MLB Standings thru first 7 weeks
By Keith Antigiovanni
After 7 weeks of play most of the division races are tight
With interleague play coming up in the next few weeks we will see which teams take advantage of the interleague schedules and which teams do not
In the NL West division:
Colorado is 21-18 only a 1/2 game out of first place
The troubled Los Angeles Dodgers are holding steady in third place with a 19-23 record and 4 games behind while the San Diego Padres (18-23) and Arizona Diamondbacks (17-23) are fighting to stay out of last place but are only 4.5 and 5 games out of first respectively.
Meanwhile in the AL West:
The defending AL Champion Texas Rangers are in first place after a recent slump with the perennial contender Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (or is the the Anaheim Angels of LA?) in 2nd place only 1/2 game behind.
In the NL Central:
The St Louis Cardinals are 1.5 games behind the division-leading Cincinnati Reds
Like the Dodgers the Houston Astros are undergoing a mid-season ownership/front office change and have struggled to a 15-26 start and last place in the division.
In the AL Central:
The surprising Kansas City Royals are 20-20, six games behind the surprising Cleveland Indians and currently in third place.
In the NL East:
The Atlanta Braves without Bobby Cox struggled in April but are now righting the ship and currently sit in third place (24-19) only 2.5 games from first place.
The Braves NL East rival Florida Marlins are in second place only 1 game behind at 24-16.
In the AL East:
In the offseason the so-called experts once again picked the "small market" Rays to fall apart but the scrappy club from Florida's "West Coast" is leading the overhyped and overpublicized AL East division by three games with a 24-17 record.
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Why do you suppose that a mid-season ownership change is affecting a team's performance? It's not like the owner is out on the field or in the clubhouse making daily baseball decisions. I just don't think it is a good excuse for a team's poor performance. Now, if there is no money to pay salaries than that is a different matter.
ReplyDeleteAn ownership change is not a good excuse but it is a reality. A sports franchise is a business and like any business the owner/front office sets the tone and direction from the top down to its' employees which includes:
ReplyDeleteLong-term goals
Short-term goals
What steps towards accomplishing the goals
etc.
The ownership provides leadership and holds people accountable from the manager to the coaching staff, to the players and all the way down the organizational chain.
Because a modern sports franchise has so many departments and are much more complex than they used to be it is similiar to a CEO position. The CEO must take a big picture approach and keep all of the departments on the same page otherwise the organization can splinter off into inter-department power struggles.
The problem with the Dodgers is the past 14 years they have not had strong leadership nor have the subsequent owners provided a structured plan to keep the team in contention since the O' Malleys' sold the franchise.
Under the O'Malleys' tenure the franchise had clear goals and methods of achieving their goals. They were also a proven winner who had confidence in their approach.
Since that time the franchise has been on auto-pilot and has underachieved.
Only time will tell if they can get back to the level they were at for so many years.