The Mix-Up in the AL East

Once again, it was a race to the finish in the American League East between the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays to determine who'd win the division and wild card. For the fourth consecutive year these three teams have held the top three seeds in the AL East. At the end of the 2011 Major League Baseball season the American League East ended with the New York Yankees as the #1 seed, and the Tampa Bay Rays at the #2 seed. The Rays were six games behind the Yankees and Boston Red Sox were only one game behind the Rays.

The flop of the Red Sox in September brought new perspective to the history books. There has never been a team to blow a bigger lead in September besides the 2011 Red Sox. They were leading the AL East by nine games through September 3rd. The Red Sox ended their season in shocking fashion with a appalling 7-20 record, did not win consecutive games at any point during September, and managed to miss the playoffs by one game.

By the end of the 2011 season both the Yankees and Red Sox knew that they were in need of major personal changes. As the Red Sox faced a troublesome end  to the season the owners John Henry, Tom Werner, and Larry Lucchino all came to an executive decision that it was managements fault. The first step to recovery for the Red Sox was to fire Head Coach Terry Francona, and with that General Manager Theo N. Epstein decided that it was time to part ways with the Red Sox. With these positions needing to be filled the owners of this once dynamic franchise decided to add Bobby "V" Valentine and Ben Cherington as General Manager. Not only did the Red Sox experience change in management, the roster contained drastic
changes as well. Key Acquisitions: RP Andrew Bailey, OF Cody Ross, C Kelly Shoppach, OF Ryan Sweeny; Key Loses: SP John Lackey (Tommy John surgery), RP Jonathan Papelbon, OF Josh Reddick, SS Jed Lowrie, C Jason Varitek (retired), SP Tim Wakefield (retired), J.D. Drew (FA). With all of these former Red Sox players gone, they have also been suffering with 12 players currently on  the DL, six of them being outfielders (Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury, Cody Ross, Ryan Kalish, Darnell McDonald, and Jason Repko).


The Yankees pitching rotation needed to improve their depth for the 2012 season. In the offseason they acquired right-handed Pitcher Michael Pineda from the Seattle Mariners for New York's top catching prospect Jesus Montero. Pineda is in his second season in the majors and comes from the American League West, competing against Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, and Los Angeles Angels in the division. The American League East is considered the powerhouse of Major League Baseball. Coming from a less competitive AL West, Pineda is facing some of the toughest players and teams in the AL East. During spring training, Pineda looked out of shape and over weight, it showed because he struggled. He was 10 pounds above his playing weight at 280 pounds entering spring training. When he pitched, his velocity was high 80s and occasionally he would throw 91 mph. The struggles didn't fade when the regular season began, he started off the season on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation. He will be shut down for the remainder of the season after sustaining a tear in the labrum of his right shoulder, he had arthroscopic surgery May 1 and will be out for about a year. Pineda was supposed to be the key factor to the Yankees starting rotation this season. Did the Yankees make a mistake by trading for him? Many speculate that the Mariners knew about his shoulder problems and never informed the Yankees. Was this a recurring injury?

Prior to the beginning of this 2012 season many baseball experts and insiders predicted for both the Yankees and Red Sox to be in contention for first place in the AL East. To their surprise, this year has been quite the opposite for both of these teams. The Yankees have only been able to reach first place once this season and that was from April 21-23, when they stood at first place with the record of 10-6. In the first 44 games of this season, the Red Sox have not been able to break a win percentage of over .500 thus far. As of today, the Red Sox stand in last place of the AL East with a record of 22-22, and the Yankees lay in 4th place with a record of 22-21.

American League
EAST	W	L	PCT	GB	EAST	CENT	WEST	INTR	RHP	LHP
Baltimore	28	17	.622	-	14-9	8-1	4-6	2-1	21-14	7-3
Tampa Bay	26	18	.591	1.5	12-10	3-3	10-3	1-2	21-10	5-8
Toronto	24	20	.545	3.5	7-11	8-3	7-5	2-1	17-13	7-7
NY Yankees	22	21	.512	5	9-9	7-6	5-4	1-2	15-15	7-6
Boston	22	22	.500	5.5	7-10	10-7	3-4	2-1	14-15	8-7

Is it to early in the season to start speculating the struggles of both Red Sox and Yankees? Are the injuries the reason for the Red Sox struggles? Or are their struggles due to new management? Will the Red Sox and/or Yankees make personnel changes to improve? Will both teams make the playoffs? Or will one team come up short again this season?