MLB Playoff Outlook

With the trading deadline passed and about a month and half until the end of the regular season, its time to separate the pretenders from the contenders in Major League Baseball. An especially tight race is developing in the National League with ten teams all in the wild card race. The American League has equally close races for division titles and their own wild card. So lets look at each division individually to see who will be playing October Baseball.
With the trade to get Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle, the Yankees finally have overtaken the Red Sox in the A.L. East. Boston did not help their own cause by not picking up anybody at the trading deadline then losing five of six to the Devil Rays and Royals to blow a four game lead. With Matsui and Sheffield looking to return soon, New York looks to strong to be caught by an inconsistent Red Sox club and the Bronx Bombers seem prepared to capture another division title.
The Tigers still have a five and half game lead over the White Sox in the A.L. Central despite getting swept by Chicago. It will be interesting to see if Detroit can the hold the lead though since they are so good against bad/average teams and not so good against the better ones. But with series still against Chicago, Boston, New York, Texas and Anaheim, it will be a struggle. I’m still going to pick the Tigers to win the division though since its too hard to steal Cinderella’s shoe this late.
The Athletics have the A.L. West to lose with their four and half game lead over the Angels, but Anaheim has finally started to play close to their potential to create a tight race. Billy Beane has developed another fine crop of young ball players and they always seem to play their best down the stretch. So I’ll give it to the A’s in a close one that will probably come down to the final week.
For the first time in quite awhile, it looks like the wild card won’t be coming out of the East. The Red Sox seem to be far from playing their best baseball and with the White Sox having a two game lead, you’ve got to believe that the defending champions are eventually going to play some quality baseball and put themselves in the playoffs. The Twins are still in the race but with Lirano on the D.L. they probably won’t be able to maintain the pace.
Now to the N.L. East: Next. The Mets have dominated from start to finish and have a 15 game lead. It will be interesting to see how they perform in October when the competition heats up. Hope the league doesn’t take the division title banner to Atlanta out of habit.
The Cardinals shot of the blocks in the N.L. Central at the beginning but have failed to pull away in the second half and they only have a game and half lead over the persistent Reds. They will still probably go on to win the division with all their talent and experience but Cincinnati and the second half supermen out of Houston will surely make it interesting.
The N.L. West has been a rollercoaster from the beginning and is going to keep going up and down until the end. The team of the week is the Dodgers after their hot streak but every team has a chance especially the Padres and Diamondbacks. As for the winner, you’re guess as good as mine.
The wild card is incredibly close. Six teams all within four games of each other. I’ll place my bet on the Reds, they’ve hung tough the whole year and Ken Griffey Jr. knows that his will be one of his best chances to get back into the playoffs and he should play with a lot of fire.
This ought to be one of the tightest playoff races in recent memories with so many teams still in the hunt for the wildcard. There are some teams that are definitely going to be playing in October as we have looked at, but with a month and half of the season and less than fifty games still ahead expect the pretenders to start to drop. Its time to see which teams are really serious about playing in the playoffs, so sit back enjoy the fight.