Orioles— Baltimore hasn’t made the playoffs since 2016, but after going 178-368 (.326) from 2018-21, Orioles went 83-79 last year, are 48-29 this season. Baltimore is 18-8 in games where winning run scored from 7th inning on.
Boston— Red Sox are in last place in AL East, despite a 40-39 record; first place in AL Central is 40-40. Boston is 13-8 vs lefty starters, 27-31 vs righties. Red Sox are 10-14 in one-run tilts. Under is 7-2 in their last nine home games.
Chi Sox— Last three years, White Sox were 209-175, making playoffs twice, but this year, they are 15-11 vs division rivals, 19-35 against everyone else. Under is 8-2 in their last ten games. Pale Hose are 14-26 in road games.
Cleveland— Guardians have made playoffs in five of last seven seasons; they’re only 37-40 this year, but because the division is so weak, they’re only 2 games out of first place. They’ve played a lot of one-run games (17-19). Cleveland is 5-8 in first game of a home series.
Detroit— Tigers haven’t made playoffs since 2014; since 2017, they’re 375-569 (.397), 34-43 this year. Detroit is 28-10 this year when they score 4+ runs, 6-33 when they don’t. Tigers are 6-10 vs lefty starters, 15-11 vs division foes. 12-9 in one-run games.
Houston— Astros are 6-9 since Yordan Alvarez got hurt; they’re 13-6 vs division rivals. Over last five weeks, Houston is 2-8 in games where winning run scored from 7th inning on. Altuve has missed 52 games this season after getting hurt in the WBC; Abreu is hitting only .232.
Royals— KC is 10-9 in one-run games, 12-47 in all other games. Royals are 10-47 when they score less than 5 runs. Kansas City is 5-20 in series openers, 2-10 at home. Over is 5-2 in their last seven games.
Angels— Halos are 35-23 vs righty starters, 8-14 vs lefties. Overall, Angels are 43-37, half-game out of the last Wild Card slot. Ohtani can walk as free agent after the season; would they dare trade him? Still weird that Anthony Rendon makes more $$$ than Trout or Ohtani. Angels haven’t made the playoffs since 2014.
Twins— Minnesota made playoffs 3 times in 4 years from 2017-20, then went 73-89/78-84 last two years; they’re 40-40 right now, leading a lousy AL Central by 1.5 games. Twins are 8-14 in one-run games but are 8-3 in extra innings. Trading Luis Arraez for Pablo Lopez seems like a mistake, with Arraez hitting .399.
New York— Aaron Judge is out until at least early August; Bronx is 43-35, in the Wild Card hunt but 9.5 games out of first place in AL East. Stanton is hitting .191, LeMahieu is hitting .230, might be a good time to fire the hitting coach.
New York last won a World Series in 2009; since then, they’ve spent the much $$$$:
2010— $206,333,389
2011— $201,689,030
2012— $197,962,289
2013— $228,835,490
2014— $203,812,506
2015— $219,282,196
2016— $213,472,857
2017— $201,539,699
2018— $173.540,000
2019— $206,084,884
2020— $110,852,878 (short season)
2021— $191,205,631
2022— $240,290,714
2023— $279,741,178
That amounts to a total of $2,874,647,741 spent on payrolls since they last won a World Series. ……that’s billion, with a B. Somehow, the general manager still has his job.
Tampa Bay— Rays made the playoffs the last four years, are 54-27 this year, with these payrolls:
2019— $53,444,931
2020— $28,735,222 (short season)
2021— $60,388,600
2022— $75,347,813
2023— $64,652,911
Seems like the Rays are making better use of their $$$.
Oakland— If the owner wasn’t a cheap bastard, A’s could field this team:
C— Murphy
1B— Olson
2B— Semien
SS— Andrus
3B— Chapman
OF— Marte, Canha, Laureano
SP’s— Bassitt, Luzardo, Kaprielien, Irvin
Closer— Hendriks
Would be a pretty good team. Hopefully the owner will sell the team soon.
Seattle— Mariners made playoffs last year for first time since 2001- they won 90 games in both of last two seasons, but they’re only 38-39 this year, 8-15 in one-run games, after they went a combined 67-41 in one-run games in 2021-22. Seattle is 0-6 in Luis Castillo’s road starts this year.
Rangers— Texas is 47-31, despite being 5-11 in one-run games, and despite Seager missing 31 games with a hamstring injury. Rangers are 15-8 vs AL West rivals; they haven’t made it to the playoffs since 2016, but Bochy has won three World Series— he is a great freakin’ manager.
Toronto— Blue Jays made playoffs two of last three years and went 91-71 the other year; they’re 43-36 this year, right in middle of Wild Card chase. Toronto is 7-17 against its division rivals this year, they’re 12-7 in one-run games.
