At the Half

It is now just past the half-way point in the baseball season. Here are my thoughts and observation from the midpoint mark.

- Pre-season I picked the Red Sox, Indians and A's to win their divisions. I think I'll be right about Boston and Oakland but Cleveland I think has no shot in the second half. The Indians have the offense but the pitching just isn't there (team ERA of 4.81). Plus they would have to overcome both the Tigers and White Sox.

- I also picked the Blue Jays to win the AL Wild Card. I still feel pretty good about that pick even though Toronto is currently 7 games back of Chicago for the Wild Card. I think the return of AJ Burnett plus the fact that Toronto has a pretty stacked minor league system from which to make a mid-season trade coupled with the fact that I think Detroit will fade in the second half means that Toronto will be the Wild Card when all is said and done. Detroit's pitching is playing way over its head so far (MLB best team ERA of 3.54) and they really don't have the balanced offense of the White Sox. Detroit will fall behind the White Sox and lose out to the Blue Jays for the Wild Card.

- You may have noticed that pre-season I did not pick the Yankees to make the playoffs. I'm sticking by that. The Yankees are 4 games back of the Red Sox and 7 games back in the Wild Card (same as Toronto). This is an old team that won't be getting any fresher as the season drags on.

- Right now I would say that Jonathan Papelbon and Dan Uggla are the mid-point leaders for their respective leagues Rookie of the Year Award. Papelbon will have to hold of Francisco Liriano of the Twins, Justin Verlander of the Tigers and Kenji Johjima of the Mariners. Uggla has to hold off Ryan Zimmerman of the Nationals and Prince Fielder of the Brewers.

- My NL pre-season picks had Atlanta, Houston and the Dodgers winning their divisions with St Louis getting the Wild Card. I was obviously wrong about Atlanta but Houston is only 4 games back in the NL Central and if they overtake St Louis then the Cardinals become the favorite for the Wild Card.