July is almost over, the half way point in the long season is past, and the landscape of the standings in major league baseball are being readjusted.  The nature of this marathon is to weed out the pretenders, enabling the best teams with the all elusive quality of chemistry to prevail.  The Dodgers are failing miserably at this.  Picked by many (including myself to prevail in the mediocre  

west), they are falling flat.  Nomar is slumping (down to .327 from .358 at the break), Kent is on the DL, Furcal is still flailing (hitting only .268 with a .340 on base percentage but is on a pace to score 108 runs), while their best players are rookies (Adam Ethier - .349 and catcher Russel Martin -.289)  They felt good enough about Martin, they had no qualms in trading away his generous mentor, the aged Sandy Alomar, Jr. to the White Sox.

The Dodgers do score runs, ranked 4^th in the NL in that department and do not give up an inordinate number of runs either (ranked 6^th in that dept.) but something is drastically wrong in LA and starting pitching is the primary reason (and rumor has it that Greg Maddux may end up there, but instead Elmer Dressens has been acquired from Kansas City and they

managed to get rid of Odalis Perez who has been downright awful AND disruptive).  Tinsel Town, the FollyWood syndrome, who knows what is going on down there but they have lost 11 of 12 since the break, and are burying themselves as the dog days of August approach.  Can they correct this?  Yes, obviously they can and I imagine they are desperately trying to find a way to get Alfonso Soriano on board, though the White Sox are said to have the inside track. 

Defense, a traditionally difficult aspect of the game for Dodgers players, is an issue, with Furcal having made 20 errors though no one else on the roster has done poorly.  Garciaparra has made only one error at 1b and may be a candidate for a Gold Glove!  His fielding percentage of .999 easily tops all other first basemen in the league.  But how many of them are converted shortstops, the most demanding position on the field.

The White Sox are another slumping team.   Leading the league in runs scored, third in batting average and fifth in on base percentage, offense is not their problem.  Yet they are on the verge of trading for Alfonso Soriano.  Go figure.  They are ranked ninth in the AL in earned run average, and the vaunted pitching staff has suffered lately, with Mark Buehrle being the primary source of disappointment with a 9-8 record.  Jon Garland and Freddie Garcia have higher earned run averages, but also have better winning percentages, benefiting from offensive support.

Garland’s refusal/reluctance to hit a batter recently upon orders from manager Ozzie Guillen only serves to emphasize what is wrong with baseball today – in the past there was no need to order a pitcher to do such a thing, it was just done and nothing more was ever said.  With a 2-8 record in their last ten games, having lost seven in a row, the team is experiencing  pitching woes (in direct contrast to their performance last year), and continue trailing the Tigers as other teams advance on them in the Wild Card race.

Both the Yankees and Twins are in the hunt, as the Twins have won 32 out of their last 40 games!  Good pitching usually beats good hitting and the Twins have displayed both facets of this

game lately.  The Yankees, on the other hand, are not blessed with either but continue to compete, scoring runs (4^th in the league) and miraculously fifth in the league in earned run average, ahead of Boston, Chicago, and Toronto among others.  Their biggest disappointment, aside from the absence of the ineffective Shawn Chacon, is the erratic play of the reigning AL MVP, Alex Rodriguez.   The fans are merciless and he is pressing, both at the bat and in the field.   One radio talk show person speculated they may have to trade him at the end of the season, to save his career and ultimately themselves.

The Cardinals have righted themselves, after staggering into the break in danger of losing their lead in the NL Central.  Sweeping the struggling Dodgers certainly helped them out.  Atlanta is not resigned to losing a bid for the playoffs, playing their best ball of the season lately (16-8 in their last 24 games), as the Phillies fall further behind and the upstart Marlins, with numerous candidates for Rookie of the Year honors, trails Atlanta by a mere 2 1/2 games.  

Cincinnati is playing well, shoring up a porous bullpen with timely trades, some of which defy the conventional wisdom of conservatism (two every day players for two middle relievers), but the dividends have paid off as they are 7-3 in their last 10 games.   Inexplicably, the Giants occupied first place for something less than 24 hours, having taken three straight from the Padres, who curiously do not command the respect one would accord to a defending division champ. 

But they lost the fourth game of the series in SF, and fell back into second place.  Moises Alou cannot stay healthy (a tweaked hamstring now, after a calf muscle strain, after a sprained ankle), Bonds is being Bonds (ie. mediocre but more mobile), and Ray Durham has carried this team, a contract year push as he

becomes a free agent at the end of the year.  This syndrome of a player performing well in the final year of a contract should be noted by all.  What if all players were playing with one year contracts?  It would be one helluva an exciting year, that is for sure!

The Diamondbacks, reeling from the Grimsley scandal, have rebounded and are a game and half in back of the Padres, Colorado , once leading the division, are rebounding as well (or

is their elevation in the standings due to LA’s plummet?), while LA is sadly situated where they belong (from the perspective of a SF resident), in last place.