For the past two seasons, the AL Central race has gone to the last day of the season. Actually, it’s gone past that, as both the Chicago White Sox (in 2008) and Minnesota Twins (2009) needed an extra game to win the division outright.

 This year, the AL Central will once again likely come down to the wire, with three evenly matched teams fighting for what will likely be, barring a collapse of the Tampa Bay Rays, one playoff spot.

At the time of this article, the White Sox have a 2.5 game lead over the Detroit Tigers and a 3 game lead over the Twins.

Interestingly enough, the Twins actually have the best run differential of the three, and the Tigers seem to be playing above their heads right now with a negative run differential despite a winning record.

Offensively, the Twins have led the way so far. With Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer, they have scored the most runs in the division and have also gotten surprising production from Delmon Young.

On the other side of the ball, the White Sox have allowed the fewest runs, but will be without Jake Peavy for the remainder of the season. The Sox have a terrific bullpen, and have been scoring more runs lately as Gordon Beckham remembers how to hit.

The Tigers would seem to have a great lineup, with the fifth best batting average and seventh best OBP in all of baseball. However, the team is only tied for 16^th in runs scored. Pitching wise, the Tigers rotation is rather thin after Justin Verlander, and even he hasn’t been overly impressive (3.87 ERA) thus far in 2010.

Over the rest of the season, the White Sox may be at a scheduling disadvantage, as they have played six more home games than the Twins and seven more than the Tigers.

But the most important thing to who wins the division will be head-to-head competition.

In September, the White Sox have seven games with Detroit and three with Minnesota. The Tigers and Twins play each other five times that month.

Minnesota seems to have the edge in head-to-head competition, with winning records over both the Tigers and White Sox. The Tigers are at the biggest disadvantage, as they also have a losing record against Chicago.

All in all, if the last two years have proved anything, it’s that anyone could ultimately walk away with the AL Central.

If I had to put my money on one team at this point, it would be the Twins, who have the best run differential to date, winning records against both the White Sox and Tigers, and have been involved in the one game playoff in each of the past two years.  

Used with permission of the author.

 Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

The Minnesota Twins have signed catcher and local Joe Mauer to a massive eight year, $184 million contract, which includes a full no-trade clause. The contract is the fourth largest in Major League Baseball history in both value and average salary.

Mauer, who was entering the final year of his current contract with the Twins, got the new new deal that will cover him through the 2018 season, when he will be only 34.

In this final season of his current $33 million, four-year contract, Mauer will earn $12.5 million then under the extension agreed to yesterday, he will earn $23 million in each of the next eight years of his new contract.

Even Mauer’s teammates were impressed with the deal. Twins center fielder Denard Span reportedly tweeting, “184 million for Mauer! Wow.”

Mauer, 26, has won three American League batting titles and was last year’s American League MVP. He is considered one of the best defensive catchers in baseball.

The only contracts bigger than Mauer’s deal are the $275 deal Alex Rodriguez signed with the Yankees in December 2007, the A-Rod $252 deal he signed with Texas in 2000 and a $189 deal signed by Derek Jeter in 2001 with the Yankees. Roger Clemens’ $28,000 prorated deal in 2007 with the Yankees in which he actually received $17, 443, and the $25.2 million Rodriguez deal with Texas are the only two higher average salaries than Mauer’s. CC Sabathia, now with the Yankees, also has an average salary of $23 million.

This signing makes Mauer the highest-paid catcher, surpassing Jorge Posada’s four year $52.4 million with the Yankees.

Mauer was the Twins’ No. 1 overall pick in 2001. After sitting out the first month of last season, he hit 28 home runs and had 96 RBIs, helping propel the Twins in the AL Central Division champs.

A press conference will be held at the Twins spring training facility in Fort Myers, Florida, at 7pm this evening.

In addition to writing her Chicago Cubs column for Examiner.com, Miriam Romain has been published in several Cubs annuals by Maple Street Press and is a contributor to SportsClimax.com . She is also writing a book with the working title “Summers at Wrigley with my Dad.”

