SHL: American Atlantic Weekly Overview

Checking in with the American Atlantic division.

Bos Red Sox-The Boston Red Sox are yet again, the best team in the Seamheads Historical League.  Boston’s ace, Cy Young is tied for the lead in win with 24.  Young’s last win was his 6th in a row and he’s gone the distance in his last two starts while giving up only one earned run and one walk in those 18 innings.  The Red Sox will look to Young to lead the teams efforts in their pursuit of a World Series victory.  Young is 25-4 this season (.828 1st in the majors) with a 2.60 ERA (4th best in the majors). Boston’s Tris Speaker has benefited from the powerful Red Sox offense this season and leads the league in runs scored with 132, he also ranks tied for seconds in hits with 202. Another Red Sox who ranks high among the league leaders is Ted Williams.  Williams ranks second with a .442 OBP, 5th in runs created/27 outs at 9.47, third in runs created at 129.4, and third in VORP at 62.5.  With just 12 games left in the season and a secure hold in the # 1 spot entering the playoffs, Boston will likely take their remaining games to rest their players and set their rotation for the playoffs. It was a great season for Bill James and the Boston Red Sox.  Congratulations and good luck in the playoffs.

Phi-KC-Oak Athletics-With 12 games remaining on the A’s schedule and a commanding 10 game lead in the wild card, the wheels would seriously have to fall off the A’s wagon for them to not make the playoffs as the wild card.  With an 87-55 record, the A’s are tied for second best team in the SHL and would likely be fighting for a division title had they not been in the American Atlantic.  The A’s should fair well in the playoffs considering the level of competition within their division.  Oakland’s pitching staff will be solid in a playoff series with less than a run separating the best and worst starter with the worst ERA sitting pretty at 3.84.  Not too shabby. Since Eckersley has landed on the DL, Isringhausen has been serviceable enough going 1-2 with 4 saves in 9 appearances. As with the Red Sox, the A’s will take the rest of the season to prepare for the playoffs and set their rotation for their first series.

Was-Min Twins-  To recap the Twins season, the phrase I would use is “better luck next year.”  There were two bright spots in the Twins pitching staff, Closer Joe Nathan who went 7-4 with 34 saves and a 2.13 ERA and Ace Walther Johnson who posted a 24-7 record with a 2.77 ERA.  Looking at the Twins rotation, you’d have to expect Johann Santana, Frank Viola, Bert Blyleven and the entire bullpen would have to pitch better than they did this season. Tony Olivia started the season off hot and kept it going all season long, currently ranking second in batting average at .365.  If Olivia finishes the season off strong he could snatch the batting title from current leader Tony Gwynn, who leads Olivia by just .002 points at .367.  Olivia also ranks in the top 5 in slugging and OPS.  With any improvement on the pitching end of things, the Twins could be a much better team next season.

Bal-NY Yankees-The Yankees rank in the top 4 in 9 of the 11 offensive categories, including ranking first in OBP, OPS, Runs Scored and Bases on Balls. Just as good as the Yankee offense was, their pitching was bad.  The pitching staff’s highest ranking team pitching stat was in home runs allowed in which they ranked 10th with 120.  Starters ERA was a whopping 4.58 ranking 14th in the SHL.  Ever other pitching category ranking was worse for the Yankee arms and will need to greatly improve if they want to do anything next season.  The Yankee offense is one of the best in the league but it can’t do anything without the arms to back them up.