Lingering Items--Wishful Thinking Edition

Glancing at the baseball standings in early May is usually a fool's game. The reason the baseball season is so long is that it takes a hundred or so games to actually get the full measure of a team's worth. Anything short of that can and often does lead to false impressions. That isn't just a cautious reminder about your team. It's applicable to all teams.

Still, avoiding my own advice, it's worth looking at the standings in the American League Central right now where the Indians find themselves in first place by 3 games over the Detroit Tigers. That's the kind of lead that can be lost in the weekend and as we saw last season, a hot start does not necessarily beget a hot finish.

Putting the Indians aside for the moment, though, aren't you at least tempted to draw some conclusions about the division generally? For instance, the Minnesota Twins are already 15 games below .500. Even at an early stage of the season that's too huge of a hole to climb out of in terms of being a pennant contender. They're done.

The Kansas City Royals are done, too. It doesn't matter that they're only 5 games under .500 at the moment. It might as well be their usual 50. The Royals were done when the season started for exactly the same reason they, like the Pittsburgh Pirates, are done as each season starts. They suck.