Appreciating and Laughing At AL East

John Farrell Press Conference” width=”300″ height=”209″ class=”size-medium wp-image-12632″ /> Oct 23, 2012; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington (left) announces John Farrell as the new manager of the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY SportsFirst and foremost no fan of the Toronto Blue Jays has the right to laugh at any other team in the AL East. It’s exciting to hear some people say the Jays are the favorites to win the division in 2013. The truth is at this very moment all the Blue Jays are is offseason champions.

Are they good team? They’ll get to show us. Until then don’t ever forget that the Blue Jays are still the joke of the division. Every other team in the AL East has made the playoffs at least 3 times since the Blue Jays last made the playoffs.

Now that we got that out of the way I’m willing to bet on the Blue Jays being a great team for the next few years. So I’m actually going to have the nerve to laugh at the other teams in the AL East before Jays fans actually deserve the right to.

Baseball 101: Don’t count out the New York Yankees EVER. They make the playoffs every year. Regular season is like Spring Training to them. Their season doesn’t even start until October. Every year people use the tired excuse that they’re getting old. Guess what? The Blue Jays best players are older. R.A. Dickey, Jose Bautista to name a few. It’s not about age it’s about talent and the Yankees always have plenty of it.

One of the reasons the Yankees have been able to sustain success is their willingness to overpay in order to get the player they want. It took a while but the Yankees are finally suffering for it. They owe what’s left of A-Rod 114 million over the next 5 years. That money is getting in the way of them being able to stay under the MLB luxury tax. The Yankees success isn’t just because of high payrolls either. They have a very smart front office and still have a very good team. The fact that they’re being held back a little because of A-Rod’s contract is hilarious though.

It seems mind boggling right now but at this time last year the Boston Redsox still had a great team. They had been a great team for many years. They still had Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Youkilis. They still had Jose Beckett. They had prospect Will Middlebrooks scheduled to come to the big leagues at some point. They’re a prime example of how just because a team looks good on paper doesn’t mean it will translate on the field. For the life of me I’ll never figure out why the Redsox collapsed in September of 2011 and why they couldn’t win in 2012.

The Redsox still have plenty of talent on their team from last season on their roster. We’ll have to see if they can put it together with all the new pieces they added this offseason.

I never thought I could feel bad for the Redsox but I do. Actually..nah I don’t. Lmao the Redsox have John Farrell as their manager. In Boston every Redsox game is a big deal with the Redsox fans and media. Farrell’s going to have to answer so many questions about the Redsox lineup construction, bullpen management and base running philosophies that it will be like watching a soap opera with very bad acting. Whether the Jays succeed or not we actually have the right to laugh at the Redsox since we had to put up Farrell for 2 long years.

A few years ago you would have thought someone was crazy if they said one day that the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles would be the least laughable teams in the AL East.

Since 2008 the Rays have either been to the playoffs or been in a September playoff race every year. They’ve done this despite being in the hardest division in baseball the AL East with one of the smaller payrolls in baseball. They’ve made the Blue Jays their female dog (if you get my drift) since 2007. They’re still built to be a great team in 2013 and for the foreseeable future.

If you want to laugh at the Rays they recently just gave you a reason signing former Blue Jays second basemen Kelly Johnson. If any Blue Jays starter has a great game against the Rays at least we’ll know that Johnson will be there to help his strikeout total at the end of the game look a little prettier.

Before Alex Anthopoulos and before the Yankees and Redsox stopped winning a minimum 97 games every season a lot of fans including myself sincerely thought the Blue Jays would never see the playoffs in their lifetime. Some fans thought that thinking was irrational and they might turn out to be right.

The thing that comforted Blue Jays fans the most during that time was the thought that at least we’ll make the playoffs before the Orioles.

Until the Orioles won 93 games in 2012 and made it all the way to Game 5 of the ALDS. The Orioles haven’t had a busy offseason but sometimes the best moves you make are the ones you don’t. They’re probably better off playing out 2013 with the team they had in 2012 to see if they were a 1 year wonder or not and adjust accordingly next offseason. They’ll also have top prospects Manny Machedo and Dylan Bundy contributing to their 2013 team as well so it’s not like theirs going to be any less talent on that team next season.

You can laugh at the Orioles for re-signing Nate McLouth to be their starting left fielder at least until Nolan Reimold is healthy. As strange as it feels that’s the only thing you can really laugh at them for.

Hopefully the Blue Jays become the team Jays fans think that they are so that we can finally laugh at their divisional rivals out of superiority and not bitterness.