Well, as we approach Memorial Day weekend, I feel pretty good about my baseball picks for 2009.
There's a lot of baseball left to be played, of course, but a quick glance at the standings shows that I'm pretty much on target.Well, in the National League, anyway.
In the National League, I picked Philadelphia, St. Louis and Los Angeles to win their divisions. And I picked the New York Mets to be the NL wild card team.
If the season ended today, the Dodgers would win the West by 6½ games. With a winning percentage of .675, L.A. has the best overall record in baseball.
The Phillies are sharing the NL East lead with the Mets, but if the season ended today, only one of those teams would be in the playoffs. The Phillies have a slightly higher winning percentage (.556 to .553), but the Mets have won 21 games compared to 20 for the Phils.
Actually, the Chicago Cubs, with a winning percentage of .583, would be the wild card team. The Milwaukee Brewers currently lead the Central with a winning percentage of .632. The Cardinals are still in the hunt. They led that division for much of April and part of May, but they've lost seven of their last 10 games and tumbled into third place. Even so, they're starting a series with the Cubs tonight and may well overtake them before Memorial Day.
My picks seem to be in a bit of trouble in the American League, though.
In March, I chose the Boston Red Sox, the Minnesota Twins and the Los Angeles Angels to win their divisions. I chose the New York Yankees to round out the playoff field as the AL's wild card team.
In the AL East, Toronto leads Boston by 3½ games and New York by 4½ games.
In the AL Central, Detroit has a one–game lead over Kansas City, with Minnesota 3½ games off the pace.
In the AL West, the Texas Rangers lead the Angels by four games.
I don't know if Toronto and Detroit will hang on in their divisions, but I feel pretty confident about the Angels in the West. I've lived in Dallas for the last 13 years — 17 of the last 21 — and I know that the Rangers may look hot right now, but when the real heat comes along this summer, the Rangers will wilt in a hurry.
They've done it many times before.
But, if the season ended today, Toronto, Detroit and Texas would be the division winners. Boston would be the only team that I picked that came through — but as the wild card.
Cleveland's Victor Martinez has had the hot bat so far this season. He's hitting .401. The National League's leading hitter is Washington's Cristian Guzman with a .385 average.
San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez leads the majors with 15 home runs. The AL's top home run hitter is Tampa Bay's Carlos Pena with 13.
Pena's teammate, Evan Longoria, leads the majors in RBIs with 46. St. Louis' Albert Pujols tops the NL with 37.
In pitching statistics, Roy Halladay of Toronto has the most wins so far — eight. The co–leaders in the NL — Cincinnati's Bronson Arroyo, Los Angeles' Chad Billingsley, Pittsburgh's Zach Duke and Ross Ohlendorf, Chicago's Ted Lilly, Atlanta's Derek Lowe, Colorado's Jason Marquis, Washington's Shairon Martis and New York's Johan Santana — have five apiece.
San Diego's Jake Peavy and Detroit's Justin Verlander lead the NL and AL, respectively, in strikeouts with 69 each.
After eight starts, Kansas City's Zack Greinke (7–1) has a blistering ERA of 0.60 to lead the majors. He's given up only four earned runs, all of which have come since April 29. He allowed none in his first four starts. Santana has the NL's best ERA — 1.30.
Santana, by the way, is on course to pitch against Randy Johnson when the Mets play the San Francisco Giants on Sunday.
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