AL East Round Up: Mother’s Day Edition

Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Baltimore Orioles

The O’s are starting to prove a lot of people wrong…OK, probably just me. I wasn’t convinced they would contend for the AL East title. Yet, here they sit in first place. While the rest of the division seems to be spinning their tires, Baltimore seems to be gaining traction.

The O’s have been the benefactors of Nelson Cruz and his bat finally waking up. It would appear, he just needed a few games against the Blue Jays to start him off. To date, Nelson Cruz is starting to show he is worth every discounted penny the Orioles spent on him. Take a look:

The real story this week has been the health of Chris Davis and Matt Wieters. Davis is coming back from an oblique injury. Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com tells us that he is ahead of schedule with his rehab. He is eligible to come off the DL on Sunday, but will probably not be ready. Obviously, the O’s would err on the side of getting him back ASAP and officially put him on the DL little stints at a time, rather than one long one.

Matt Wieters went to see Dr James Andrews about his elbow. Dr Andrews is quite the busy man this season! Wieters got good news, though. He’ll be able to DH  while he rests his elbow. He won’t need to spend time on the DL. This is great news for O’s fans. 1) You don’t lose his bat and 2) You won’t lose his defense for very long. Although, Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports tells us there may not be so much comfort with Wieters’ situation:

I’m going to leave the bit on the Orioles with this really nice piece by Hal Bodley of MLB.com In it, Orioles manager, Buck Showalter, discusses managing. I wonder: Are there any more left like him? Check out this video:

Just take a second to appreciate the royalty of the men on that panel…..