MLB 2012

Major League Baseball
season	2012
Period	March 28 - October 28, 2012
Regular season
Season MVP AL	Miguel Cabrera (DET)
Season MVP NL	Buster Posey (SF)
Postseason
AL Champion	Detroit Tigers
Second AL	New York Yankees
NL champion	San Francisco Giants
Second NL	St. Louis Cardinals
World Series
champion	San Francisco Giants
MVP	Pablo Sandoval (SF)
Playing times
◄ 2011 2013 ►

The 2012 MLB season , the 111th season of Major League Baseball , opened on March 28, 2012 and ended with the fourth win in the fourth game of the 2012 World Series of the San Francisco Giants over the Detroit Tigers on October 28, 2012.

During the regular season , 30 teams compete in 162 games each for a place in the play-offs. The 2012 World Series is scheduled to begin on October 24, 2012 and will end on November 1, 2012 at the latest. The defending champions are the St. Louis Cardinals , who won the 2011 World Series .

A new mode was added for the postseason which provides for an additional wildcard team for both the American League and the National League.

The 2012 MLB All-Star Game took place on July 10, 2012 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City , Missouri and was won by the National League team, so the National League team has home rights in the first game of the World Series.

The annual Civil Rights Game in honor of civil rights took place on 18 August at Turner Field in Atlanta instead. The Atlanta Braves based there received the Los Angeles Dodgers .

Participating teams

For the 2012 season, those responsible made no changes to the participating franchises or to league and division assignments. The Florida Marlins have been renamed the Miami Marlins.

TEX OAK LAA SEA MIN CWS DET CLE KC TB NYY BOS GOAL BAL

American League venues. Divisions: West, Central, East.

American League
west	Central	East
Texas Rangers	Detroit Tigers	New York Yankees
LA Angels of Anaheim	Cleveland Indians	Tampa Bay Rays
Oakland Athletics	Chicago White Sox	Boston Red Sox
Seattle Mariners	Kansas City Royals	Toronto Blue Jays
	Minnesota Twins	Baltimore Orioles

SF SD COL LAD ARI CIN STL Mil HOU CHC PIT PHI ATL MIA NYM WSH

National League venues. Divisions: West, Central, East.

National League
west	Central	East
Arizona Diamondbacks	Milwaukee Brewers	Philadelphia Phillies
San Francisco Giants	St. Louis Cardinals	Atlanta Braves
Los Angeles Dodgers	Cincinnati Reds	Washington Nationals
Colorado Rockies	Pittsburgh Pirates	New York Mets
San Diego Padres	Chicago Cubs	Miami Marlins
	Houston Astros

* Sorted according to the previous year's placements in the respective divisions. The teams that qualified for the postseason in the previous year are colored green .

Stages

The Miami Marlins have left Sun Life Stadium and moved to Marlins Park .

Spring training

Spring Training 2012 logo

Starting on February 29, 2012, the MLB's pre-season, the so-called Spring Training , where the teams in the Grapefruit League and the Cactus League tested new players, but also brought in their desired core formations. The last game of Spring Training took place on April 4th.

The best team in the Grapefruit League were the Toronto Blue Jays , who won 77.4% of their games. At the same time, the Twins were also the most successful team in the American League. In the Cactus League, the Oakland Athletics were able to secure the victory with 68.2% won games.

The best value of all National League teams was achieved by last year's World Series winners, the St. Louis Cardinals , who finished third in the Grapefruit League with 64.0% won games.

The bottom of the Grapefruit League were the New York Mets together with the Pittsburgh Pirates (both 31.0%). At the bottom of the Cactus League table, the Cleveland Indians (24.1%) completed spring training.

Final tables of Spring Training 2012

The teams marked yellow in the tables of the Grapefruit and Cactus League are members of the National League, the others play in the American League.

