Which team will come out strong in the second half?

[woodee12]

I was looking over the standings to see who may make a nice run to start the 2nd half of the MLB season. A few teams that come to mind are the Dodgers, Tigers, Twins, and Blue Jays.

I think the Jays have under achived thus far and once they start getting healthy they could make a run at the Wild Card.

The tigers started hitting the ball and the bullpen is getting the job done.

The twins came on strong and sit 1.5 games off the White Sox who I see cming out slow.

LA showed signs of life in a weak NL west.

What do you guys think?

[Jeff]

I had my eye on the Mets all year. Figured at some point, they would go on a tear and felt they were better than a .500 team.......

I just didn't think it woul dbe before the break.

I felt, and still feel, that the Mets will play good ball down the stretch, opposite of last years historic collaspe.

Don't think you can count out the Yanks either.

[woodee12]

Yeah, I do like the Mets too. I see them coming out strong and scoring some runs. Delgado has even started hitting. Pedro figured it out in his last outing and Johan should settle in too.

[dragon1952]

NL
I like the Dodgers to take the NL West, which obviously won't take much. Arizona may end up in 3rd or 4th. Colorado should move up some if Spilborghs and Helton can get healthy. They are playing OK at home but need to seriously improve on their road record.
Watch out for Milwaukee. They have a great home record and actually own the best record within the division. Cubs will probably end up disappointing as usual.
Probably will be a dogfight between the Mets and Philly all year with Florida fading later in the season.
AL
David Ortiz has been sent to the minors for rehab so his return should help Boston tremendously. Tampa Bay has all of a sudden lost 7 in a row. The Yanks will likely end up overtaking them for second place but can't see them beating out the Red Sox.
Probably a 3 way race between the White Sox, Twins and Tigers. Detroit has clawed back to over .500 but did recently lose 5 of 7 to Minnesota which isn't good. They are only 3-7 vs them this year. Strangely (and maybe even luckily) they only have 3 games vs the Twins in the second half, but can gain on the Sox with 9 games remaining between the two teams. And possibly to their advantage they have 22 games remaining vs bottom dwellers Kansas City and Cleveland.
And the AL West should probably finish in the current order with the A's pitching keeping them ahead of the Rangers, but likely not able to overtake the Angels.

[woodee12]

I think the DBacks are a solid fade unless Haren is on the mound. Besides him, they do not have the pitching with The unit and Doug Davis, and Owings looking to take the Rick Ankiel route if he does not figure out how to pitch again.

Texas may be a good dog to bet again the rest of the way but they do not have any pitching at all either as you said. Put the A's depleted staff on Texas and then we would have a team.