With the exception of the A.L. East, the first half of the baseball season has proven the unpredictability of Major League Baseball. But part of the fun of a major league season is to try and anticipate the trends to see which teams have enough quality players to make it to the postseason and which ones will fall by the wayside. Let’s take a look at how the American League might stack up in the second half.

A.L. East:
Even though the Yankees didn’t get Cliff Lee, it probably won’t matter. While the Boston Red Sox continue to battle serious injury, the Yankees have settled into a zone. The Rays will also be in the hunt, as expected, but they have cooled off since their torrid start and now are in a precarious position trailing both the Yankees and Sox. The Big Three in the A.L. East does, however, have enough talent to keep it going all season, so it doesn’t seem likely that any one team will fade significantly. In this division, the same as every year, a lot will also ride on trade deadline acquisitions.

Prediction:
The New York Yankees could actually pull away with this one. It’s been impressive that the Red Sox have led the league in runs scored this late in the season with the injuries and slow starts they’ve had to overcome. Having said that, the Yanks finally have Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira headed in the right direction and no longer have to rely on Robinson Cano and Brett Gardner. C.C. Sabathia also seems to be in for a big second half.

A.L. Central:
This has turned into one of the most compelling and difficult to judge divisions in baseball. The Twins have owned the division in recent years and have two of the baseball cialis cheap players in baseball in Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, both of whom sell plenty of MLB tickets. The problem for the Twins is that their starting pitching has been inconsistent, as both Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano have alternated between dominance and getting shelled. For both the Twins and the Chicago White Sox, the other major problem is that the Detroit Tigers have a formidable lineup and better starters at the top of their rotation. Miguel Cabrera is probably the MVP so far this season and could be in line for a historically great year when all is said and done.

Prediction:
With Cabrera leading the way and Justin Verlander hitting the bump every fifth day, the Tigers are going to be awfully tough to beat down the stretch. The White Sox, who led the division at the All-Star break, don’t seem to have the balance in their lineup and rotation to get the job done. The Twins might but they don’t have enough to pull away this season. Just like the last couple of seasons, this should be a divisional race that goes right down to the wire, but the Tigers seem to have the inside track.

A.L. West:
The West has been one of the most bizarre divisions in baseball. Before the season, many analysts were clamoring about the Seattle Mariners, who brought in Chone Figgins and Cliff Lee to a team that won 87 games last year. Instead of taking a step forward, however, the Mariners have significantly regressed and are currently relying on Russell Branyon to be their major run producer. The Rangers, on the other hand, have one of the best lineups in the game with two MVP candidates (Josh Hamilton and Vlad Guerrero) and also just added Cliff Lee to a rotation that got the job done in the first half of the season.

Prediction:
The Rangers should be able to lock this one up fairly early. Every other team in the division has a major hole or two that has been pulling them down while the Rangers have remained consistent in both their rotation and lineup all season. The Angels will probably make some noise, but it’s going to be hard to overcome the strong first half and superior talent of the Texas Rangers.

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