It's pretty safe to eliminate the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals from the American League playoffs.
It's probably safe to pull the plug on the Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Angels, who are chasing the Texas Rangers for the AL-West title, and the Toronto Blue Jays, who led the East 13 games into the season, now have too much ground to make up in the division and Wild Card.
The three teams ahead of Toronto in the East are socking each other around mercilessly for likely two spots while the Detroit Tigers who, despite struggling in the second-half, can climb back into the thick of the Central race when the division-leading Chicago White Sox come to town on August 3.
Prediction: New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Rangers, Minnesota Twins
Tampa Ties Yankees Atop NL East Thanks to Toronto
The AL East has clearly been baseball's top division this year. So often, the East has housed the team with the best record, the Wild-Card leader and the team in second in the Wild-Card standings.
Those teams lately have been the Yankees (66-39), Devil Rays (66-39) and Boston Red Sox (60-46), in that order.
Earlier this season, Tampa Bay led the division for a few months until New York surpassed them while Boston has scraped themselves off the canvas of futility early on in the season and are now fighting injuries as well as the two most talented teams in baseball for the division and Wild Card.
Tigers' Wild-Card Chances Slipping Away as White Sox Lead AL Central
In speaking of mysteries, the White Sox, who were supposed to challenge for the AL-Central title, were as many as nine games below .500 this season before two lengthy winning streaks launched them into first place.
The two teams who had been leading the division virtually the entire first-half have stumbled midway through the season.
The Tigers (52-52) have dropped 14 of 18 contests since the All-Star break while the Twins (59-47) have shaken off finishing the first-half 3-7 to remain a viable threat to the White Sox (59-45) capturing the Central.
Rangers Roll in AL West as Angels, A's Fade
Texas (61-44) is wrangling in the AL-West crown while LA (54-53) and Oakland (53-52) try to keep up.
Despite going 9-2 in a 11-game stretch, the A's were only able to trim a 9.5-game deficit to 7.5 games on July 25 before Texas took two of three against Oakland to extend their lead in the division by a game.
Conversely, the Angels lost seven of eight games before taking two of three against the Rangers who dropped to 20-11 against the West this year.
NL Wild-Card Predictions
More teams can be eliminated from the National League playoffs. Bye Pittsburgh Pirates, Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros. So long Washington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers.
The Los Angeles Dodgers slow second-half start has them next in line to say goodbye to their post-season dreams while the Florida Marlins and New York Mets are getting closer and closer to being eliminated as well, but with the Atlanta Braves sputtering, the NL East remains wide open as the Wild-Card leading Giants keep piling up the wins.
The NL Central runner-up figures to be the stiffest competition for the NL-West's runner-up Wild-Card dreams while the streaky Philadelphia Phillies and Colorado Rockies cannot be ruled out of crashing the post-season party.
Prediction: San Diego Padres, Giants, Cincinnati Reds, Braves
Atlanta Aims to Add Another NL-East Crown
Philadelphia, among others, are hoping Atlanta continues to falter after an NL-best 53-36 start. Atlanta's lost nine of their last 16 games to leave the Phillies (57-48), Marlins (53-52) and Mets (53-53) believing they still can catch the Braves (60-45) for the NL-East crown.
After starting the second-half 1-6 on the road, the Phillies strung together 8-straight wins at home to climb back into the division-and-Wild-Card races.
Meanwhile it's been tough sledding for the Mets who led the Wild Card at the end of June. A 9-17 July dropped them 6.5 games behind in the division and Wild Card in a tie with the surging Marlins who won 11 of their last 15 games to finish the month.
Team in Red: Reds or Cardinals will Win NL Central
It's almost a foregone conclusion that a team wearing red will win the NL Central. The division winners will likely either be the Reds (60-47) or St. Louis Cardinals (59-47) with the runner-up possibly snatching the Wild Card.
After winning eight straight, St. Louis shot 1.5 games ahead of Cincinnati who have won five of their last six to retake the lead in the Central.
In one of the best division races in baseball, the Central-winner could be determined during the final series of the regular season when St. Louis hosts Colorado and Milwaukee travels to Cincinnati.
Padres, Giants Chase California Dreams: NL-West Title, Wild Card
San Diego has led the NL West since June 17. It's hard imagining the Padres conceding the division, especially since starting the second-half on a tear by winning nine of their first 12 games.
Although, if anyone is going to supplant the Padres, it might as well be the Giants who have been on fire since starting July 1-3 on the road. San Francisco has won 12 of their last 14 games away from the bay and eight of their last 11 at home to grab the Wild-Card spot with two months to go in the regular season.
Elsewhere, the Dodgers lost their first six games after the break and have only won once in 10 second-half road games. Also tumbling were the Rockies who started July 8-1, but lost 12 of their next 14 to fall 9 games behind the division-leading Padres.
Fortunately for Colorado (55-50), they've won their last four games leading up to a big two-game series at home with San Francisco (61-45) on August 3 while San Diego (62-42) smashed LA (54-52) tonight to begin a pivotal four-game series.
Tyrone Bowman - I'm 25, a recent Journalism graduate of Sacramento State, love the outdoors and am ultra-competitive. I thrive for perfection even though ...
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