost Dennis Eckersley for Year.  The initial reports from SHL say “ PHI-KC-OAK closer Dennis Eckersley could miss the remainder of the season because of back spasms. He exited yesterday’s CIN game after injuring himself while throwing a pitch. The original diagnosis said Eckersley would be out 7-8 months. Later on his doctors said he could be out even longer.”  Not good news for a team trying to make a run.  Eckersley has been replaced by Jason Isringhausenwho will hopefully pick up with Eck left off.

Was-Min Twins-After an amazing run in June when the Twins went 19-5, Was-Min has seen its run at the American Atlantic fade after a 15-11 July and a 11-13 August.  The Twins are down and pretty much out of contention for the American Atlantic as making up 7 games in a month in the SHL’s best division isn’t going to be easy.  There were some positives for the Twins over the last month, but more on an individual level.  Fan favorite Kent Hrbekslugged his 300th homer and Tony Oliviabatted his 2,000th career hit.  Walter Johnson has also put together an impressive season so far with a record of 21-6 while posting a 2.77 ERA.  Johnson leads all of baseball in win, is 4th in ERA and has the 3rd best winning percentage.

Bal-NY Yankees-The Yankees started off hot and slowly faded.  Looking back at their month by month record, the month of June really killed the Bronx Bombers. The June slump seemed to coincide with the injury to Joe DiMaggio that side lined him for 4-5 weeks.   They Yanks were able to rebound slightly in July but the dog days of August proved to be too much. Yankee slugger Lou Gehrig helped the Yankee offense a lot this season hitting .365 with 26 home runs, 109 RBIs while scoring 100 runs while posting a +68.4 VORP including hitting for the cycle back in July.  Offense wasn’t  the problem for this Yankees this season…their pitching really left a lot to be desired.  Their bullpen ranked 26th with a 5.30 ERA, their team ERA wasn’t much better ranking 17th at 4.66.  They ranked 23rd in both Hits Allowed (1,217) and Opponents Batting Average (.284).  Only two pitchers have won more than 10 games and that number tops out at 13 wins for Whitey Ford.  Better luck next year I guess…