Toronto's Ricky Romero
If you’re a fan of one of the current front running teams you may not want to continue reading.
For the rest of us, Enjoy!
What makes a team a spoiler isn’t necessarily that it’s a good team. It’s a team that gets hot or becomes a winner in the final months of the season. It can be one that possesses exceptional hitting and pitching that contending teams have trouble with. It could be a contender that due to injuries or bad luck has fallen on hard times. Or even a team to look out for next season. These teams can be bad news for those teams in the playoff hunt. Okay, you get the definition. Who are the spoilers? Here are the top three.
#1 – Toronto Blue JaysThe East is currently knotted up with New York and Tampa Bay tied for first. Boston is still within reach but banged up, to put it mildly. The Blue Jays head into this weekend with a 3 game series against The Red Sox and then bid them adieu until 2011. Boston could be at least thankful of that. The New York Yankees face them another 9 times this season. Tampa Bay will play them 6 more times. What weapons does Toronto have to make them a force to be reckoned with? How about good young pitching with Ricky Romero (10 Wins, 7 Losses, ERA 3.43 in 160 Innings), Brett Cecil (9 Wins, 6 Losses, ERA 3.96) add to that a Home Run leader in Jose Bautista (37 HR, 90 RBI). A good example of The Jays potential was Toronto’s 16-2 pounding of the Red Sox and Lefty Ace Jon Lester who lasted only 2 innings Friday night on his way to giving up 9 runs.
# 2 – Milwaukee BrewersThe Brewers of today remind me of Harvey’s Wallbangers. Or if you’re not a student of early 80′s baseball nicknames The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers. Ryan Braun (16 HR, 68 RBI), Prince Fielder (25 HR, 61 RBI) and Casey McGehee (19 HR, 77 RBI). What they have lacked all season is consistency in their starting pitching. If they can get a little of that working in the final few weeks the division leaders may have to kick it up a notch. The Reds still have 6 games left with Milwaukee and St. Louis has 3 remaining.
# 3 – Detroit Tigers
The Central Division seems to be a two team race. The Tigers face the first place Minnesota Twins another 6 times this season and the second place Chicago White Sox 7. While Detroit has been struggling lately they do posses a potent lineup led by Miguel Cabrera (31 HR, 100 RBI). Plus throw in Justin Verlander and the pitcher that had a perfect game Armando Galarraga or was it a perfect game taken away from him? The Tigers have spoiler written all over them.
Those are my 3 spoiler picks. Here are some honorable mentions:
The Bay Area team that brought you Barry Zito, and Tim Hudson The Oakland A’s appear to be going through a new pitching renaissance. Brett Anderson, Dallas Braden and Trevor Cahill could give the American League West something to worry about for the next few seasons.. 
The Colorado Rockies have a solid offensive team with an All Star starter by the name of Ubaldo Jimenez. San Diego Padre fan’s know how this team can get hot. In 2007 they won 21 of their last 22 games and wound up facing Boston in The World Series.If you’re a fan of one of the current front running teams you may not want to continue reading. For the rest of us, enjoy!
What makes a team a spoiler isn’t necessarily that it’s a good team. It’s a team that gets hot or becomes a winner in the final months of the season. It can be one that possesses exceptional hitting and pitching that contending teams have trouble with.Okay, you get the definition. Who are the spoilers?
#1 – Toronto Blue Jays
The East is currently knotted up with New York and Tampa Bay tied for first. Boston is still within reach but banged up, to put it mildly. The Blue Jays head into this weekend with a 3 game series against The Red Sox and then bid them adieu until 2011. Boston could be at least thankful of that. The New York Yankees face them another 9 times this season. Tampa Bay will play them 6 more times. What weapons does Toronto have to make them a force to be reckoned with? How about good young pitching with Ricky Romero (10 Wins, 7 Losses, ERA 3.43 in 160 Innings), Brett Cecil (9 Wins, 6 Losses, ERA 3.96) add to that a Home Run leader in Jose Bautista (37 HR, 90 RBI). This team is going to be fun to watch for the next few years. But this year they could give the Yankees and Rays fits.
# 2 – Milwaukee Brewers
The Brewers of today remind me of Harvey’s Wallbangers. Or if you’re not a student of early 80′s baseball nicknames The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers.
Ryan Braun (16 HR, 68 RBI), Prince Fielder (25 HR, 61 RBI) and Casey McGehee (19 HR, 77 RBI). What they have lacked all season is consistency in their starting pitching.
If they can get a little of that working in the final few weeks the division leaders may have to kick it up a notch. The Reds still have 6 games left with Milwaukee and St. Louis has 3 remaining.
# 3 -
Detroit Tigers
The Central Division seems to be a two team race. The Tigers face the first place Minnesota Twins another 6 times this season and the second place Chicago White Sox 7.
While Detroit has been struggling lately they do posses a potent lineup led by Miguel Cabrera (31 HR, 100 RBI). Plus throw in the pitcher that had a near perfect game Armando Galarraga perfect game taken away from him. The Tigers have spoiler written all over them.
Those are my 3 spoiler picks. You could argue the case that many more spoilers exist.
Oakland with their young pitching. What if Colorado finally turns it on and makes a mad dash. We’ll see what happens in the final weeks of the 2010 season.
