FanNation | the guru's scrolls | The Basketball Guru Talks Baseball Midseason Report

This is the first installment of the basketball guru talks baseball, a spinoff of chase's notorious NBA blog, and the basketball guru talks hockey, two somewhat successful blogs of mine. I am here with a review of the first half of the baseball season going by division, starting with the AL East.

AL EAST

Baseball's most competitive division just got a whole lot more interesting this season witht the emergance of the Rays, the suprise of the season with baseballs best record and are 5 games ahead of the Boston Red Sox, who saw this coming? The Yankees are finishing their last season in the House That Ruth Built and hope to go out in style, but they have their work cut out for them. The Orioles are still over .500 and the Jays are suprisingly in the cellar, but have kept things interesting, wth the re-hiring of Cito Gaston. Who knows how the season going to end up for these teams.

STANDINGS AT THE BREAK

EAST	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	RS	RA	DIFF	STRK	L10	DIV	WC	POFF
Tampa Bay	55	32	.632	-	36-13	19-19	420	342	+78	Won 7	9-1	65.0	19.2	84.1
Boston	52	39	.571	5	31-10	21-29	453	377	+76	Lost 2	3-7	28.5	32.2	60.7
NY Yankees	47	42	.528	9	25-22	22-20	417	394	+23	Won 2	5-5	4.4	8.7	13.1
Baltimore	44	43	.506	11	25-16	19-27	408	407	+1	Lost 2	4-6	1.4	3.7	5.0
Toronto	42	47	.472	14	22-19	20-28	364	347	+17	Lost 1	5-5	0.8	1.6	2.4

AL CENTRAL

The Sox are on top of the Central as usual and are leading the Twins by one game. The biggest suprise is the sub-par performance of the Tigers, after acquring many big names over the off-season, the Tigers have falted and sit at third, 7 games behind the Sox. Cleveland is in the cellar and are moving away from the C.C. Sabathia era, agrreing to terms on a trade with the Brewers. It will be another exciting pennant race in the Central

STANDINGS AT THE BREAK

CENTRAL	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	RS	RA	DIFF	STRK	L10	DIV	WC	POFF
Chicago Sox	51	37	.580	-	32-13	19-24	424	336	+88	Won 2	8-2	67.1	6.2	73.3
Minnesota	50	38	.568	1	32-18	18-20	436	406	+30	Won 5	8-2	27.5	11.0	38.5
Detroit	44	44	.500	7	25-17	19-27	415	418	-3	Won 1	6-4	4.6	2.1	6.7
Kansas City	39	50	.438	12.5	19-21	20-29	362	429	-67	Lost 3	3-7	0.2	0.1	0.2
Cleveland	37	51	.420	14	22-22	15-29	387	393	-6	Lost 8	2-8	0.5	0.2	0.7

AL WEST

The Angels have continued their dominance in the West and Oakland is hanging in there with some more Moneyball, but the main stories are at the bottom, not the top, of this division. The Rangers are having a great season statistically speaking, with troubled stars Milton Bradley and Josh Hamilton being the stats leaders in almost every offensive category in the AL. The Mariners are in the cellar and Seattle is not getting anything to cheer about this summer with the Sonics out of Seattle.

STANDINGS AT THE BREAK

WEST	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	RS	RA	DIFF	STRK	L10	DIV	WC	POFF
LA Angels	53	35	.602	-	26-20	27-15	373	351	+22	Won 1	5-5	59.5	5.5	65.0
Oakland	47	41	.534	6	27-21	20-20	384	324	+60	Lost 2	4-6	33.2	8.0	41.2
Texas	46	43	.517	7.5	21-18	25-25	488	511	-23	Won 2	6-4	7.2	1.7	8.9
Seattle	35	53	.398	18	19-27	16-26	354	413	-59	Lost 1	7-3	0.1	0.1	0.1

NL EAST

This has been another topsy-turvey season in the NL East, with the no one really looking to win. The Mets have failed to live up to expectations, and the Marlins have been suprising with a fire-sale roster, but the Phillies are still in the lead with Chase Utley, the unlikely home run hero, knocking dingers out of Citizens Bank Park. Chipper Jones is on a quest to reach baseballs new magical number, .400. It should be a dream summer in A-Town.

STANDINGS AT THE BREAK

EAST	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	RS	RA	DIFF	STRK	L10	DIV	WC	POFF
Philadelphia	48	41	.539	-	23-20	25-21	448	370	+78	Lost 2	5-5	66.9	4.7	71.6
Florida	45	43	.511	2.5	26-20	19-23	439	460	-21	Won 1	5-5	9.4	3.4	12.8
NY Mets	44	44	.500	3.5	22-18	22-26	419	408	+11	Won 2	5-5	14.7	5.4	20.1
Atlanta	42	47	.472	6	30-18	12-29	395	367	+28	Won 1	4-6	9.0	4.1	13.1
Washington	34	56	.378	14.5	18-26	16-30	326	447	-121	Lost 5	3-7	0.1	0.0	0.1

NL CENTRAL

The Cubbies are looking to end the billy goat curse, and it looks like they have the chance to do it, as they are one of the best teams in baseball, if you told me that at the All-Star break it looked like the Cubs would beat the Rays for the World Series I would put you in detox, but it just might happen. But the Brew Crew are still in contention, as they just acquired C.C. Sabathia from the Indians, and you can never count out Pujols and the Cardinals. It looks like there will be some fireworks come September.

STANDINGS AT THE BREAK

CENTRAL	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	RS	RA	DIFF	STRK	L10	DIV	WC	POFF
Chicago Cubs	53	36	.596	-	33-10	20-26	475	373	+102	Won 1	4-6	61.8	22.3	84.1
Milwaukee	49	39	.557	3.5	28-13	21-26	406	395	+11	Won 3	6-4	25.4	31.3	56.7
St. Louis	50	40	.556	3.5	26-21	24-19	415	399	+16	Lost 1	5-5	12.0	23.3	35.3
Cincinnati	43	47	.478	10.5	26-19	17-28	384	439	-55	Won 4	7-3	0.4	1.5	1.9
Houston	41	48	.461	12	22-21	19-27	387	426	-39	Lost 1	4-6	0.2	1.0	1.2
Pittsburgh	40	47	.460	12	25-19	15-28	420	482	-62	Lost 3	3-7	0.2	1.1	1.3

NL WEST

Baseball's worst division has gotten a lot worse this year as there is not one team over .500 at the break. Colorado will need another one of those magic runs they had last year to get to the postseason, and the Giants and Diamondbacks will likely take place in a pennant race I am going to dub the Biggest Loser, the battle for the 2008 NL West Title.

STANDINGS AT THE BREAK

WEST	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	RS	RA	DIFF	STRK	L10	DIV	WC	POFF
Arizona	44	45	.494	-	27-19	17-26	393	390	+3	Won 1	4-6	36.7	0.8	37.5
LA Dodgers	43	45	.489	.5	22-20	21-25	365	356	+9	Won 1	7-3	49.8	0.8	50.6
San Francisco	39	50	.438	5	17-28	22-22	367	408	-41	Lost 1	5-5	9.7	0.2	9.9
Colorado	37	52	.416	7	25-21	12-31	402	471	-69	Lost 1	5-5	3.2	0.1	3.3
San Diego	35	54	.393	9	21-26	14-28	329	416	-87	Lost 1	3-7	0.6	0.1	0.6