AL East Round Up: Mother’s Day Edition

Mandatory Credit: David Manning-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to this week’s AL East Round Up. HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all the beautiful women out there who dedicate themselves to being a mom. A celebratory Brett Lawrie High Five to all of you! This week we’ll look at what a bunch of sons of mothers did in the game that probably took a lot of sacrifice and dedication on the part of their moms to get them to where they are today. I’m sure each of the them appreciates the support they were given. At least, he had better! There will be a lot of pink (bats, wristbands, shoes, etc) around baseball today as players show their appreciation.

Teams started to make some movement in the standings this week. The Blue Jays had a 5 game win streak and moved out of the basement. The Orioles rode 5 in a row to move into first place. They are starting to separate themselves from a division that seems content to sit around .500. And, really your record doesn’t matter. You just have to finish ahead of 4 other teams. Then it’s PLAYOFFS, BABY! Let’s take a look at what went on in the toughest division in pro sports!

AL East Standings:

Baltimore Orioles- (20-14)
New York Yankees- (19-16)  1.5GB
Boston Red Sox- (18-18)  3GB
Toronto Blue Jays- (18-19) 3.5GB
Tampa Bay Rays- (16-21) 5.5GB

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…..

Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

New York Yankees

The Yankees have slipped out of first place. I just wanted to write that. They sit at just 3  games above .500. I really thought this would be the time when teams start to separate in this division. It hasn’t really happened.

It seems like every week I’m writing about Masahiro Tanaka. Except, he deserves it. I’m not so sure any human being is worth the kind of money he’s being paid (let alone Clayton Kershaw‘s fat stacks), but he certainly is returning on the Yankees investment. Take a look:

Wow! He is on pace for 24 wins and 282 (!) strikeouts! Gulp. Compare that with just 34 walks that he is on pace for. The Yankees may have gotten a discount. He’s certainly my pick for early AL Rookie of the Year…maybe even MVP.

Perhaps someone who might give him competition for R.O.Y. might be his teammate Yangervis Solarte.

He’s on pace for 101 RBI! What is odd is that he is only on pace to score 61 runs. Clearly, he is helping his team more than they are helping him.

As well, Spencer Fordin of MLB.com tells us that the Yankees will retire Joe Torre‘s number 6. Celebratory Brett Lawrie High Five to Mr Torre.

I want to end the Yankees bit with the story of the Brewers fan who ran on the field to ask Derek Jeter for a hug. Yes, the guy was arrested, but it is kind of awesome. I wouldn’t mind a hug from “The Captain”, myself. Uh….I mean……In true Jeter fashion, he took it in stride and never panicked. Speaking of Jeter, the farewell tour has started. The Angels presented him with a paddle board, of all things:

Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Toronto Blue Jays

The past week has been marked by a 5 game win streak for the Blue Jays. After a stretch of blown games and disappointing outings, the Jays have put together a nice little run over the last week. In doing so, they have pulled themselves out of the basement in the AL East. That probably is more of a statement about just how, for lack of a better word, “Meh” this division has been.

Regardless, the Jays have been led by their rotation. Mark Buehrle (6-1, 1.91 ERA) continues to shine. What is odd is that he isn’t really “wowing” anyone. He’s just pitching. Plain and simple. J.A. Happ tried to prove his value when he made his first start of the season and threw 5 scoreless innings…aaaand then he blew it on Saturday against the Angels. Dustin McGowan looks to have figured out his diabetes related fatigue. Which is good because there are those who felt he may be pitching for his spot with Marcus Stroman being called up.

Speaking of the #StroShow…a big Celebratory Brett Lawrie High Five for him as he picked up his first MLB win in Philadelphia Tuesday night. I’ve been really excited to see Stroman take the hill for the Blue Jays. Since being called up, he hasn’t looked out of place. Before you scream “small sample size” (Thank you to whoever coined THAT phrase), I am aware that he has only pitched 3 1/3 innings. But, in that time, he’s given up 2 hits and struck out 2 batters. He hasn’t walked anyone.

In other pitching news, it looks like Brandon Morrow got some good news. According to Gregor Chisholm at MLB.com, Morrow should be able to avoid surgery on his right index finger’s torn tendon sheath. They expect he’ll be back around the All Star break.

Here are some other tidbits regarding the Blue Jays:

–R.A. Dickey has put out a children’s book entitled Knuckleball Ned. The book is meant to help children with bullying. You can find it at Amazon.com. They describe it as “a funny anti-bullying picture book with an adorable baseball character that kids will love”

-Brett Lawrie is set to come back to the lineup after resting his legs, Adam Lind has come back to the big league club. Juan Francisco (J-Frank) is on fire at the plate, Edwin Encarnacion is…well…Edwin Encarnacion. There appears to be a logjam in Toronto causing some to question whether Lawrie should move to 2nd. It sparked a debate from Jays Journal’s Ryan Mueller (@MuellerRyan11).

-Celebratory Brett Lawrie High Five to Edwin Encarnacion who hit his 200th career homerun on Thursday against the Phillies.

-I’m going to wrap up my bit on the Jays with THIS. The Blue Jays made a dream come true for one 10 yr old boy with autism and mitochondrial disease. He was on the field for batting practice. Classy.

Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Boston Red Sox

Man, the Red Sox can’t seem to get it together. And, I’m OK with that. For some reason, I’ve really developed a “hate-on” for the Sox. After the Jays, they used to be my “back up” team. Then they went all “Evil Empire” and…..ugh. Anyway, it was interesting to see that Yu Darvish had a no-no going against the Red Sox on Friday night. He took his bid into the ninth. And then David Ortiz (who else?) broke it up with one out to go. Why is it that players like Ortiz seem to come through in times like that? It just adds to their hype.

Ortiz’s clutch hitting is the epitome of why you cannot count the Red Sox out. Ever. That and their starting pitchers. David Sessions of MLB.com gave us an interesting look at the rotation for the Red Sox. They are the only team to get 7 starts from all 5 of their starters! That is huge! To add to that, their rotation is only one of two (Angels being the other) that has had their rotation stay in tact. Their starters have totaled 205 2/3 innings.

Ian Browne of MLB.com passes on that Ben Cherington, Red Sox GM, will be part of the Sabermetrics, Scouting and Science of Baseball panel when they meet August 16-17 in Boston. I thought this was a cool thing to add and then I read that John Ferrell spoke at the event in the past, thus taking away any shiny veneer the event held in my mind. Do you think the old school scouts and managers have an “Eye Test, Scouting and Gut Feelings of Baseball” panel? Just wondering.

Finally, you have to check out this video that shows Fenway Park being transformed into a soccer pitch for Liverpool FC and AS Roma’s exhibition match:

Aside from being a really cool transformation, it is also neat to see that other sports and leagues are doing the cross oceanic tour of exhibition games.