Climbing the Ladder with the National League 6/22/2008

Race heats up for NL shortstops

The NL Central looks better every week. The division-leading Chicago Cubs improved their home record to 31-8, and the St. Louis Cardinals are better than any other division leader.

On the strength of a sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays, the Milwaukee Brewers won five of six games to further establish themselves as contenders.

The Houston Astros, on the other hand, have struggled mightily. They lost nine of 10 to fall to last place in the division.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have continued to falter, going 2-4 this week. Even Brandon Webb struggled, turning in his worst start of the season Tuesday, allowing seven runs in just 3.1 innings.

The rest of the NL West has not been able to capitalize on this, though. The Los Angeles Dodgers, the San Francisco Giants and the San Diego Padres are a combined 6-24 against the AL.

The Colorado Rockies, meanwhile, are 7-2 in interleague play and have clawed themselves back into a race that has been reopened by the D’backs’ struggles.

With the first full week of interleague play in the books, the AL can continue to claim dominance, with a record of 87-66.

Six of the top seven teams in baseball are playing one another this weekend.

The Philadelphia Phillies hosted the Los Angeles Angels and lost the first two games thanks to dominating performances by Ervin Santana and Joe Saunders.

The NL struck back as the Cardinals took the first two games from the Boston Red Sox. This comes after the Red Sox beat the Phillies in a series.

After meeting the Sox and the Angels, the Phillies’ lead over the Florida Marlins has fallen to just one game. The Phillies’ offense has awoken, highlighted by a 20-run outburst to defeat the Cards last week.

However, the attention of the league shifted to Chicago this weekend, where the Cubs and the White Sox met at Wrigley Field for the first of two series this year.

The White Sox seemed to have the first game under wraps until the seventh inning when Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez went back to back to tie the game. Ramirez later won the game with a walk-off shot.

The Cubs didn’t relent in the second game, putting up a nine-spot in the fourth.

Earlier in the week, though, the Cubs dropped three in a row to the Tampa Bay Rays, their first three-game losing streak this year.

The battle of the leagues will come to a head at the All-Star Game on July 15. What remains to be seen is who will represent the NL at the key defensive position of shortstop.

The Dodgers’ Rafael Furcal might have been the frontrunner were it not for a back injury that has benched him since May 5.

At the time he was hitting .366 with an on-base percentage of .448 while providing a spark for the Dodgers offense.

Hanley Ramirez of the Marlins lead balloting early and leads all shortstops with 64 runs, 16 home runs, 40 walks and 152 total bases. He is getting on base at a .392 clip, and his 19 steals are good for second-best in baseball.

Ramirez, however was recently surpassed in the balloting by the Astros’ Miguel Tejada, who has come back surprisingly well from his first career injury to lead all shortstops in RBIs.

Cubs fan favorite Ryan Theriot is right there in the mix, as well, and Jose Reyes deserves consideration for a solid 2008 campaign.

The bottom line is that Ramirez leads all shortstops in many offensive categories and deserves the votes that he won’t get from Miami fans.