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

LAKELAND, Fla. – Coming off a bad incident that occurred during the Detroit Tigers’ late season run for a playoff spot last year, power hitter Miguel Cabrera has been campaigning with the media to clear the air.The All-Star first baseman while playing in the midst of a giant $152.3 million contract was arrested after blowing a 0.26 blood-alcohol reading which is approximately 3 times more than the Michigan legal limit for driving. He also had bruises that were speculated to be from a domestic dispute he was involved in.

After Tigers’ GM Dave Dombrowski picked Cabrera up from the slammer, Cabrera apologized to his teammates for the incident.

The timing of the event couldn’t have been any worse. The Tigers were battling the Minnesota Twins for a playoff spot when it occurred then went on to lose the AL Central after losing the tiebreaker game against Minnesota.

Cabrera spent the off season undergoing counseling and says he gave up drinking.

“You guys write in the paper ‘alcoholic,’ that’s not right,” said Cabrera. “I don’t know how to explain, but it’s not an alcohol problem.”

“When you want something and you know what you’re doing is bad, you say this thing is not right, this thing is not going to help me in my work,” he said. “So first you’ve got to think about yourself. First you help yourself and then you can help everybody.”

Referring to earlier interviews with the Detroit media, Cabrera said, “I was comfortable talking about everything because I think you can’t hide it. I can’t hide what I’m doing; I can’t lie to people when they see something. If I worry about what everybody is saying, there is going to be a lot on my mind. I don’t want that. I want to do everything I can to play baseball.”

The 26-year-old Cabrera started his career at the age of 20 when he played in 87 games for the Florida Marlins in 2003 and is now recognized as one of MLB’s most fearsome hitters.

Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland agrees with Cabrera’s decision to confront his personal matter head-on with the media. “He took on a challenge that he needed to take on. That’s a sign of maturity,” said Leyland.

“I know it was wrong what I did. but I can’t hide that, you know?” Cabrera said. “It’s there, so I have to be a man and say the truth, and say I made a mistake and I’ll work in the season to be better. It’s part of life to be a man and don’t try to hide something if it’s broken.”

Are you listening Tiger Woods and Ari Fleischer?

NEW YORK – The botched call left field umpire Phil Cuzzi made last night during the New York Yankees 4-3 victory over the visiting Minnesota Twins is sending shock waves through the baseball world, especially in Minnesota where the Twins return home down 2-0 in their five-game series against the New York Yankees.

Detroit Tigers fans may be referring to this call as justice. Just days earlier, home plate umpire Randy Marsh missed Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge getting hit by a pitch in the 12th inning with the bases loaded in crucial Game 163 against these same Twins.

Like the Twins, the Tigers should have been guaranteed at least one run and both went on to lose in the bottom of the same inning the botched calls occurred.

In the top of the 11th inning of last night’s game, Twins’ catcher Joe Mauer ripped a line shot down the left field line that glanced off Melky Cabrera’s glove in fair territory then clearly landed fair, several inches inside the left field line.

Mauer should have been awarded a ground rule double but instead, Mauer was given a single, the Twins followed with two singles loading the bases with no out but failed to score. Cuzzi’s call took a run from the Twins as Mauer would have crossed home plate on one of those hits.

Like Tigers Manager Jim Leyland a week earlier, Ron Gardenhire did not directly blame the outcome of the game on the call considering their teams had plenty of other opportunities to win the games.

Crew chief Tim Tschida admitted seeing the tape of the Mauer hit after the game and admitted it was a blown call then offered this comment, “There’s a guy [Cuzzi] sitting over in the umpire’s dressing room right now that feels horrible. Nobody feels it worse than the umpire.”

Don’t be so sure about that.

Sports Climax received several emails from our readers slamming this call. One reader asked if that were a case of a “Jersey Ump on the Take?” The email continued, “I would check his [Cuzzi’s] bank account today to see if the bookee’s [sic] check has cleared. He was less than 20 feet away, staring right at it and missed it twice. Yankee Magic! Yankee Cheat!!”

Not sure about bookies or payoffs but after viewing the video of the play, a visit to his optician should certainly be recommended.

Copyright © 2009 – Sports Climax