Week thirteen highlights, lowlights, and observations

-The Dodgers are now 56-30 and their lead in the NL West has ballooned to 12 games. 51.2% of the season is history.

-Earlier this week the Dodgers lead was eight games. It blew up this week thanks to four Padre losses and four Dodger wins in a row, with the blue taking 2 of 3 from the Padres last weekend. 

-The NL East has gotten tighter. the Braves are 3-7 in their last 10 games, while the Phills have gone 7-3. Atlanta still has a 2 1/2 game lead going into this week against St. Louis and the Mets. The Phillies get Pittsburgh and KC. 

-The Braves and Phillies don’t play each other again until the first week of September. Which is unfortunate. 

-I realized yesterday that the Angels and Mets have nearly identical records, Anaheim at 36-51 and NY at 36-50. 

-If the two teams merged and made the best team they could using both rosters from this season, would they have done any better?

-My guess is taking into account injuries, and combining the best of the two pitching staffs, they’d only be a little bit better.

-They wouldn’t be better than the White Sox, who seem to be for real and are still leading the AL central at the mid-way point of the season. 

-Only Kansas City with 35 wins and Colorado with 33 are worse than the Angels and Mets across all of baseball. 

-The upstart team formally known as the Oakland A’s have slipped into fourth place in the AL West. They are not in last place because they play in the same division as the Angels who are unwilling to let go of the cellar. 

-The AL Central division leader is Texas, at 44-42 is barely playing .500 ball. 83 wins might win that division. 

-Milwaukee is starting to separate themselves from the pack in the NL Central, which all of a sudden looks like a very strong division. The 3rd place Cardinals at 44-38 would be ahead of the Padres in 2nd if they played in the NL West.

-The Rays have leapfrogged the Yankees to takeover the AL East lead. The Yankees have lost six in a row but still better off than the Red Sox, who have won only 37 games. 

-I vaguely recall picking the Red Sox to win their division. I regret to inform you that the lucky astrology crystal ball I use to make baseball predictions turned out to be a snow globe purchased during a layover in Orlando International. Even I make mistakes sometimes.