Is Anyone Surprised?

[traderumor]

June is a cruel month for pretenders.

The ugly

Who thought the Indians were for real? Who still thinks they will finish above .500?

The Marlins are singing some Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Man, they are sinking faster than the Titanic.

Will the Cardinals still be above .500 before the month is over? By the AS Break? I'm still boldly proclaiming their demise, some good reasons, otherwise just out of hoping for massive fail with that collection of whiners.

The good

The Pirates continue to hover around the .500 mark, as does Seattle, which is surprising. Don't know enough about Seattle, but I'm still standing my ground that Pittsburgh will do a second half fade due to lack of depth. Any injuries and they're done.

[_Sir_Charles_]

June is a cruel month for pretenders.

The ugly

Who thought the Indians were for real? Who still thinks they will finish above .500?

The Marlins are singing some Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Man, they are sinking faster than the Titanic.

Will the Cardinals still be above .500 before the month is over? By the AS Break? I'm still boldly proclaiming their demise, some good reasons, otherwise just out of hoping for massive fail with that collection of whiners.

The good

The Pirates continue to hover around the .500 mark, as does Seattle, which is surprising. Don't know enough about Seattle, but I'm still standing my ground that Pittsburgh will do a second half fade due to lack of depth. Any injuries and they're done.

I agree with all of these. I fully expect the Cards to continue to sink...rapidly. As for the Pirates, I think they hover around .500 too. I'm also expecting their offense to do an about-face.

People keep saying it'll be a 3 team race...not me. I think it'll be a 2 team race with the Cards chasing the Pirates.

[Rojo]

Twins are recovering. Too bad, I was holding a basket under Liriano.

[traderumor]

I think the Twins are in too big of a hole. Don't know if that means they'll put Liriano on the block, but I don't think they can even get to .500 this season.

[WrongVerb]

Twins are recovering. Too bad, I was holding a basket under Liriano.

I said this to someone the other day. You want the Liriano from 4 years ago, not the one from today. The one from today wouldn't replace anyone in the Reds current rotation.

Cuddyer would do nicely in LF though.

[RedEye]

I said this to someone the other day. You want the Liriano from 4 years ago, not the one from today. The one from today wouldn't replace anyone in the Reds current rotation.

Cuddyer would do nicely in LF though.

I dunno. Liriano has been inconsistent, but he's still darn good in spots. And last year he was dominant at times. At any rate, he's no more inconsistent than the majority of the Reds starters have been this year (other than Cueto and Bailey when he's healthy).

[hebroncougar]

We'll know at the AS break if the Reds are for real too. Their schedule over the next month is brutal.

[GADawg]

off the top of my head considering the season to date obviously the Injuns and the "Bucco's"(that always annoyed me to death)are the feel good stories but also the Orioles are staying within sight of the .500 mark and the Rays are surprisingly good...on the downside to go along with the Twins the Rockies were supposed to good weren't they? Also the A's were the preseason darlings of all the talking heads.

More importantly I agree that with their bullpen and defense issues the Cards are going nowhere and also thankfully the Cubs are still the Cubs.

dang neck tat just tied up their game....irks me when he does well

[TOBTTReds]

The Pirates continue to hover around the .500 mark, as does Seattle, which is surprising. Don't know enough about Seattle, but I'm still standing my ground that Pittsburgh will do a second half fade due to lack of depth. Any injuries and they're done.

A bit of defense for the Pirates: Their position players haven't been healthy. Pedro Alvarez was atrocious, and now hurt. It would be impossible for him to be worse once he is activated again. McCutchen is now on fire, but wasn't until June 1. I don't think their rotation will hold up for the entire time, but their offense still has room to grow. They are playing with Dusty Brown at catcher as well. That says a lot.

It could be a fun year for them, and I hope they continue to do well and beat up on OTHER NL Central teams.