Baseball: The AL East. Unbeatable or burnout.

This is the division that I see the most, it's damn competetive. NYY beats TO, TO beats NNY. Bosox the same with both. Same with the Orioles. Basically these teams slug it out every night, with the exception of the D-Rays. They all meet a PILE of times throughout the season. The question is, does this make a(or 2) team(s) that come out of the AL East harder to beat, or will they beat each other up and make them easier to beat come the fall?

I've been watching alot of AL games this year, i've seen two D-Rays/BoSox games both of which were very good(the D-Rays won both). This is going to be an interesting division to watch, very competitive, if only they'd get rid of the DH.

What interests me the most is the NL east looking like the NL west this year, with the exception of the Mets that are above .500. The only real snoozer so far is the NL central (as usual). I think it may be too early to pick which division is the one to watch but there certainly are some showing some early promise.

Yeah I agree the AL East is always fun to watch. Even the Devil Rays are pretty good, if only when playing the Red Sox. The division usually comes down to a battle between the Yankees and Red Sox (at least recently), so the other team's don't usually get a chance...but yeah to get back to what was being said the AL East is my vote for best division in baseball.

I've been watching a lot of AL games this year, i've seen two D-Rays/BoSox games both of which were very good(the D-Rays won both). This is going to be an interesting division to watch, very competitive, if only they'd get rid of the DH.


Dear aegis fang and others,

As I've said many times on here, I've been a Giants fan since I was five years old, which, by a happy coincidence, was the year they became the San Francisco Giants. The years 1958, 1959 and 1960 were quite a trio of years for them. In 1958, they got a rookie who would later become a well-deserved Hall of Famer... guy named Cepeda. In 1959, they got an even better rookie... guy named McCovey. Then in 1960, they got a pretty fair right-handed pitcher... guy named Marichal, whose major-league debut was a one-hitter (shoulda been a 2-hitter, but for a sensational diving catch by Mays, to end the game), and who posted a string of awesome won-loss records throughout the decade... much better than Gibson's.

As most baseball fans know, the Giants had a real Murderer's Row at the plate for a time, and came in second place like clockwork, back in those days of 10 teams, only one division, and no "playoffs" except the World Series. The Dodgers nosed them out in 1963, 1965 and 1966, despite having terrible hitting.

In 1961, they were 89-65, but 3rd place and 8 games out;
In 1962, they went to the Series and lost in 7 games, on McCovey's do-or-die line drive... right at Bobby Richardson;
In 1963, they were 14 games over .500, but 11 out of first;
In 1964, they were 90-72, and finished in 4th place, but only 3 games out of first (the year of the Phillies legenday collapse)!!
In 1965, they were 95-67, in 2nd place, 2 games out of 1st;
In 1966, they were 93-68, in 2nd place, 1.5 games out of 1st;
In 1967, they were 91-71, in 2nd place, but 10.5 games out of 1st;
In 1968, they were 88-74, in 2nd place, 9 games out of 1st; AND
In 1969, they were 90-72, in 2nd place (in the first year of divisional play), 3 games out of 1st.

OK. That was not just for the hell of it. The Giants of the 1960's were a team as profoundly affected by the lack of a DH as any team ever.

For a period of time, they decided to pretend McCovey was a left fielder. The "thinking," I guess, was that Mays was so great he could cover everything to McCovey's left, and they could put McCovey near the line. And remember, a lot of the ancient ballparks were still standing, like Forbes Field, where it was 408 to LF and 457 to deepest LCF.

McCovey, as huge and powerful as he was, with a 6'4" height and the wing span of a condor (nobody would believe he was legit, today), couldn't even play 1B adequately. He was ATROCIOUS in left field, and no matter what kind of superhuman things you've heard about Mays in CF, and about how he was so fast he made Tris Speaker and Richie Ashburn look slow, he could not play CF and LF.

