Tampa Bay Rays will win the AL East

Jul 6, 2014; Detroit, MI, USA; Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher David Price (14) pitches in the ninth inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Tampa Bay won 7-3. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Here is the main reason why the Rays will win the AL East: the division leaders so far have been the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles. These two teams simply don’t know what it takes to win late in the season. If it were Boston and New York on top, there would be some concern for the Rays with those two teams making trades and bolstering their rosters at the trade deadline.

I’m surprised Jose Reyes hasn’t been injured this year. It is nice to see him finally play a substantial amount of games in a row. However, Toronto is struggling and could be in for a big letdown if the Rays are able to win the series between the two teams at the end of the week.

The Orioles had some success in 2013, and Buck Showalter has proven to be the man for the job in Baltimore. Matt Wieters’ injury has left them without a dominant catcher. Nelson Cruz could be the MVP of the league so far, but he will have to continue his power surge for Baltimore to stay atop the AL East. Four of Baltimore’s starting pitchers have an ERA at or above 4.12 – the Orioles will need to score a lot of runs if their pitching staff can’t keep teams from scoring during the playoff push.

Say what you want about the competitiveness of the AL East, but keep it mind that is also very volatile. The Rays have already made up seven games in under a month. This leaves more than enough time to make up the rest of the difference with over half the season remaining.

The difference between Tampa Bay and other teams as far behind a division leader is that the Rays have the talent to win now. They aren’t rebuilding for the future. Their call-ups have performed at the Major League level and are helping fill voids left by injuries to other players. Don’t be surprised to see games being played at Tropicana Field come playoff time.