The first month of the baseball season has come and gone and there are some teams that made some strong impressions for both good and the bad. I will list the teams below as I picked them to finish and put a grade letter next to them (“A+” being the best and “F” being the worst). I’ll had some critiques as well, as usual.
American League
AL East
1) Tampa Bay Rays (D)
2) Toronto Blue Jays (F)
3) Boston Red Sox (B)
4) New York Yankees (C)
5) Baltimore Orioles (B+)
Analysis: Tampa Bay has been lackluster to start this season, especially their offense which is non-existent. If they expect to win the division, they have to score runs when runners are in position. Of course its only the first month of the season, but they’ve shown struggles scoring runs and also getting victories on the road.
Toronto has been the most disappointing. It seems to happen every year with higher hopes that the team will break through and get into the playoffs. They made a lot of acquisitions in the off-season which has panned out for them yet. Their pitching has been atrocious and of course it doesn’t help that Jose Reyes is already on the DL.
Boston as a city as been through a lot in April, but their baseball team is better than most expected them to be. Hanrahan got dinged up early and thought maybe it’s another long year for the Boston bullpen. Andrew Bailey stepped in great and their offense has looked good. Just in time for Ortiz that returned from the DL towards the end of the month, but Clay Bucholtz has been unbelievable for the first month.
New York is right where I expected them to be. Their pitching has been average, but mostly keeping them in games with a not-so-great offense. A lot of their offensive players are older players that may not amount to anything when the season ends. But the Yankees need them to hang on until they get their star power back in the lineup.
Baltimore has the best grade in this division from me for the month of April. Mainly because I had them finishing dead last. They have almost the same team as they did last year with a lot of young talent. Their offense has looked sharp, especially Adam Jones. I’d be interested to see where they are at the end of May.
AL Central
1) Detroit Tigers (C)
2) Cleveland Indians (C)
3) Chicago White Sox (D)
4) Kansas City Royals (B)
5) Minnesota Twins (B+)
Analysis: Detroit gets an average grade from me only because one would expect so much from a team of that caliber. They will be fine by the end of the season, but the first month of the season they got off to a slow start. Verlander hasn’t looked to be the top pitcher you would expect, but again, not worried, it’s still very early in the year.
Cleveland also gets an average grade from me. Their offense has had the spurts I knew they had the potential for. Other than Masterson, their pitching has been somewhat forgettable. I still feel confident that they have the opportunity to squeak in the playoffs and finish in 2nd in this division. It’s very wide open after the first month.
Chicago gets a D. Plain and simple. They were a good team last year, but so far this year they haven’t put anything together and on top of that, they are boring to watch. Not a lot of run support to help out their pitching which has been fairly decent so far.
Kansas City has been a surprise to me. I think their pitching has really kept them in it so far. The additions of James Shields and Ervin Santana has helped them out big time. Their offense hasn’t even clicked yet. If Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas can heat up at some point, they may have a dangerous team with the addition to Billy Butler.
Minnesota is the bigger surprise, hence the better grade…just by a smidge. I thought Minnesota would be one of the worst teams this season and of course there is still time for that to unfold. I think they have benefited from a somewhat weak schedule to start the season and also they seem to get postponed a lot. By the end of May they have a good chance to be where I figured they would be.
AL West
1) LA Angels (F)
2) Oakland Athletics (A-)
3) Seattle Mariners (D)
4) Texas Rangers (A)
5) Houston Astros (C)
Analysis: LA Angels have been awful. With a lineup like that they should not be struggling for yet the second season in a row. They can’t score runs AND their pitching has been bad. It doesn’t help that Jared Weaver is on the DL, but the rest of the starters haven’t helped out either. Their bullpen has been shaky as well. For a team that can’t score any runs and then you look at their lineup and you see names like Pujols, Hamilton, Trout, and Trumbo you should question why they haven’t been winning games. Maybe it’s just a slow start and they’ll pick it up, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a hitting coach or Manager to be fired if they don’t pick it up soon.
Oakland gets a very good grade from me, partly because I figured they would be near the top for most of the season, but their offense has been outstanding. I believe they have the most runs scored in the AL so far this season and they are always a team that lacks star players, yet they always seem to be good. They are led by Coco Crisp and Jed Lowrie. The question is will they keep it up, get help, or will their pitching remain at a constant high to help out their offense when they go cold.
Seattle has been disappointing to me so far this year. I thought they would be much better, but they are yet another team that is struggling with the bat. On top of that, their pitching hasn’t been great either other than King Felix. There is still a potential for them, but I’d like to see them bring up some of their prospects earlier rather than later.
Texas is getting an A from me because I didn’t see them competing at the top. Every year they seem to lose some of their best players in recent years, which all seem to flurry to the Angels (CJ Wilson and Josh Hamilton), yet its the Rangers that remain a team to beat in the West. The best thing is, I don’t think we’ve seen the best of Texas either with some of the young prospects not in the Majors yet. Darvish is also looking like the Ace they want and need.
Houston gets an average grade from me because I thought they would be much worse. Their offense has been better than Seattle and they are close in runs scored with Texas. They’ve shown they can score runs and show a little future potential. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think they have potential this season, but refreshing that they may not lose 120 games this season like many predicted.
Check back tomorrow for the National League grades from the month of April!
therubbergame 