Grapefruit League

Item	team	W.	L.	%	GB
01	Toronto Blue Jays	24	07th	.774	-
02	Detroit Tigers	20th	08th	.714	2.5
03	St. Louis Cardinals	16	09	.640	5
04th	New York Yankees	18th	12	.600	5.5
05	Boston Red Sox	16	11	.593	6th
06th	Minnesota Twins	18th	15th	.545	7th
07th	Philadelphia Phillies	14th	16	.467	9.5
08th	Baltimore Orioles	11	13	.458	9.5
09	Houston Astros	14th	17th	.452	10
10	Miami Marlins	11	14th	.440	10
11	Washington Nationals	12	17th	.414	11
12	Tampa Bay Rays	10	16	.385	11.5
13	Atlanta Braves	10	18th	.357	12.5
14th	New York Mets	09	20th	.310	14th
	Pittsburgh Pirates	09	20th	.310	14th

Cactus League

Item	team	W.	L.	%	GB
01	Oakland Athletics	15th	07th	.682	-
02	Seattle Mariners	16	09	.640	0.5
03	LA Angels	19th	12	.613	0.5
04th	San Diego Padres	20th	16	.556	2
05	San Francisco Giants	18th	15th	.545	2.5
06th	Colorado Rockies	17th	15th	.531	3
07th	Chicago Cubs	17th	16	.515	3.5
08th	Kansas City Royals	16	16	.500	4th
09	LA Dodgers	15th	15th	.500	4th
10	Cincinnati Reds	15th	17th	.469	5
	Milwaukee Brewers	15th	17th	.469	5
12	Arizona Diamondbacks	15th	18th	.455	5.5
13	Chicago White Sox	14th	18th	.438	6th
14th	Texas Rangers	12	17th	.414	6.5
15th	Cleveland Indians	07th	22nd	.241	11.5

Regular season

Brief explanation of game operations and table structure

The AL and NL are each divided into three divisions for game operations. The allocation is based on regional criteria: East, Central and West Division. The game will run from March 28, 2012 to October 3, 2012.

The table positions are responsible for reaching the postseason : The three respective division winners and the two other best teams according to the winning percentage will play the championship in the American and National League in three rounds. The respective champions then meet in the World Series.

The ranking of the teams in the table results during the season from the current ratio of wins to games overall as the so-called winning percentage . The reason for this is the uneven distribution of the games over the calendar, so that some teams have played three or more games more than others. For example, the balance of team A with 15 wins and 15 defeats (.500 expressed as the corresponding percentage) is considered to be exactly equivalent to the balance of team B, which achieved 16 wins and 16 defeats at the same time. However, this is irrelevant for the final tables, since at the end of the season all teams had played the 162 season games that have been common since 1961. Therefore, it is sufficient to state wins and defeats (draws are uncommon these days).

With the indication GB ( Games Behind ) it is documented how big the gap between a chaser and the first in the table is. This expresses how many victories the pursuer would theoretically need with simultaneous defeat of the leader in order to achieve a tie. GB is expressed to 0.5 games: For example, if team A has 10 wins and 5 defeats, but team B 9 wins and 5 defeats, a win of its own (without defeat by A) would lead to a tie.

In order to at least indicate the development during the season, the table positions of the teams were recorded at the end of April and the end of May. Another milestone is the All-Star-Break , the break in game operations on the occasion of the All-Star Game ; Similar to the autumn championship in football , an intermediate result is determined in the middle of the season. The last interim information is rather arbitrarily related to the date August 31st, in order to be able to assess about four weeks before the end of the season to what extent the respective division was already pre-decided at this point in time or, if necessary, the leader at that point was still displaced.

Season course of the regular season

American League

April
As of April 30, the American League ranked as follows:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
2	Tampa Bay Rays	15th	8th	-		3	Cleveland Indians	11	9	-		1	Texas Rangers	17th	6th	-
WC	Baltimore Orioles	14th	9	1.0			Chicago White Sox	11	11	1.0			Oakland Athletics	11	13	6.5
WC	New York Yankees	13	9	1.5			Detroit Tigers	11	11	1.0			Seattle Mariners	11	13	6.5
	Toronto Blue Jays	12	11	3.0			Kansas City Royals	6th	15th	5.5			Los Angeles Angels	8th	15th	9
	Boston Red Sox	11	11	3.5			Minnesota Twins	6th	16	6.0

PS = postseason; Number = rank on the seeding list or WC = wild card (best two teams after the division winners)

W = Wins (victories), L = Losses (defeats), GB = Games Behind (behind leaders: number of necessary defeats for the leader while simultaneously winning)

