It is approaching the end of April and for Marquette fans that means two things: that summer is just around the corner and baseball season is approaching the end of its first month. Baseball still is about a month and a half away from the limelight as both hockey and basketball are in the middle of their playoffs, but April allows baseball enthusiasts an interesting insight into the future of the season.
April normally provides more questions than answers but it still is not too early to see what lies ahead. For example, the Washington “Natinals” are now so bad that they cannot even correctly spell their names on their jerseys. Also, teams are quickly discovering that the New York Yankees have just built a Coors Field East as New Yankee stadium has morphed most routine fly balls to right game changing home runs.
Despite all these new revelations, old habits die hard, and this year appears to be no different. For instance, the AL East is probably going to once again see the tightest race in baseball, or despite how good the Chicago Cubs look they are still going to choke come October, and finally how the Milwaukee Brewers have shown that one year is one too many for post season appearances. All that is certain about the 2009 season is that it’s still a long ways from being over and until then anything could happen; but if you are the impatient kind here’s what will most likely happen this season.
NL West: The NL West is the definition of mediocrity as far as baseball is concerned. There is just nothing that is compelling about this division. These teams cannot compete with the upper echelon in the National League (let alone the American League) and will once again only send one team limping into the playoffs.
To be fair, both the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers have had strong starts, but once the grinding 162 game schedule kicks into full gear, it is hard to see them keeping up. The Padres simply do not have the talent and there is no way they can continue playing at their current level. Sorry, but it’s a fact. The Dodgers could keep up their high caliber play as long as they stay healthy, but Manny Ramirez is already beginning to whine about his billion dollar contract and you have to wonder how long before he starts throwing temper tantrums mid-game.
With the exception of the Arizona Diamondbacks the rest of the division is just plain boring. Arizona has the best pitchers in the West but have looked uninspired in April and this is not a team that is known for excelling in September. Look for the Dodgers to take the pennant without too much of a struggle but do not expect much from them after that; unless they are playing the Cubs in the NLDS again. Then, a sweep is likely.
NL East: The NL East has only one certainty as the season approaches May, and that is that the Washington Nationals are awful. Their manager has already called for a complete overhaul and the season is not even 25 games old. Other than that there looks to be a three team race (sorry Atlanta Braves you are fooling yourselves) between the Florida Marlins, the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. Florida has seen the best start in baseball at 11-2 and this young team is starting to turn some heads, but it’s a tough buy when placed up against the Mets and Phillies.
New York is a good team and Johan Santana is disgusting on the mound and currently has a .46 ERA which is mind-boggling for a starting pitcher. But this team is the Cubs of the regular season in that they have gained the reputation of choking come September as opposed to October. With the Phillies as their competition I think the Mets are looking at Wild Card.
The Phillies have lost little from their World Series team of 2008 and that means that Brad Lidge and Cole Hamels are behind the mound with Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard are going to be cranking out RBI’s every night. I think this team is poised to go to the World Series yet again, and if they play in October and November like last year, the title will be theirs.
NL Central: As good as the teams in the division may be, there should not be much of a race this season as the Cubs are stacked in every position and looked poised to lose in October yet again. They successfully do what New York cannot: bring in the best as well as having a great farm system. Their enormous bankroll has allowed for the scariest pitching staff in baseball as well as pretty dangerous hitters.
Last year’s Wild Card Brewers can generate a lot of runs, but their pitching is walking everyone and allowing too many runs. If they do not make changes soon they are looking at a record well under .500. The rest of the division is good, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Houston Astros both could see 90 wins but they will not compete with the Cubs. If the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds were in the West they could possibly take the pennant, but are not good enough to seriously compete in the Central.
AL West: The question this season for the West is: Can anyone compete with the Los Angeles Angels? The answer simply is no. They won 100 games last year and are much stronger than anyone else. The Seattle Mariners and the Oakland Athletics are a lot better than a year ago but still not nearly good enough. The loss of Nick Adenhart was a tragic setback and has obviously shaken the team, but with the rest of the team knowing that he’s watching over them, it could provide the drive to excel in the postseason.
AL Central: The Central is much like the NL East in that the only certainty is that the Kansas City Royals are not going to be contenders. The Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers have too many questions and their lack of offenses are going to hurt them during the summer. The Cleveland Indians were one of the better teams after the break last year but their dismal start kept them from being competitors that season, so this year the question will be which Cleveland team will show up.
The Chicago White Sox can compete with the big boys of the American League despite half their batting order needing walkers to run the base paths. They are going to be dangerous this year and should win the division but need to hope that their players do not break down during the long season.
AL East: The classic two horse race in the East has all of sudden morphed into a three-team competition and will be extremely close come September. The Yankees have once again bought all the best players in the world and still managed to have a game in which they allowed 22 runs. However, they have a death row of starting pitchers that features the workhorse C.C. Sabathia not to mention the addition of Mark Teixeira and the eventual return of Alex Rodriguez. That being said they will still be on the outside looking in come playoff time as both the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays should advance. The Rays will be taking the AL Wild Card but I think they’d be fooling themselves if they think they can steal the pennant from the dangerous Red Sox.
The Sox should emerge on top in this behemoth of a race between these three teams and could be looking at a World Series shot. It will be the Angels and Red Sox in the NLDS and the winner of that series will be a result of knock down drag out fight between the two.
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