Your Week 7 Fan Confidence Booms And Busts

Boston Red Sox
Well, the Red Sox have finally joined the race. After their miserable start got everybody (Ed. -- by which I mean not Red Sox fans) all excited, it's funny to hear all the bitterness and resignation in those peoples' voices as they acknowledge that the Red Sox are going to play well and not finish last, as desired. "Well there they go, I knew it was too good to be true." This little hot streak has made us forget completely about their slow start and revert to our preseason expectations. The Red Sox could be 50-80 and a sweep or two would still lead us to believe that, aw dammit, they're going to the Series.

Toronto Blue Jays
Not that anybody noticed, but the Blue Jays won six in a row, and nearly rallied past the Rays on Wednesday to make it seven straight. They're only a game behind Boston and a game-and-a-half behind New York, and they have the best hitter in the world in their lineup, whose season OPS is literally twice as high as the White Sox's team OPS. It's only a matter of time before the Jose Bautista intentional walks start happening in earnest, but until they do, Jays fans will always have reason to be confident that they're never more than two or three innings away from a dinger.

Cincinnati Reds
The other day, Buster Olney wrote about the Reds and Cardinals being the best rivalry in baseball. Last weekend, the Reds swept the Cardinals in three games. You know what gets sports fans feeling really really annoyingly overconfident? Seeing their team beat the crap out of its rival.

Milwaukee Brewers
It's taken some time for the Brewers to find their stride, and they still may not have found it, but they have won seven of nine, with Yovani Gallardo coming on and Zack Greinke owning a 20/2 K/BB in three starts since returning from the disabled list. The team's great undoing is its bullpen, which has already cost them a number of games, but the thing about a bad bullpen is that, when it blows a game, you come away feeling like you almost won. Brewers fans get to see a lot of wins, and a lot of almost-wins, which is good for the ol' confidence.

Texas Rangers
The Rangers took two of three from the Angels, they're sitting in first, and Nelson Cruz and Josh Hamilton are almost back from the DL, sparing the fans from having to see much more of David Murphy, Craig Gentry and Endy Chavez. The impact that individual players actually have on a team tends to be overstated, but the psychological impact of getting back Cruz and Hamilton is enormous, because Cruz and Hamilton hit dingers, while Murphy, Gentry and Chavez do not hit dingers. Rangers fans know that pretty soon they'll have an actual lineup to cheer for.

New York Yankees
The Yankees seem to have recovered from the six-game skid that lasted through the weekend, and they still have the best run differential in the AL East. They're not in an altogether lousy place. But consider what Yankees fans usually expect of their team, and then consider that their team is currently in second place, unable to shake the Red Sox and Blue Jays, plus there was that awkward little spat with Joe Girardi and Jorge Posada. This is not a fan base that takes too kindly to anything that might cause even a smidgen of embarrassment, and the Posada story was embarrassing.

Kansas City Royals
The Royals have lost seven of nine games by margins ranging from one to 18 runs, and they're sitting a season-low two games below .500 after Wednesday's humiliating loss to the Rangers. Suddenly a full seven games out of first, in a matter of weeks this has gone from being a possible miracle season to another season likely spent focusing on the development of individual players. Here's to familiar, unpleasant routine.

Los Angeles Angels
The Angels have lost six of seven, and they've seen Jered Weaver come back to Earth, and Peter Bourjos come back to Earth, and Tyler Chatwood come back to Earth, and Mark Trumbo come back to Earth, and Jordan Walden come back to Earth. Fortunately, Earth is where those players are supposed to be, because Earth is where the Angels play baseball. The "Angels" thing is only a nickname.

Houston Astros
Lately the Astros have been extra bad, and they've only scored more than four runs in a game once since May 3. Consistent with their name, I think it's fair to say that the Astros are orbiting the NL Central from a safe and ever-increasing distance.

Pittsburgh Pirates
Last Monday. Just last Monday, everybody was making such a big deal about how awesome it was that the Pirates were over .500. They immediately responded by losing six games in a row, reminding everyone why it was such a big deal that the Pirates were over .500.