by As Baseball finished up the first month of the season, I will be giving my over reactions for every division so far. This will be building off my preseason predictions article, so if you haven’t done so, read that then come back.
AL East
Boy was I dead wrong about this division; the Bronx bombers have been a force to start this season. With 24 wins and only nine loses they have run through the AL East to start the year. The Blue Jays are solid as they look to compete with the Yankees for the division title but are still behind the defended AL East champs. The Rays just above the Jays and right behind the Yankees so it will be interesting to see if they will get closer to the Yanks or fall behind. Boy oh boy the Boston Red Sox have been horrible this year. Devers, Bogarts, and Martinez have been fantastic but that’s about it, the rest of the lineup can’t hit and they lead the league in blown saves. Bobby Delbec has been a mess and could be sent down with Cases looking to be called up and Cordero playing outfield and first bases. My entire prediction has been off for this division unless the Red Sox and Yankees switch.
AL Central
This prediction isn’t completely wrong as I did state that this division could go anyway. The Twins are playing some good ball right now after they spent some money this offseason to get back in the division race after a disappointing season last year. The Guardians have done a complete 180 this season. Just last year they were one of the worst hitting teams in the league after injury’s destroyed this team. The pitching isn’t as deep as they hoped but it shouldn’t kill them. The bats are red hot, this team is able to get on the base due to a few players making giant leaps this year. The White Sox have been very slow out of the gates as they just cannot find a way to win games. I don’t expect this to continue, but if it does the season of destiny might belong to another. The Tigers are a team I thought would get better but boy I was dead wrong. This team has not gotten any better, they may have gotten worse.
AL West
When I picked the Angels, everyone laughed at me and said, “How do you just forget about the Astros.” Well look who is laughing now. Yes, LA is half a game back, but they have been one of if not the toughest team in the entire AL. Everything is clicking right now for the Angels in the outfield, lets see of they can stay hot. The Astros are as good as we expected, the villains of baseball continue to be one of the best teams in baseball. Seattle had a good start, as of late this team can’t get things to run smoothly. If they can string things together, they can fight for the wildcard at the end of the season. The Rangers and A’s are exactly what we thought. I like the Rangers lineup and how it progressed, but they still have a long way to go. The A’s are too busy trying to join the Raiders in sin city to build a championship roster.
NL East
I thought the Phills would come out of the gates swinging, that hasn’t been the case for this team. Fielding has been a big issue so far; the bullpen has also been a big issue for this team. It doesn’t help that the Mets have been a force to start the season. With a strong pitching rotation and a lineup with a enough star power to take them to the top of the league. Atlanta had a slow start, but they are figuring it out after adding Acuna back into the lineup. Look for the rotation to pick up the pace and get back into the grove of things. Miami had a winning record but have dropped down to four games below 500, Jazz Chisholm might be the coolest player in baseball but that won’t be enough for the Fish.
NL Central
Of all the divisions, I predicted this one almost perfectly. The Brewers pitching is once again shutting teams down effortlessly. The batting is still an issue with only one batter near the 300 mark in average. The St. Louis Cardinals star studded team with strong pitching is directly behind the Brew Crew in the standings. The Pirates will not be contending for the playoffs this year, sitting pretty in third place. This team has young stars but still has tons of holes that still need to be filled. I said they would take a big leap forward this year and they have done just that. The Cubs are young and have a lot of room to grow while the Reds are struggling to do anything correctly.
NL West
The Dodgers lead the division with the best lineup and rotation arguably in the entire league. They are the top runners so far in this division but are being chased down by the Padres who are looking to avenge their late season collapse last season. Once Tatis Jr. rejoins the lineup it will be interesting if the team will continue to keep the momentum going. In my preseason article I slept on the Giants thinking they wouldn’t be able to capture lighting in a bottle two years in a row. With 20 wins thus far, they have proven early on that they are reloaded and ready to go. The Diamondbacks have a winning record thus far as they have surprised everybody. There are doubts that they can keep it going, it will be interesting to see if they can keep this up as we head into the summer months. The Rockies also have a winning record making the NL West by far the toughest division in the entire league to start the season.
