If you're not into baseball trivia, you should stop reading immediately. I said this last year and the year before and everybody (or nobody?) listened.
Major League Baseball's All-Star Game will be played in Queens, New York at Citi Field on July 16th. The All-Star Break has been considered by many to signify the midpoint of the baseball season, but actually the teams finished the first half of the schedule between June 27th, when Boston played its 81st game and July 3rd when the Royals, Twins, White Sox and Mets became the last of the 30 teams to complete 81. For the first time every major league division will have 5 teams with interleague ball played throughout the season thanks to the move of Houston to the AL West this year.
Due to scheduling and rainouts, there is obviously no single date upon which every team plays its 81st game. What follows is each team's record after 81 games displayed as standings for all the major league divisions. The standings below reflect a standings that never actually existed on any one day. It's just a way for me to see at the end of the season how each team performed in each half of the season. This is extreme baseball trivia to be engaged in only by retirees and others with an excessive amount of time on their hands.
AL East:
Boston Red Sox 48 - 33 (6/27)
Baltimore Orioles 45 - 36 (6/28)
New York Yankees 42 - 39 (6/30)
Tampa Bay Rays 42 - 39 (6/29)
Toronto Blue Jays 40 - 41 (6/30)
The Bosox, picked by SI to finish last, lead the majors in runs scored, producing over 100 more runs than the injury riddled Yankees, their traditional rival. The O's are second in runs scored and just picked up Scott Feldman to shore up their starting rotation while the Rays and Jays are still in the race. The Jays looked doomed early on but a recent 11 game winning streak restored them to life.
AL Central:
Detroit Tigers 43 - 38 (7/1)
Cleveland Indians 43 - 38 (6/29)
Kansas City Royals 39 - 42 (7/3)
Minnesota Twins 36 - 45 (7/3)
Chicago White Sox 33 - 48 (7/3)
The Tigers, picked to easily win this weak division, are struggling. Lack of a closer is one of their problems. The Indians are the surprise despite a slow start by free agent acquisition Nick Swisher. The White Sox have been a flop in Robin Ventura's sophomore season.
AL West:
Texas Rangers 47 - 34 (6/29 )
Oakland A's 47 - 34 (6/28)
Los Angeles Angels 38 - 43 (6/29)
Seattle Mariners 35 - 46 (6/29)
Houston Astros 30 - 51 (6/29)
The A's and Angels are the surprises for different reasons although the Halos have been hot lately. The Rangers don't don't appear to miss Josh Hamilton but just signed Manny Ramirez to a minor league deal. The M's and 'stros appear to be out of the race.
NL East:
Atlanta Braves 47 - 34 (6/29 )
Washington Nationals 41 - 40 (6/30)
Philadelphia Phillies 39 - 42 (6/28)
New York Mets 35 - 46 (7/3)
Miami Marlins 30 - 51 (7/1)
The Nats have really missed Bryce Harper and Cole Hamels of the Phillies is on a pace to lose over 20 games. The Braves lead appears to be primarily because of the poor play of the rest of their division. Matt Harvey has been a bright spot for the Mets as they try to avoid the cellar.
NL Central:
Pittsburgh Pirates 51 - 30 (6/30)
St. Louis Cardinals 49 - 32 (6/30)
Cincinnati Reds 46 - 35 (6/29 )
Chicago Cubs 35 - 46 (7/2)
Milwaukee Brewers 32 - 49 (7/1)
This may finally be the year the Pirates play over .500 ball for the first time since 1992. Albert who? The Cards keep playing well. The Reds are hanging in there but the Cubs and Brew Crew are most likely done.
NL West:
Arizona Diamondbacks 42 - 39 (6/30)
Colorado Rockies 40 - 41 (6/28)
San Diego Padres 40 - 41 (6/29)
San Francisco Giants 39 - 42 (6/30)
Los Angeles Dodgers 38 - 43 (6/30)
The Dodgers in recent weeks have been the hottest team in the tight NL West. The spark plugs have been recent rookie call-up Yasiel Puig and veteran Hanley Ramirez's return from the D/L. The World Champion Giants have disappointed so far, as Lincecum continues to struggle and Cain hasn't exactly been lights out.
A few additional comments on the first half:
When the conversation starts about young stars in the game, the names Trout and Harper are usually the first mentioned. Baltimore's Manny Machado, who turns 21 tomorrow, should be included. With 37 doubles at the half way mark, he has a chance to break one of baseball's all time single season records, the 67 doubles produced by Earl Webb of the Red Sox in 1931. Only 6 players have hit 60 or more doubles in a season, the last being Charlie Gehringer in 1936. The player to come closest since was Todd Helton with 59 in 2000.
The hitting stars in the AL have been Miguel Cabrera, as expected, and Chris Davis (just hit his 32nd HR), who appears intent on proving that last year was not a fluke. While not exactly household names, Paul Goldschmidt and Domonic Brown are among the top NL power producers.
On the pitching end, Detroit's Max Scherzer is 13 - 0 but maybe an even bigger surprise has been Bartolo Colon's 11 - 3 mark for Oakland. Jordan Zimmerman of the Nats leads the NL at 12 - 3.
After missing half of last year, Jacoby Ellsbury has 33 steals to lead the majors but strangely has only 1 HR after hitting a career high 32 in 2011.
Super senior award for the first half goes to Raul Ibanez of the M's who at 41 has produced 21 HR's and 49 RBI's in only 64 games. Friend Gary, a Mariner's fan, calls him "Prime Time".
Adam Wainwright leads all mlb pitchers with 4 complete games. I hate pitch counts!
Enjoy the rest of the season.
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