Final Standings

The Philadelphia Phillies never got hot until August but when they turned it on they easily outclassed the rest of the National League. Injuries to Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins hurt the team but once Roy Oswalt joined the team, Cole Hamels started to pitch like 2008 and Roy Halladay was the monster they expected.

Atlanta with Bobby Cox doing a great job made the playoffs in his last season. Injuries late in the year to Chipper Jones and Martin Prado, and then Billy Wagner in the playoffs led them to a quick exit. Still a good sendoff for Cox.

The Giants came thru, caught the Padres and won the division. This team has great pitching, a solid bullpen, and a very deep team with lots of newly gained experienced players such as Pat Burrell.

The Cincinnati Reds won the NL Central and this was an accomplishment. A quick dismissal from the playoffs at the hands of the Phillies should not minimize what a great season this was for baseball in Cincinnati.

Joey Votto should be MVP while Roy Halladay seems a lock for the Cy Young.

In the American League the Yankees and Rays fought to the end for the top spot in the East and the league with the Rays winning in the end.

This gave the Yankees the wild card and sent them to Minnesota. Minnesota had a great season, after losing Justin Morneault they never missed a beat and won the division going away. That proved to be, in my opinion, a problem as they limped to the finish line resting players and those players never warmed back up for the playoffs.

The Rangers defeated Tampa with Cliff Lee winning two starts and ended what might be the run of Tampa as they look to be a significantly different team next year.

Amongst the also rans the White Sox and Angels disappointed, the Oakland A's while not challenging for playoffs had a year that per usual proved how much you can do with not much with the right decisions.

The Red Sox did not make the playoffs which has to be disappointing but the injuries to Ellsbury, Pedroia, Youkillis, Beckett, etc and the fact that the Sox were in the race until the last week proves again the talent of Terry Francona