If you were to describe the American League East in 2015 with just one word, "parity" would be a good choice.
There aren't any traditional juggernaut teams in the division, meaning we could be in for quite a division title race. As of Thursday morning, four teams in the AL East are within one game of the leader. The quartet of competitive teams -- sorry, Boston Red Sox fans, but your team is seven games back -- are unusually closely matched, and with the trade deadline at the end of this month, there are some big decisions for each team to make in the near future.
When I say unusually close, how unusual am I talking about? Looking back at past seasons, the previous time a division had a fourth-place team this close to the leader on the morning of July 2 was . . . well, never. It hasn't happened during the divisional era. To find a closer race, you have to go back to the 1962 American League standings, when the fourth-place Twins were just half a game out of the lead.
What do the ZiPS projections have to say about this? Well, let's ask the Silicon Solomon under my cluttered desk to try to do some cruel computer-based baby-splitting and see what the projected standings look like at the moment.
Thanks a lot, ZiPS, for clearing up the situation. Hope you weren't expecting to get that fancy new RAM you wanted for your birthday.
Suffice it to say, the division is tighter than a necktie feels to a 5-year-old having to dress up, and the team that has the best chance to win the division is likely the team that has the best month between now and the trade deadline, successfully answering their most crucial questions or making the best acquisition to account for them. It's hard to add more than a win or two at the trade deadline, but that may be all that's needed for four teams dangling on the razor's edge.
So let's look at each of those four teams, including the X factors for each and what could change between now and the end of the season (and how much difference it would make).