Current State Of The AL East

So we've been seeing some interesting developments in the East, the first of which is the surging Rays. In this case the Rays have rocketed from mediocrity to being a potential contender for the playoffs, though that will still depend on whether or not they can stay on the winning side until they are closer to first place otherwise they have a better chance and just falling short and then they will likely regret no trading Price. On the opposite side of this the Red Sox seemed like they were going to carry towards a similar surge after they beat the Blue Jays 14-1, however after that game, they lost the 3 following games against the Jays and are falling to the Rays in their current series and as we know the games against rival division teams are the most important especially when your behind them in the standings. Then we can look at one of the teams I more regularly talk about, the Orioles. Now honestly I was in with the majority in thinking that the Orioles would be crushed under the difficulty of the remainder of their schedule since they had series against the Athletics, Angels and other higher ability teams and after the series against the A's it looked to be that way as they only managed to win 1 of the 3 game series and we're beating by several runs in the games they lost. However they came back from at and won 2/3 against the Angels in rather convincing fashion and hell the game they lost was only by 1 run. Then add to that the fact that they have already played 2/4 of their games against the Mariners and again have won both in very quality performances, basically this all means that myself and many other writers and analysts have underestimated the Orioles. So it is very much possible given what we've seen over just a short stint of the most difficult part of their season that the Orioles could run away with the AL East. From there we go to the remaining 2 teams in the division, the Jays and the Yankees. The Yankees recently traded for 3 players to improve their team (Headley, McCarthy and Capuano) however all of them are rather lacklustre players, they are having luck currently but that is likely to change when the league begins to adjust to them as they have not faced these players either ever (Headley) or in a VERY long time (McCarthy and Capuano). Now the most entertaining part about the Yankees and listening to others talk about them is that people seem to assume that this is helping their team, however all they are doing is making sure thir team stays old ( all of these players they have traded for are on the wrong side of 30 and are looking for a hope to turn around their current standing as all have played rather badly in their previous teams. As well add in the fact that in order to make these trades the Yankees are destroying their already barren farm system and according to their GM they plan to trade for another starting pitcher. Another bit of entertainment is listening to commentators, I can't count the number of times I've heard a baseball writer or analyst say that they expect David Price, Cliff Lee or Cole Hamels to end up with the Yankees because they have the money to cover to contracts because the Yankees DO NOT have the prospects to land ANY high end trade chip because of how deserted their farm system is that's why they have had to settle for McCarthy and Capuano. Then finally we have the Blue Jays who are in a bit of an odd place, they won 3/4 games against the Red Sox in a very convincing manner but then they blew it on today's game against the Yankees. Honestly it seems like the Jays have a bit of a stigma when playing the Yankees at their home stadium especially in this game because you can see they jumped on Kuroda early in the game driving in 3 runs in the first inning due to Kuroda pitching rather badly as he lacked control and was throwing a lot of balls. However after the first 3 innings all the Jays couldn't take advantage of those bad pitches as there were several items when some of the higher ups in the batting order got on base or in scoring position  and then the guys lower in the order couldn't drive em in. Now the Jays are in a perilous spot as they are just behind the Yankees in the standings and given that the potential for the Orioles to fall back in the standings and have a chance to throw the guys they are directly in competition with makes this an ideal scenario but they have to get their shit together and win. They do have some improvement to look forward to however as Lind, Encarnacion and Reimold won't need a rehab assignment and could be back as early as this coming week, which would really improve their offence. All in all there are some interesting developments that are to come in this division for these 5 teams.

The All Star Events

So the past couple days we've had the various all star events, those being the home run derby and the all star game in specific. Now first off the home run derby, we saw Yoenis Cespedes win his second derby back to back. The interesting part about this is that he is one of only 2 players to do this in MLB history and that other person is Ken Griffey Jr, making this a fairly impressive feat. On the other hand the new format for  to derby does seem to still have some kinks to work out, specifically related to the players who get a bye through to the 3rd round and this is because both Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Bautista managed to hit very few if any home runs after getting said bye. Now the reason I say this is because both Stanton and Baustista are known to just destroy the ball and Bautista has already won 2 home run derbys in his career. However in both cases they had to wait over an hour and a half until they got a chance to hit for the second time and many people, including myself believe that they got out of their groove and we're unable to get settled at the start of the third round. But either way Cespedes performed great and was very deserving of the win, my problem was more that Todd Frazier got to the finals since Stanton hit no home runs in the third round. Oh and Puig completely whiffed.

