Month: August 2016

Before the All Star break, 4 teams led their division by more than two games. Since then only one has remained in that category. The Giants are now 0.5 gameback from  the Dodgers and the Orioles are 1.5 gamesbehind the Blue Jays. Since the All Star break both the Giants and the O’s have had woes offensively with the Giants having the worst record after the All Star break in the major leagues. The Orioles have also been playing under .500 type baseball of late and both teams will be looking to turn their fortunes around. The New York Mets who were a mere 2.0 games back in their division are now 4.5 games back of the WILD CARD spot and now have a shameful record of 60 wins and 61 losses. Their team is in need of a leader badly and I just don’t know where it will come from. The Mets are hopeful that the return of Yoenis Cespedes will bolster their team back into contention.

 5 days ago the trade deadline for trades in Major League Baseball came to a close. Some teams proved that they were planning on rebuilding, and others showed that they were ready to make a playoff push. Most notably the Texas Rangers, The Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants. The Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs are also on that list though they made their trades days earlier. The Rangers acquired Jonathan Lucroy from the Milwaukee Brewers (Catcher), Carlos Beltran from the Yankees (Outfielder/DH) and Jeremy Jeffress (Reliever) also from the Brewers. Both the Yankees and Brewers are rebuilding teams and in return they got some quality prospects for their future. The Dodgers and Giants are the only contenders for the pennant in their division with the Padres and Diamondbacks struggling this year. The Giants only hold a two game lead over the Dodgers so both teams had to improve their rosters to make the pennant race interesting. The Giants acquired Eduardo Nunez from the Minnesota Twins for Alberto Mejia, (a minor league pitching prospect), Will Smith from the Brewers for Phil Bickford (another minor League pitching prospect) and Matt Moore from the Rays for Matt Duffy and Lucius Fox (minor league outfielder). Nunez is having an All star year batting .300 with 12 home runs and 57 runs batted in. Will Smith was probably the best left handed reliever left on the market on the last day. Finally Matt Moore was the best starting pitcher on the market and was an All star in 2013.