1. Boston - The Red Sox boast the best record in baseball and are sitting in the top five in the AL in pitching stats. Manny is through his early season slump. The only thing that could hold up Beantown right now appears to be blisters. The Sox are the best team entering June.
2. Cleveland - The Indians young bats lead by Sizemore, Martinez and Hafner were never in question at the beginning of the year. To this point their pitching has been more than solid. The road sweep at Detroit puts the Indians in the drivers seat in the AL Central.
3. Detroit - Magglio Ordonez is putting up first half MVP-like numbers. However, the darlings of last year Jeremy Bonderman and Justin Verlander haven't looked great yet. The Tigers 30 wins has them in at three.
4. NY Mets - The Mets are again the premier team in the NL. Aggressive base running (1st in the majors in stolen bases) and top ten pitching staff have one New York team poised for a postseason run.
5. LA Angels - Vlad is being Vlad, K-Rod is lights out again and John Lackey leads the majors in wins with nine. The Angels have battled several early season injuries and still have managed 34 wins.
T6. Arizona - Eric who? That would be Byrnes, who is pacing Arizona in batting average, home runs, runs scored and on base percentage. Surprising yes, as has been Randy's return to the desert. Johnson has 53 strikeouts in seven starts and sub-4.00 ERA. The D-Back's are tied for the NL West lead starting the month and tied for the final ranked spot.
T6. San Deigo - While offense has been more than a struggle, its defense and pitching that wins championships. The Padres have a team ERA less than 3.00. Jake Peavy is anchoring San Deigo's rotation and will continue to cause headaches. The Padres are in the NL West log jam.
In the chase: Atlanta - The Braves may have 32 wins, but have a 4-5 record against the Nationals. Sub-500 records versus the Nats is pathetic, holding the Braves back.
LA Dodgers - Brad Penny is having another stellar first-half as a Dodger. LA's bats have been average (13th in average, 18th in runs, 25th in slugging), enough to keep them out.
2 comments:
Matthews Jr. should be noted as well. He drove in several runs the other night against Seattle.
I really have a hard time getting behind the Red Sox or the Indians, but they're both playing very well right now. The Red Sox have five guys batting over three hundred, a team ERA of 3.85 and let's face it, their big players are making plays when they need to be made - unlike their infamous division rival. The Indians are a great story. I'm not sure they're deserving of the #2, but through the first third they've been playing very good baseball. Their early jump in the central and the ensuing media extravaganza is akin to Baseball Tonight pundits calling the Yankees' season over simply because they've had a poor first third of the season. I hope the Yankees continue to struggle, but I wonder how soon we should kick them to the curb, and similarly, whether or not we should jump on the Cleveland bandwagon and proclaim them true AL contenders based solely on their performance in the first third of the season. You certainly haven't gone so far as to say that they'd contend for the remainder of the season, but I'm just saying...
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