The A.L East: 2017's Most Competitive Division?

Discussion in 'Baseball Forum' started by DefenseWinsChampionships, Jun 18, 2017.

  1. DefenseWinsChampionships

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    I'm a TB Rays fan and love our current ball club. True underdogs. They've shocked me a lot this year thus far but i can't lie the Yankeees lineup is pretty fun to watch and very explosive. Great brand of baseball being played up in the Bronx.

    With that said the A.L East and the NL West are currently the only two MLB divisions with three teams over .500.

    Yankees: 38-28.
    Red Sox: 38-30.
    TB Rays: 36-35.

    There are some divisions out there with only 1 team over .500 such as the N.L East and the N.L Central.

    One could look at the N.L West with Colorado, Arizona and the Dodgers all being well over .500 (45-26, 43-26 & 43-26) but when you look at their bottom two teams in San Diego (28-41) and San Fran (26-44) compared to the A.L East's bottom two teams in Baltimore (33-34) and Toronto (32-35) it just feels as if the A.L East is built the toughest.

    The difference between 1st and last place within the A.L East is only 6.5 games. The A.L Central is only seperated by 4.5 games from worst to first although only featuring two teams at or above .500. The A.L West? 15.5 games from worst to first. The N.L East? 19.5 games seperating the worst from first. N.L Central? Only 6.5 games seperate the worst from first although only one team is above .500 when compared to 4 below .500 teams and the N.L West? 18.5 games seperate first from the worst.

    The A.L East is pretty competitive again and lineups like the Yankees and Rays have been super powerful thus far. NYY, TB & BOS all appear to have top 10 pitching as well.

    Should create for exciting baseball throughout the dog days of the summer.
     
  2. joe

    joe Well-Known Member

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    Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that stadium..
     
  3. DefenseWinsChampionships

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    The Rays power bats are back at it again. Already 3 HR's on the road in Detroit and up 7-1 here in the 4th.
     
  4. DefenseWinsChampionships

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    Yea. It's a dump in a bad area without any true fan attendance. The TV & Radio ratings are very high. There's lots of fan support in that regard just not with the attendance aspect. I believe dead last.

    The field was re done over the offseason. It's actually really pretty/nice looking.

    [​IMG]

    Although the outside appearance of the dome is an absolute dump of an eye sore.

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    [​IMG]

    Originally built as a hockey arena. It's ugly.
     
  5. DefenseWinsChampionships

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    My TB Rays are playing some really fun baseball throughout 2017 thus far and are now only 3.0 games back of the impressive Yankees.

    We're the true definition of baseball underdogs. Most MLB fans outside of the TB area have no idea who 99% of our players are either. No clue whatsoever.

    While teams within our own division such as New York, Boston & Toronto (big cities) rank 2nd, 3rd & 5th in MLB payroll, my small market Rays are only 29th in team payroll; but yet we're still fighting hard & sticking with the big dogs.

    These guys scrap.

    I'm used to small ball & speed on the bases during Joe Maddon's era but small ball is a thing of the past with 2017's version of the Rays.

    This is a power hitting lineup who can go yard and bomb at any given moment. There's pure bruit strength up and down our lineup.

    As of right now the Rays rank 7th in runs scored due to ranking 1st in Home Runs (tied with Houston).

    Our offense also ranks 3rd in Total Bases, 7th in RBI's, 7th in Extra Base Hits, 7th in Slugging, 8th in base hits & 8th in OPS.

    We currently have 5 hitters throughout the lineup with double digit HR's in Evan Longoria (10), Tim Beckham (10), Steven Souza Jr. (14), Corey Dickerson (16) and Logan Morrison (21). Then we have the likes of Kevin Kiermaier, Derek Norris & Colby Rasmus with 7, 8 & 9 HR's.

    Outside of Longo (31) all are 30 years of age and younger. Just a bunch of scrappy underdogs.
     
  6. DefenseWinsChampionships

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    This Rays lineup is insane!

    Last night against the O's exploded for another 3 HR's, 8 base on balls, 11 hits, 14 RBI's & 15 runs scored. Sheesh.

    Now on a 3 game win streak and only 2.5 games back of the division lead.

    Underdogs fighting.
     
