Published: July 12, 2007 11:08 am      

Plenty of drama left for remainder of MLB season

With their 5-4 win over the National League Tuesday night, the American League All-Stars ensured one of their teams home field advantage for another World Series. But that's one of the few things already settled in what, to this point, has been one of the most entertaining baseball seasons in recent memory.

Three months still remain before the 2007 Fall Classic, and major league teams should provide enough storylines and subplots over the next 90 days to hold the attention of the sports world through the opening of NFL training camps and the first month of the football season.

In the National League, Barry Bonds entered the All-Star break with 751 home runs, just four shy of Hank Aaron's career record, and the controversial San Francisco slugger will be living under a media microscope until he hits No. 755 to tie Hammerin' Hank and No. 756 to claim the most famous record in sports for his own. After Bonds passes Aaron, fans in San Francisco — who don't expect to be attending any World Series home games — can start looking ahead to what could be a breakout season for the 49ers.

At this point, though, Giant fans are in the minority. With the races in all six divisions still in doubt, an unusually large number of teams in both leagues figure to maintain fan interest right up until the final weeks of the season.

San Francisco — which entered the break 10.5 games behind San Diego — is the only team apparently out of the race in the NL West, a division with few offensive stars but some of the best pitching in baseball. The Padres, led by All-Star Jake Peavy, have the best team ERA in either league (3.09), and the Dodgers (fourth), the Giants (6th) and the Arizona Diamondbacks (8th) all rank in the top 10. Los Angeles, Arizona and Colorado are all within six games of San Diego (which has a major-league worst .242 team batting average) starting play today, and, barring a sudden surge somewhere, nobody appears capable of breaking away from the pack.

St. Louis made an unlikely run to its first World Series win in a quarter-century last season, and, despite struggling both offensively and defensively, the Cardinals are a manageable 7.5 games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central. The Brewers appear to be clearly the best team in the division at this point, but the Cards and the Chicago Cubs (4.5 games back) were both playing well leading up to the break.

In the NL East, Atlanta has crept to within two games of the New York Mets in a division the Braves have owned since the early '90s, and the Philadelphia Phillies — who entered the break needing just one loss to become the first professional franchise to lose 10,000 games — are probably the best offensive team in the National League and trail the Mets by just 4.5.

Boston has best record (53-34) and the biggest lead (10 games) in all of baseball, but the Red Sox Nation — accustomed to seeing strong finishes by the Yankees wipe out second-half leads — will be looking over its collective shoulder until the hated Pinstripers are eliminated. Despite supbar seasons to this point by sluggers Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz and a pitching staff in total disarray due to injuries, the Red Sox have dominated the AL East, and, with the return of ace righthander Pedro Martinez (on the disabled list all season) in the next few weeks, they only figure to be better down the stretch.

Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez had one of the best first halves in baseball history (30 home runs, 86 RBIs, .317 BA) and, with 494 career home runs, appears likely to reach 500 before Bonds gets to 755, but New York entered the break a game below .500 and trailing the Red Sox by 10.5. New York won four of its six games before the break, however, and, with Roger Clemens starting to stabilize a shaky pitching staff, the Yanks might have one big run left in them.

The Angels and the surprising Mariners (whose manager, Mike Hargrove, resigned suddenly after 81 games with the team riding an eight-game winning streak) entered the break just 2.5 games apart at the top of the AL West, and the division figures to be a two-team affair for the rest of the season. Oakland, a notoriously good second-half club, has struggled despite having one of the American's League's best pitching staffs, and Texas — despite a surge leading up to the All-Star break — is 38-50 and going nowhere again this year.

Although the Rangers have virtually no chance to make the playoffs, they have the hottest trade property in baseball in first baseman Mark Teixeira. On the DL since June 8 with a strained quad, Teixeira was one of the hottest hitters in either league before his injury and the Rangers were losing games in bunches; ironically, Texas has flourished with its best player out of the line-up, and, with the playoffs no longer a real possibility, management has been shopping Teixeira — who is due to return Friday — to other teams. The Dodgers are considered the frontrunner to pull the trigger on a deal that should provide them some badly needed offense and the spark they need to pass the Padres.

Baseball's most entertaining race could be in the AL Central, where the Detroit Tigers — defending league champs — made up four games in the last five days before the break to take a one-game lead on Cleveland.

Offensively, the Tigers and Indians are carbon copies of each other, with power throughout the line-up, and, while Detroit has deeper starting pitching, Cleveland has one of baseball's best lefthanders in C. C. Sabathia and a much deeper bullpen than the Tigers. Minnesota, which made a huge second-half run to claim the division last season, has a potentially explosive line-up led by defending AL MVP Justin Morneau and catcher Joe Mauer, and the Twins — 45-43 and eight games behind the Tigers — have baseball's best second-half pitcher in Johan Santana.

The AL Central also has a race within a race, as the Chicago White Sox — just two years removed from a championship — battle the lowly Kansas City Royals for the fourth spot in the five-team division. Chicago entered the break just two games ahead of the Royals, who in June had their first winning month in five years.