MLB so far

[Guest MrRant]

M L B W L PCT

Seattle 37 18 .673

Atlanta 37 19 .661

San Francisco 35 20 .636

NY Yankees 33 23 .589

Oakland 32 23 .582

Montreal 33 24 .579

Boston 31 24 .564

Minnesota 31 24 .564

Toronto 32 26 .552

Philadelphia 31 25 .554

Los Angeles 31 25 .554

Chicago Cubs 30 25 .545

Houston 30 27 .526

St. Louis 28 27 .509

Baltimore 28 27 .509

Anaheim 27 27 .500

Kansas City 27 27 .500

Cincinnati 27 29 .482

Colorado 27 30 .474

Arizona 26 30 .464

NY Mets 26 30 .464

Texas 25 30 .455

Chicago Sox 25 30 .455

Florida 26 32 .448

Pittsburgh 24 31 .436

Cleveland 22 32 .407

Milwaukee 22 34 .393

Tampa Bay 21 34 .382

San Diego 16 41 .281

Detroit 14 40 .259

 

 

With us a little more than 1/4 of the way through the season I was curious on what your thoughts were or any predictions of what will happen by the All-Star Break.

 

I am happy the Mariners have got it together over the last month or so and Ichiro is starting to hit around his average.

 

I am always amazed at the Braves and how they do year after year (Going to watch them play my Mariners at Safeco Baby~!)

 

Montreal suprises me.

 

Texas does not.

 

EDIT: Goddamn it I spent 15 minutes formatting the message and it still messed up the stats. Oh well.

[Guest alkeiper]

My Phillies are in a respectful position considering their hitting funk.

[Guest MaxPower27]

Who's going to finish with the worse record? San Diego or Detroit? Will San Diego trade Hoffman?

[Guest the pinjockey]

I think if the Phillies start to hit the ball with any sembelence of the way they should the NL should be vary afraid.

 

Millwood has made this team great. He has proven to be an ace and he is responsible for the development of Brett Myers 5-4 with a 2.76 ERA, but only 3 times has he allowed more than three runs (and he allowed only 4 ER each of those times) with any run support he would be in legitimate All-Star contention.

 

I don't see the Braves or Expos getting any better to counteract the hopeful turn around of the Phils offense. The Expos I think are playing at potential, and while Maddux has been disappointing and should turn it around I think that is offset by what Furcal, Giles, and Sheffield are doing and I think they will cool off. And I don't see Javy Lopez sticking on a 40 HR pace either.

[Guest Downhome]

I don't know about predictions, because quite frankly, who could have truly predicted how LAST season went? I mean, f'n hell.

 

I think we have a great season so far, with a few major records and milestones to be reached this year, the Atlanta Braves shocking a lot of people and having one of their best years ever even after loosing such key players, and then we have the great New York/Boston race going on which I'm loving.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Its pretty cool that the Os play Houston, St. Louis and Chicago over the next week and half, the next 3 teams with better records than them.

 

Little bit more amazing info about the Orioles:

 

Only 4th place team in baseball to have a winning record (28-27). The only other 4th place team closer than the Orioles to first place are the Reds (3 1/2 out, 27-29).

 

Over the last 10 games, the Os are 8-2, matching Seattle and Toronto's 8-2 records over the last 10.

 

Melvin Mora has the AL's 3rd best average at .351 and the 2nd best OBP in the majors at .450 to Bond's .492. Mora is currently on a 14 game hitting streak.

 

The Orioles are the toughest team to strike out in the Majors (277 ks in 54 games) Compare that to the Blue Jays 416 in 57 and The Reds 479 in 55 (lead leagues respectively..)

 

GO O'S!

[Guest DrTom]

Really, with ~54 games in the books, we're at the 1/3 mark for the season. Atlanta is the biggest positive surprise, to me. I didn't think they'd suck, but I also doubted they'd be big players in their division. They've certainly proven me wrong so far. The Phillies have been underwhelming, which is easy to see when they have 3-4 guys in a row in their lineup who fail to put the ball in play about 35% of the time. Detroit sucks, but that was expected; what wasn't is San Diego being so shitty. Sure, they lost Nevin for the year, and most likely Hoffman now too, but I didn't think the rest of their talent was THAT bad.

 

It's been a good season so far, and I expect that to continue.

[Guest bob_barron]

Tom Glavine leaves us.

 

The Mets are in last place.

The Braves are in first place.

 

Karma's a bitch eh Tom?

 

The Braves really do need to upgrade their pitching if their serious about another postseason run. Smoltz can't do it all. I wish AOL would let the team add payroll cause they could use a pitcher at the deadline

[Guest phoenixrising]

Ichiro's finally getting around to being Ichiro, but Bret Boone and Edgar Martinez are hitting very well right now. Randy Winn hasn't been doing too badly either in left, considering the history of Mariner left fielders after Griffey arrived in the bigs. I hope they can keep it up, going to be tough with Oakland and Anaheim in the same division.

