By Bob Zayas
April 17th:
If you haven’t seen the AL East standings lately you may be surprised to see Boston is in last place. The 2018 World Series winner, the team that won 108 games during the regular 2018 season is 7 ½ games back of first place. Think that’s odd. The New York Yankees, winner of 100 games and a Wild Card team last year is 5 ½ games back of first place. So, who is leading the AL East? That would be the Tampa Bay Rays. At this time last year the Rays were 4-13. They are presently at 13-4. They are 8-2 in their last 10 games. Their .765 winning percentage is tops in the MLB.
Tampa Bay has had outstanding pitching with a team ERA of 2.41 (best in the AL) and 173 strikeouts (2nd in AL).
As for their offense, they are 4th in the AL with a .262 batting average and 5th in the AL in RBIs with 79.
The question is whether Tampa Bay can keep Boston and New York at bay. This baseball season is not yet a month old so anything is still possible but for now Tampa Bay reigns.
According to Bleacher Report (internet article dated 2/7/19), they predict Boston will win 101 games, Yankees 100 and Tampa Bay 88 in 2019. We’ll have to wait and see because as the old baseball adage goes, “it’s a long way to October”.
Comentários