AL Central

[Frayed Knot]

This has been the crew most responsible for the lopsided AL/NL interleague stats.

Tiggers: 54-25 (best in MLB)
* 6 wins in a row, 9 of their last 10, 16 of their last 18
* Lowest league ERA (by .75/RG), lowest BAA


ChiSox: 51-26 (2 GB)
* 13 wins in their last 15
* 6.5 Game lead in Wild Card


Twins: 42-35 (11 GB)
* 7 in a row, 9 or their last 10, 17 of last 19 (and not gaining ground)
*Joe Mauer: 2 for 3 last night, now hitting .392!! (.392/.458/.538) as a plus-defensive 25 y/o catcher -- well justifying their decision to take the local boy as a #1 overall pick, ahead of the much more heralded Mark Prior.

[TransMonk]

The poor Twinkies. I feel bad for them...winning 17 of 19 games and not gaining ground on either team they're chasing...what a mess.

The Sox and Tigers are awesome and for real. My dad has been a huge White Sox fan for years. For his birthday this year I got him tickets to Comisky for a September game against the Tigers...should be really exciting.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Actually, thanks to the wild card, that series might not mean much of anything at all.

[TransMonk]

Not in terms of playoff eligibility, but they should still be fighting for the division.

[Gwreck]

The main benefit of having those two teams in the AL central so strong is that only one team from the AL East will make it. (I'm still rooting for Toronto).

[Guest Edgy DC]

The Tigers win home field advantage!
The Tigers win home field advantage!
The Tigers win home field advantage!
The Tigers win home field advantage!

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

A fight for a division title loses just about all of its juice when the loser goes to the playoffs anyway.

[MFS62]

So far in 2006, the Al has won interleague play by approximately 125-75.

As for the AL Central, the only lineup that overpowers opponents is the White Sox'. And they have a well balanced pitching staff.
Detroit has good pitching and a "do what they have to do" lineup.
The Twins have two ace pitchers, two hot hitters and ?????

The standings don't surprise me.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Maybe it's just me - but everytime I see the top teams in this division they're stinking up the joint. I trashed the Tiggers earlier in the year when they were stinking up a series against the Yanx, and now it's the ChiSox turn to look awful.
Whenever I'm not looking, of course, they're ringing up the best records in the majors.

But after losing 2 of 3 against the BoSox before the break (and needing 19 innings for the only won they did win), the defending champs laid a 3-game egg against the Yanx.
This weekend they didn't pitch: Contreras lost his first game since last August and Burlehe was chased early;
they didn't hit: stranded all kinds of runners, popped up constantly, hit into numerous DPs;
they didn't field: at one point messing up two consecutive NFY bunts;
and they didn't run: had multiple runners thrown out on the bases just yesterday alone.
- 1st inning yesterday: 2nd & 3rd, none out, heart of the order up, and Jaret freakin Wright on the ropes ... they got nuthin
- 8th inning: tying runs on, go-ahead at the plate, none out ... Nuthin!
- 9th inning: tying runs on, go-ahead at the plate, none out ... NUTHIN!


The ChiSox now have just a 3 game lead in the WC race and trail the Tiggers by 4.5 - and the two start a 3-game series in the Motor City on Tuesday.


The Twins have also stalled somewhat, trail Detroit by 11, and now Toriiiiii Hunter's out for a while.
Joe Mauer hitting .372

[metirish]

The Tigers might just fall apart in the second half, they have 13 games left against the White Sox and still have trips to the Bronx and Boston and games against the Twins.

[Elster88]

It may be just me. And I may be way off. But when I look at the stats of the ChiSox rotation.....I'm not that impressed.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ken Williams' godfather is John Carlos? Wow.

[TransMonk]

White Sox have hit a skid and are now 7.5 back of the Tigers.

Not only that, but by the end of play tomorrow, they could fall from first to third in the wildcard race...as the Yankees and Twins are knocking on the door.

[Elster88]

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd the Tigers have lost 5 in a row, including sweepage by the Pale Hose this weekend.

[Frayed Knot]

Yup!
The Tigger lead - which peaked at 10 games just recently - is now down to 5.5 as the Motor City Kitties head to Boston for a series.

Twins lost 2 of 3 to Toronto (too little/too late for the Jays I'm afraid) as well as Frankie Liriano, maybe for the remainder of the season.