[Guest DrTom]

Randy Winn hasn't been doing too badly either in left...

Considering the year he had in Tampa Bay last season, I think Winn is an unqualified disappointment. Seattle is winning in spite of him.

[Guest bob_barron]

I read in the Times that they switched Winn's place in the batting order and he's recently been playing very well

[Guest the pinjockey]

Quick question to Seattle fans: What the hell happened to Freddy Garcia, he seemed on the verge of becoming an elite pitcher then just decided to quit it seems?

[Bored 0]

I'm happy with where the A's are at this point as typically they are just barely above or under .500 around this time of the season as the 2nd half is always when they turn it on and when Billy Beane works his magic at the trade deadline. If the middle of the order wasn't so terrible so far this season they'd be right with the Mariners. The Mariners right now are looking like 2001 all over again and I will not be shocked if they win over 110 games again. The Angels are done in my view. Injuries have killed them and now Percival could gone for a very long time. Their starting pitching has just been horrendous. The Rangers are still the same old Rangers, oh ya what an offense but they are still in last place and will finish there once again unless the injury bug just cripples the Angels.

[Guest DrTom]

I read in the Times that they switched Winn's place in the batting order and he's recently been playing very well

He's still a letdown after an All-Star season in Tampa Bay. And yes, I know he went because the Devil Rays had to have one chap in the lineup, but he was deserving regardless.

 

Winn this year: .283/.349/.390/.740, 2 HR, 19 RBI, 9 SB. Since we're about a third of the wasy thru the season, multiply his numbers by three: 6 HR, 57 RBI, 27 SB.

 

Compare to last year: .298/.360/.461/.821, 14 HR, 75 RBI, 27 SB. The steals are the same, but every other offensive category is down. Winn did move to a pitcher's park this year, so a drag on his offensive numbers could be expected. But considering he's in his prime at 28, he's expected to continue improving. This year, he's taken a few steps back. His average power is now laughable, he's not driving in runs (on a good offensive team), his OBP is down a little, and his SLG is down appreciably.

 

I reiterate: Winn has been a disappointment this year, and the Mariners are winning in spite of him. He'd better crank it up a few notches over the last 2/3 of the season.

[Guest MaxPower27]

All-Star season with the Tampa Double-A's isn't exactly something to brag about

 

[Guest Vern Gagne]

Braves lineup had potential to be very good. So far this year everythings really clicked. Sheffield's gotta be considered MVP at this point.

 

Overall I'm disapointed in the Twins this year. They won't get beat out, but I excepted more out of Radke after his strong performance in the playoffs.

[Guest bravesfan]

EDIT: Bastard codes.

Edited June 2, 2003 by bravesfan

[Guest alkeiper]

Seattle plays Philadelphia tomorrow. The Mariners have been red hot, but they'll be forced to keep Edgar out of the lineup since its an NL rules game.

[Guest bravesfan]

Ughh...too many codes to remember.

 

Anyways, Byrd is a few weeks away from returning to the Braves, so that's something to look forward to. I agree with Barron, that Atlanta sorely needs another arm in the bullpen (as evidenced by yesterday's game), but I'm struggling to find names on the market going into July.

 

Benitez is a name I hear being shopped around quite actively, as the Mets are willing to eat alot of the contract, so that he's off their hands. If the Mets don't turn it around soon, I expect a firesale of massive proportions in the Big Apple.

[Guest treble charged]

I think the Expos are starting to fall back to Earth. They didn't play well in Florida and Philly this week, and they're still away from Montreal for another 2 weeks or so and there's a lot of travelling to do.

[Guest BobbyWhioux]

I'll be honest, I did not expect the Giants to be nearly this good. I really did feel that Baker as manager was central to keeping the team cohesive and performing and that without him around and without Kent's bat to protect Barry, it was back to mediocrity. Sabean is sorta like the Billy Beane of the NL it seems: while Beane keeps finding good young guys, Sabean keeps finding good old guys who prove they still have something left in the tank after all (Santiago for several years now, Lofton last year, Galaraga for the second time this year, Grissom).

 

I was waiting for them to fall apart and disappoint me and go back to the middle of the pack, but it just keeps not happening with these guys. And they've survived going cold during a rival's hot streak once already [The Dodgers the past week or so].

 

Solid young pitching staff full of good arms that virtually nobody has heard of. While none of them will win twenty, they'll all probably win 10-15. The ever underrated Aurillia continues to produce from the field and the plate, Snow has remembered how to hit, Santiago is still playing 10 years younger than his age, and Bonds still scares the crap out of people even though he seems to have cooled off after two freakish seasons.

 

Atlanta doesn't really surprise me because they are ALWAYS at the top of the east no matter who leaves and who they bring in. I expect them to overcome big free agent leavings by this point.

 

I can't remember who else was on Philadelphia who impressed me besides Millwood and Bell when I last watched them (there was somebody else, whoever they had playing first base I think) but I remember thinking "wow, these guys are good to go" so I expect they'll put the heat on the Braves sometime this year.