The Cubs just finished their series against the Nationals on Saturday and are on their way to Boston. Technically, their 81st game isn’t until Monday night at Fenway, but this is as good a time as any to talk about the halfway point of the season. Most of the Sunday games have been completed, with the exception of the ESPN Sunday Night game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees in the Bronx that finishes up their set before the Sawx go up to Boston to host the Cubs. Check out this nifty pic from Anthony Rizzo though:
Enjoying a nice day off in Boston on the duck tour pic.twitter.com/uMlNCuNSlX
— Anthony Rizzo (@ARizzo44) June 29, 2014
Boston seems nice, and I’ll be there in August as one of my long-time friends is finally getting married. Gonna take the opportunity to go to Cooperstown to check out the Baseball Hall of Fame just before that as well. But I digress, this is about the standings.
(Charles Rex Arbogast, AP)
With 80 games played, the Chicago Cubs find themselves with a record of 34-46, 12 games under .500 and a game worse than last year’s pace. Not surprisingly, the Cubs are vying for a protected pick in 2015. The bottom dwellers are the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Rays (tied at .417, though the “tiebreaker” goes to the D’Backs for sucking worse last season), the Cubs (at the #3 spot, .425), and the San Diego Padres (#4, .427). The perennially bad Houston Astros have actually been respectable this season, with a .434 winning percentage, while the Colorado Rockies and Philadelphia Phillies are just “behind,” tied at .439. It’s kind of sad to see the rebuilding Cubs again so close to futility (they would own the tiebreaker against the Rays and D’Backs if all finish with the same record) but the team has actually been enjoyable and watchable for the most part this season, and we kind of expected this anyway.
In their own division, the National League Central, we have a bit of a surprise up top as the Milwaukee Brewers have bucked our preseason prediction of a fourth place finish and actually are tied with the Oakland Athletics for most wins in the majors so far this season. Obviously there’s a lot of season left so this could change, but it’s of note that the NL Central is the only division in MLB to boast four teams of the five that have records of .500 or better. All these teams are obviously still in contention for at least a wild-card spot, and are within single digit games of the Brewers for the division crown.
The National League East, which the Cubs have been curbstomping for some reason thus far this season, are headed up by the Atlanta Braves while the Washington Nationals are just a half-game behind. The Nationals are actually in a virtual tie with the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds for the second wild card spot in the league.
The National League West used to be a runaway for the San Francisco Giants, but they’ve had a stretch of suckitude even worse than the 1969 Cubs. After Sunday’s contests, the Giants are in a virtual tie with the Los Angeles Dodgers for first place, having squandered a 9.5 game lead in just three weeks.
Photo: AP
Over in the junior circuit, the American League West is headed up by the still-surprising Oakland A’s, who hold MLB’s best record after a four-game sweep of the Miami Marlins. The Los Angeles Angels hold the first wild card spot but are also 5.5 games back of the A’s, illustrating how dominant Oakland has been over the first half. The Seattle Mariners, having signed big-money Robinson Cano, have sole possession of the second wild card spot at the moment.
The American League Central is obviously led by the Detroit Tigers, but they haven’t been as dominant as expected in what should be a weaker division. The Kansas City Royals are just 3.5 games back of first and 1.5 games out of the second wild-card spot currently held by Seattle.
The American League East is still led by a razor-thin margin by the struggling Toronto Blue Jays, of interest to us as Toronto and its division rivals are rumored to be potential destinations for Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel, among others. Toronto has lost quite a bit of its early lead but is still 1.5 games ahead of the New York Yankees (who play the Boston Red Sox in tonight’s finale) and the Baltimore Orioles. Depending on what happens tonight, the Royals and O’s can finish Sunday in a tie ahead of the Yankees, or behind the Yankees as New York sneaks to within a game of first place.
UPDATE 6/30 9:15 AM: Turns out the Yankees lost (and naturally it took them about four and a half hours to finally make the last out) so they’re now behind the O’s and Royals, who are again chasing the Mariners for the final wild card spot.
Plenty of season left. Enjoy Sunday Night Baseball, folks.
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