National League’s Midseason Contenders

Now that we've passed the midway point of the baseball season, it's time to make some still-too-early World Series odds projections.

Why too early? Well for one thing, last year's eventual winner, San Francisco, was in fourth place at this time last year in the mediocre NL West, and their lack of offense didn't scare anyone into thinking they were contenders—yours truly included. Everyone was wrong on that one. Still, it's fun to take a look and see who has separated themselves by midseason and revisit this list come October.

Onto the contenders (National League today, American tomorrow) starting with the least likely:

St. Louis (100:1) Odds for the Cardinals took a big hit before the season even began, when ace Adam Wainright (39 wins the last two years) had Tommy John surgery, thus ending his season. That they're even mentioned here is out of respect for the managing capabilities of Tony LaRussa and his hitting machine Albert Pujols, who wasn't hitting up to his lofty standard and is currently on the DL.

The Cards have benefited from Lance Berkman's (1.020 OPS) bat and the pitching of starters Kyle Lohse (8-5, 2.97 ERA) and Jaime Garcia (7-3, 3.33 ERA).

San Francisco (95:1) It's hard imagining the Giants repeating with last year's rookie-of-the-year catcher Buster Posey shelved for the season, but San Fran's starting rotation of Lincecum (6-6, 3.04), Cain (7-4, 3.02), and surprise all-star Ryan Vogelsong (6-1, 2.13) has kept them near the Phillies for best record in the NL.

Other nagging injuries to one-time slugger Pat Burrell and former batting champ Freddy Sanchez, have put more pressure on the staff, and make it seem even less unlikely their offense can muster enough runs in October to support a repeat, but stranger things have happened.

Milwaukee (40:1) Milwaukee ranks higher than the defending champs mainly due to injuries. Although the Brew Crew have won exactly one playoff game in the 29 years since their last World Series appearance, they're still a fun team with plenty of talent, as evidenced by their three All-Star starters in Fielder (.416 OBP, .581 SLG), Weeks (15 HRs, 20 doubles), and Braun (.320 AVG, .520 SLG).

Former Cy Young winner Zack Greinke has yet to get on track since his cracked ribs incident (7-3, but a 5.66 ERA), but once he does the team will have enough to compete with San Fran's touted starters and enough offense to get past them.

Atlanta (30:1) The Braves are quietly flying under Philadelphia's immense radar with the second-best record in the NL, despite Dan Uggla's less-than-stellar performance (.175 AVG over 315 at-bats) thus far.

Years of regular season dominance coupled with subsequent playoff disappointments (11 straight playoff berths without winning it) make them an interesting case, but with new leadership in first-year manager Fredi Gonzalez, comes a clean slate.

In any case, Jurrjens (11-3, 1.89 ERA) and Hanson (9-4, 2.62) can make anyone look good.

Philadelphia (2:1) The Phils punched their playoff tickets the second they swooped in and inked free-agent Cliff Lee to a five-year $120 million deal. Only when Atlanta had Steve Avery at his height (early ’90s) to go along with Glavine, Smoltz, and Maddux has any team in modern history had such an advantage on the hill.

They'll need every bit of it though, as their offense could use a lot more, especially come October, from Howard (.478 SLG) and Jimmy Rollins (.693 OPS). If Dominic Brown can grow into the hot prospect he's been hyped to be, maybe they'll have a replacement for the clearly just-about-done 39-year old Raul Ibanez (.674 OPS, woeful defense, $11.5 million salary).