Mid Season Roundup

First, just clear up this weekend's festivies, in case you weren't paying attention...

Omar Lopez of Tacoma won the home run derby with 8 deep shots in the final round, besting Jose Armas' 6 dingers in the last round. In true Josh Hamilton fashion, Armas may have lost the derby, but he won the hearts of Americans everywhere with 17 homers in round 2. Unfortunately, he wore out the arm of his geriratic batting practice pitcher and didn't have quite the location in the final round leading to a few balls just short of clearing the fence, while clearing the way for Omar's victory. The other story line of the Derby was Hic Hartley's Derby best 507 foot blast off the light tower. Hic only lasted 1 round, but he had the shot that will be played on highlight shows for the next 20 seasons.

The Futures game saw the World's team besting the US contigent 7-4 as the internationals got to two of Americas most promising youth pitchers, Connie LaMasters and Corbin Walters, for 3 runs a piece.

In the ML All-star game, the NL got out to an early 4-0 lead thanks to the strength of a Jose Armas 3 run blast off of Oscar Bauman, and held on for a 4-3 victory. The AAA all star game was won by the AL 6-5 in similar fashion as the AL got out to an early 6-0 lead, then held on despite the AAA NL's best efforts. In AA, the AL bested the NL 6-4. In both High A and Low A, the ALs best prospects continued the trend of knocking around the NL's prospects w/ victories in both circuits all star games, 7-2 and 12-1 respectively.

Despite being just past the half-way mark, many of the races in the AL have settled into form and leave little for suspense in the 2nd half barring an historic run. Montreal and Salem have seperated themselves from the pack, despite having 2 of the stronger Wild Card contenders in their own divisions. In the AL South, Jacksonville has riden the strength of Oscar Bauman to pace themselves to a 10-0 lead, while over in the AL East Kansas City's offseason spending splurge has put them 6 games out in front of consecutive 4-time division champ Philly.

In the "objects in the rearview mirror are closer than they appear" catagory, both the aforementioned Philly Black Lightening, and Iowa City I Wanna Score More Runs have both the talent and the history to not count themselves completely out of the WC or division races just yet. Expect a strong run from 1 or both of these teams down the stretch.

Over in the NL, expect Syracuse to lock up their division any time now, as they've paced themselves not only to the league's best record, but also to its largest division lead. New York and Little Rock both have solid leads, and signifcantly more talent than their divisional competitors and should wrap up their divisions early as well. The NL West is the race to watch in the 2nd half. San Diego leads Boise by just 2 games at the break, with both stacked to go deep in the playoffs. Portland currently holds the last playoff spot in the AL, but Minnesota, Dover, Charlotte, Atlanta & Fresno are waiting to make their move.