The baseball regular season is in full stride as the 2nd month of the season comes to a close. It’s funny how the standings can change drastically from one month to another. Usually by the time June rolls around, there is a strong sense of what type of teams you have that will be contenders in October. Out of all honesty, I was disappointed with some of the performances by teams across the league in April. The month of May was a new beginning for many teams and the saying for baseball is, “its not a sprint, it’s a marathon” is as true as it gets when there is such a long season in front of these teams.
I’ll continue to rank these teams by the way I predicted it to go during spring training. Lets jump right in!
American League
AL East
1) Tampa Bay Rays (B)
2) Toronto Blue Jays (D)
3) Boston Red Sox (C)
4) New York Yankees (C)
5) Baltimore Orioles (B)
Analysis: I give Tampa Bay a B and that’s even saying that Tampa is currently in 2nd to last place in their division. I still have confidence that it won’t end that way. It just shows how bad the first month of the season was for the Rays. They’ve been streaking in the win department over the last week of the month. Their pitching has been great, lead by Matt Moore (not David Price). Price landed himself on the DL and you look at a Rays team who found their offense and is finding a way to win games. They were 18-10 in the month of May, which is the best in the AL East. Continue to watch this team climb up the standings.
Toronto still disappoints me and truthfully, I’m disappointed in myself for picking a team to finish so high in the standings when they haven’t proved anything quite yet. They are team plagued with injuries and their pitching staff has been a massive disappointment thus far. They were 13-14 in the month of May, which was worst in the division. Lets just say they need to do everything a little better to climb the standings, which is tough to do when you have such a competitive division.
The Red Sox get a C, which is not bad, nor is it good. They are right in the middle or just average to me right now. They also went through a string of injuries with David Ortiz, Middlebrooks, Bailey, Hanrahan, and most recently Clay Bucholtz (which may not be too serious). They finish the month in first place, which is obviously better than I was hoping to see or expecting. This month was a decline for them as they finished the month going 15-15. Average right? If they get healthy, I still see this team hanging around for a little longer.
The Yankees got swept by the Mets. That may be the first time that I can remember that happening for quite some time. The Yankees have also been average to me and their record in May shows that as they went 15-13. The offense for the Yankees is not what you expect to see, especially in recent years, yet they still seem to be hanging in there. I’m not sure how long they’ll stick on the top of the division if injuries keep piling up. That’s the number one priority for this team if they plan to make the playoffs and that’s getting their lineup healthy.
Baltimore has still impressed me. I picked them to finish last after having such a great season last year. I thought the youth in their team would shine through, but Buck is doing a great job coaching the Orioles. Their offense is stacked and on paper they look like an excellent team and they are getting great pitching from a rotation that do not have any house hold names. I’m convinced this team isn’t going to disappear.
AL Central
1) Detroit Tigers (C)
2) Cleveland Indians (A)
3) Chicago White Sox (C)
4) Kansas City Royals (F)
5) Minnesota Twins (D)
Analysis: So this is starting to sort the way I imagined, however, I still don’t see the Tigers doing what they SHOULD be doing. Maybe I’m being too critical of Detroit, but I feel like they should have a much better record with the type of offense they have and most definitely the pitching they have. I feel like every time the pitching staff delivers a gem, they get no offense to support it. I think eventually they’ll hit the gas and keep their foot on the pedal, but right now they haven’t reached that point for me.
Cleveland is exactly where I thought. Again, not to toot my own horn, but I had a feeling they would be competing. They were a division best going 18-12 in the month of May and scoring over 140 runs. That’s approximately 4.6 runs a game, which will always give you a chance to win ballgames. Their pitching has dropped off since the opening month, but when you’re offense is hot, it makes things easier for sure. They’ve struggled the last week of the month, but so has the rest of the division.
The White Sox are a little tricky still I feel. I don’t think they’ve found their identity yet and if they haven’t found it, then I have no clue. They were about .500 for the month of May, they are under .500 on the season record, but they are hanging in 3rd place. That may have a little to do with the bottom feeders of the division, but as long as they hang in there, they can always make a few moves to improve the team. Specifically on the offensive side as they scored less than 100 runs this month.
Oh boy, here’s my analysis on the Royals. They were bad….very, very, very bad. I gave them a B last month, but they get an F this month and it wasn’t even a hard decision. They went a whopping 8-20 this last month scoring just above 100 runs. Not much to say about them other than they have such young hitters and none of them have amounted to anything. It’s definitely a struggle to watch, but maybe they can get some talent for James Shields if they look to trade him at the deadline, because I know any contender would love to have him.
Minnesota has not been much better. They got a B+ from me last month and they moved down to a D. I knew last month may have just been a fluke of the opening month to a season. They went 12-17 in May and even though they scored 130 runs this month, their pitching has been atrocious by giving up around 150. Continue to see this team decline, they need a lot of help.
AL West
1) LA Angels (A)
2) Oakland Athletics (B+)
3) Seattle Mariners (C-)
4) Texas Rangers (A+)
5) Houston Astros (F)
Analysis: Look who finally decided to show up…Yeah, I’m talking about the Angels. I gave them a full swing by giving them an F last month and an A this month. Needless to say, the offense woke up. They score over 130 runs and their offense has pulled a lot of games together and has looked impressive. Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols is finally getting in the flow of things, while their pitching has been solid as well. What’s even better than that? They get Jared Weaver back from the DL. They are still under .500 for the season, but in the month of May they went 16-12. You can continue to watch the Angels climb up.
The Athletics are continuing to stay consistent. I’m not really surprised as I thought they’d finish 2nd, but the question is, can the offense continue to step it up. They got Coco Crisp and Cespedes back from the DL, but they are getting massive offensive production from Donaldson and Seth Smith that needs to continue. I fully expect the A’s to make a move at the trade deadline, especially in the pitching rotation. They have Colon and a bunch of young arms that haven’t done too well, but are keeping them in games.
The Mariners are getting frustrating. Morse has been injury prone for most of this month and they are just average once again this month. The only constant successful point on their team is King Felix and that isn’t a surprise to anybody. I thought the young offensive talent they had would start to light it up, but I haven’t seen that yet. Maybe a coaching change in the near future?
I didn’t expect this at all from Texas, and that’s obvious from where I put them in my predictions. It just proves how great of a manager Ron Washington has been for them. As I said last month about the Rangers is that they always seem to lose their talent to other teams, but they hang around and they just know how to groom talent in their farm and that’s always respectable. They were a division best 17-11 in the month of May with no sights of slowing down.
From one team in Texas to the next are on two opposite ends of the spectrum. Houston made the move into the American League this year and unfortunately for them, they got placed into a division that has teams like Texas, Los Angeles, and Oakland who are all capable of finishing in 1st place. Houston went 9-18 in the month of May and that came as expected. They now only have 17 wins for the season, which is worst in the American League. The only good thing is they seem to have the Angels’ number so far in the young season.
Stay tuned for my grade book for the National League for the month of May!
therubbergame 