Saying “It’s only April” is out of date, because it’s been May for a few days. We’re about 15 percent of its way through the regular baseball season, give or take depending on how many games each team has played, and while this isn’t a large sample size, the teams that finish first have those wins in the bench now.
It’s not impossible for the Red Sox, for example, to come back at this early stage of eight games behind the Yankees and fourth-ranked in the AL East. At the same time, history is littered with teams that started 10-14, dug an eight-game hole, and then played 18 holes the first weekend of October.
For any team that hasn’t gotten the first place finish they could have dreamed of at spring training, part of the equation now is competition to contend with. So how hard will it be to catch these teams? Let’s take a look.
(Statistics up to May 3rd)