ChiSox head home for 4 with KC (the team, not the poster) before series with Minny (3 in Mn), Tigers (4 in Det) then Minny again (3 in Chi).



This could get real fun!!

[metirish]

Liriano wanting to stay and pitch lied about an injury he had to his pitching arm, it may cost him the season and the reports on the injury are not good.

[Willets Point]

Frayed Knot wrote: The Tigger lead - which peaked at 10 games just recently - is now down to 5.5 as the Motor City Kitties head to Boston for a series.

This series will be hard for me to watch since I'm rooting for both teams to make the playoffs.

[Guest cleonjones11]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Actually, thanks to the wild card, that series might not mean much of anything at all.

Killjoy

[Frayed Knot]

The Tiggers - losers of 3 of 10 and 12 of their last 17 - have their lead whittled down to 5 games ... but now it's over the Twins!

The Twinkies beat the ChiSox for the 3rd time in the last week, passing them in the standings and taking over the WC lead for the first time this season.

[Frayed Knot]

They may have held the 'best record in baseball' title since not too long after opening day until ... well until right about now, but every time I see the Tigers play they're fucking incompetant.

They're about to lose a DHer in which they scored a grand total of 2 runs.

[Frayed Knot]

Or they could make a liar out of me like they've done every other time I've cursed them out ... as Craig Monroe hits a 2-out/9th inn/3R HR off Proctor to give the Tiggers a 5-2 lead.

Now if they can close out the bottom of the 9th cleanly I'll promise to get off their case for a while.

[Guest sharpie]

They won. Get off their case.

[Gwreck]

It was a fun night at the House of Evil.

It was my fourth (?) game there in as many years and I thought for the first time I would actually see Rivera, the Sandman entrance and the whole deal. Just to compare it, y'know?

Save situation...no Rivera...Craig Monroe 3-run Homer. Much goodness.

[metirish]

Twins get Phil Nevin from the Cubs for cash and a PtNL.

[Frayed Knot]

This continues to be the most interesting division in baseball this year.

* The Twins - 12-1/2 games out in late July - are now within 2 games of the Tiggers after taking 3 of 4 from them this weekend.
The've also opened up a 1-1/2 game WC lead over the ChiSox

* Detroit - once on pace for a 108-win season - has lost their 'best record in AL' lead (to the Yanx) and are headed for only about 96-97 after going 7-18 in their last 25.

* The defending champs are 11-15 over their last 26 - and are 1-/12 out of the WC spot and 3-1/2 off the division lead.


[u:0102952301]This Week[/u:0102952301]:

Det: Tex (2), Balt

Minn: Oak, @Cleve (4)

ChiSox: @LAA, @Oak

[Willets Point]

Thankfully Detroit gets some easy teams this week (knock on wood).

[Guest Edgy DC]

So, damn, are the Tiggs going to be able to hang in there?

It'd be a shame if the Mets miss out on a chance to face Kenny Rogers with everything on the line.

[Frayed Knot]

TEAM	RECORD	PCT	GB	Last 10
TIGERS	89 - 60	.597	---	4 - 6
TWINS	88 - 61	.591	1	8 - 2
CHISOX	84 - 65	.564	5	4 - 6

The Tiggers & Twinkies both coming off 2 of 3 weekends (Orioles & Indians) while the Chiox were getting swept by the A's as ex-Sock Frank Thomas went all vengeful on their butts.

Tiggers and Sox hook up for 3 starting tonight on Chicago's south side. Detroit can pretty much bury the defending champs but have only won 8 of their last 23 and may need the WC to hang on as their huge early lead is virtually gone.

Twins go to Fenway and then Camden Yards this week.

[TransMonk]

I'll be scouting the Detroit/White Sox game tonight in Chicago for the CPF. The White Sox need a win badly tonight to keep their postseason hopes alive. Tigers will throw out Verlander while Garcia counters for the Sox.

[Frayed Knot]

Tigers took game 1 last night as Buehrle got hit around in the 1st inning.
It actually could have been a lot worse: he started the game by giving up a 2B then a HR, then two straight 1Bs ... before being bailed out by a triple play!

6 games out now, the defending champs have to virtually run the table in order to get back in.