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The MLB races are finally heating up, as early season steroid talks FINALLY cool down. Almost every division is up for grabs, and the AL and NL wild card standing are also really close. Yet, it seems everyone is already paying attention to football.

I understand football is the new top sport in America. But, if you’re a sport fan you can’t not be excited about the final stretch of the MLB season. The NFL games being played now, don’t count! While, in the MLB every pitch counts. 16 teams, count them, 16! More than half the league has a reasonable shot at the playoffs right now.

Meanwhile, we are having a few of the best seasons in recent memory, going almost unnoticed. First, no catcher ever has led their respective league in Batting Average, Slugging Percentage, and OBP in the same year, Joe Mauer is leading the AL in all of those categories.

Also, Albert Pujols still has an outside shot at the NL Triple Crown. He’s leading the NL in HRs, tied for first with Prince Fielder, who should give him a good contest, and is within 25 points of Hanley Ramirez in batting average. Now, I know that the batting average split seems a little to big to overcome, but we’ve seen amazing things from Pujols, and nothing is out of the ordinary in the crazy game of baseball.

How about the pitching? Tim Lincecum is having one of the best pitching seasons in recent memory. On pace for almost 300 strikeouts (no one’s done this since 2002), a ERA in the low 2s, and a ton of complete games. Talk about a beast!

American League pitchers are looking almost just as good. Between Beckett, Verlander, Felix Hernandez, and a breakout season from Zack Greinke, the race is truly up in the air for the AL Cy Young award.

And of course there’s Roy Halladay with the Blue Jays. Seems like this guy does the same thing every year and always goes unnoticed, but he’s doing it again. A league-high five CGs, an ERA in the 2s, great strikeout totals and one of the highest win totals in the majors. Halladay may very well win the Cy Young award if he finishes strong.

The last two months of the baseball regular season are packed with could-be story lines, tight races, and great baseball. The only thing missing? Hype. Hopefully this helped with that.

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