The All-Star Game is two weeks away. The Pirates are the best team in baseball. The Marlins, thankfully, are the worst. The Tigers have utterly failed to run away with the AL Central. And the Blue Jays, Dodgers and Angels are all trying to convince us that maybe they aren’t so awful, after all.
We’ve reached the halfway mark – what say you?
Marlins went 15-10 in June. Not bad for a team which doesn’t have much major league talent. Both Chicago teams continue to stink up MLB, so I guess I’ll enjoy the rest of the season watching the D-backs win the NL West and Josh Hamilton continue to play as a sub par minor league ballplayer. I’d love to see the Pirates make a run for it down the stretch.
I’m going to do my best to watch the Pirates without putting the “too many expectations” jinx on them. But I’d really like to see them keep winning, and not just break through the 20 seasons of futility, but make a run In the playoffs. My dream scenario? The Pirates and Orioles meet in the World Series.
As for the rest of MLB. I don’t see anyone from the NL East overtaking the Braves, although I keep waiting for Washington to get on a roll.
The central will continue to be a three team race, as the Reds will come back to compete with the Cards and Pirates. I know the Reds haven’t been playing great as of late, but I just don’t see them collapsing.
In the West, I don’t know. The division is pretty bad, and the Dodgers are right now in the basement and only 4 games out. They can get on a run as easily as anyone else, so I can’t rule anyone out of that division. The Giants still live there too.
American League
East - I am hoping the Orioles stay in the race, and think they will. I keep waiting for Boston to falter, but they haven’t yet. The Yankees are too dysfunctional, and the Jays can’t figure out who they are. The Rays are the only other team I see being competitive down the stretch with the Sox and O’s
Central is the Tigers to lose, with Cleveland staying with them. I would love to see the Royals be there and make a run in late September.
West
Texas and Oakland. I’ll be surprised if Oakland stays with the Rangers the entire way, but who knows? The Angels have to be one of the biggest disappointments of all time. This past offseason, I thought they would win their division and compete for the AL crown. They are just not gelling. Hamilton is a mess offensively, and Albert is not playing close to his capabilities. Angel fans have to be so disappointed.
I’ll wait until after July for predictions of playoff teams, but can so done tell me… It seems as if there will be two wild card teams in each league this year. How do the playoff games schedule then? I don’t see a scenario where 5 teams play cleanly, unless the two wild card teams have a one game playoff. Is that what is happenings.
Harper is back from the DL. Can the Nats get it together before it’s too late? Probably not, but maybe!
Stink Fish Pot:
Correct, the two wild-card teams have a one-game “play-in” game to the Division series. And it started last year already.
July should be a good baseball month for me. The Dodgers are coming back to town and I’ll get to watch Puig in person for the first time. I was reading this morning that he’s had more hit in his first month (43) then any rookie except for DiMaggio (45). I can’t wait to see him light up Coors field.
Of course right after that the Rox are heading down to LA for a series so I’ll get to watch 6 Dodgers’ games in 12 days. Of course then I probably won’t get to watch another one until September.
The Reds can only play better in July, because for a team that was not long ago poised to seize first place, they had an awful June. They have issues in every facet but what’s really hurting them right now is their inability to score. If you look at many of their losses over the course of last month, they just aren’t scoring runs at all.
They went 12-15 in June and are now 10 games over .500. But they were shut out three times in those losses and in a handful more they only managed two or three runs. That can’t continue to happen to a team with Joey Votto on it making a quarter of a billion dollars and with guys like Jay Bruce, Brandon Phillips and Shin-Soo-Choo on your roster.
Every year the Pirates find new and more creative ways to break our hearts. I hope this year is different but I’m not convinced.
That being said, I would be ecstatic with 82 wins.
Let’s see…in the last month, the Giants:
went 1-2 against “the best team in baseball”
went 1-3 against “the worst…”
and were a combined 1-6 against the Dodgers and the Jays…and 10-17 overall.
That just ain’t gonna get it done. But today starts a brand new month, the June Swoon is over, and we’ve got Mike Kickham on the mound tonight!
Who is only starting because Chad Gaudin is hurt.
Who was only starting because Ryan Vogelsong is hurt.
It’s gonna be a great month…I can feel it!
Oh yeah…I forgot…
I HATE YASIEL PUIG!!!
Thanks…I feel better now.
but not much
You know, Suburban Plankton, up until now, I’d just been thinking of Puig as a sensation for the Dodger fans – someone fun to make you want to go back to the ballpark. But if he’s now getting under the skin of Giants fans? Well, I think he’s due for a raise, is all I’m sayin’.
I’d be willing to chip in a few bucks if it will piss off the Bay Area. 
I say stop the season right now, because with the Tigers’ loss to Toronto this afternoon my Cleveland Indians are alone in first place in the AL Central. 
I don’t expect the Tribe to finish the actual season in that position, but it is nice to be in first place in July for a change, is all I’m saying.
You never know. If Detroit can’t get their act together and we can hold off KC, the way the starters have been pitching lately…
I’m going to see the Tribe in Oakland and Anaheim in mid-August. I’m just praying they can stay in this race at least until then.
So future Hall-of-Famer Mike Kickham gives up 7 runs (and counting) in 2 2/3 innings…
…and is relieved by Jake Dunning.
That’s a total of almost 16 innings of MLB experience combined there on the mound tonight.
Go Grizzlies!
I have nothing to add at this time. I just cannot see this in print or hear this enough. Can’t do it.
Harper homers in his first at bat since missing 31 games.
That was more time invested than I wanted, but it was worth it to see the D-Backs blow a lead, go into extra innings against the Mets, take the lead back in the top of the 13th and then lose it in the bottom of the 13th.
The first-to-last-place spread in the NL West is now down to 3.5 games.
I’m sorry that it had to come on the back of the legendary Kickham, but the Reds really needed that win, and not only the win itself, but they way they won, generating four runs with smart hitting, then topping it off with a three run bomb by Todd Frazier.
This is a trend that needs to continue if the Reds are going to wrest the division from the Bucs and the Cardinals.
Huh, not me. I mean, fuck the Dodgers and all, but I love seeing Puig.
Perhaps it helps that I have him in my Fantasy league.