Well, I know the blog has pretty much sucked this season. I really haven't had much time to screw with it like I would like to and to be honest, when I've had a chance I've chose laziness over blogging. Here I am for at least one more post this season and possibly a few more. It looks like we have some interesting races going on in Pine Tar heading down the stretch. Let's take a look at them and see how the teams stack up.
American League
North
The North has been known for sending 3 teams to the post season every season since season 9. They still have an outside shot this season.
The division leader right now is Dover and after 7 seasons of not making the playoffs, they won the division last season. Offensively the team is led by John Pong and Armando Mota, who are both having great seasons. The supporting cast of Ben Morton, Brian Herzner, and Ruben Palaez make this a tough lineup to face for any pitcher. The rotation has featured Sammy Johnson who has seen his ERA sky rocket this season, but is still pulling in the victories. Karim Ontiveros is having another solid season, but just hasn't seemed to be the dominant pitcher that I'd expect him to be. The bullpen hasn't been very good, blowing 18 saves this season, but David Siqueiros has been a solid closer saving 15 out of 19 games. With the best offense in the AL though this team is going to be tough to knock off the top of the division. They are going to need the bullpen to be a little more solid in the post season though or it could spell an early exit.
Scranton sits at second in the North, only 2 games out. A .505 expected win percentage isn't ideal, but they have given up the second fewest runs in the AL. Offensively, rookie Don Aoki is having a very good rookie season, but he's not getting much help. Tony Dalrymple is putting up good homerun totals, but his average sits at .247 and his OBP is at .320. The leading hitter on the team is JJ Kramer batting a .299 and his .381 OBP is impressive. The offense overall hasn't been good enough for this team. The rotation is the strength for Scranton. Cyrus Torres has been phenomenal posting a 16-5 record with a 2.40 ERA. Dock King has been good with a 10-8 record and 3.80 ERA, but much more is expected from him. Alex Romano is 11-8 with a real good 3.28 ERA. It looks like age has finally caught up to Ebenezer Brett as he has fallen off pretty bad this season. The bullpen is solid and they are led by closer Omar Gabriel, with 31 saves in 36 chances and a 3.12 ERA. The team sits 1 game out of the Wild Card #2 spot right now and unless the offense comes around I don't think they can make the post season. If they do, the offense will be what keeps this team back from making a run.
Milwaukee is 67-61 and not really out of it yet. They are only 5 games back from the final wild card spot and need help to make it in. The team has a .545 expected win percentage, but are playing quite a bit below that. The offense has been solid, but not great. Red Smith is having a very good season with 20 homers, 52 RBI, 94 runs, a .294 average, .356 OBP and 30 steals. Cozy Adams is having a good season as is Howard Atkins and Tanner Stephenson. The offense isn't a weakness, but they aren't going to scare anyone in the post season. The rotation has also been solid and are led by Jose Bravo and Wayne Perez. Both are having pretty good seasons. Archie Tewksbury and Harry Guerrero have been servicable starters, but neither are top of the rotation types. The bullpen has some pretty good pitchers, but they've blown 18 saves this season. It's kind of hard to believe with the ERA's they've put up. Ron Owens has been the worst of the bunch with his 4.50 ERA, but the rest of the team has sub 4.00 ERA's with a few really low ERA's mixed in. I think they can make a run at the post season, but they haven't seemed to put it all together this season.
Hartford looks like they will make it a second straight season of finishing last in this division. The 48-80 record has them on pace for the second worst record in franchise history.
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