  7. The Waterboy

    The Waterboy Well-Known Member

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    Rays are a joke, not sure how they are only 5.5 games out of first.

    Now let me preface this post with the fact I don't follow baseball much anymore, got turned off years back by the strike and never got back into it. Minor league games are a much better atmosphere and much more fun. Still a Mets fan but that is just more abuse I heap on myself.

    So I went to the Rays game last night, free tickets right field corner, about 12 rows up just the side of the foul pole. A little over an hour drive for me but only had to pay the $15 for parking so no complaints there.

    Not too great a crowd and about 40% Red Sox fans, not a Rays fan but bought a shirt for the game just so I wouldn't be associated with the Sox fans.

    Wasn't expecting too much but 1st inning goes pretty good, 3 up 3 down for the Sox, Rays get lead off walk but then 3 straight outs. Only the 1st inning so no big deal. Second at bat for the Sox, Rays give up 1 hit but no harm done as they get the side out.

    This is where things get interesting, Ramos leads off with a walk, Miller doubles to put it at 2nd and 3rd, no outs. Plouffe Ks but no big deal I think, still 2nd and 3rd only 1 out. Smith at bat, squares up to bunt, bunt down the 3rd base line and I'm thinking not bad either they go for the batter and the run scores or they hold the runner on 3rd and it's bases loaded with 1 out.

    Fuck no, the runner on 3rd gets caught out there, can't even make it back to 3rd and gets tagged out. But before I can even begin to bitch about the terrible base running/base coaches I see the ball going over to 2nd, not even a real run down, like that the base runner on 2nd is tagged out. Double fucking play on a bunt with runners at 2nd and 3rd, that is fucking little league crap.

    I can't even imagine how the people that had to pay for their tickets must have felt, mine were free and I felt ripped off. Terrible base running, terrible coaching. Boston then comes up in the top of the 3rd and proceeds to get 4 hits, 4 runs and that was about it for me. I lasted through the 6th inning but I'll stick with the minor leagues.
     
  8. Jonathan_Vilma

    Jonathan_Vilma Well-Known Member

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    Amazing. The uncapped league that everyone always used to cry about, with the Yankees and Red Sox buying their teams, is the league with the most parity.

    Small market teams routinely have a chance, and building through the farm system is the better way to go rather than buying talent. The Yankees from 2003-2016 basically proved that. Sure they were always in the playoffs, but also spent probably spent over a billion dollars over that span for one ring.

    Shit, the Marlins have two championships in the past 20 years. The have had payrolls as low as $25-30 million over that same span.

    As far as the Rays go, their fatal flaw has remained the same since now they became competitive over the past 7-8 years; the bullpen. The pen wasn't bad during the regular season of when they lost to the Phillies in the World Series, yet it was awful during the World Series.

    They always have decent to good starting pitching. It might behoove them to turn one of these good prospect they develop into a closer and try to retain him. Because it always kills them. Whether it's Troy Percival or Fernando Rodney, the backend sucks, and it's primarily because at a bunch of cheap older castoffs. No different this year.
     
    #8 Jonathan_Vilma, Jul 17, 2017
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2017
  9. joe

    joe Well-Known Member

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    Nice sign unfurled yesterday at Fenway. . Nicer-looking scoreboard.


    [​IMG]
     
  10. The Waterboy

    The Waterboy Well-Known Member

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    Not that I expected it, but never another peep from phillystackz after his Rays nose dived
    Far from the most competitive division
     
  11. Jonathan_Vilma

    Jonathan_Vilma Well-Known Member

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    Yeah the NL West takes that trophy home this year. 3 teams with 87+ wins and the Dodgers clinched the best record in the MLB. The NL Central was pretty good this year too.

    Still waiting for Kershaw to have that marquee playoff performance. He always throws a couple bad pitches that absolutely kill him in the playoffs. I still have a feeling they're going to fall flat on their face this post season.
     
  12. The Waterboy

    The Waterboy Well-Known Member

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    I honestly don't watch enough to make an informed post. I usually wait until the playoffs to get interested, being a Mets fan that is usually easy since they don't give me anything to get interested in.
     
    Jonathan_Vilma likes this.

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