MLB: Looking at at the AL at the All Star Break

Well, here we are. It’s the All Star Break – the unofficial halfway point of the baseball season. Last night the homerun derby took place and once again it didn’t live up to the hype ESPN likes to heap upon it. It will never live up to it because it just isn’t that interesting or fun. Tonight’s game should be fun to watch, but no more so than watching preseason football.

Anyway, all the teams have already played more than half of their games but this is basically the midway point. So, let’s take our weekly look at where teams stand and try not to put too much importance on anything. As always, we’ll look at the American League now and then the National League in the next blog.

Beginning in the AL East, the Boston Red Sox have trotted out to a 3 game lead over the New York Yankees. The Red Sox swept the Royals while the Yankees got swept by the Angels. And there you have the 3 game lead. Tampa and Toronto have been stumbling as well and they are 6.5 and 11 games back, respectively. I don’t want to count the Rays out but this division is starting to look like a 2 team race.

In the AL Central, it looks like a 3 game race. The Detroit Tigers have a 3.5 game lead over the White Sox and a 4 game lead over the Twins. Then the Royals are 11.5 back and the Indians are 14 back. The Tigers haven’t been a good 2nd half team the past few years under Leyland so the Twins and White Sox have a real shot here.

In the West, it looks like the Angels and the Rangers will be battling for a while. But the Mariners are only 4 games back. So, this could be a 3 team race. The Angels always look like world beaters against the Yankees, but let’s see how they look coming out of the break.