Let's Get Back to Baseball!

Now that the All-Star break is over, it's going to be nice to get back to some baseball. This promises to be a fantastic 2nd half of the season. Not really for the Indians, but there are some real good races that are going to take place this summer and fall.

The best is the race in the AL East. With the Red Sox, again, leading the way after the break, it's really going to be interesting to see how this plays out. Will the Rays be able to get out of the funk they found themselves in going into the break?? Are they young enough to just go out and play baseball forgetting that they're taking on the Yanks and the Sox. Or are they going to be too young and falter in the 2nd half.

The NL Central leading Cubs who are up 4.5 on the Cards and 5 on the Brewers. Both the Cubs and the Brewers greatly improved their pitching staffs in the acquisition of Harden and Sabathia. Both of which are starting to pay dividends. This is going to be a great run. 3 teams, half a season. Lots of excitement on the Northside.

The AL Central with the Sox up a game and a half on the Twins. Not even close to what was predicted at the beginning of the season. But the real wild card is going to be what Detriot can do the rest of the season. They have really been surging in the last month or so and may come back to surprise the Sox and Twins. There's too many good players in Detriot to just falter.

The NL West, it's going to be a race. But everybody has a sub .500 record. I don't even want to comment. The Dodgers should be much better than they are. Maybe because they have Juan Pierre playing outfield. That guy has a worse arm then most kids in little league.

And another fantastic race is goign to be the NL east. Will the Phillies be able to come through and hold the half game lead over the surging Mets? Hopefully Ryan Howard learns to not strike out so much, my fantasy team would be very happy about this, but the rest of the lineup, outside of Howard, Utley, and Burrell, needs to start producing. The pitching has been solid, but they need to score some consistent runs to make the post season.

So, my predictions:

AL East - Sox. The Rays will falter. Sadly.
AL Central - Twins. The Sox just don't have enough to hold off the rest of the AL Central
AL West - Angels. Boring
NL East - Phillies. Too much offense, Howard is going to blow up in the 2nd half.
NL Central - Cubs. They're going to hold off the Brewers. The Cards will fall off, Cubs and Brewers will go down to the wire.
NL West - Dodgers, I guess.
AL Wildcard - Detroit
NL Wildcard - Brewers

My cat, Manny, just caught a fly. It was pretty cool watching him stalk this thing for the last hour or so. He's pretty excited about his catch!

Have a great Thursday!