MLB: A Look at First Place Teams

Though it’s certainly not early in the baseball season anymore, it’s still too early to declare winners in each division (unless we’re talking about the American League West where the Anaheim Angels own a 15.5 game lead over the second place Texas Rangers). But there are some teams that are beginning to look like they just might be poised to capture their division.

We’ll begin in the AL East where the Tampa Bay Rays own a 4.5 game lead on second place Boston. I don’t want to count out the defending Champion Red Sox – and I won’t just yet – but the Rays should have what it takes to win this division. Barring a late season slide, which isn’t out of the question, the Rays are looking good.

In the AL Central everything is way too close to call. The Detroit Tigers have collapsed their way to being out of it. But the Minnesota Twins trial the Chicago White Sox by only a game. And I still think Griffey in center will hurt the White Sox. So I like the Twins to win the division.

We just mentioned the AL West in the intro. The Angels have it won. They could probably lose the rest of their games and play .200 baseball from here on out and still win the division.

The AL East is as tight as any division. Three teams are right at or near the top. The New York Mets currently lead the Phillies by a game and a half. The Florida Marlins are just four games back. Though the lead is small and I don’t expect it to get much bigger, I do think the Mets win the NL East.

In the NL Central, the Chicago Cubs lead the Milwaukee Brewers by five games. I like the Brew Crews chances of grabbing the Wild Card but I think Chicago pretty much has the division won.

Which leaves us with the NL West. I like the Dodgers to take the division. They are tied with the Diamondbacks right now. But rumor has it that the Dodgers just traded for Greg Maddux. He won’t make a huge impact but I do think he’ll win at least 4 games for the Dodgers before the end of the season. And that will be enough of a difference. The Dodgers will take the division.

And so that’s where we are as we look at the current first place teams and the teams who I think will finish in first.