The Unexpected Division

Article first published as The AL Central: Flipped on Its Head on Technorati.

  Minnesota entered the year as the defending division champion and favoured to win it again in the highly contested American League central. Along with the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox and an improved Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals teams, the Twins were supposed to be apart of a 5 team race to the playoffs. But the AL Central has been been flipped upside down. If you look at everyother division in the league, somebody would have predicted the way they sit today. This division, however, has been turned on it's head. And it doesn't seem that it will be changing anytime soon; the Indians are the best team in baseball...(see Miracle on Grass), the Tigers are finally playing well, the Royals are enjoying some new found success, Ozzie couldn't get the ChiSox to hit or pitch if his job depended on it. The Twins are the worst team in baseball. So why? How did this division become like this. I'll run a quick rundown of what I think are the biggest reasons. Bottom to top:


Minnesota: (12-27, 13.5 GB) Started the year well, going 20-12 finishing first in the AL. Obviously we can see that spring training means nothing. Justin Morneau is a shadow of his former self, and I think he is done and Joe Mauer is hurt again with no sign of him coming back soon. That along with zero depth adds up to 12-27.


Chicago White Sox:(17-25, 10 GB) This situation isn't a surprise at all. When you have 4-6 starters (2 are playing 3B as a platoon) who are hitting under .250 your gonna have issues. Couple that with a 4.11 team ERA. and say hello to the cellar. Well in any other division you would. But the only advantage the ChiSox have is the Twins.


Kansas City Royals:(20-20 6 GB) Through the first ??? games they were fighting with the Indians for the lead in the division. Having cooled off lately the have dropped to 3rd. They sit middle of the pack in most stats and are getting alot of wins with timely hitting and pitching. So far this young team is heading in the right direction, and the future looks bright if they keep up the .500 pace


Detroit Tigers: (22-19 4.5 GB) After a scary start to the season that almost killed their season, the Tigers club has responded by 8-2 in their last 10 and have even got a no hitter from ace Justin Verlander. With C/DH Victor Martinez back in the line up achoring a solid offence with some of the pitching they have got they may be able to catch the Indians


Cleveland Indians: (25-13 0 GB) The Indians are winning by flat out domination. They are in top 10 in most offensive and defensive stats and have solid pitching. And they have kept it going. No body saw this coming except themselves, and I truly believe they will be in the playoffs come October.


  The saddest part of all of this is the fact that this division could have had a highly competive race to the finish with Detroit and Minnesota, and if you factor in the Indians success so far, it would have been very special. But now we'll be lucky if Detroit can even make the AL Central interesting at this point. Well here's hoping anyway.