American League

'Cause they're looking, they look like a good team.

Flawed, but they're a good team, at least in the terrible, awful, no good American League.

And that's why I don't think anyone should say this season is a full-out failure.

But the context of fall- being disappointed and falling short, and I know I'm using semantics and I hate making arguments based on semantics, but I think falling short is more appropriate than saying, "Oh, it's an utter complete organizational failure," like some hot takes have had.

That's just been the problem, and it doesn't matter if they're a power team or a contact team, they're just not getting those timely hits.

So there's plenty of blame to go around and plenty of reasons to be upset.

Just maybe be rational, because the season's not over, and I keep saying it, the American League is bad, and I'll discuss that the season isn't over tomorrow.

But let's get into what Will Venable had to say about some of the key moments in the defeat, and then I wanna get your reaction coming up next.

You know, I'm just looking at the wildcard standings.

I mean, it seems like the American League is just the one that's hard for me to figure just because, you know, there are some teams that are going to be just a game or two over 500 and make the post season.

And, and, you know, it, it does.

I do think one thing that's really changed the dynamic between the leagues has been the adoption of the universal DH.

I think that's made a huge, huge difference.

And not a lot of people talk about that, but if you go back 10 years and you look at all of the really big mega contracts that were signed, you know, you had Albert Pujols switching leagues.

He went from the nationally to the American league.

You know, you had, The guys signing big contracts, Miguel Cabrera goes from the Marlins to Detroit.

I'm sure there's going to be a whole lot of questions about when Judge will return.

I mean, he's the reigning two-time MVP of the American League.

I want to know, too.

I mean, he has not...

I think that's a tricky tightrope to walk when you're not as talented of a team as maybe some other teams.

with the American League this year and their pitching staff, they feel like they can kind of, you know, hopefully set things up for themselves.

And you mentioned the Judge injury.

Maybe that, you know, comes into play as well.

You know, I'm just looking at the wildcard standings.

I mean, it seems like the American League is just the one that's hard for me to figure just because, you know, there are some teams that are going to be just a game or two over 500 and make the post season.

And, and, you know, it, it does.

I do think one thing that's really changed the dynamic between the leagues has been the adoption of the universal DH.

I think that's made a huge, huge difference.

And not a lot of people talk about that, but if you go back 10 years and you look at all of the really big mega contracts that were signed, you know, you had Albert Pujols switching leagues.

He went from the nationally to the American league.

You know, you had, The guys signing big contracts, Miguel Cabrera goes from the Marlins to Detroit.

Yeah.

You can bet the team to win the American League, you can bet them to be an American League East team at minus 190.

Sean, half the teams in the playoffs are going to be in the American League.

The Rays, the Yankees, and the Red

Sox.

The three of them are going to be the one seed, the four seed, and the five seed.

The order in which the three of them are, that's not finalized yet, but it's more than likely going to be Tampa 1, New York 4, Boston 5.

But the way that Major League Baseball's playoffs are set up is that four will play five, and then the winner of that series plays the one seed, right? So you are guaranteed a team from the American League East is going to be playing in the ALCS.

So...

Up until a couple of weeks ago, it looked like Jordan Alvarez was running away with it in the American League.

He's really gone into a tailspin.

And if Jordan Alvarez isn't hitting, the Astros are doomed.

There he goes.

The

American League is still a mess.

Let's start there because that's the more fun one to talk about.

They've stunk at home this year.

And the Blue Jays somehow lost a series in the midst of an AL wildcard race to one of the worst teams in all of baseball.

And basically because they could not hit.

Why could they not hit? Because of the biggest reason that they're missing out on this postseason.