Baseball: Usual Suspects Well-Placed at Halfway Stage

At the halfway point in the 162-game MLB regular season, familiar names are sitting comfortably as division leaders. While few expected to see the San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers contesting the World Series last year, the perennial contenders are back and making compelling cases thus far in 2011.

In the American League, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox both look post-season bound. The Yankees hold a slender lead atop the American League East division and are closing in on the 50-win mark. Boston are 2.5 games back. Elsewhere, the Cleveland Indians and the Rangers are leading their divisions in the AL.

Meanwhile, in the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies are confirming their status as the best team in baseball. Already past the 50-win mark, the Phillies hold the best winning percentage in the league and boast a pitching rotation that suggests a spot in the World Series is theirs to lose. But the Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals are also making noise in the NL, occupying first place in their divisions.

However, the majority of optimism is coming from New York, Boston and Philadelphia. On current form, it looks odds on that the Phillies will face either the Yankees or Red Sox in the World Series...but given the length of the baseball season, there is plenty of time for the rest of the contending pack to force their way into the discussion.