MLB Weekly Rundown

Weeks 6 & 7 May 11-24

To be fair I guess I have to talk about the Yankees as the biggest story of the last two weeks in Baseball. I have it in writing twice on this blog, and I am going to stand by it, that the Yankees will not make the playoffs in 2009. The last two weeks the Yankees have done their best to prove me wrong.

Back in the Week 5 rundown I said the Yankees were the underachievers of the week. At the time NY was entering a big series with the Blue Jay and were under .500. Since then they Yankees rattled off 11 out of 13 which includes a 10 game winning streak. A big reason for the streak has been the starting pitching. C.C. is finally pitching like the ace he is paid to be and Phil Hughes has also looked good in his last three starts. While I usually will talk about pitching as the reason for a winning streak, the Yankees have been on fire mostly because of one man who is not a pitcher. That man is of course none other than the highest paid player in the game Alex Rodriguez.

I know every Yankee hater on the planet is going to tell us how A-Rod is a cheater and if the Yankees win its flawed, but I tell those people to stop being cry babies. Since his return from the DL all A-Rod has done is hit. In just 53 ABs since coming back Alex has hit 7 HRs and driven in 13 runs.

What Alex does best, however, is make the Yankees lineup deeper. If you look at the Yankees lineup on the day before A-Rod came back they had Matsui hitting 4th followed by Cano, Swisher, Melky, Pena and Molina. If you look at the Yankees lineup the very next day when A-Rod came back, Alex was cleanup and Cano was hitting 7th. Having A-Rod in the lineup allows everyone else to move down a spot and Cano hit 7th which provides a major RBI threat at the bottom of the lineup. Since Alex's return the Yankees have been red hot and Mark Teixeria has been hitting like an animal.

Looking forward the Yankees need to improve their bullpen dramatically to compete all season. The starting rotation also needs some work if Wang is not going to be himself. The last two weeks the Yankees have been a juggernaut and are the story, but I am still going to stand by them missing the playoffs.

Some awards from weeks 6 & 7

Overachiever- San Diego Padres. The Padres come into week 8 winning 9 games in a row and have played themselves back to .500. Looking at this lineup it amazes me how anyone pitches to Adrian Gonzalez and with Brian Giles hitting 3rd this team is not a .500 team.

Underachiever- Chicago Cubs. At the start of week 8 they were 21-21 and with the talent level they have that is not acceptable. Yes I know they have been destroyed by injuries to Zambrano Harden and Ramirez, but it appears they are better than a .500 team. I am not sure if they are getting a little old and their time is passed or they are just playing bad, but Lou better do something fast before the Cards and Brewers pull away.

NL Player of the Week- David Wright. This might be a biased pick because Raul Ibanez had a monster week, but David has picked up the slack for the Mets ever since Carlos Delgado went down. David hit .466 over the last 2 weeks, drove in 12 and stole 5 bases. I think he been more important to the Mets than Ibanez was to the Phillies...call me biased if you want!

AL Player of the Week- Mark Teixeria. Mark has been the biggest beneficiary of A-Rods return and he has helped carry the Yankee offense. He hit .411 with 6 HRs, 17 RBIs and 10 Rs. Your on the Mark Teixeria.

10 Thoughts

• I am glad I didn't talk about the Blue Jays because they are officially back to Earth
• I am all for booing players when they didn't produce, but the Sox fans booing Papi is kind of unfair
• Boy was I wrong about Gary Sheffield
• I think it is stupid that players like Jake Peavy have no trade clauses, but can waive them if they want
• Is Zack Greinke really this good
• Chris Davis is on pace to shatter the strikeout record...He is on pace for 244 Ks
• Carl Crawford is 30 for 30 in Stolen Bases this year
• At what point are the Indians going to break up the team and start over
• The Orioles have some nice young talent and could be competing very soon
• The day I wrote about Ryan Zimmerman streak it ended

TOP 10
1. Dodgers
2. Red Sox
3. Yankees
4. Cardinals
5. Brewers
6. Mets
7. Phillies
8. Tigers
9. Blue Jays
10. Reds