We're 10 games into the season for plenty of teams, or others will hit game 10 tonight. It's a small sample for sure but here are some early impressions:
Good as expected: The Rangers, Phillies and Reds look poised to play deep into October just as lots of people predicted they would.
Terrible as expected: The Rays and Astros are 2-8. Until exploding for 16 runs Monday in Boston, the Rays were looking like one of the worst offensive teams in history.
Yankees: The pitching is a little uneven and Derek Jeter is again struggling. A-Rod and Mark Teixeira look good. They'll be fine.
Mets: Old friend Terry Collins will have to really work to keep his spirits up with this bunch. Some days there will be no hitting, some days there will be no pitching and some days, like Monday's 7-6 loss to the Rockies, the bullpen won't get the job done. Long year ahead.
Red Sox: They sure miss ex-pitching coach John Farrell, now the manager in Toronto. Their staff sure misses Jason Varitek behind the plate every night too. What a mess. Dice-K got lit up by the Rays Monday and the Fenway natives are very restless. Dice-K has a 12.86 ERA and the Boston starters are at 7.26.
Indians: They were down 14-0 in the fifth inning of the season opener against the White Sox and it looked like a 100-loss disaster was certainly in the making. But they've won eight straight, are 8-2 and are getting fabulous starting pitching, with eight shutout innings from Mitch Talbot last night in Anaheim being the latest entry. Can it last?
Blue Jays: They had looked solid at the plate and on the mound and had a 7-0 lead over the Mariners Monday night after knocking Felix Hernandez from the mound. Then the bullpen collapsed and Seattle rallied for a shocking 8-7 victory. Let's see how they react to that one.
Other surprises: The Orioles have the pitching to take over from the Rays as the AL East team to challenge the Yankees and Red Sox. The Pirates are clearly better under Clint Hurdle, with young players like Jose Tabata and Andrew McCutcheon really starting to make an impact. The Royals are better too even without Zack Greinke but I still don't believe.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
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