Before yesterday’s Major League matchday, almost all the teams had played 67 games on their 162-schedule. In other words, each club had only 13 games left to reach its half day, including Tuesday night’s activity.
How are the positions at this moment, how has each club performed, where is there satisfaction or disappointment? Let’s look at the American League first.
EAST DIVISION: The greatest satisfaction in MLB this year is for the New York Yankees franchise. The dominance they have exerted in batting and pitching was not expected and they lead almost all the collective lines. On offense, their .248 batting average is fifth in the league, but they are first in runs scored with 344 and in home runs with 111. (It’s the only club to hit 100 homers). In ERA they have 2.84 for first place and there has been the perfect combination for a beautiful record of 50-17.
The rest has been very unstable: Toronto at 38-29, 12 games out of first place, Boston 37-31, Tampa 36-31 and the Orioles do not have 30-38 but in a better performance than last year.
CENTRAL DIVISION: Minnesota, at 38-20, is fighting for first place with Cleveland, at 34-29. are ungrateful). Detroit is not 26-41 and neither is Kansas City 24-42. It is possible that the rest of the year the fight will be among the top three because the White Sox have tools to come back well.
WEST DIVISION: The Angels started off great, but fell off hard in late May and haven’t been able to recover. Now they have a negative record of 33-37 and things are not looking good, despite the fact that their star player Mike Trout is very hot. Houston leads the pack at 41-25, a tight-knit winning machine, especially with a healthy and stable Justin Verlander and left-hander Framber Valdez providing good pitching.
The rest of the group will try to return to the initial competition, but I see it as very difficult. Texas 31-35, Seattle 29-39 and Oakland 23-45. It seems to me that Houston will walk easy to win the division again with its veteran manager Dusty Baker, 72 years old.
Tomorrow, the National League.
THE SHORT: Oneil Cruz has needed only one game to make noise in the Major Leagues. The boy debuted with the Pirates a few hours ago, but I must point out that he had already played last year exhausting 9 at-bats, 3 hits, a home run and 3 RBIs… He has an impressive 6-7 physique and being a short draws more attention … Hopefully it is here to stay.
GOOD NEWS: In short, Manny Machado’s injury last Sunday is not serious, according to the team. He’ll probably be benched for about 10 days with his left ankle recovering. It was said, at first, that maybe the team could call up Robinson Cano to take his place, but that’s not very clear. Canó plays in El Paso, triple A of the organization.
THE FIGHT: This Wednesday will be the arbitration hearing between Aaron Judge and the Yankees… The player asks for 21 million, the team offers 17… How much did he earn last year? He won 10.1 million and his numbers were .287-39-98… What he is doing this year doesn’t count because if it were, Judge would win easy.. Until last night he was .302-25-50.
OF INTEREST: Infielder Elehuris Montero is in MLB with Colorado, who can play third and first…. Dellin Betances is already active and started playing in triple A for the Dodgers…. The Dominican Federation of Dominoes is requesting its affiliation to the Dominican Olympic Committee. Really? I thought that dominoes was a recreational activity among friends, that they even like it a lot because it allows you to “raise your elbow”. That’s not a sport, but since the world is crazy, don’t be surprised if they admit it… Don’t you believe me?