From Here To The Trade Deadline: Remaining July Schedules for AL Central Teams

In ranking the toughest second half schedules ESPN.com's Buster Olney ranks the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox as the two easiest and the Detroit Tigers as the 4th toughest. Olney's strength of schedule rankings are based on the number of games remaining against teams with a .500 record and at the time of his writing the  Indians had 33 opponents with a .500 record or better, the White Sox 35, and the Tigers 54.

Currently the Chicago White Sox lead the AL Central with a record of 47-53 and lead the Indians (44-41) by 3 games, the Detroit Tigers (44-42) by 3.5 games, the Kansas City Royals (37-47) by 9.5 games, and the Minnesota Twins (36-49) by 11games. The Indians trail the Baltimore Orioles (45-40) for the final wild card spot by 1 game and Tigers trail the Orioles by 1.5 games.

How  active the White Sox, Indians, Tigers, and even the Royals are at the trade deadline will be determined by how they perform between now and the July 31st trade deadline so let's take a look at who's playing who and where.

---

Cleveland Indians:

Home Games (7): Baltimore Orioles (4) Detroit Tigers (3)

Road Games (11): Toronto Blue Jays (3), Tampa Bay Rays (4), Minnesota Twins (3), Kansas City Royals (1)

Off Days: 1 (July 30th)

---

Chicago White Sox:

Home Games/Opponent: (3): Minnesota Twins (3)

Road Games (15): Kansas City Royals (3), Boston Red Sox (4), Detroit Tigers (3), Texas Rangers (3), Minnesota Twins (2)

Off Days: 1 (July 26th)

---

The Detroit Tigers:

Home Games  (7): LA Angels (4), Chicago White Sox (3)

Road Games (11): Baltimore Orioles (3), Cleveland Indians (3), Toronto Blue Jays (3), Boston Red Sox (2)

Off Days: 1 (July 23rd)

---

Kansas City Royals:

Home Games ( 11): Chicago White Sox (3), Seattle Mariners (4), Minnesota Twins (3), Cleveland Indians (1)

Road Games (7): LA Angels (3), Seattle Mariners (4)

Off Days: 1 (July 30th)

---

Minnesota Twins:

Home Games (12): Oakland Athletics (3), Baltimore Orioles (4), Cleveland Indians (3), Chicago White Sox (2)

Road Games ( 6): Kansas City Royals (3), Chicago White Sox (3)

Off Days: 1 (July 26th)

---

Anthony Reyes: A Look Back & Ahead

As a freshman at USC, Reyes was the dominant counterpart to Mark Prior as USC advanced to the College World Series.  Reyes sophmore, junior, and senior seasons at USC were cut short due to nagging elbow injuries which dropped him into the 15th round of the 2003 draft.  After missing 6 weeks due to shoulder inflammation at the beggining of the 2004 season, Reyes dominated A ball hitters and advanced quickly to AA where he continued to show the promise that he once flashed as a freshman in USC. 

As noted earlier, Reyes was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 15th round of the 2003 Amatuer Draft and quickly moved up the Baseball America Top 100 Prospect Rankings to #47  prior to the 2005 season and up to #41 prior to the 2006 season.  In 428 minor league innings, Reyes struck out 446 while walking just 101 but he was never able to translate that dominance to the major league level. The St. Louis Cardinals traded Reyes to the Cleveland Indians for Luis Perdomo on July 26, 2008. 

Reyes had success with the Tribe in 2008 by going 2-1 in 6 starts with an impressive 1.83 ERA.  By the end of the 2008 season, the Indians had high hopes that Reyes had turned a corner and could lock down a starting job in the rotation in 2009.  Reyes returned to USC prior to spring training of 2009 to work with ptiching guru Tom House in an attempt to rework his delivery to remove stress from his elbow which had been causing him discomfort at the end of the 2008 season.  Reyes pushed himself through 8 starts in 2009 but finally succumbed to the pain on May 22nd and faced the realization that his elbow would require ulnar nerve transposition surgery and ligament transplant surgery (Tommy John Surgery).  The surgery was performed by Dr. Lewis Yocum on June 12, 2009 with an expected recovery time of 12-18 months.

Anthony Reyes is currently in Goodyear, Arizona working his way back from elbow reconstruction surgery performed  by Dr. Lewis Yocum on June 12, 2009 with an expected recovery time of 12-18 months.   Reports from Tony Lastoria at Indiansprospectinsider.com are very positive and even have him hitting 96 mph on the radar gun.

Many Tribe fans may remember the Anthony Reyes of 2009.  That Anthony Reyes, according to data researched at Brooksbaseball.net, averaged nearly 87 mph on his fastball with a maximum velocity of around 90 mph.  Is this falls 96 mph a radar gun oddity for Reyes or is the increased velocity something that made Reyes the top prospect in the St. Louis Cardinal Orginzation in 2005 and 2006?   Baseball America's 2005 scouting report suggest that Reyes was up to 94-96 mph on his fastball and generally worked between 90 and 95 at the end of the 2004 season.   Baseball America's 2006 scouring report also echoes the 2005 scouting report suggesting that Reyes sat in the 92-93 mph range and occassionally hits the mid-90s.

Tribe fans can hope that the Anthony Reyes who is pitching in Goodyear, Arizona this fall is the same Anthony Reyes that reports to Goodyear, Arizona to compete for a starting job in February, 2011.