Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

I don't believe in the White Sox. I just don't see them winning the AL Central. My pick is the Indians. The Pythagorean W/L says that Cleveland has had the worst luck (-5 games) of any team in the AL. Meanwhile the White Sox are just 11-17 against teams with a winning record. I see Chicago falling back to earth, Ozzie having another tirade and finally getting fired... The Mariners are bad. It certainly doesn't help that they can win close games (7-14 in 1 run games). With JJ Putz going on the DL - I wouldn't look for that record to improve either... The Braves are 7.5 games behind the Phillies mainly because Atlanta just can't win on the road (8-24 on the road) or in extra innings (1-7)... Many people picked St. Louis to be awful this year but if the season ended today - they would be the NL Wild Card. They lead the Marlins by 3 games... Just saying but JD Drew has the 2nd best OPS in the AL. His .973 is better than Josh Hamilton's .961 and Manny Ramirez's .940. (Milton Bradley leads with a 1.077 mark and Jason Giambi is 4th with a .953 mark)... Oakland's Jack Cust leads the AL in walks with 52 and is 2nd in strikeouts with 70 (just 1 behind Carlos Pena). I'm rooting for Cust to "win" both categories... It's bizarro world. The NL has the top 4 HR hitters in baseball and the AL has the top 2 base stealers... If I had to give out the NL Cy Young Award today I'd give it to Tim Lincecum for being 8-1 for a lousy (and I mean lousy) San Francisco Giants team...