From top to bottom, the toughest division in baseball has only gotten tougher, loading up with new superstars to complement the ones already in place.
By TOM JONES
Published April 4, 2004
If this were all a movie, it would be hard to decide who gets top billing. Think about it for a second. What if Spielberg started casting a movie about the history of the world. And then he got Robert DeNiro to play a part. And then Al Pacino. Then Meryl Streep and Marlon Brando and Susan Sarandon. And Jack Nicholson and Jodie Foster and Denzel Washington.
That's what this is like.
Or, wait, here's another comparison. Form an all-star rock band. You get Eric Clapton and Keith Richards on guitars, Sting on bass and Billy Joel on piano. Get Max Weinberg to play drums, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell to write the songs and Roger Daltry to sing.
Get the picture yet? That's how good this thing is.
Take the list and sift through the names. All-star, all-star, all-star. Cy Young here. Most Valuable Player there. All-Star. Best in the game. Another all-star. Home run champ. On and on it goes. Each name more impressive than the previous.
This is the American League East, the best division in baseball, perhaps ever. Unless you go back to the day when baseball was divided into two leagues and no divisions, you might not find another division in baseball history with a bigger collection of stars.
Who is the best shortstop in baseball the past five years? Derek Jeter? Nomar Garciaparra? Alex Rodriguez? Miguel Tejada? All four play here and this division is so good that the guy who probably is the best of the bunch has moved to third base.
What rookie had the biggest impact in the American League last season? Was it Hideki Matsui or Rocco Baldelli? Both play here.
Who's the most underrated player in the game? You might say Aubrey Huff or Vernon Wells. You'll find them here.
Catcher. That's always a tough position to decipher, but no one who knows the difference between a catcher's mitt and a fungo would argue that Jorge Posada and Javy Lopez are on the short list of the game's best backstops. Both are here.
Starting pitching. Roy Halladay won the Cy Young last year. Pedro Martinez might be the best pitcher of his generation. Curt Schilling is in the top 10. They're all here.
If you named the best closers in baseball history, how many names might you list before Mariano Rivera? One name? Two? None? He's here.
You like speed? Carl Crawford - yep, he's here - led the league in steals last season.
Do you prefer power? A-Rod led the league in homers last season.
Hitting for average? The top four hitters in the American League played in the East last season and are back this season.
The league leaders in victories (Halladay), ERA (Martinez) and saves (Keith Fouke) all will call the AL East home this season.
On and on it goes. Gary Sheffield. Carlos Delgado. Derek Lowe. Jason Giambi. Mike Mussina.
How good is this division? Consider: Devil Rays shortstop Julio Lugo played 118 games - 118, mind you - in the American League last season. He batted a respectable .275 with 15 homers (sixth among AL shortstops) and knocked in 53 runs and he might be the sixth best shortstop in the five-team division.
Three of the past four AL MVP winners play in the East. Of the past eight Cy Young award winners, four now pitch in the East. Thank goodness Roger Clemens un-retired with the Astros or that number would be seven out of eight.
What are the first words out of the mouth of Rays manager Lou Piniella when asked about the AL East?
"Oh Lord."
The offseason got to be ridiculous for Piniella. It started pleasant enough with a trip to Europe. But he returned and found the AL East forming its own Hall of Fame wing. The division already was loaded with the Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays, who went a combined 282-204 last season.
Then he read the news each day. Oh boy.
Each morning he would pick up the newspaper and see another star moving into the Eastern Time Zone: Schilling, A-Rod, Foulke.
Each night, SportsCenter would put him to bed like he just ate a rotten taco. Here comes A-Rod. Here comes Sheffield. Here comes Tejada.
"Certainly we play in the best division in baseball," Toronto manager Carlos Tosca said. "There's no doubt about that."
There's also no doubt that Tosca's Blue Jays, like the Rays and Orioles, must feel like they took two steps forward in the offseason only to find themselves five steps back.
"We're a better team this season. I believe that," Tosca said.
He's right. The Jays should be better.
"But everyone else is better, too," Tosca said.
There's the rub. The Orioles get Tejada and Lopez and the Yankees turn around and get A-Rod and Sheffield. The Rays pick up Tino Martinez and Jose Cruz Jr. and the Red Sox get Schilling and Foulke. The Jays sign Pat Hentgen and the Yankees get Kevin Brown.
Everyone in the division agrees the Jays, Rays and Orioles improved themselves.
"They all made good moves," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.
But it appears they are playing for third place.
"Look, I'm always optimistic as a manager," Piniella said. "I've been managing long enough to know when I have a good ballclub and this is a good baseball team. Now we play in a tough division. It's time this club gets out the cellar. Let's do it this year. At the same time, let's approach .500 baseball."
That's what this division reduces you. Instead of dreaming of pennants and World Series showdowns, teams look to not finish last, to not lose more games than they win.
Tosca puts up the brave front even as he is reminded of the names: Sheffield, A-Rod, this star, that star.
"My feeling on that is I got a responsibility to the 25 people we break camp with and I can't waste my energy on what other clubs did," Tosca said. "I've got to get this club ready to play every day. . . . I think it's going to going to take anywhere between 95 and 100 wins to get into the postseason whether it be wild card or what."
Or what. That's what the Rays, Jays and Orioles are facing.
Meantime, the Yankees and Red Sox prepare for what many hope to be the best race in baseball history.
Imagine the showdowns: Tim Wakefield's knuckleball vs. Giambi's big swing. Sheffield facing Foulke in the ninth. Rivera staring down Nomar. There's Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium. The Green Monster and the Monuments. The Citgo sign and short porch. They'll meet 19 times and maybe seven times more in the postseason and every game will be front-page news in Boston, back-page news in the New York tabloids and the top story on SportsCenter.
But the improvement of the bottom three should make every division game worth watching. Piniella calls his outfield of Crawford, Baldelli and Cruz the best in baseball and he might be right. Tosca said he will put his three-four hitters of Wells and Delgado up against anyone in baseball and he might be right.
"The collection of talent in this division is more than formidable," Piniella said. "It's amazing is what it is."
So formidable that it's almost impossible to put together an AL East All-Star Team. Who would your catcher be: Lopez or Posada? Shortstop is so loaded that one team has two who would start for every other team in baseball. Would you take Giambi at first or Delgado? Would you rather have Wells or Baldelli in center?
And try coming up with only five starting pitchers out of Pedro, Lowe, Schilling, Mussina, Brown, Halladay, Javier Vasquez and Sidney Ponson.
"Look at all the players in this division," Piniella said. "Every team is better. Every team has stars."
Piniella stops and shakes his head.
"Hmm," Piniella said. "It's something else."
It's like nothing else, this American League East.
Just one more thought: Who plays A-Rod in the movie?
