Don’t Expect AL East Mediocrity To Continue

New York Yankees right fielder Alfonso Soriano (12) drops a fly ball by Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts (not pictured) for an error during the sixth inning of a game at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Yankees are holding down first place in the hardest division in baseball on May 5th with a 16-14 record.

Last year at this time that record would have been good for 4th place in the AL East because well, that’s usually life in the AL East.

We’re only a month into the season and every team in the AL East is strangely off to a very slow start.

How slow a start you ask?

The Jays are in last place with a 14-17 record and there only 2.5 games back of first. But only 5 teams in all of baseball have less wins than the Jays!

That’s unheard of in the AL East.

In fact the Yankees 16 wins is less than EVERY other first place team in baseball!

And the 15 wins that the Orioles, Rays and Red Sox all share is the same or worse than every other divisions 3rd place team!

Usually the 2nd place team in the AL East has as many or more wins as every other divisions 1st or 2nd place team.

In fact the AL East is the only division in baseball where every team has a negative run differential. The Jays actually have the best run differential in the division at an even 0.

Again it’s a very small sample size but it’s very bizarre that all the beast of the AL East would all get off to slow starts simultaneously.

It’s allowed the Jays to still be in the thick of things but they’ll have to pick it up because they simply can’t expect the division to continue being so mediocre.