Dave Cokin’s Hardcore Baseball: Marquee Matchups

Talk about parity. The 2009 season is less than 40 games old, yet we’re already seeing all kinds of congestion in all but one of the game’s six divisions. Just two teams are above .600, while five are languishing below .400.

The one early runaway is in the NL West, where the Dodgers already own a five game lead and also have the best overall record at 24-12. But with the bat of Manny Ramirez absent until July, not even LA can be considered a sure thing right now.

This weekend’s slate is devoid of true marquee hookups, but thanks to all the tight races, there should be some terrific action to follow. I’d rate the Angels-Rangers set at the headliner.

Texas is the biggest surprise team in the majors right now, and both teams are sizzling right now, each having won eight of the last ten. Even though it’s just mid-May, I think this is a huge series for the Rangers. They have a chance to make a bit of a statement that they’re a team to be taken seriously.

The best series in the NL heading in has to be the Brewers-Cardinals three-gamer. Milwaukee is the much hotter team coming in, but the Cardinals have been outstanding at home thus far. Four teams are separated by just a half-game in this sector, with Milwaukee and St. Louis just ahead of the Cubs and Reds.

There’s a very good chance the two trailers could slip ahead after this weekend. While the Redbirds and Brewers battle it out against one another, the Cubs are hosting Houston while the surprising Reds continue their left coast swing at San Diego.

The Astros are hoping to maintain some positive momentum after winning their series at Colorado, but this is obviously a tougher assignment. The Reds are in position to do some damage at San Diego. The Padres are stone cold right now, and Cincy is raising eyebrows with a 13-5 road slate.

The Dodgers have an opportunity to stretch their lead as they visit Florida. The Marlins were 11-1 once upon a time and there was all kinds of buzz about how the team with the small payroll was showing all those big budget teams how to win.

They’re 6-17 since and now lead only the Nationals in the NL East. Welcome back to reality. The good news for the Fish is that they miss having to face Chad Billingsley, but the way they’re performing right now, this looks like a difficult set for the Marlins.

The Yankees snapped out of a nasty skid with back-to-back wins at Toronto, and they have to be encouraged with the way both Andy Pettitte and C.C. Sabathia shut down the Blue Jays offense.

They’ve got Minnesota in for the weekend, and the Yanks are hoping enigmatic Phil Hughes can figure things out off back to back horrible efforts. Hughes may have his job on the line here, as Chien-Ming Wang had a very encouraging rehab start at Scranton and may finally be finding his form.

The Red Sox are hoping they can get David Ortiz going against the back of the Seattle rotation. The Sox will miss Felix Hernandez, Erik Bedard and Jared Washburn and the other Mariners starters are pretty soft.

Boston is struggling away from Fenway, but they have a great chance to rip through this opponent. The Mariners are the coldest team in the game right now with nine losses in their last ten games.

Zack Greinke will look to maintain his phenomenal early season pace as the Royals get back home for a series with the poor traveling Orioles. Greinke draws Adam Eaton tonight, and the Royals are the heaviest priced chalk they’ve been in several years for this particular clash.

Finally, a quick look at the best potential pitching duel on tonight’s slate. That’s in Toronto, where lefties John Danks and Brett Cecil battle it out.

Danks is showing that his 2008 breakout was no fluke. The Chisox hurler has held opponents to one run or less in four of his six starts this season. As for Cecil, the best pitching prospect in the Toronto organization was getting hammered at AAA Las Vegas, but the southpaw has been lights out in his two big league starts.

Back on Monday with a rundown on the latest minor league recalls, including Nolan Reimold and Mat Gamel. Enjoy the weekend!