By Josh:
The season is still young but we have seen enough baseball to know which teams look stronger than other teams. The National League is playing out like most people thought.
Mets and Nationals sit on top of the NL East and look prepared to have a solid pennant race. The Cubs are surprising no one with a strong start and yet both the Cardinals and Pirates are above .500 and not rolling over. Dodgers and Giants currently sit atop the NL West with the Rockies surprising a few people and staying close.
Really there aren’t any huge surprises in the National League.
The American League is an entirely different story.
Do you know who the division leaders are? Royals? Nope they are in 4th in the Central. Toronto? Nope they are in 3rd in the East. Astros? Nope they are in last place in the West.
Here are the current division leaders; Boston, Chicago and Seattle. Know what they all had in common last year? They were all below .500 for their records. Boston took last in the East, while Chicago and Seattle both took 2nd to last in their divisions.
Now none of these three teams are just running away with their division but these teams are winning and that is what you have to do to make the playoffs.
This is something that I love about baseball that you don’t really see in other sports as much. One year to the next the teams in the playoffs can change. Baseball seasons are long and it is hard to put multiple winning seasons together. Injuries happen, players hit slumps, teams lose motivation, and some teams just get torn apart.
As a Mariner fan I can tell you that this is the most excited I’ve been for the Mariners in the month of May in a long time. Robinson Cano is healthy and is showing why he just may be a Hall of Fame 2nd baseman.
The M’s are scoring runs and even scoring late in ball games. That is something that hasn’t happened much in recent years.
I’m excited to see how this season plays out not just for the Mariners but for the entire American League.