The Week That Was: Mar 29-Apr 4

This Week's Motivational Picture

First of all, it's pretty crazy to try and think about regular season baseball happening in March.  Sure, it's the end of March, and it's basically April, but it's still March.  Rest assured though, by 2020 they'll have corrected this when opening day is once again in April (thanks, Wikipedia!).  Of course this isn't the first time opening day has been in March, but it's just so rare that it seems wrong in some way. 

Nevertheless, after a week's worth of games, we have some standings to look at.  Boston leads the AL East with a 5-1 record, followed by New York at 4-2, and Toronto at 4-3.  There are apparently two other teams in the division but they don't matter.  Yet.  I'm a bit surprised that Boston has such a big lead - at least I was, until I looked at their first 6 opponents.  They had the Rays, followed by the Marlins (and then today, April 5th, they have the Rays again).  Luckily they will have to face the Yankees, which I think will be a split between the two teams. 

Back to the Jays - they are at least 1 game ahead of where I expected them to be.  I thought they might be at the .500 mark, but they pounded their way above .500 and even enjoyed a 4-game win streak (which included a split vs the Yankees).  So I'm happy with that. 

Honestly, a split vs the Yankees is probably the best result they could have hoped for.  And then they won the series against the White Sox, another plus.  April is looking like a tough month for the Blue Jays, and I think they'll come out of it in good shape as long as they win 2 out of 3 vs the likes of Baltimore and Texas.  Tread water against the better teams and then move on from there. 

The good news is that on the off day, they are 0.5 back of the wild card spot.  If the Jays can keep up their pace it's going to be a very tight race all year.