If The Season Ended Today, vol. 1, issue 1

We are now less than a week removed from Baseball’s July 31 trading deadline. Yes, some teams are still juggling some of their lineups based on trades, but at this point the teams that are going to make it to the playoffs already have their lineups set. So now seems like as good a time as any to start my…

IF THE SEASON ENDED TODAY

…series. Now I know it’s way too early to start predicting the playoffs; we still have nearly two good months of baseball left to play. And there are some pretty close races, as you either already know or are soon to find out. Rather, I’ll be doing this feature pretty regularly, and each installment will include fully updated standings and predictions. Additionally, each installment will focus on a particular team.

“Which teams? Which are the teams that really matter?”

Well, I’ll go through them now! Okay, so there’s the American League and the National League. And each league has three division leaders. And each league has one wild card team. So that’s up to eight races total. At two or three teams per race, that makes up between half and two-thirds of the total teams. Here’s the standings in graphic version:

AL EAST
Yankees -
Red Sox 2.5
Rays 5.5

AL CENTRAL
Tigers -
White Sox 1.0
Twins 3.5

AL WEST
Angels -
Rangers 4.5

AL WILD CARD
Red Sox -
Rangers 3.0
Rays 3.0


NL EAST
Phillies -
Marlins 6.0
Braves 6.5

NL CENTRAL
Cubs -
Cardinals -
Brewers 4.0
Astros 5.0

NL WEST
Dodgers -
Giants 6.0
Rockies 6.5

NL WILD CARD
Giants -
Rockies 0.5
Cubs 2.0
Cardinals 2.0
Marlins 4.5
Braves 5.0


What makes it so interesting is that teams that appear out of the hunt when you look at the regular standings are right back in it when you consider the wild cards. So, my goal for the rest of the 2009 season is to give an overview of each race and the teams involved in these races. It’s difficult to get a complete picture, because the statuses of all these races and teams changes daily. So some interesting things will happen too fast for me to write about.

But to try to capture the mood of the moment, I’ll try to do one sentence or less about each team in the running:

Yankees: Atop the AL East, but need to watch their tails, as there are two very hungry, very unpredictable teams coming up fast.

Tigers: Their hold on the top of the AL Central is unsteady, as they do not have the most “talent” out of all the teams in their division.

Angels: Since the A’s collapsed, the Angels have not had much competition in the AL West. Is Texas for real this time, though?

Phillies: Expected to be neck and neck with the Mets, but the collapse of their opponents can allow the Phillies to breathe pretty easy in the NL East.

Cubs: They were the best team in the division before the season started. So why are the Cardinals so close behind?

Cardinals: Their chase of the Cubs pits two of the most intriguing managers in the sport against each other: Tony La Russa vs. Lou Piniella. Not to mention the historic rivalry between these two teams. Stay tuned, this one’s a page-turner.

Dodgers: Ran away with the west early, but can their pitching hold up through the playoffs?

Red Sox: They made some good preparations in the offseason, but the Yankees somehow have kept pace with them, even using their outdated and pound-foolish front office methods. Maybe money really can buy happiness….?

Rays: They went to the World Series last year, but find themselves back in third behind the game’s two biggest spenders. Can they fight their way back to the top…again?

Rangers: New team president, all-time strikeout king Nolan Ryan, has spearheaded some bold moves involving pitching and defense that may actually help them challenge the Angels this year. Can it be done, really?

Giants: They were supposed to be nothing but a lousy team in a lousy division, but now they find they would be leading the division, if not for those pesky Dodgers way ahead of them. But, what’s this, they’re leading in the wild card standings? How did they do it, folks?

Rockies: Riding a fading lineup, no one thought they could contend either. Who thought there would be two overachieving wild card contestants in the same division?

White Sox: Made a trade for a major pitcher (who promises to murder the opposition, just as soon as he’s off the disabled list…) and really think they can chase down the Tigers.

Twins: Playing on heart and the last vestiges of a smart ownership, the Twins are basically grasping at straws (barring one of those unexplainable late-season surges that are bound to happen).

Marlins: A young team that wasn’t expected to improve, they now find themselves about as far out in the wild card hunt as they are in the East. Better luck next time.

Braves: Had massive flaws, but somehow managed to plug the holes well enough to keep pace with the Marlins. But they’ve lost much of their steam.


As you can see, some of these teams will get weeded out very quickly. Until then, I hope to present what’s happening around the leagues in a comprehensive and informative manner.