Beasts Of The East!!

As most avid baseball fans have noticed, in the last decade we have seen home run totals drop and I think we all know why. The year 2000 we had our highest home run total ever in major league baseball with a whopping 5,693 home runs. As of 2007, we didn't even reach that side of 5000. What does this mean for Major league pitching? Well i say it actually needs to get better.

Does that make sense? if the balls are staying in the park why would you need to be better? Well the answer to that question is simple. Now that we don't have over-sized sluggers swinging for the fences on every pitch and striking out 150 times,(Adam Dunn and Carlos Pena excluded) it has opened up the league for the Dustin Pedroia's of the world.

He's measured as 5'10" in his cleats, and is listed as 180, but they probably weighed him after a rainy game in Seattle. This undersized, not overly powerful second baseman led the league in doubles and total base hits last year en-route to MVP honors because he was nearly impossible to get out. His message to major league pitchers—time to step it up guys.

Well the American League East got that message, all you have to do is look at the starting pitching on the Yankees, Rays, and Red Sox. Just look at the numbers, the Red Sox top three starters with an off year from Beckett went a combined 46-19, the Rays top three went 37-27, which is misleading when you look at the quality of Shields, Kazmir, and Garza.

Then you have the assembled machine that is the Yankees pitching staff, Sabathia, Burnett, Wang, and Pettitte. Not looking at Wang's numbers since he was hurt last year their top three went 50-34.

I think it is an understatement that hitters in the East are going to have some difficulties average wise. Anyone watching the Red Sox and Rays opening series as excitedly as I have has already seen a 7 inning 2 hit gem from Beckett, and a 5 hit 1 run performance from Kazmir.

There is another all-world matchup tonight between Matsuzaka and Garza. There are also some pitching duels in the future for the three of these clubs, and lets not forget Roy Halladay either, and maybe Daniel Cabrera will finally live up to his potential.