Time for some updated MLB predictions

By By Austin Bishop / regional sports director
July 8, 2002
Mulling over many musings on a Monday while wondering whatever happened to Rick Monday ..
The All-Star break signals the unofficial midway point of the Major League baseball season.
There have been a few surprises this season and some not-so-big surprises.
The best thing about the halfway point of the season is that I can try and forget the silly predictions I made at the beginning of the year and make some new ones.
But to be fair, I will first go over the predictions I made before the season began.
In short, I picked the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series over the are you ready for this Texas Rangers. Well it seemed like a good idea at the time.
At this point the World Series looks like the Yankees and Braves to me. And while the Braves have won division title after division title, but come up short when it comes to winning World Series title, this may be the year they win their second.
But, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.
Let's check it out division by division.
The NL East is all Atlanta. The Braves are 9.5 games ahead of the Expos and more importantly, the Mets are 12.5 games back and in fourth place. While things are going all Atlanta's way right now, even some bad breaks won't keep the Braves from winning the NL East.
The NL Central seems to be a two-team race between the Cardinals and the Reds, but the Astros could get into the picture. While the Reds do have a lot of young players mixed with some veterans who are rising to the occasion, I still like St. Louis in this division.
Perhaps the best division in all of baseball is the NL West.
The defending World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks have jumped out to an outstanding 51-36 record and guess what, they are still 2.5 games back in the standings. The Dodgers are 54-34 and on top of the West. The Giants are just 4.5 games back.
No matter who wins the West, this is where the wild card will come from. Although the Dodgers have played great, I still have to go with Arizona to win the West.
But the Dodgers and Diamondbacks could very well meet for the National League Championship.
But, we will get back to that later.
Over in the American League it is going to be hard to count out the Yankees. They just keep adding talent to an already talent-laden team.
The Yankees will win the AL East and the Red Sox will be one of three teams fighting for the Wild Card position.
The AL Central belongs to Minnesota. Although it seems impossible, the Twins are 7.5 games ahead of the White Sox and 9.5 ahead of the Cleveland Indians. This division should have belonged to Cleveland, but it doesn't.
Go figure.
The Seattle Mariners have a lead in the AL West, but will have to hold off stiff challenges from the Anaheim Angels and the Oakland A's.
Look for Seattle to win the West, but the Angels and A's will be battling the Red Sox for the Wild Card spot.
In the end Oakland will probably win out because of superior pitching, but it should be tight all the way.
The Yankees should be able to fend off the Mariners to win the American League, which takes us back to the National League.
All four teams making the playoffs in the National League would be good representatives in the World Series. In fact the NL playoffs should be outstanding no matter who faces who in the first round.
While the Diamondbacks should probably be the favorites mainly because of Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling any of the other three could pull out the win.
While my heart says go with the Braves, my head says Arizona is just too good.
So that gives us the Diamondbacks and the Yankees in the World Series.
It's just hard to believe the Yankees would fall to Arizona in the Fall Classic two years in a row. So I have to go with the Yankees as much as I hate to say it to win the World Series.
So there you have it.
The Yankees over the Diamondbacks in seven.
Now we can just sit back and enjoy the rest of the season.