So not too much meaning into this post but the Cardinals are on a 2 game slide right now, which has actually dropped them a game behind the Pirates, who conversely, are red hot and are riding a 7 game winning streak. Then the Orioles are the one up team as they've picked themselves back up since the sweep that the Blue Jays applied a week or so back and their pitching hasn't been blowing up like it did a couple times during that sweep (ie. the 13-5 loss). Then on the final side my home team the Blue Jays are keeling over again, now again I don't think this is going to last because bad streaks come just as often, if not more, than winning streaks. However the Jays are currently at a make or break moment, they've held above .500 for a decent time now but this latest loss throws them a game behind and they still have 2 more games against the Red Sox and then have to face the Tigers.
Alright so for a little more detail on each. The Cardinals in my opinion have nothing to worry about, and thats because even if they don't win the NL Central they have a high enough winning percentage to take the wild card without issue. In addition to this the trade deadline is coming up soon and since the Cardinals have this jacked up farm system they could easily secure any player that could be the difference maker for them. Now there is a positive even from the losses the Cardinals have suffered and that is that the runs allowed were only given up during one inning meaning that both pitchers (Lance Lynn and Shelby Miller) only lost sight of things for one inning but were solid for the rest of the game. Though while this may be true the scores of the games are worrying as in both losses the Cardinals had less than normal number of hits, and not against stellar pitchers either (Bedard and Colon, thats pronounced like the perfume not the part of your ass) and they didn't score that many runs (3 in the Houston game and 1 in todays against Oakland). Now again I will reiterate what I said earlier though, it's just a bad streak and these things come and go so don't get too worried, if the Cardinals somehow fall behind the Reds as well then it might be time to look more closely at the issues but for now I expect they will be back to their winning ways soon.
As for the Orioles even though I labelled them as a 'one up' team, not much has changed as their players are still playing at the level they were last few weeks, the only change is that they haven't been allowing as many runs as they did in the sweep by the Jays. The only thing I can comment on is that since the Jays sweep they have been playing much closer games against the Indians and Yankees to the point were they were winning or loosing these games by one run, which is a tiny bit worrying as no one expects them to continue the one game winning percentage they had last year, especially when pitchers like Jason Hammel, who were amazing last year, are back to their normal mediocre selves. Now as for trade deadline moves I expect the Orioles to do the same as last year, look for bargain trades as I don't think they'd be willing to give up a Dylan Bundy or a Kevin Gausman level prospect for one of the bigger trade bait players out there, not to mention theres a bit of a gap in their farm system (they have prospects that are near major league ready and then there next best guys are at High or Low A). Overall though the AL East is still a war zone and anyone can come out on top so don't count the Orioles out.
Now the most frustrating of all the Blue Jays.They are on a 2 game loosing streak, though unlike the Cardinals it seems that the offence are just turning off after the 11 game winning streak as well as their starting pitching, which has been chugging the team along since they started the streak. They lost 2/3 against the Rays, which I said was sad because the offence was swinging at any pitch they felt like, which killed walk opportunities that could have gotten them ahead of the Rays. Then they have now lost 2 of the 2 games against the Red Sox, of a 4 game series. Now again in both of these cases the offence swung at lots of pitches outside of the zone despite Lester being not nearly in top form and a lot of trouble that Webster was having the following game. Now on the other side of the coin those games against the Rays and these couple games against the Red Sox were poorly pitched by our team as hit after hit was allowed by our pitchers and in some cases pitches weren't being thrown well (ie. Wang's sinker, which was doing anything BUT sinking). Overall the offence needs to gear it back up, especially Bautista and Arencibia, I know I've said it a million times but SOMEONE needs to talk to J.P about his plate approach because having a guy in the middle of the order who strikes out 31% of the time, has a large % of ground outs and air outs, has a home run/fly ball % of 12.5 and who NEVER seems to walk (not to mention he has the 9th worst batting avg and the 2nd worst on base percentage in the MLB and shows no signs of improvement). Now trade deadline wise I have no clue what their going to do as most of the off season acquisitions they made were through trades and so their farm system is a bit lacking, though not terrible, right now. What I think they need to do is get a quality 2nd baseman, as Izturis and Bonifacio are lacking at one area or the other (offensively for Bonifacio and defensively for Izturis) and grab a difference making starter like Matt Garza. So wait and see what they do to improve the team.
-Eric
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