Then we had the All Star the next day and aside from the expected farewell to Derek Jeter stuff there was only a couple interesting situations that occurred. The first of those was Adam Waignwright who was being interviewed after giving up a double to Jeter, a triple to Trout and a home run to Miggy, and he said that he gave Jeter a few balls right down the middle that he coule hit. Now I don't have any problem with this seeing as it happens a fair bit when big name players are retiring, however it think Adam shouldn't have said anything about it and not so people can keep the illusion that Jeter hit those himself but by saying I the is making himself the centre of attention and the focus comes off Jeter. While this was a stupid move I don't believe that Waignwright did this on purpose because from what I can tell from his personality in interviews or quotes in articles just seems like a straight up and honest guy. Aside from that there wasn't anything all that crazy that happened, the AL won 5-3 over the NL and in classy fashion Jon Farrell had the pair of Glen Perkins and Kurt Suzuki, both Minnesota Twins players, close out the game and get the save giving the city a sense of accomplishment. Overall a good game though again like the Home run Derby it could use some tweaking since the whole thing seems just like a kids sports game where everyone needs to participate and get a ribbon. Additionally I can say from experience, it is. NIGHTMARE to try to score, I have done it twice successfully but only because of having the MLB app open at the same time since some changes weren't announced on the TV broadcast. Anyhow what should be done is include a good number of guys but play it like a real game and Rey to win instead of just try to get in as many players as possible (ie. keep the starting pitcher in for 4 innings before getting into the bullpen). Hopefully we can see some positive changes on this stuff in the near future.

Another Slew Of Injuries

Well it seems the injury bug just decided to take a break from after the beginning of the season until now to bite a crap load of other players. This week we have seen both Brandon Phillips and Yadier Molina to muscle issues in their thumbs, Masahiro Tanaka has a minor tear of his UCL and if he's lucky may avoid Tommy John surgery, Encarnacion fell with a hamstring injury the week prior, Gerrit Cole went back on the DL after his previous injury flared up again, Justin Masterson is out with a nagging leg injury, Kawasaki and Reimold, two fill ins for the Jays roster, each were injured in a recent game, and many others.

It really is amazing how many injuries are coming about this year, I do always remember when injuries happen throughout each of the last decade or more of baseball I've watched but this honestly feels like it's reached a new height in terms of the numbers. In fact heres an interesting fact in this year alone, leading up to May 30th we've had 26 major league pitchers have to undergo Tommy John surgery, with an additional 13 pitchers in the minors who have been under the knife as well racking up a total of 39. Now what is so amazing about that? Well in 2013 we had 36 cases of Tommy John surgery in both the majors and the minors on the entirety of the season. Thats right we had already reached the same total number of surgeries from last season in the first 2 months of this year, now thats unfathomable to me and we've already had more creep up since that bit was posted on MLB Daily Dish.

Now a lot of these injuries have definitely changed the landscape of the MLB and to be perfectly honest I believe it has pretty much put the last nail in some teams coffin. Specifically that refers to the Yankees, the Diamondbacks, the Indians (though not sure they were all the in it to begin with) and to a less extent the Braves since they have lost the big consistent hitter on their team, aside from Freeman, Evan Gattis, The Reds and the Cardinals. Now not much needs to be said about the Diamondbacks being out due to their latest blast of injuries because they were already really far back from first place to begin with. However the Yankees did seem to be potentially be in the running before this however if you looked at their record and stats when Tanaka was not on the mound there were some really major issues and losing Tanaka along with C.C being currently on the DL makes it almost impossible for them to find 5 guys who can put together quality starts. Additionally like I've said before the Yankees have aged or aging players who has for the most part a declining skill set so their offence is not likely to get that much better. The Indians are a similar situation to the Diamondbacks, they aren't playing nearly as badly as the Diamondbacks are but their barely at .500 right now and they with their top prospect Miguel Sano out for the year and then Danny Salazar and Trevor Bauer, their two big name pitchers playing badly, the team doesn't have much hope of getting back in it during the second half.

The other teams I mentioned are on a slightly less obvious loss, in terms of the Cardinals I'm a little vary to say that the loss of Wacha and Molina to be the final nail because they are one of the teams that have their farm system loaded with top o the line prospects so they could easily turn around and replace all of  the guys they have currently on the DL, which is likely necessary to a certain extent. On the side of the Braves they have lost a couple of their front of the line starters at the beginning of the season, and now are down almost all of their pitching depth as well since Floyd has hit the DL as well and Harang is beginning to fall back into his career numbers. But additionally we've come to know the new Braves to be a big strikeout team and due to that their scoring isn't consistent and losing Gattis, who is one of their most consistent power producers their offence is going to suffer a fair bit, which is something they can't really afford to happen since the pitching issues they have are going to make close games harder to win. Finally we have the Reds, these guys are a unique situation and their pitching seems rather unfazed, they got Latos back recently and he's pitching very well, Cueto is pitching like he's 5 years younger, and Chapman is destroying opposing hitters. Now they recently lost 3 players to the DL 2 long term and 1 short term or maybe long term depending on the recovery. The 2 long terms are Brandon Phillips and Joey, these two guys have been the backbone of the team for several years offensively, defensively and in terms of team morale, even more so after losing Shin Soo Choo to free agency. However Phillips has an issue with his thumb and is expected to miss at least 2 months and Votto, who is back on the DL with the same previous injury, is expected to miss a decent amount of time and potentially could be out for the season. Then finally Homer Bailey is the most recent Reds player to hit the DL, while he has been playing consistently at a quality rate, thankfully current news seems to indicate the injury isn't severe and believe that he will only be gone through the all star break meaning maybe a week into the post all star game, which means their rotation should stay in tact, however who knows what'll happen without the offence.

