Down the Stretch

We're well into the 2nd half of the season, almost to the 2/3 point even. With a lot of divisions undergoing a leader change in the past few weeks, which of these leaders are for real? Who's good enough for the wild card? So, as we enter the stretch of the baseball season, I'll toss in my two cents on how this will finish.

AL West: Los Angeles Angels

This is simply a no doubter, they've opened up a 10.5 game lead on the Texas Rangers and have the best record in the majors. The offense looks like it has come around since plugging in Juan Rivera, while benching a guy making $50M in Gary Matthews Jr.

AL Central: Chicago White Sox

This team is kind of underrated to me, they have solid pitching throughout the order in Danks, Buerhle, Floyd, Vazquez, and Contreras (currently on the DL). Combine that with an offense stroking it out of the park, it makes for a playoff team.

AL East: New York Yankees

No, this isn't a knee jerk reaction to the Nady-Marte trade. It also isn't one to the recent surge. The trade DOES legitimately puts them at the top in this division, they needed that right handed bat in the outfield and adding a good left handed reliever in the pen is always a good thing. It also doesn't hurt that they traded peanuts to get them.

AL Wild Card: Boston Red Sox

This team is too good top to bottom to miss the playoffs. The offense however, is still very inconsistent, even in the games Ortiz has come back to play in. The pitching staff is very deep however, they have a guy like Justin Masterson in the bullpen...

NL West: Colorado Rockies

What the hell!!!!! Anyway, yeah it says the Rockies. The best move this team can do is hang onto Holliday and Fuentes. This division is pretty much the gutter of the majors and Colorado is 6 back. I'm a believer in this team's ability to surge late and re-capture the magic of Rocktober. Actually, I'm just picking them because they have the best offense and it should be enough to put them at the top of this "division".

NL Central: Milwaukee Brewers

Offense clicking on all cylinders, 2 bonafide aces in your starting rotation, and a closer who has basically saved Milwaukee's life after the Gagne signing. All of these, the Brewers have. All of these things have me believing that they can take over the Cubs.

NL East: New York Mets

The Mets finally realized that their pitching was going to be what put them over the Phillies, albeit it isn't that impressive, but it's better than the Phillies rotation. After many called for Pelfrey to be sent down to AAA early in the season, he has rebelled by shaving a full point off his ERA ( 4.65 to 3.67 ) and winning 7 of those 10 starts.

NL Wild Card: Chicago Cubs

The Cubs almost fall into this category by default, there is simply no other NL team that can push them here. When they got Harden, I thought it was over, but this offense has sputtered around and they just aren't being consistent. They've even started to lose games at home, which has been the bank for them. Again, this is the NL and it will be good enough.

Anthony