As the baseball season rounds the midpoint and heads into the 2011 All-Star break, most divisional races are as close as fans could want them to be -- with only a couple of games keeping the top teams in each division apart at most. For the AL Central, it's been a rather mediocre last two weeks with no single team taking control of their own destiny and making a second-half surge to seize their opportunity.
The Minnesota Twins have been the hottest team over the last 10 games, going 7-3 and closing the gap to 6.5 games back of the Detroit Tigers, who sit atop the division at 49-43. Yet even the Tigers have looked sad lately, especially when Justin Verlander is not on the mound, coming into a recent four game series against Kansas City on a 3-6 slide before winning three of four from the last place Royals.
As for the Royals, they're only 11.5 back in a middling division despite their .407 win percentage. Of course, the Royals are still expected to be sellers at the deadline so no one should expect them to climb. However, the AL Central is easily a four team race with the Twins making a move to muddy the waters even more with the Cleveland Indians only a half game back and the White Sox only 5 games behind as well. The second half should be interesting for nearly ever team's fan base. As for the Royals, at least everyone looks vulnerable at this point for when they do become a solid team.