May
As of May 31, the following placements were made in the American League:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
▲ 2	Baltimore Orioles	29	22nd	-		▲ 2	Chicago White Sox	29	22nd	-		1	Texas Rangers	31	20th	-
▼ 2	Tampa Bay Rays	29	22nd	-		▼	Cleveland Indians	27	23	1.5		▲	Los Angeles Angels	26th	26th	5.5
	New York Yankees	27	23	1.5			Detroit Tigers	24	27	5.0			Seattle Mariners	23	30th	9.0
	Toronto Blue Jays	27	24	2.0			Kansas City Royals	21st	28	7.0		▼	Oakland Athletics	22nd	29	9.0
	Boston Red Sox	26th	25th	3.0			Minnesota Twins	18th	32	10.5

As of May 31, 2012, the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays were listed as Division Leaders as well as wildcard participants

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. April, ▼ worsening vs. April, otherwise see AL April

June to All-Star Break (July 10, 2012)
For the All-Star-Break (July 10, 2012) the following placements resulted in the AL:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
▲ 1	New York Yankees	52	33	-		3	Chicago White Sox	47	38	-		2	Texas Rangers	52	34	-
▼ WC	Baltimore Orioles	45	40	7.0			Cleveland Indians	44	41	3.0		WC	Los Angeles Angels	48	38	4.0
▼	Tampa Bay Rays	45	41	7.5			Detroit Tigers	44	42	3.5		▲	Oakland Athletics	43	43	9.0
▲	Boston Red Sox	43	43	9.5			Kansas City Royals	37	47	9.5		▼	Seattle Mariners	36	51	16.5
▼	Toronto Blue Jays	43	43	9.5			Minnesota Twins	36	49	11.0

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. May, ▼ worsening vs. May, explanations: see AL April

Second half of July and August
As of August 31, the following placements were made in the AL:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
2	New York Yankees	75	56	-		3	Chicago White Sox	72	59	-		1	Texas Rangers	78	53	-
WC	Baltimore Orioles	73	58	2.0		▲	Detroit Tigers	70	61	2.0		▲ toilet	Oakland Athletics	74	57	4.0
	Tampa Bay Rays	71	61	4.5		▲	Kansas City Royals	59	71	12.5		▼	Los Angeles Angels	70	62	8.5
	Boston Red Sox	62	71	14.0		▼	Cleveland Indians	55	77	17.5			Seattle Mariners	64	69	15.0
	Toronto Blue Jays	60	71	15.0			Minnesota Twins	53	78	19.0

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. July, ▼ deterioration compared to July, explanations: see AL April

October (end of season)
The tables in the American League show the following picture after the last game day (October 3):

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
1	New York Yankees	95	67	-		▲ 3	Detroit Tigers	88	74	-		▲ 2	Oakland Athletics	94	68	-
WC	Baltimore Orioles	93	69	2.0		▼	Chicago White Sox	85	77	3.0		▼ WC	Texas Rangers	93	69	1.0
	Tampa Bay Rays	90	72	5.0			Kansas City Royals	72	90	16.0			Los Angeles Angels	89	73	5.0
▲	Toronto Blue Jays	73	89	22.0			Cleveland Indians	68	94	20.0			Seattle Mariners	75	87	19.0
▼	Boston Red Sox	69	93	26.0			Minnesota Twins	66	96	22.0

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. August, ▼ worsening vs. August, explanations: see AL April

On September 30th, the Texas Rangers , the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees secured participation in the postseason. For the Orioles this is the first participation in the postseason since 1997. A day later, the Detroit Tigers won the Central Division after an up and down in the table. On the same day, the Oakland Athletics secured the playoffs.

National League

April
As of April 30, the National League ranked as follows:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
2	Washington Nationals	14th	8th	-		2	St. Louis Cardinals	14th	8th	-		1	Los Angeles Dodgers	16	7th	-
WC	Atlanta Braves	14th	9	0.5			Cincinnati Reds	11	11	3.0			San Francisco Giants	12	10	3.5
WC	New York Mets	13	10	1.5			Milwaukee Brewers	11	12	3.5			Arizona Diamondbacks	12	11	4.0
	Philadelphia Phillies	11	12	3.5			Pittsburgh Pirates	10	12	4.0			Colorado Rockies	11	11	4.5
	Miami Marlins	8th	14th	6.0			Houston Astros	9	14th	5.5			San Diego Padres	7th	17th	9.5
							Chicago Cubs	8th	15th	6.5

