Halfway Home...

Back in early April, I made my predictions for the 2010 MLB season.  Now that we're at the midway point. it's time to assess how things are going.  

First, from Jason Heyward and Jose Reyes to Chase Utley and Justin Morneau, the ball field is looking a bit more like a minefield, with the collective disabled list looking like a fully staffed All Star Roster.  The Red Sox alone have seen Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Victor Martinez, Clay Bucholtz, Jason Veritek, Manny Declarman, and ace Josh Beckett ride the pines on the DL so far this year.

This brings me to my first disappointment of the season.  The Red Sox are struggling with these injuries, and while I never say 'never', the fact that they are playing with second and third stringers tells me the Yankees and Rays may pull away while the chance is there.  Given the choice, I'll take the Rays.  I'm weary of the Yankees and their fattened payroll. 

The Braves have been a welcome surprise.  Plagued by injuries, the Phillies have drifted back a few games (5.5 at 'press tiime') and we're keeping the Mets at arm's length as well.  I don't know how we're doing it - aside from Prado and Infante, no one is toying with .300 at the plate.  In fact, Diaz and Escobar are closer to Mendoza territory.  But, like all resourceful teams, the right players are stepping up at the right moment.  And it's great to see Tim Hudson and Billy Wagner working such evasive mastery on the mound.  Will we hold on?  Will Heyward return the second half, with his lightning stick of a swing intact?  WIll Bobby get one more run at the Fall Classic?  Well, I'm hopeful.  The Phillies still scare me with that lineup, but the Braves teams of the early 90's didn't have a roster full of sluggers.  They had a team that played like a team, and that's what the Braves are looking like currently.  FInding ways to win - we've used the squeeze play, for cryin' in the dugout!  That's baseball, classically played.

As for the rest of the divisions, there's at least a two to four team race in each of 'em, and I love that.  San Diego is outdistancing Colorado, the Dodgers, and the Giants - I didn't see that coming.  The Tigers, Twins, and White Sox are making it interesting.  The Cubs have already dipped ten games below .500, leaving the Cardinals and Reds to duke it out.  I don't have a horse in that race with the Cubbies slipping away, but it's a fun rivalry to watch play out.  And, as for my only 'way off' prediction, I thought the L.A. Angels would be chasing down first against - are you ready for this? - the Seattle Mariners.  Sixteen games out of first, the Mariners will have to settle for another season of enjoying the Ichiro show and little else.  Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers are proving to be quite an exciting team to watch, carrying the division on the broad and capable shoulders of slugger Josh Hamilton.  So, I missed one.  So far.

That's what I love most about baseball.  The second half stretches out through the dog days of summer and into the cascading shadows of autumn, giving teams time to heal, to recalibrate, and yes, to trade up.  By September, we could very well see the Red Sox back on top, the Giants capsize the Padres, and God willin', the Braves running away with their division.  Short of the the Pittsburgh Pirates making a run for .500, anything can - and likely will - happen.  I'll be watching from the cheap seats.