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By Danielle Schmidt / Sports Editor
By Danielle Schmidt / Sports Editor
Major League Baseball, America’s favorite past time never fails to wow and shock its fans with new surprises throughout the season.
In 2009, the top teams in their Divisions were the Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, and Los Angeles Dodgers. Things have definitely heated up and changed dramatically this season, not only when it comes to the standings of the divisions but also the players traded between teams.
The San Diego Padres and New York Yankees are just two of the teams that surprisingly pushed the Cardinals, Dodgers and the Angels out of the way for this years’ title of MLB Champions.
This year the standings have completely made a 180 degree turn. One of southern California’s teams has definitely come out of left field this season, the Padres, with their 81-62 record. They are on the way to grabbing the national league west title, that is, if they can pull ahead of the San Francisco Giants in time.
There were many attention grabbing trades made between the big league teams throughout the season.
The Angels searched long and hard for a power hitter to replace Kendry Morales, but instead they picked up front line starting pitcher Dan Haren from the Arizona Diamondbacks, having to give up Joe Saunders and two other minor league pitchers.
Another big trade this year was the Yankees trading for the Cleveland Indians’ fast throwing pitcher, Kerry Wood.
With two weeks remaining in the MLB’s regular season, it is full-speed ahead to the playoffs, with the occasional, unpredictable twists and turns along the way. If the postseason began right now, the four division series openers would be Rays at Twins, Rangers at Yankees, Braves at Giants, and Reds at Phillies. Those speculative match-ups change almost daily.
The odds for this year’s postseason are in favor the St. Louis Cardinals (National League Champions) vs The New York Yankees (American League Champions.)
There is no doubt that these two teams are part of the top five franchises in the MLB today, so it really shouldn’t come as a shock that they could be playing in October for the World Series Championship.
The St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees are two of the most popular franchises in baseball, both having a solid foundation of great history.
Millions of fans will be there to witness The American and National League Division Series games which will begin on Oct. 6 and will be followed by the Championship Series games beginning Oct. 15.