Explanations: see AL

May
As of May 31, the National League ranked as follows:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
2	Washington Nationals	29	21st	-		▲ 3	Cincinnati Reds	28	22nd	-		1	Los Angeles Dodgers	32	19th	-
▲ toilet	Miami Marlins	29	22nd	0.5		▼	St. Louis Cardinals	27	24	1.5			San Francisco Giants	27	24	5.0
WC	New York Mets	28	23	1.5		▲	Pittsburgh Pirates	25th	25th	3.0			Arizona Diamondbacks	23	28	9.0
▼	Atlanta Braves	28	24	2.0		▼	Milwaukee Brewers	23	28	5.5			Colorado Rockies	21st	29	10.5
▼	Philadelphia Phillies	27	25th	3.0			Houston Astros	22nd	29	6.5			San Diego Padres	17th	35	15.5
							Chicago Cubs	18th	32	10.0

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. April, ▼ worsening vs. April, otherwise see AL April

June to All-Star Break (July 10, 2012)
For the All-Star-Break (July 10, 2012) the following placements were achieved in the NL:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
1	Washington Nationals	49	34	-		▲ 2	Pittsburgh Pirates	48	37	-		3	Los Angeles Dodgers	47	40	-
▲ toilet	Atlanta Braves	46	39	4.0		▼ WC	Cincinnati Reds	47	38	1.0			San Francisco Giants	46	40	0.5
	New York Mets	46	40	4.5		▼	St. Louis Cardinals	46	40	2.5			Arizona Diamondbacks	42	43	4.0
▼	Miami Marlins	41	44	9.0			Milwaukee Brewers	40	45	8.0		▲	San Diego Padres	34	53	13.0
	Philadelphia Phillies	37	50	14.0		▲	Chicago Cubs	33	52	15.0		▼	Colorado Rockies	33	52	13
						▼	Houston Astros	33	53	15.5

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. May, ▼ worsening vs. May, otherwise see AL April

Second half of July and August
As of August 31, the NL had the following placements:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
1	Washington Nationals	80	51	-		▲ 2	Cincinnati Reds	81	52	-		▲ 3	San Francisco Giants	74	58	-
WC	Atlanta Braves	74	58	6.5		▲ toilet	St. Louis Cardinals	71	61	9.5		▼	Los Angeles Dodgers	70	63	4.5
▲	Philadelphia Phillies	63	69	17.5		▼	Pittsburgh Pirates	70	61	10.0			Arizona Diamondbacks	66	67	8.5
▼	New York Mets	62	70	18.5			Milwaukee Brewers	63	68	17.0			San Diego Padres	62	71	12.5
▼	Miami Marlins	59	73	21.5			Chicago Cubs	51	80	29.0			Colorado Rockies	53	77	20th
							Houston Astros	40	92	40.5

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. July, ▼ deterioration compared to July, otherwise see AL April

October (end of season)
The tables in the National League show the following picture after the last game day (October 3):

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
1	Washington Nationals	98	64	-		2	Cincinnati Reds	97	65	-		3	San Francisco Giants	94	68	-
WC	Atlanta Braves	94	68	4.0		WC	St. Louis Cardinals	88	74	9.0			Los Angeles Dodgers	86	76	8.0
	Philadelphia Phillies	81	81	17.0		▲	Milwaukee Brewers	83	79	14.0			Arizona Diamondbacks	81	81	13.0
	New York Mets	74	88	24.0		▼	Pittsburgh Pirates	79	83	18.0			San Diego Padres	76	86	18.0
	Miami Marlins	69	93	29.0			Chicago Cubs	61	101	36.0			Colorado Rockies	64	98	30.0
							Houston Astros	55	107	42.0

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. July, ▼ deterioration compared to July, otherwise see AL April

On September 20, the Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals secured entry to the postseason. The Nationals are the first team from DC to qualify for the playoffs since the Senators took part in the World Series in 1933. It is also the first division win since moving to Washington in 2004. On September 22nd, the San Francisco Giants won secure in the NL West Division. The Atlanta Braves were able to secure the playoff spot on September 25th. As the last team, the defending champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, secured a wildcard spot on October 2nd, as in the previous year.

Postseason

→ Main articles: NLWC 2012 , ALWC 2012 , NLDS 2012 , ALDS 2012 , NLCS 2012 , ALCS 2012 , World Series 2012

Mode and participants

Instead of the top four as in previous years, this year the top five teams played the respective winners of the American League or National League, which then determine the World Series winner in the 2012 World Series.

