The AL East has been praised for a long time as being the toughest division in baseball and as possibly the toughest division in all of sports. First of all you have the vaunted Yankees who have won an MLB-high 27 world championships. Then you have the Boston Red Sox who have won 2 world championships in the past 10 seasons. There's the Tampa Bay Rays who have a habit of doing more with less thanks to a great farm system and a great manager, Joe Maddon. The Baltimore Orioles team who has been laughed at for many years can't be laughed at any longer as they finally broke through and clinched a playoff birth last season for the first time since 1997 and are now only 1.5 games back of the AL East lead. Lastly you have the Toronto Blue Jays who, while disappointing this year, are only one game below .500 with Jose Reyes returning to the lineup next week. There's no denying that the AL East is a great division and while I do still believe that the AL East is the best division from top to bottom, I think that the NL Central is closing the gap as the best division in baseball thanks to the extraordinary play of 3 teams.
The greatness of the NL East starts with the team with the best record in baseball in the St. Louis Cardinals.s Cardinals. Most everyone expected the Cardinals to be good this season, but no one could have expected the insane numbers they have been putting up. What makes the Cardinals so great is that they are perfectly balanced with great hitting, great fielding, and great pitching. You can see this by simply looking at the stats as the Cardinals are 2nd in the MLB in runs scored (355) as well as 2nd in the MLB in ERA (3.28), and 1st in the MLB in fielding percentage (.991). They do everything extremely well, and is easy to see why they have the best record in the Majors.
The team with the 2nd best record in the big leagues also is a member of the NL Central. The team I'm talking about, of course, is the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds have also benefited from great balance as they have outstanding both great bats and great arms. Joey Votto is having another all-star season, Shin Soo Choo has proven to be a great acquisition, Brandon Phillips is leading all second basemen in RBI, Mike Leake has finally been that ace the Reds have been looking for, and Aroldis Chapman is Aroldis Chapman. They are getting production from multiple guys and are seeing results.
Being a Pittsburgh Pirates fan hasn't been easy the past few decades. They currently have the 2nd longest playoff drought in the MLB as they haven't made the playoffs since 1992. All those die-hard fans are finally being rewarded as things are finally looking up in Pittsburgh. The Pirates are only 4 games back of the St. Louis Cardinals for the NL Central lead and are currently locked into a wild card spot. The man leading the Pirates to a return to their glory days is Sir Andrew McCutchen. The 26-year old center fielder can do it all. He can field, he can hit for average, power, and he has speed. He's currently batting .287 with 7 home runs, 35 RBI, and 15 steals. He's the leader for this team and has them going in the right direction. He's not the only one producing for the Pirates, however. Their pitching for Pittsburgh has been great this year despite what they were labeled before the season. "Young and inexperienced" Jeff Locke, at 25-years old, has a 2.01 ERA and is 6-1. "Old and washed up" A.J. Burnett is sporting a 3.12 ERA and is 6th in the MLB with a 9.97 K/9. "Injury prone and overrated" Francisco Liriano is 5-3 with a 2.44 ERA. "Prehistoric and wrinkle laden" Jason Grilli has a 1.10 ERA and is leading the MLB with 25 saves. I think it's fair to say that the Pirates pitchers don't care about how they have been labeled, and I think it's fair to say that the Pirates aren't the embarrassing franchise that they have been labeled over the bast 20 years, either.
While the Brewers and Cubs are keeping the NL Central from being the best division in baseball, we all need to take notice of what the top dogs in the division are doing. All three teams are currently projected to make the playoffs and I think it's safe to say that the division race will be a good one when September rolls around.
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