I’m combining the two leagues, because honestly, it takes too long to write for something a few people will read. I’ll touch on some of the stories, best players and teams, and what to expect for the last third of the season.

Guess Who The Best Player in Baseball is?

Joe Mauer? No.

Hanley Ramirez? No.

Oh, Albert Pujols, of course. Ummmmm, somehow, No.

The best player in baseball happens to be some kind of Christ-like figure from the City of Brotherly Love. That’s right, Mr. Utley is your MVP.

Now I know that sounds crazy, especially with Pujols’ numbers, but Utley’s are pretty damn good, especially for a second baseman. Utley’s WAR score is 5.5, Pujols is 5.3. Interestingly, Ben Zoberist is continuing to play out of his mind, posting a 5.4. Now, those numbers are so close that 2 games could completely change that order, but as of now its pretty impressive.

To be fair, Zach Greinke has a 6.3 and Tim Lincecum, that crazy freak, has a 6.6. That is just disturbing. Its not a straight comparison for pitchers and players in WAR score, but suffice it to say Utley and Zoberist are the MVPs and Lincecum and Greinke are your Cy Young’s.

Teams That Aren’t Good…Are Playing Great

The Rockies, Angels, Marlins, Rangers, and to a lesser extent the Astros are all playing way over their heads.

On June 3, the Rockies were 21-33 and in last place in the NL West. They looked like the worst team in baseball, so they fired Clint Hurdle 4 days before that, and well……. they are now 58-47. Thats a 37-14 run. The Rockies are playing way over the sum of their parts, and getting pretty damn lucky. Do not expect them to stay at this pace, and you can bet that they fall off by early September.

The Angels are an interesting case in that, the pitching which was expected to be their strong suit, have fallen short of expectations. Their offense, which had been awful for years, has turned into a machine in perfect working condition, and that is with Vlad Guerrero playing awful and then getting hurt. They are getting career years from 3/5 of their starting line up and above average from the others, so don’t expect to see this kind of production in the years to come, but I think they can keep it going for the rest of the year.

The Marlins are just fooling themselves, and really is it worth it to keep on to valuable pieces, and to even give some up, to be a .500 team? Its been documented over and over this doesn’t make any sense, especially for a team which views spending money like cancer. I guess they are hoping the teams in front of them for the Wildcard (The Giants, Rockies, Cubs) will fall off, but that’s betting on a lot to happen in your favor.

The Rangers have an amazing offense and an awful, awful pitching staff that I’ve documented previously, and that pitching staff will bring their season to an abrupt end in the next 2 weeks.

The Astros are terrible, and they were playing so far above their heads that the fall to earth will hurt. They are the worst organization in baseball, and if you take out Berkman, Oswalt, Rodriguez, and Pence, this team wins maybe 10 games.

The Mets Aren’t Awful, Just Extremely Unlucky

I actually have to hand it to the Mets for being a near .500 team wit Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, John Maine, J.J. Putz, Billy Wagner, and a handbag of utility players all going down for significant amount of time. They basically send out a AAA team starring David Wright with a special appearance of Johan Santana every 5 episodes. They could have been just as good as the Phillies, but there is no one one really to blame for this except Minaya to an extent for not building any kind of reserve.

Okay I really can’t write anymore, so I’ll conclude with the projected standings. (Change in parenthesis from season preview.)

National League

East

1. Philadelphia Phillies: 93-69 (+6)
2. Atlanta Braves: 86 - 76 (+1)
3. Florida Marlins: 82-80 (+7)
4. New York Mets: 80-82 (-11)
5. Washington Nationals: 57-105 (-15)

Central

1. St. Louis Cardinals: 90-72 (+11)
2. Chicago Cubs: 87-75 (-9)
3. Milwaukee Brewers: 79-83 (-5)
4. Houston Astros: 75-87 (+1)
5. Cincinnati Reds: 74-88 (-6)
6. Pittsburgh Pirates: 65-97 (-5)

West

1. Los Angeles Dodgers: 98-64 (+11)
2. San Francisco Giants: 87-75 (+6)
3. Colorado Rockies: 84-78 (+9)
4. Arizona Diamondbacks: 74-88 (-11)
5. San Diego Padres: 65-97 (-4)

American League

East

1. Boston Red Sox: 96-66 (NC)
2. New York Yankees: 95-67 (+1)
3. Tampa Bay Rays: 89-73 (NC)
4. Toronto Blue Jays: 76-86 (+2)
5. Baltimore Orioles: 71-91 (-1)

Central

1. Detroit Tigers: 88-74 (+4)
2. Chicago White Sox: 85-77 (+12)
3. Minnesota Twins: 80-82 (+1)
4. Cleveland Indians: 73-89 (-14)
5. Kansas City Royals: 70-92 (-5)

West

1. Los Angeles Angels: 94-68 (+10)
2. Texas Rangers: 83-79 (+10)
3. Seattle Mariners: 82-80 (+7)
4. Oakland Athletics: 67-95 (-18)

Some of those big changes can be attributed to injuries (Mets) or trades (Indians, Athletics) but its amazing how off some of those are, but the AL East is nearly dead on.

I’ll have a review at the end of the regular season and preview the playoffs after the first week of October.