The Division Series and then the respective Championship Series will be played from October 5th and by October 22nd 2012 at the latest. To do this, the two wild card winners first meet in a game. The three division winners and the winner of the wild card game meet in two division series matches in best-of-five mode ( ALDS or NLDS = American or National League Division Series). The winners of the Division Series matches then play the respective League Champion in a best-of-seven procedure ( ALCS or NLCS = American or National League Championship Series).

The wild card winners play against the best division winner, i.e. the team with the most wins from the regular season games. In contrast to previous years, he can also play against the winner of his own division.

Scheme

The following results were found in the postseason:

	Wild Card Games					League Division Series					League Championship Series					World Series
						2	Oakland Athletics	2
						3	Detroit Tigers	3
											3	Detroit Tigers	4th
	American League
											1	New York Yankees	0
						1	New York Yankees	3
						WC2	Baltimore Orioles	2
	WC1	Texas Rangers	0
	WC2	Baltimore Orioles	1													AL	Detroit Tigers	0
																NL	San Francisco Giants	4th
						2	Cincinnati Reds	2
						3	San Francisco Giants	3
											3	San Francisco Giants	4th
	National League
											WC2	St. Louis Cardinals	3
						1	Washington Nationals	2
						WC2	St. Louis Cardinals	3
	WC1	Atlanta Braves	0
	WC2	St. Louis Cardinals	1

Submit Results
Wild Card Games: one game; ALDS, NLDS (Division Series): Best-of Five; ALCS, NLCS (Championship Series), World Series: Best-of-Seven

honors and awards

First baseman Miguel Cabrera. Player of the month August in the AL .

Pitcher Jake Peavy. Pitcher of the month April AL .

Player of the month

month	American League	National League
April	Josh Hamilton	Matt Kemp
May	Josh Hamilton	Giancarlo Stanton
June	José Bautista	Andrew McCutchen
July	Mike Trout	Andrew McCutchen
August	Miguel Cabrera	Chase Headley
September	Adrián Beltré	Chase Headley

Pitcher of the month

month	American League	National League
April	Jake Peavy	Stephen Strasburg
May	Chris Sale	Gio González
June	Matt Harrison	RA Dickey
July	Jason Vargas	Jordan carpenter
August	Félix Hernández	Kris Medlen
September	Justin Verlander	Kris Medlen

Rookie of the month

month	American League	National League
April	Yū Darvish	Wade Miley
May	Mike Trout	Bryce Harper
June	Mike Trout	Andrelton Simmons
July	Mike Trout	Anthony Rizzo
August	Mike Trout	Todd Frazier
September	Yoenis Cespedes	Bryce Harper

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 2012 MLB All-Star Game. MLB.com, accessed September 4, 2012 . 
2. ↑ 2012 MLB Civil Rights Game. MLB.com, accessed September 4, 2012 . 
3. ↑ 2012 Spring Training Standings. MLB.com, accessed September 4, 2012 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} MLB Standings 04/30/12. MLB.com, accessed September 5, 2012 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} MLB WC Standings 04/30/12. MLB.com, accessed September 5, 2012 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b} MLB Standings May 31, 2012. MLB.com, accessed September 5, 2012 . 
7. ↑ ^{a b} MLB WC Standings May 31, 2012. MLB.com, accessed September 5, 2012 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b} MLB Standings 07/10/12. MLB.com, accessed September 5, 2012 . 
9. ↑ ^{a b} MLB WC Standings 07/10/12. MLB.com, accessed September 5, 2012 . 
10. ↑ ^{a b} MLB Standings 08/31/12. MLB.com, accessed September 5, 2012 . 
11. ↑ ^{a b} MLB WC Standings 31.08.12. MLB.com, accessed September 5, 2012 . 
12. ↑ ^{a b} MLB Standings 03.10.12. MLB.com, accessed October 4, 2012 . 
13. ↑ ^{a b} MLB WC Standings 03.10.12. MLB.com, accessed October 4, 2012 . 
14. ^ MLB Player of the Month. baseball-almanac.com, accessed September 5, 2012 . 
15. ^ MLB Pitcher of the Month. baseball-almanac.com, accessed September 5, 2012 . 
16. ↑ MLB Rookie of the Month. baseball-almanac.com, accessed September 5, 2012 .