With just under three weeks left in the regular season, the field is almost done filling out, with just five teams holding real hopes of reaching the post season: Boston, New York, Detroit, Minnesota, and Los Angeles.
Anaheim is up 6 in the West, Detroit is up 4 on Minnesota in the Central, the Red Sox are up 6 ½ in the Wild Card and the Yanks are about to clinch the East, up 6.5 games.
So, how do these teams stack up?
arThe Yankees claimed Chris Carter to tweak their cross-town rivals and intra-division rivals, directly benefiting from forcing the Sox to do a little 40-man roster manuevering in September. What I'm more miffed about is the Yankees effectively shuttering Chris Carter's career.
Johnny Damon has played much better, on the wrong side of 30, then most would have expected. In fact, he has been a better player the past two seasons, than he was the previous two. But how could anyone have foreseen that? How could anyone have known that he would age so well?
The Red Sox made a choice to let Damon walk, they let him accept more money. And that is the other part of this equation; the Yankees offered him more money and an extra year if I recall. So naturally, Damon went elsewhere.
But comparing him straight up to Drew isn't necessarily fair. Coco Crisp was Damon's successor, not Drew. Crisp was brought in, and the results were mixed. Sure, he couldn't hit much at all. But Crisp was arguably the most valuable defender in all of baseball during a 2007 World Series run that resulted in a bunch of rings. Crisp was then moved to give the role to Ellsbury of course. So let us just say that it could be much worse in center field. Ellsbury is still learning the game, and should be a solid all-around player, eventually.
Jon Lester just became the most important man in the Red Sox rotation. Not by design, of course, but out of necessity.
Five and a half games is a strong lead. Not impenetrable, mind you, but strong enough where the Red Sox need to consider what life may be like in the Wild Card...