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It’s the halfway point of the regular season.  Interleague play is over.  In a couple of weeks, the All-Star Game will take place and fans and experts alike will begin discussions in earnest about the second half of the season.

As we have done for each of the previous two months, it is time to take a look at the standings to see who has moved up or down, and who looks like they are in a position to contend for the playoffs.  Teams with legimitate playoff hopes need to be at the 45-win mark, unless they are in the NL West.  More on that in a bit.  Let’s start with the American League and see how things are shaping up.

AL East: Don’t look now but Tampa Bay just moved into first place past Boston.  They have 49 wins, while the Red Sox have 50, but the Red Sox have played three more games and also have two more losses.  Regardless, the Rays have not gone away.  Many are now saying that Tampa will be in the hunt all season long.  Bad assumption.  The second half of the season is much different from the first, and the Rays are counting on young pitchers who have not handled a six-month season under this kind of playoff pressure.  I’m waiting on the Rays.

The Yankees are charging with 44 wins.  Keep them in sight.  They are not out of it yet.

AL Central: This is the most deceptive division in baseball.  The Royals, Twins and Tigers had the best interleague records out of all teams.  The White Sox just completed a sweep of the Cubs.  All of the teams in this division improved their win totals immensely during June.  That does not mean that they are any better, though.  This is still the weakest division in the AL, and that will be obvious once again now that interleague play is over.

The White Sox lead with 46 wins. Minnesota is right behind with 45.  Detroit only has 41 wins, but had a strong month of June and should be good in July as well.  If Chicago and Minnesota fall back a bit, which I expect, then the Tigers will be in the race.

AL West: The Angels lead with 49 wins.  Oakland (44) and Texas (41) are pretenders at this point.  I expect the Angels to easily win this division.

NL East: The win totals in the National League are low overall, because the league did so poorly against the AL.  Only two teams are at the magic number of 45 for wins.  Both are in the Central Division.  In the East, Philadelphia has fallen back to the crowd.  They have 44 wins.  Everyone else but Washington is close by.  This race is wide open.

NL Central: It’s the Cubs and the Cardinals here.  Chicago has 49 wins, while St. Louis has 47.  Milwaukee still has a chance with 44, but needs to improve in July.

NL West: This is the worst division in baseball.  Arizona leads the division with 41 wins and 41 losses.  This division is wide open, and, also like in the NL East, is competitive thanks to strong mediocrity.  Arizona is still the favorite.

These are the races.  The names at the top of each division have not changed, but every race is still competitive.  It sets up for a fun month of July, where we wait to see if anyone races out from the pack. 

Scott Wiebe is the author of a new eBook,  How to Fix College Football.  You can purchase it at the Merchandise page of this website.  For questions or comments about this column, email him at swiebe2282@yahoo.com.  If you enjoy this website, please take a moment to click an ad or two to the right.  Those ads supports this site.  Thanks for reading.