Then they tried to pretend Cepeda was a LF. That worked no better. (The Giants got into a pattern of this. Years later, they pretended Dave Kingman was a LF--a uniquely absurd fantasy--and then pretended Jack Clark was a RF, which was good for two or three laughs or screams per game.)

Eventually, the Giants found themselves compelled to make one of the absolute worst trades in baseball history: Orlando Cepeda for a pitcher named Ray Sadecki, whose greatest asset probably was that he was a much better hitter than the average pitcher. He was not, however, anywhere near the hitter Cepeda was.

So there you have it. This 1960's Giant team came SO close to making repeated trips to the Series. Instead, they made one which ended in defeat by the narrowest margin of any Series ever--i.e., the direction of a hard-hit line drive, with the tying run on 3rd and the winning run on 2nd (Mays, no less). Other than that, it was a steady string of 2nd's and 3rd's that drove all of us fans insane.

NOW....

Suppose we'd had the D.H. Rule back then. If the Giants had had not just Mays and McCovey at 3 & 4, but Mays, McCovey and Cepeda at 3, 4 & 5, is there any doubt some of those pennant races would have come out differently, with the Giants' murderers' row taking them to SEVERAL World Series, instead of one Series and all of those frustrating near misses? Hint: NO.

Now, obviously that doesn't mean the rule is a good one. But ya gotta admit that if you were a Giants' fan, and you saw the rule come in when it did, you would have said, "Why $*#@ing now?!?!"

BHN

What will happen tonight in the NYY vs. TB game? TB has a history of haunting great pitchers. The year Clemens was 20-3, TWO of his 3 losses came against TB! Pedro always struggled against them, as I recall. Now, the Big Unit pitches against them tonight, and I come to find out his longest winless streak is against this hapless team. What the hell??

How will Big Unit do tonight?

Will Johnson turn things around and beat TB tonight,

I'll answer my own question:

Johnson pitched badly, giving up 5 earned runs in 7 innings, and getting lucky not to give up more. But he left after 6-2/3 innings with a 6-5 lead, so he'll either get a win or a no-decision.

The great ones are entitled to an occasional lucky win, right?

BHN

The AL East. Unbeatable or burnout.

This is the division that I see the most, it's damn competetive. NYY beats TO, TO beats NNY. Bosox the same with both. Same with the Orioles. Basically these teams slug it out every night, with the exception of the D-Rays. They all meet a PILE of times throughout the season. The question is, does this make a(or 2) team(s) that come out of the AL East harder to beat, or will they beat each other up and make them easier to beat come the fall?


So, True North: Since this was your question, and since I'm betting you have followed the A.L. East more closely this year than I have, I'd like your informed answer to your question.

Which of the two do YOU think it will be, come this fall? Will these teams be seasoned and tough in the playoffs, or patsies?

BHN

Originally posted by BaseballHistoryNut
So, True North: Since this was your question, and since I'm betting you have followed the A.L. East more closely this year than I have, I'd like your informed answer to your question.

Which of the two do YOU think it will be, come this fall? Will these teams be seasoned and tough in the playoffs, or patsies?

BHN

OK, I think that any team(s) that comes out of this division will be tough to beat. When you're playing competitively EVERY night, over damn near a full season, you've had to find ways to win, EVERY night. This will be beneficial to the coaching staff, the players will be used to it, competing at a high level EVERY night.

Coming out of the AL East? They'll be seasoned AND tough. So far it looks to me like the Bosox and Yankies. If the Jays RHer Towers finds a way to get out of the 1st without allowing 4-5 runs, or they relegate him to somewhere else and an adequate replacement is found, either of the first 2 teams could be on the outside looking in come playoff time. The Jays are 2-3 in ALL batting catagories, in a tough division.

Average pitching and hot batting makes for some exciting baseball.

Jays and Angels for the next 4 days, this will tell a lot, how it looks outside of the AL East. Saw the Angels earlier and liked what I saw. Notes will be kept for this thread.