Nostradamus Wept – AL Edition

With 81 games in the books, we are officially at the halfway point of the 2012 season.  The so-called experts at Sports Illustrated made some pre-season predictions that are looking a little off a this point.

Team Won Lost

Predicted

Wins

PredictedLosses Comments
AL East
New York Yankees 49 32 95 67

After a slow-ish start, a long winning streak moved the Yankees back into first place despite an injury-ravaged pitching staff.

Baltimore Orioles 44 37 63 99 One of the surprises of the first half, theOrioles need only 19 second half wins to match their predicted output.
Tampa Bay Rays 43 39 92 70 Tampa has continued to keep things togetherwhile once again losing Evan Longoria for an extended period of time.
Boston Red Sox 42 40 91 71 After their collapse at the end of last season,the Red Sox have struggled to stay above .500 in the first half.
Toronto Blue Jays 42 40 85 77 The Blue Jays were having a strong half beforelosing nearly their entire starting rotation in one weeks time.
AL Central
Chicago White Sox 44 37 67 95 While most people did not expect the White Soxto be as bad as SI did, nobody thought they would be in first place at the halfway point.
Cleveland  Indians 42 39 80 82 The Indians have been right around where expected, a little over .500 instead of a little under.
Detroit Tigers 40 42 93 69 The Tigers were expected to run away and hide in this division, but they have been unable to outhit their poor pitching performance to date.
Kansas City Royals 36 44 82 80 Eric Hosmer’s sophomore slump has held back the developing Royals.
Minnesota Twins 35 46 72 90 Could this be the end of the Ron Gardenhire era?  The Twins are woefully bad for the second straight year.
AL West
Texas Rangers 50 32 94 68 After losing back-to-back World Series, the Rangers look to be stronger than ever.
Los Angeles Angels 45 37 97 65 The Angels, and new acquisition Albert Pujols, got off to a slow start before putting things together with the arrival of Mike Trout.
Oakland A’s 41 42 68 94 The A’s have been much better than expected in the first half.
Seattle Mariners 35 49 64 98 The Mariners have struggled offensively again in the first half.