The Real World
Another week in the books of the 2012 MLB season and we are starting to see how the division races are going to shape up. The AL East remains the only division to have every team at or above .500 winning percentage, where the NL Central and NL East are trying to prove they can have the division winner above .500 and every other team below.
Baywatch
The Yankees are on a tear winning 9 in a row and taking a 1.5 game lead in the very competitive AL East. Their lineup, which is filled with all-stars, is finally starting to hit, and their pitching, which everyone thought was going to be their weak spot, is starting to heat up.
Outside of the Yankees and Reds ( six in a row), no team in baseball has won more than three games in a row in the last week and because of that the division races have tightened up a little in all of the divisions.
Normally, being 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA in your last two starts like Colby Lewis and Johnny Cueto are would make you the obvious choice for best pitcher of the week, but they have both been over shadowed by Ivan Nova who is 2-0 with a .61 ERA over his last two starts. Wei-Yen Chen also has two wins this week( I am thinking rookie of the year) and is his chase to win the strikeout title this year, Max Scherzer has twenty strikeouts in the last week.
With those pitchers pitching so well, there are some pitchers our there who are not doing so well based on some of the offensive numbers put up over the last week.. Brandon Moss and Trevor Plouffe both have five home runs in the last week, with Moss having ten RBI’s over that same time. I know those names sound made up and fake, but I promise they are real players who play in the major leagues. Ryan Braun, Pedro Alvarez, Jim Thome, Adam Dunn, and Brandon Phillips all had three or more home runs this week with Thome, Phillips, and Alvarez all racking up ten RBI’s. Joey Votto, Ike Davis, Carlos Ruiz, Carlos Gonzales, and Joe Mauer are all hitting above .430 this week and are making a strong push towards making the all-star team.
ER
At least they have Seahawks. Oh wait, they are no good either. The Mariners are 1-6 in their last seven games and are quickly becoming one of the worst teams in the majors( with all respect to the Astros and Cubs). In that same time span, the Astros have allowed fifty-two runs and have a team ERA of 7.61. This is just bad, bad baseball being played by these teams.
As good as Carlos Gonzales has been, the Rockies are 1-9 in their last ten games and if it wasn’t for the Padres being allergic to scoring runs, they would be in dead last in the division.
Spin City
The Baltimore/DC area is dominating baseball right now. The Orioles are twelve games above .500 and 1.5 games out of first place and the Nationals are also twelve games above .500 and they hold a four game lead in their division (and they play this week).