MLB Halftime Report: American League
By Brett Neal
We are just now arriving at the halfway point of baseball season, but did anyone realize that baseball season had been going on for almost 4 months? Yes folks, while everyone was focused on Justin Beaver watching the Miami Labron Wade’s, studying the NBA draft for that one day, and waiting on the edge of their seats to see which team Dwight Howard would be injured for next season, baseball season was able to sneak in over 90 games right under our noses. If you’re like me and watch enough MLB Network that you’ve considered sending Kevin Millar a “Save The Date,” for your wedding, then good job and I hope you learn something from this article. For all you other peeps who haven’t been keeping up, then here’s what you missed and what to watch for.
We are just now arriving at the halfway point of baseball season, but did anyone realize that baseball season had been going on for almost 4 months? Yes folks, while everyone was focused on Justin Beaver watching the Miami Labron Wade’s, studying the NBA draft for that one day, and waiting on the edge of their seats to see which team Dwight Howard would be injured for next season, baseball season was able to sneak in over 90 games right under our noses. If you’re like me and watch enough MLB Network that you’ve considered sending Kevin Millar a “Save The Date,” for your wedding, then good job and I hope you learn something from this article. For all you other peeps who haven’t been keeping up, then here’s what you missed and what to watch for.
The Half-Way summary:
Here are the AL standings as of today, the start of the
All-Star Break
AL East: Record GB
Boston Red Sox 58-39 0
Tampa Bay Rays 55-41 2.5
Baltimore Orioles 53-43 4.5
New York Yankees 51-44 6.0
Toronto Blue Jays 45-49 11.5
AL Central:
Detroit Tigers 52-42 0
Cleveland Indians 51-44 1.5
Kansas City Royals 43-49 8.0
AL West:
Oakland Athletics 56-39 0
Texas Ranges 54-41 2.0
Anaheim Angels 44-49 11.0
I went ahead and crossed out all teams that no longer have
any business being in the playoff discussion. Random thought: wouldn’t it be
neat if the MLB started adopting some of the PGA rules. I’m mostly thinking of
the “cut” rule. What if at the start of September, if your team was 15 games
back of the division and wildcard leaders then you form a separate “loser”
league, playing out the rest of your regular season games against equally
terrible opponents. If you’re a fan of one of these teams, like me, then your
team has a chance to win some games, call up their stud minor leaguers, and
potentially get a decent crowd out to the stadium, even if its hot as balls
outside… Anyway… It’s still too early to tell which teams are contenders and
which are pretenders, but lets start by analyzing why the top teams of each
division are where they are today.
Starting with the AL East, where you see 4 teams holding
strong, over-.500 records. We see the Red Sox at the top, with a modest 2.5
game lead over the Rays. When this season started, experts had a little trouble
deciding which AL East team would reign supreme. If you recall, most experts
went with the Toronto Blue Jays. Sure, the Jays made some huge deals to
basically acquire the entire Miami Marlins team and a 38-year-old
knuckleballer. You know why I didn’t have them winning the division? Because the
Jays made some huge deals to basically acquire the entire Miami Marlins team
and a 38-year-old knuckleballer. The Red Sox on the other hand did a lot of
selling at the end of last season, and it has worked out beautifully so far. If
you recall towards the end of 2012, with the Red Sox falling too far behind to
be playoff contenders, the organization decided to dump away big name players
like Kevin Youkilis, Adrian Gonzales, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, and Nick
“The Shredder” Punto. So how are the Red Sox back to their winning ways? Easy,
they went back to the recipe that worked for them back in their championship
years of 2004 and 2007: Surround Big Papi with a combination of scrappy white
guys, burly white guys with beards, and a guy with Indian blood (Native American,
or whatever is politically correct).
Moving on to the AL Central, we have no surprises yet with
the Tigers on top. With guys like Triple-crown winner Miguel Cabrera, Prince
“The Hamburglar” Fielder, and Justin “little finger” Verlander, Detroit was
looking like the big-man-on-campus. Add guys like Torii Hunter and Annibal
Sanchez, and they have no weakness. However, the Tigers have been spending most
of their year playing leapfrog with the boys from BrOhio. Cleveland made some
moves this offseason to supplant themselves in the playoff race, and they’re
starting to look like the Cleveland Indians of old, the ones from Major League. Thing about it:
Michael Bourn = Willie Mays Hayes
Carlos Santana = Pedro Cerrano
Mark Reynolds = Jack Parkman (he’s still a dick)
Jason Giambi = Jake Taylor
Chris Perez = Rick Vaughn
Nick Swisher = Rube Baker
Now all they need is a crazy Japanese guy and The Tribe will
be in business. Look out Tigers.
The AL West is pretty baffling right now, as the presumed
favorite LA-A Angels are sitting in 3rd with a below .500 record
after spending butt loads of money this offseason. After 95 games, the Oakland
Athletics sit on top. Although it may seem baffling, Oakland actually won the
division last year after an all-out effort to catch the Rangers in the last
month of the 2012 season. However, nobody really was expecting a repeat
performance. The A’s don’t really have a big name guy, but what they do have is
a clubhouse full of guys that fit that Oakland A’s demeanor. Coco Crisp, Jed
Lowrie, Josh Reddick, Brandon Moss, Eric Sogard, John Jaso, Yoenis Cespedes,
Josh Donaldson, A.J. Griffin, Jarrod Parker, Grant Balfour, and Big Fat Bartolo
Colon. None of these guys are household names by any means, but they are all
young men that leave it all on the field. I can see the Angels coming back into
contention, and I can see the Rangers taking over the lead sometime within the
next week, but right now I can’t help but root for the A’s. They bring it.
NL halftime report coming soon
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