Most teams are down to about their last 25 games. Only one team has been mathematically eliminated (I’m looking at you Texas), but many more are sure to NOT make the playoffs. I’m going out on a limb here to call the playoff teams.
American League:
Division Champs:
AL West: Los Angeles Angels
AL Central: Kansas City Royals
AL East: Baltimore Orioles
Wild Card Winners:
Oakland Athletics, Detroit Tigers
The Orioles are pretty much a lock in the east with a 9.5 game lead over the Yankees. The Angels have been playing some great ball lately – much better than the A’s are will hold on to first place. The Tigers play the Twins 7 times in the last few weeks and the Royals play the Red Sox and White Sox for a combined 11 games which definitely gives the Royals a schedule advantage. The two teams in a tight race also play each other 6 more times. Detroit is up 6 games to 3 on the season match-up so far but most of those games were before the Royals got hot. Regardless, this will likely be the most exciting division race leading into October.
I picked the A’s and Tigers for the Wildcard because the A’s still have the third best record in baseball and they’d have to play even worse than they currently are to lose a wildcard spot at this point. Seattle has a tough schedule with 11 more games against the A’s and Angels and I don’t think they will catch up to the Tigers.
National League:
Division Champs:
NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers
NL Central: St. Louis Cardinals
NL East: Washington Nationals
Wild Card Winners:
Milwaukee Brewers, San Francisco Giants
The closest race will be the Brewers and Cardinals in NL Central. I think the Dodgers will hold off the Giants in the West and no one is playing better than the Nationals right now in the NL.
The Braves and Pirates are jockeying for a wildcard spot and are right on the heels of the Giants and Brewers. I don’t think they are going to catch up. I feel the Giants will finish strong and the Brewers will turn around their slump. Maybe not enough to win the division, but enough to claim a wildcard spot.
Going a step further, I think the A’s will lose to Detroit in a one game playoff. Their offense will be no match for Price. Detroit will end up playing the Angels and Royals and Orioles will face off.
In the NL I think the Giants will handle the Brewers for the last wildcard team standing. This will probably set up a Nationals v. Giants matchup and Dodgers v. Cardinals.
