Adrian Gonzalez

This year, the San Diego Padres have taken the West by storm and it's no secret that they are at the top of their game.

The Padres have constructed a team that include good, young arms, contact hitters, and a well managed front-office.

Bud Black has been nothing more than stellar when it comes to game day and has showed off the potential of his squad. Combine that with power hitting in Adrian Gonzalez, and young pitching in Mat Latos, and your team will go a long ways.

During Monday night's St. Louis Cardinals loss to the last-place (and worst record in baseball) Pittsburgh Pirates, Albert Pujols was 3-for-5 with a double, raising his batting average to .322.

I know this stat is not important to saber heads (please bear with us), but for this argument it is imperative.

The 2010 MLB season has really been great. With 17 out of 30 teams at or above .500, I have to admit that a form of parity does exist as I am seeing that form on the field.

And the surprises have been what have made this a great season.

The San Diego Padres, with a payroll ripped apart by the divorce of their owners, have been at the top of the National League all season. The Padres were even buyers at the trade deadline as they brought in the bat of Ryan Ludwick to help their lone superstar hitter in Adrian Gonzalez.

The San Diego Padres are simply too strong for the Cubs.

The Chicago Cubs could not avoid the sweep by the NL West leaders Thursday afternoon.  Once again, their bullpen sank and a careless defensive play in the seventh inning put them down 5-3 in the series finale.

The NL West hasn't gone the way most of the "experts" thought it would. The team leading the division, the San Diego Padres, was expected to be the bottom feeder, while the predicted leader, the Los Angeles Dodgers, sits in third place seven games back.

That sets up for a showdown in the bay area this coming weekend between the first place San Diego Padres and the second place San Francisco Giants who are just two and a half games back. The two teams have met eight times this season with the Padres coming out victorious in seven of those games.

Take a glance around the league and you will likely see most successful teams have a solid cleanup hitter penciled in behind the player batting third to prevent the four-finger salute.

Mark Teixeira enjoys the services of Alex Rodriguez. Albert Pujols has Matt Holiday. Chase Utley knows opposing teams would prefer him not be on base with Ryan Howard coming to the plate. 

A few weeks ago, Jon Paul Morosi of Fox Sports wrote an article that had a lot of the San Diego Padre fans up in arms. The day that article was released, I had one San Diego media member tell me, "I'd be upset if I actually knew who he was." Ouch.

The first base position in fantasy baseball produces a lot of depth from owners to choose from either via their drafts back in March, or a waiver wire pick-up during the season. With the second half of play underway, let's take a look at how the first basemen will finish out the season.

With the second half of the Major league baseball season under way, here are some predictions as to what could end up happening when the regular season is all said and done. There will also be two bold predictions at the end, those of which would shock the sports world, and could happen if events fall a certain way.

Begin Slideshow

Poor Mat Latos.  Right in the middle of a breakout season in his second year with the Padres, the baseball gods have dealt him a blow with a truly bizarre injury.

Latos landed on the DL Friday with a strained left side. He suffered the injury a week ago after a win over Colorado when he tried to hold in a sneeze while going down the dugout steps.