Injuries play a huge role in playoff races. One key player getting injured can determine if a team reaches the playoffs or not. During this 2010, the Boston Red Sox have been plagued with injuries: leadoff man/center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury has been out almost all of the season with broken ribs, 2007 Rookie of the Year and 2008 AL MVP second baseman Dustin Pedroia fouled a ball off his foot and broke it, catcher Victor Martinez has a fractured thumb, backup catcher Jason Varitek broke his foot, All Star pitcher Clay Buchholz strained his hamstring, Jeremy Hermida broke his ribs in the beginning of the season, JD has missed a lot of time due to a hurt neck (just to name a few). Even with all of these injuries, the Red Sox are still not out of playoff contention, which is amazing. The Phillidelphia Phillies have lost All Star Chase Utley due to a broken wrist and All Star Jimmy Rollins has missed a lot of the season. In 2009, the Mets were hammered with injuries including All Star SS Jose Reyes (missed most of season), All Star Carlos Beltran (missed half of season and half of this season too), All Star David Wright (missed last couple months). This caused the Mets to fall out of playoff contention early and miss the playoffs by 23 games! We will see which key injuries cause teams to miss the playoffs this year.
The Los Angeles Angles have acquired starting pitcher Dan Haren in a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Haren goes to LA as pitcher Joe Saunders, 2 minor league pitchers, and another player to be named head off to Arizona. The Angels acquire Haren to add an ace to their pitching staff so they can keep pace with the Rangers in the AL West. Earlier this month, the Rangers acquired Cliff Lee (see previous blog) and currently lead the AL West by 8.5 games. The Angels counter the Cliff Lee trade with the Haren trade. All though Haren has been struggling a bit in 2010, he is still an elite pitcher and will definitely help the Angels. It will be fun watching these two teams battle it in the AL West for a spot in the playoffs.
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