The Big White Elephant in the Room

Post date: Jul 30, 2012 12:22:31 AM

The Tampa Bay Rays took two out of three from the Angels this past weekend. I'm not going to include any statistics or try to explain away why the Angels lost, except for maybe one statistic that jumps out. The Angels have gone the last 22 innings without scoring a run. Despite a good outing by Zack Greinke in his Angels' debut.

The dog fights of summer have really begun, this was supposed to be a two team race between the Angels and the Rangers. After the Angels signed then free agent Albert Pujols, the Rangers responded by signing Yu Darvish. The chest game between these two teams has gone on since this past off-season, with the Rangers coming off of two straight World Series appearances and being one strike away from winning the championship. The Rangers are doing everything they can to get back to the World Series, while the Angels are trying to reclaim the American League West as their own; much like he did last decade training titles with the Oakland Athletics. The Angels are also trying to make it back to the World Series on their 10th anniversary since claiming the 2002 World Series Championship.

The Oakland Athletics, all I can say is wow! Somehow they have managed to slip into second place ahead of the Angels by a half-game. They've only lost four games in the month of July, including a sweep of the New York Yankees in recent weeks. They have unexpectedly become relevant in the American League West. Can they keep it up? Who knows, the Angels are used to the battles with the A's and the Rangers are used to the battles with the Angels; can the Rangers really handle fending off two teams? While the Angels are used to dealing with both the Athletics and the Rangers. So it is my belief that the Angels would have the upper hand in this scenario.

Tomorrow the Angels begin a big four-game series with the Rangers in Arlington, I wonder who Athletics' fans will be pulling for in the upcoming series? On the one hand, they wouldn't want the arch-rival Angels to get ahead of them in the standings given our history, but then again, they can ill afford the Rangers pulling away any further in the division lead. This should be very, very interesting.

For years now the American League West hasn't gotten the respect it deserves, whether one calls it East Coast biased, or otherwise I guess the West Coast games are on too late for the sportswriters and they need their sleep since most of the time they are too busy covering the East Coast teams.

The situation has become very exciting, the Athletics have made it exciting for baseball fans outside this division to want to pay attention. For fans like me who have followed this division for as long as I can remember, it's just another day at the ballpark. Long live the beauty of baseball!

-ICE