Welcome to this year's MLB, likely the most competitive in history by the time it's over. Who's the best team? Well, the record says the Yankees, and after their sweep of Boston, and I would typically agree, but since then they have lost 6 of 7. St. Louis is the team right behind them, beginning to get strong starting pitching to go with the lineup, and beginning to run away with a division that holds many contenders and better-than-last-year teams. The NL East has a separation of 2 games between 1st and 4th. The NL West has 1/2 game between 3 teams. The AL West is as competitive as always and the AL Central has 4 teams who are still in the mix and can be contending with a run. No team is running away with it. Hell, the Braves have no business being 43-41 and 1 1/2 games out, but they are.

It's total madness, and it's fun, and great. I read some stuff in Sports Illustrated about the World Cup-style tournament that baseball wants to do next season, and that's gonna' be fun if they get it right. I'm looking forward to the second half and what promises to be great playoff baseball again. We can only hope the Cubs and Red Sox make it this year, they unfortunately play in the two most lopsided divisions right now. Hopefully they can make it interesting.