By Marcus Perry
At the beginning of this MLB season most analyst had their AL playoff contenders lined up as The Yankees winning the East, the Tigers winning the central, the Rangers winning the west and the Angels and Red Sox/Rays as the two wild cards. Boy has that been shaken up.
With the regular season about to come to a close in two
weeks the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics all look to be in strong positions to get a
birth in the playoffs.
Baltimore is only a game and half behind the Yankees for the lead in
the AL east and the leader atop the wildcard board.
Chicago now leads the Tigers by only one game. It will be an
interesting one to watch as they have no more games against each other and
Detroit seems to have an easy road with all their games left against the Royals
and Twins.
Oakland sits 5 games behind the Rangers and has a slim but surprising lead on the Angles by two games.
The Wildcard standings are pretty tight. Baltimore and
Oakland are tied for that top spot which makes them the two wildcard teams, but
The Angels are two back, the Rays three, and the Tigers five and
half. If there is anything we learned from last year it is that no leads are
safe.
So how is it that these low payroll teams (beside Chicago)
have been able to contend this whole season and potential make a serious push
to a world series?
The Orioles have done it in maybe the unsexiest way
possible. They have little star power and no stud pitching. They rank 18th in the league with
a team 3.99 era and their stud hitters, Matt Wieters and Adam Jones both are
hitting below .300 and neither has more than 80 RBI However the Orioles have
found a way to outscore their opponents by 23 runs, have scored a 27-7 record
in one run games and a 13-2 record in extra inning games.
Baltimore has done this with some really key relief
pitching, timely hitting, good management, and lets face it a little bit of
luck. The relievers have posted a 30-10, have 49 saves and record a 3.09 era
which is below the league average of 3.66.
Manager Buck Showalter has utilized over 150 different
variations of lineups with this Orioles team and every time he fills a hole in
the lineup it seems to work. I don’t know how long this run for the Orioles can
last but it sure does seem like it will carry over into October.
The key to Oakland’s success has been their pitching. They
are fifth in the bigs with a team ERA of 3.50 and have the third most shutouts
with 13 while only having one complete game thrown. That being thrown by one of
their young stud Tommy Milone.
Going into the season it was thought that they were going to
have rely heavily on Dallas Braden and Brett Anderson to anchor their pitching
staff but the two have been hurt. The real catalysts for this staff have been
Tommy Milone and Jarred Parker. They have a combined 24 and 18 record and a
3.63. Now with Anderson back in the rotation the young top 3 of this rotation
can look to compete with anyone. The San Francisco Giants just a few years ago
showed us once you get into the playoffs it’s about timely hitting and solid
pitching and that is what I’m sure Oakland is banking on.
What could be the potential biggest surprise is if the
Chicago White Sox hold their lead and keep the Detroit Tigers out of the
postseason. The signing of rookie manager Robin Ventura has assured to a be a
success at least in year one and the decision to move Chris Sale from the
bullpen to the rotation has developed a potential cy young candidate for years
to come.
Sale has been absolutely outstanding going 17-7, a 2.82 ERA
and 181 strikeouts which has put him in the cy young conversation. Veteran Jake
Peavy has had some back injuries this year but still has given Chicago 203.2
innings, 3.40 era and 180 strikeouts. The top of Chicago’s rotation is
something that can carry them in the postseason.
The middle of the lineup has been key for Chicago as well. Adam Dunn and Alex Rios seemed to be on the
decline of their careers just a season ago, but both have bounced back tremendously.
Dunn turned 11 homers in 20111 into 41 this season, while Rios has a career
high .299 average and 24 dingers. He is also creeping close to his career high
in RBI, 88, as he is at 87.
Younger players like Dayan Viciedo have shown production
promising production. Viciedo at only age 23 has shown to be the power bat the
white sox may be looking for to replace Dunn one day. Viciedo has 21 homers and
66 RBI in 141 games.
As September comes to
a close and October approaches it should be fun to see how the AL playoff
picture
shapes out.
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