The Last Shot Podcast

Here are my Top 5 Surprise teams of the first half in the Majors this season.

1. Tampa Bay Rays-They are 4.5 games ahead of the Boston Red Sox and 9.5 games ahead of the New York Yankees. Nobody could have said that was gonna happen at the beginning of the season and been serious about it. Bringing up Evan Longoria was the best things the Ray’s have done in a long time, the kid is a straight PT playa and he’s got this team playing great baseball right now. With Shields, Kazmir, and Garza pitching, if they can stay solid this could be a playoff team no doubt.

2. Chicago White Sox- Just like the Twins nobody had these guys in first place in the Central at the beginning of the year. To me the big thing has been that their pitching has gotten better since they won the World Series a couple years ago. I think them and the Twins will once again be the 2 teams in the Central vying for the Central Division Championship. Gavin Floyd has just been outstanding in the starting line up and the rest of the starters being so-so right now. Jenks is a stud in the closer so I don’t think this is a fluke, you’ll see them near the top at the end of the season.

3. Minnesota Twins- You would think after getting rid of two of your biggest faces in Johan Santana and Torri Hunter you’d think they would be fighting for third or fourth place in the A.L Central? But management has shown that they can put competitive teams out on the field year in and year out. Carlos Gomez has pretty much gotten most people to forget about Torri Hunter out in Center field with his speed offensively and defensively. The M&M Boys (Morneau and Mauer) are the new faces of the franchise and doing a great job. The rest of the line up has had great timely hitting and great speed which will be fun to watch the rest of the season. The big question mark that was gonna bring the club down was the starting pitching but it truly has been the opposite. Livan Hernandez has been wiley old veteran who has had to help out a bunch of good young guys that have all had solid years in Kevin Slowey, Nick Blackburn, Glen Perkins, and Scott Baker. This club is gonna be fun to watch in the second half.

4. Milwaukee Brewers- They are 3.5 games out of the first place Chicago Cubs. Ryan Braun is a All star having a great year, Prince Fielder can hit the snot out of the ball. Rickie Weeks and Mike Cameron are also having good years. Ben Sheets when healthy is one of the best out there and Manna Parra has been lights out at times to. The big news right now is the rumor that they are trading for last years cy young winner Indians starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia. If they can bring him in and he pitches to his ability them and the Cubs are gonna have a great battle the second half of the season.

5. Florida Marlins- They are three games behind the Phillies right now this is a team that usually isn’t considered a contender right away but then bam the season starts and they get great hitting and pitching and make some noise. They might have the best player in the game right now depending on who you talk to in Hanley Rameriez. Dan Uggla is the other big name after that they have a lot of no names right now so I don’t think they will catch the phillies or a wild card spot this season.