All in all this year is by far and away the year of the injury with a specialty in UCL tears.

Half Way Playoff Projections

Well were at the halfway point of the seasons now and think its time to put out my guesses on who is going to make it to the postseason. Ok so we'll break it down into each division then the wild cards before going to the next league.

American League:

-East: in the east I have the Blue Jays winning the division. There are dozens of people that seem to have little faith that the Jays will continue to hold onto first in the division, however despite the Yankees and Orioles gaining some ground on them a week or so ago, they have been recently giving up the ground they previously gained. Now just a mini rant on the Yankees playoff potential. The reason I do not believe they will make the postseason is because they have a TERRIBLE rotation without Tanaka and aside from Sanchez they don't have much in the way of desirable prospects to make a trade for a quality starter by the deadline, and even if ey did I think they need 2 of them to make it. Additionally like I've told people before they Yankees made terrible signings this offseason because almost all of them are either injury risks (Beltran and Ellsbury) or have been on a downward trend with their skill set for some years (Ellsbury and McCann). Did I expect things to go wrong with the signings this soon? Nope but it's happened anyway and won't be getting much better for them anytime soon. The Jays on the other hand have a VERY stable offence ( they could use a good batter who can hit lefties but that's all offensively). Meaning that they have to secure is a frontline starter, which there are plenty of out there  and unlike the Yankees they only have 1 other spot aside from the starter they need putting them in a situation to more easily improve enough to hold up or make that next step.

-Central: Detroit wins this one and there isn't much to discuss, a couple weeks ago I may have said Kansas City but they have since fallen back 4.5 games from the lead and Detroit has seen some major improvement form Rick Porcello and Verlander could be making some progress back to a better form. On the other side the Tigers have the same issues they had coming into the season, defense at shortstop and a closer, however their lacklustre defense at shortstop hasn't killed them and Joe Nathan sucking big time has been some what negated as there starters give them good leads to deal with and their heavy hitters in V-Mart and Miggy are continuing to drive in the runs they need to stay in the game.

-West: Oakland, again not much to write here, Oakland is by far the best team in baseball and the most well rounded, all this while having 1/3 of their initial starting rotation being out for the year. Now here's the shocking part here, some of their more well known players have been hitting badly, especially Jed Lowrie, however if you look at his stepper stats like BABIP you'd notice that he's likely in for some correction to his career numbers meaning he is likely to get better and improve the A's offence in the process, almost unfair isn't it?

Wild Cards: I've got the Angels and the Mariners coming in with the wild cards, this is due or the fact that they both have the pitching necessary to keep up with the high end teams this year, especially once Taijuan Walker is back in form for Seattle and even more so when James Paxton is back in action, while the Angels have Weaver as usual and then Garrett Richards who is pitching like an ace this year, which is a formidable combo. As well a good amount of their offences have been quality this year as well, Pujols and Hamilton are performing closer to what is expected of them, Cano, while not hitting as many home runs he is hitting well above .300 and driving in runs and then Kyle Seager and Dustin Ackley are on fire as well.

National League

-East: Nationals are going to win this one hands down, Mets and Phillies can't put up a fight in their condition going into this season, the Marlins are well......the Marlins and the Braves are again a high strikeout team but are relying on pitchers who are playing above their ability and the floor will collapse from under them soon. Additionally the Braves have lost some of their major run producers to injury, such as Evan Gattis. On the other hand the Nationals are still in first place despite not having Bryce Harper for an extended period of time and all of their starters have been performing up to expectations or better, in the case of Jordan Zimmerman.

-Central: In the central I have the Cardinals winning it's inreally don't buy the Brewers as the team who will remains atop the central as they have more or less been beating up on weaker teams and there are unfavourable stats to their starters as well such as Estrada who has given up the most home runs in the whole of MLB. On the side of the Reds they just aren't the same team, while they do have the starting and relief pitching to make a push Brandon Phillips continues his mediocre streak from last year, Joey Votto has had a serious power drop and is dealing with injury and they no longer hand Shin Soo Choo as a OBP master, though Billy Hamilton is a decent replacement.

-West: here I have the Dodgers winning the west, while they are slightly behind the Giants right now I believe that San Francisco's offence is going to drop its production a bit, though not by much. The main reason is because almost all of their starters are performing above like Tim Hudson and Tim Lincecum. In addition you can't discount the scariness of the Dodgers rotation with Kerahaw, Grienke, Ryu, Beckett and to a lesser extent Haren ( who is benefitting from the more pitcher friendly Dodgers Stadium)

-Wild Cards: I've got the remaining guys from the central and west divisions, those being the Giants and the Brewers because even if they do have the decrease I expect the rest of the competition is so much more worse.