Chicago White Sox
Give credit to Ozzie Guillen for imploding a few times in the first half and refocusing his team when they looked flat and uninspired. They are another team that is great at home (32-13) and sub par on the road (22-27) but always play hard until the final out is recorded. The White Sox lead the American league with 129 HR and are second in pitching with a 3.56 team ERA.

They have a veteran lineup and rock solid bullpen that is rested heading into the second half of the season. I would not be surprised if General Manager Kenny Williams made a deal in the next week to add another bat to a lineup that might succumb to an injury at any moment.

Minnesota Twins
Another brilliant managing performance by Ron Gardenhire after losing Torii Hunter and Johan Santana. They hit and catch as consistent as any team in the American League and are  ranked forth in batting with a team .278 average and forth in defense with a .983 fielding percentage.

They trail the White Sox by two games in the loss column heading into the second half and are poised to stay in the race until the very end. Too bad billionaire owner Carl Pollard does not care to spend his money on his loyal fan base because they could sure use another veteran starting pitcher down the stretch.

Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau have already proved that they are two of the top 15 players in the entire league and if they get hot in September the Twins could be tough to beat come October.

Los Angeles Angels
The best overall team in baseball is also the only team to have won more than 30 Games (31-18) on the road this season. They have several elite players including closer Frankie Rodriguez who has already compiled 38 saves at the break and a starting pitching staff that is as good as it gets in the American League.

Ervin Santana sits at 11-3, Jon Garland is 8-6, John Lackey is 6-2, Jered Weaver is 8-8 and Joe Saunders is an all star at 12-5. The health of this pitching staff is the key to the Angels going deep into the playoff.

Torii Hunter should get hot in the second half and build off the 154 total bases that he compiled so far and Vladimir Guerrero will build on the 15 HR and 50 RBI that he has heading into the second half of the season. Gary Mathews .235 average is hurting the teams overall offensive statistics, but the rest of the roster continues to hit in the clutch.

Manager Mike Scoscia has his team right where he needs them with a six game lead over Oakland and an owner who is willing to spend to win another championship.

Oakland Athletics
It is tough to take the A's seriously after general manager just traded Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin away to the Chicago Cubs. Owner Lew Wolff is not committed to winning in Oakland and until he moves his team and commits to spending more money of his roster, The A’s will remain a team that competes hard but pretends to want to win.

Oakland has a team ERA of 3.39 and opponents are only batting .235 against them so that could keep them in the wild card race until the end of September. Jack Cust and Kurt Suzuki always play inspired while Eric Chavez's $11.5 million salary is the biggest money issue surrounding this club.

This fan base deserves on more shot at a championship so hopefully GM Billy Beane has one more trick up his sleeve to help improve the team.

• Boston wins AL East
• Chicago wins AL Central
• LA Angles wins AL West
• New York wins wild card

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