The peaches are on the trees and soon will be in the stores in California, this is the time that the baseball season starts to take on a more serious look.

With the NL teams coming into the AL parks, expect he American league teams to play better baseball since their favorite toy, the DH is back.

Each day I’m going to publish the wild card standings because the Angels showed last year that the goal for any team should be to just get into the playoffs and then anything can happen.

With many teams feeling insecure in the division races, the wild card absolutely is something to keep in mind.

Today here’s how it looks:

AL

New York…

A’s 1/2

Toronto 2

Angels 3 1/2

NL

Montreal….

Cubs 2

LA 2 1/2

St. Louis 3

Philadelphia 3

And more teams can still get close, so it is too early to panic,

Let’s look at more baseball now below!So, how are the A’s doing?

The best news is that they will be playing at home over the next month. Other than Colorado and Atlanta, the A’s have the best home record around.

Atlanta poses a serious threat this week. The Braves crush the ball against lefites and the A’s will throw Lilly and Zito in this series. Javy Lopez, Andruw Jones and Gary Sheffield will have to be dealt with carefully. Marcus Giles and Rafael Furcal need to be kept off the bases. Chipper Jones is one of the best clutch hitters of all time and, in my opinion, is the key player on the team.

The ball must be kept away from John Smoltz, who is Eck reincarnated.

The good news is Greg Maddux has been less than invincible. He is a six inning pitcher and the Braves bull pen is suspect until Smoltz. The A’s have always had success with Roberto Hernandez, Atlanta’s eighth inning man.

Horacio Ramiez is an unknown and Shane Reynolds should not be a problem for the Athletics.

I see two of three in this series for Oakland.

The A’s still aren’t playing with any snap. When you aren’t hitting the team looks lethargic, which is how they look right now.

Jermaine Dye hasn’t played like he did in 2001 because of his leg injury, there is no getting around the truth about the rightfielder. His fielding has suffered and he no longer is a real threat at the plate. There was no reason to sign Dye to a 30 million dollar contract after the injury in the playoffs, but the A’s did.

The A’s are stuck with Dye and must hope that he can get back to being productive. The only way I see that happening is if the players around Dye start hitting, so he can sneak up on the pitchers.

Eric Chavez is a key. He is hitting a little better lately, 10 for his last 41, but his lack of success against lefties has broken his spirit. Ken Macha has his hands full being the shrink to Chavez. Frankly speaking, I would platoon Menechino with Chavez until he starts ripping the ball more consistently overall.

Tejada has his good days then his off days, but I see more consistent at bats for Miguel. His problem is he is trying to correct his season in each at bat instead of letting the game come to him. His play in the field has been superb.

Eric Byrnes is starting to level off slightly. He must stay in the lineup, but remember he isn’t going to hit .350 all season.

Hatteberg hasn’t hit with much authority all year and now his average is starting to dip into the .260’s. Also, the opponents are running on him every chance they get.

Mark Ellis and Ramon Hernandez have both cooled off considerably. There are no real alternatives here, so the team will just have to be patient and hope they pick up their game.

Erubiel Durazo likes hitting at home and I expect him to have a big month.

Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, and Mark Mulder are the key to the picture as always. They all have struggled over the last 30 games, again they like to pitch in Oakland so that fact alone should bring them around.

The bull pen has been all right. Jim Mecir and Chad Bradford seem to get the job done. Ricardo Rincon has not been great, but he doesn’t worry me. Keith Foulke is goofy enough to be a good closer, but now the A’s will need him to be perfect if they are to stay close to the Mariners. I’m anxious to see how he does this next month with the pressure on.

The A’s have no one to trade right now that anyone wants. Plus it really is too early to determine exactly what position is the most needy over the summer.

Seattle has opened a big lead because they hit, field, pitch and do all the little things to win. They are having a much better season than Oakland and Anaheim, by far this year.

There is still plenty of good baseball ahead the next thirty days and the best thing is that 90 % of it will be in Oakland.

By the way, if Aaron Harang can’t get his change up over, he is in big trouble and the cries for Rich Harden will become more legitimate.

Wade Miller has thrown extremely well for Houston. The Astros keep that bullpen humming and now go into Yankee Stadium to face Mike Mussina. I have this feeling that Joe Torre is on his way out of NY, not during the season, but this will be his last year dealing with the Boss.

Now, how can NY get Lou Piniella away from Tampa Bay?

Woody Williams against Byung Hyun Kim in Boston. Both teams hit the ball hard, both teams have lousy bullpens, both teams are pennant contenders, this looks like a wild series.

Frank Thomas is hitting the ball hard again. The White Sox are poised to make some gains in the Central, one of these weeks it will happen behind their pitching. The Giants throw two rookies and then Kirk Reuter, this could be a tough series for SF. Let’s put it this way, the Sox ain’t great, but they aren’t the Tigers either.

Keep your eye on the wild card, it may be the only way to go.

Just ask the Phillies who could make some noise in the NL, but won’t catch the Braves in the division race.