American League East
It looks like the Tampa Bay Rays are going to shock the world and win the AL East. They have a three-game lead on the Boston Red Sox and are riding a winning streak of four games.
American League Central
The Chicago White Sox and the Minnesota Twins are locked in a dogfight for the division crown. The White Sox currently lead by a half a game. However, the White Sox are struggling and the Twins are surging.
American League West
The Angels are up a staggering 21.5 games on the next team in the division. It’s literally been months since …read more

CC Sabathia, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, is off to an absolutely dreadful start to the season. On Wednesday, he allowed nine earned runs for the second consecutive start. His ERA now sits at 13.50.
Last season, Sabathia was lights out. He was 19-7 with a 3.21 ERA as he dominated in his best season to date. He was particularly dominant after the All-Star Game, posting a 2.76 ERA in 15 starts.
Is it time to worry about Sabathia?
Well, first before we worry, we should try to figure out what is wrong with him. The first thing everyone thinks of …read more

The Baseball Crank begins his annual Established Win Shares Levels series with the American League Central. He’s not excited about the Chicago White Sox, and who can blame him?
Saying goodbye to a contending team is never an easy thing to do, and so I present to you the 2008 Chicago White Sox. True, they should be better than they were last season, with a revamped bullpen, a solid 27-year-old bat in Nick Swisher and a better glove at short. And true, if the division leaders stumble these guys could back their way into a postseason berth with 86 wins or …read more

   Photo by <<graham>>   some rights reserved
Today’s bit of randomness is a team, the hapless 1912 St. Louis Browns. Under the “direction” of Bobby Wallace and George Stovall, the Browns went 53-101, which remarkably wasn’t bad enough for last place in the American League that year. (The New York Highlanders — aka Yankees — managed to lose 102 games.)
Still, the Browns finished 53 games out of first and were pretty much out of the race from the moment they lost the season opener, 6-2, to the White Sox in Chicago. (At the end of that series, the Browns were 2-2, which is …read more

How did the Tigers go from MLB doormat to model organization without any real transition? They draft aggressively, pay for external talent where needed, and are fearless in trading. Oh, and they win a lot.
Detroit’s latest move is to lock up center fielder Curtis Granderson for 5 years in a deal reportedly worth $30.25 million. Granderson is coming off a .302/.361/.552 campaign and turns 27 in March. His only weaknesses are a propensity to strike out (which he remedied somewhat last year and which is mitigated by the fact that he hits a ton) and a susceptibility to left-handed pitching …read more