The pennant race doesn’t officially begin for another couple weeks but the body blows between division opponents have already started being exchanged. Besides for the American League West division, which has seen Texas take a serious lead on the fading Angels and Athletics, every division in baseball is amongst a two-team race decided by two games or less as of August 5th, 2010. Tampa Bay and New York share honors of best record in baseball at the moment, but fans in Arlington, TX. Have two words for the eastern contenders. “Cliff-Lee”.
Lee may not be the leading candidate for American League Cy Young award, given he only has nine wins on the year (albeit pitching in front of the anemic Mariners offense), but his statistics are pretty astounding. In 147 innings pitched this season, Lee has only walked nine batters, which puts him on pace to break Cy Young’s over one-hundred- year- old record of fewest walks in one season (26).
Even though most things in baseball are harder to predict than whether or not Cliff Lee will walk a batter or not, here’s five things that we will learn by the end of the 2010 Major League Baseball season.
1. The Phillies are no longer the sweetheart of the National League.
This time last season the Phillies were enjoying a comfortable six game lead atop the National League East, while showing off their newly acquired ace Cliff Lee. That was then, this is now. The Phillies now see their two best players on the disabled list in Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, and are enduring difficult seasons from Jimmy Rollins and Jason Werth. It’s difficult to score runs when your two table setters in Rollins and Victorino are both batting under .250.

Jason Werth’s stats are quite deceiving considering his power numbers have almost completely gone out the window since his red-hot start the first two months of the year. Werth has only recorded two home runs and 9 RBI’s since June 25th. Utley is expected to return to baseball by early September from right thumb surgery, but don’t expect the superstar to be on his game considering the impact a thumb injury like that has on a power hitter.

2. The Padres will fade.
San Diego deserves a lot of credit for going out and getting Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick at the trading deadline; two bats that they instantly plugged into the middle of their lineup. To say the Padres have a weak offense would be an understatement considering they rank near the bottom of almost every offensive category in the MLB.

For almost four months Padre Manager Bud Black was doing everything he could to find a complement for slugger Adrian Gonzalez in the four hole. To say Chase Headley, currently slugging less than .400, was his solution really shows the lack of offensive talent Black was working with. The rotation however, is the team’s niche, as the Padres rank first in the major leagues in E.R.A. and W.H.I.P. Mat Latos is a legitimate star-in-the-making in this league. The 22-year-old young gun is a serious CY Young contender and can deal with any pitcher in baseball.

What comes after Latos, however, is what is scary. And not to opposing hitters. Following Latos in the rotation is Clayton Richard, Jon Garland, Kevin Correia, and Wade Leblanc. Not exactly the most feared pitchers in the world. Besides for Garland, Clayton, Correia, and Leblanc all have WHIPs over 1.40, with Garland’s being 1.34. Heath Bell and Luke Gregerson make up what is arguably the best one-two punch out of the bullpen in baseball, but this pitching staff is vastly overrated, from what their statistics are saying. Expect San Francisco to take the West fairly easily.

3. St. Louis will win the National League….with ease
St. Louis has everything you need to have to win a world series. They have thunder in the middle of the order in Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols, aces anchoring the staff in Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, and a bullpen that can get big outs. Playing in Colorado most of his career in the thin air of Coors Field, Matt Holliday was usually mentioned in the same breath as some of the other “Coors Field Specialists”, like Preston Wilson, Vinny Castilla, Dante Bichette, and Andres Gallaraga. You know, the guys who began using the home field’s advantage playing in a stadium a mile above sea-level, while recording statistics you only see in video games made by EA. Holliday is quickly erasing those demons, and is turning into one of the best all-around hitters in baseball.

Holliday hit .378 with eight home runs, and 24 RBI’s in the month of July and is living up to his newly inked 7- year deal worth $120 million. The Cardinals have found a special player in the 23-year-old former first round pick outfielder Colby Rasmus, a five tool player, who can make this lineup extremely difficult to prepare for.

It’s a shame that Adam Wainwright’s name isn’t mentioned among some of the other star pitchers in baseball with sexier names like C.C. Sabathia, Josh Beckett, Felix Hernandez, Johan Santana, and Tim Lincecum, but this guy is having one of the best season’s we have seen in quite some time. Wainwright in on pace to win 23 games, and already has a 2.19 E.R.A. and .220 batting average against to sport. I don’t see St. Louis losing a single game in the National League playoffs.

4. Atlanta isn’t that good.
The Braves are doing a very good job during Bobby Cox’s swan song into the hall of fame, and are enjoying a two game lead over Philadelphia. 20-year-old slugger Jason Heyward is going to be an All-Star for years to come but if you really look closely at this Atlanta roster, you really don’t see too many strong points. Atlanta’s offense ranks in the middle of the road in every offensive category, and their pitching staff doesn’t throw any guys at you that have opposing teams getting butterflies in the on-deck circle.

You have to give the 35-year-old Tim Hudson a lot of credit for the season he has put up, after coming off of Tommy John surgery in 2008. The veteran has been lights out for the Braves and ranks in the top ten in almost every National League pitching category. But could Hudson win a game 1 over a guy like Chris Carpenter, Tim Lincecum, or Roy Halladay? Hudson is striking out well under 5 batters per nine innings, and relies on his hard sinker to get batters out. Sinker ball pitchers are always scary to rely on, considering that they don’t have that many ways to attack batters. There’s a lot to like about Tommy Hanson, but the second year starter still has a lot to learn, and has seen his fair share of growing pains after the month of June saw Hanson give up 18 earned runs in 25 1/3 innings.

5. Robinson Cano will win the American League MVP
Cano ranks in the top ten in the American League in batting average, runs, home runs, RBI’s, OPS, and slugging, while being the favorite to win the gold glove at second base. If the balloting for the award ended today you would probably see Cano finish behind Miguel Cabrera, Vladimir Guerrero, and Josh Hamilton, but there’s two months of the season to go and the fifth-spot hitting Cano should expect to see many more run producing opportunities in August as the July slumping Derek Jeter, and Alex Rodriguez start to heat up. The career. 287 hitting Mark Teixiera currently sits at .258, and it’s scary to think how efficient this offense can be with those players hitting their strides at the same time. Don’t expect Cano to suffer from having superstar teammates in the balloting as Rodriguez and Teixeira are far from MVP caliber at this point in the season. The Tigers collapsed in July and are long shots for the playoffs so you would have to rule Cabrera out of the running, and Guerrero has become a permanent DH. A position the voters have always frowned upon. It’s hard to argue with Josh Hamilton’s .357 batting average and 23 home run case against most valuable player, but the superstar has been plagued with tendonitis in his right knee and could see the condition seriously cut down on his at bats down the stretch playing in a division that has all but been decided. If Cano can get hot for a couple weeks, his stats could look scary coming from the second base position.