MLB Weekly

AL East: Lots of stuff going on in the AL East this week. The Blue Jays just finished a 3 game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays and have now won 8 games in a row and pulled ahead of the New York Yankees into third place in the division. If there is any team in baseball that could pull off a run like the Colorado Rockies did last year and make the playoffs, I would have to go with the Blue Jays. They have excellent starting pitching and a bullpen to match. The only issue with them is their hitting.

Now Tampa Bay could be in trouble of losing out on the AL East title because they are now just 1.5 games ahead of the Red Sox after losing 5 of 6 games. They have a huge series in Boston this week and I think the winner of that series will set the tone down the stretch. The Rays play 14 of their last 21 games on the road and they have struggled on the road this season, playing less than .500 ball. Meanwhile, Boston has 14 of their last 20 games at home, so things are setting up very nicely for them. The Rays and Red Sox still have 6 games against each other and these teams have some bad blood with each other, so things could be pretty intense when they meet with so much on the line.

At this point, I fully expect the Red Sox to catch the Rays and win the division, which will probably be followed by either Kevin Youkilis or Dustin Pedroia winning the AL MVP. You can count me as one of the people who thinks Pedroia has no business winning an MVP, so I will be rooting against that happening. Youkilis has been the man on that team all season long without question.

By the way, I wrote the Yankees off after they lost 2 of 3 to the Red Sox a few weeks ago but you can officially count them as dead after losing 2 of 3 to the lowly Mariners. They are now 8.5 games behind the Wild Card leading Boston Red Sox.

Manny Ramirez: The LA Dodgers have taken over the lead in the NL West after sweeping the Diamondbacks and the main reason has been the bat of Manny Ramirez. Manny has been an absolute beast since coming over from the Red Sox. Here are his stats with the Dodgers so far in 34 games: .403 AVG/11 HR/34 RBI/.500 OBP/.748 SLG/1.248 OPS/218 OPS+. He went 2 for 3 yesterday to raise his average to .410 with the Dodgers. Incredible stats from Manny and if the Dodgers hold on to the NL West lead, then it will be in large part because of the addition of Manny Ramirez. Any doubt that he will get another huge contract after this season is over?

Other MLB News:

- Bad news for the White Sox, as possible MVP Carlos Quentin broke his wrist and could be out for the season. Quentin is in the middle of a monster season with a .288 AVG/36 HR/ 100 RBI/.394 OBP/.571 SLG/149 OPS+. The White Sox will definitely miss him if he is out for the year. Lucky for them, the Twins have been struggling a little bit of late, but even if they make the playoffs without Quentin, they will definitely miss his bat the most in the post-season.

- The Rays activated Evan Longoria from the 15-day DL. I thought the Rays might be in trouble when they lost both Carl Crawford and Longoria, but they've hung in there and still lead the AL East. Longoria comes back just in time though with the Red Sox creeping up on the Rays.

- Cliff Lee won his 10th straight decision and now is 21-2 on the season, as he continues his push to win the AL Cy Young Award.

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