Today, we have Mike Izzo here to talk about the exciting race in the AL East. Mike is a junior mag student/entertainment junkie with a passion for
baseball and football.Once again we enter September with the AL East looking exactly like one might have expected at the beginning of the year. New York and Tampa Bay are jostling for the division title as Boston’s injury-plagued attempt to make the playoffs looks to be coming to a close. Toronto has been flirting with .500 all year and Baltimore is finding its chemistry too late.
So what will decide who is top dog come October? Pitching. A bold prediction, I know, but it’s true. The Yankees and Rays are 1st and 3rd respectively in runs scored, but 11th and 8th in earned run average. Are David Price and Matt Garza enough to take the division away from C.C. Sabbathia and what can only be described as a roulette wheel of starting pitchers for the Yankees as of late?
(Is David Price enough to knock off the defending champions?)
A.J Burnett has lost the strike zone completely and Javier Vasquez has reminded New York fans why he left the Yankees in the first place. Some people just can’t handle the pressures of New York. Phil Hughes looked like an ace in the making earlier this year, leading to the first all-star game nod of his young career, but his 155.1 innings pitched - the most innings he’s pitched in a single season - clearly worn him down. I say if all-star Andy Petite returns in the next week as scheduled, then it is the Yankees division to lose, but if he faces another setback, then I don’t think one great pitcher will be enough to hold off the Rays.
My prediction: Yankees win it by 1 game and the Rays easily hold onto the wild card.
(Much of the Yankees postseason success depends on the return of SP Andy Petite.)
No comments:
Post a Comment