AL East Powers

[insidethewrapper]

So far the AL East, considered the best division in baseball has yet to win a game 0-6. What's up ???

[SAllen2556]

Any year without both the Yankmees and Red Sox in the playoffs is a glorious thing, so I woudn't mind at all if the Orioles or Rays win it all. It's just nice to see that you can't always buy your way to a pennant like the Yankees have done for the last...hundred years.

As a Tiger fan, I'm rooting for the Twins! AL Central rules baby!

[packs]

Why do people say things like "you can't buy your way to a pennant"?

The Orioles tanked their way into the playoffs. Why would anyone prefer to sit through two plus decades of horrible baseball just to say "see we didn't buy our way in"?

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by packs

Why do people say things like "you can't buy your way to a pennant"?

The Orioles tanked their way into the playoffs. Why would anyone prefer to sit through two plus decades of horrible baseball just to say "see we didn't buy our way in"?

Many fans prefer homegrown guys. And if you tank and build up like the Astros and Orioles, you'll have much longer window of contention. Trying to buy your way to a title often ends up like this years Mets and Padres

[packs]

The 2009 Yankees team had big free agent players, yes, but it also still had the entire Core Four, plus Cano, Gardner, David Robertson, Joba, Phil Hughes, and Melky Cabrera. Most of the bullpen was made up of guys the Yankees had either drafted or made minor trades for.

I'd prefer to build a team rather than purposely be bad for however long it takes. It's not like the Orioles had some grand plan. They were willing to be bad forever until they maybe managed to put together the right 9 guys. That's not a mentality I'd like my owner to have.

[mrreality68]

Toronto is the biggest shock to me. I thought they would do better from the start of their year with the talent they had, at least on paper and that way for last several years. and they also fail to live up to their potential

Tampa has a strong organization and minor league to feed the pipeline. Tampa to me is the biggest disappointment when you consider how fast they started the year. Very Very dominant and then crashed and burned

Baltimore is playing with house money. They are a year or to ahead of their development and with the young players have the biggest window of opportunity. But recent play entering the playoffs is not up to par. this experience will make them dangerous for next years.

The Red Sox were not meant to be good this year and to me exceeded the low expectations they had and was not expecting them to make playoffs

The Yankees were the biggest hype, had the least depth on the their roster, and have Stanton who cannot run or field clogging the batting order and bases when he actually gets on. Judges carries them when healthy but one player cannot do it all (although Cole was great this year but only goes every 5th day). and even when Judge came back they were only 2 out from a wild card and they dropped like a rock since his return. They were good enough to make the playoffs but did not live up the the hype or even their talent that they had.

[Shoeless Moe]

Yah the Yankees didn't buy a WS in 2009, ok......