It’s essentially all decided for the Atlanta Braves… except for their 1st round opponent. As for that, there’s still some work to be done.
A few playoff teams are already decided: the Yankees, the Astros, the Dodgers, and our Atlanta Braves.
The Minnesota Twins haven’t clinched… but they will. Their schedule is loaded with the Royals and Tigers to finish the entire last week. They really can’t possibly blow this.
As it is, Major League Baseball is probably thrilled that this group of confirmed playoff entrants can be counted on less than 1 hand given that we do only have 10 days remaining in the regular season.
Their goal, of course, is to have more teams playing “meaningful baseball” for as long as possible.
Even at this point, you might be a bit surprised how many teams that includes.
Let’s get the American League out of the way first.
AL DIVISION WINNERS AND SEEDS
- 1 and 2: the Astros and Yankees in some order with the bet here being that the Astros take the top seed (they hold a 4-3 advantage in the head-to-head in-season matchup, plus a half-game lead otherwise).
- The top seed (Astros?) will get the Wild Card winner. The second seed will host the Twins.
- About that AL Wild Card…
It’s now down to 3 teams for 2 spots, with Oakland looking like a good bet to be the host of the Wild Card game.
Between the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Indians, there’s good reasons to pull the plug on either club, but one of them will make the post-season.
The Indians have a tough-ish finishing schedule (PHL, CWS, WSH). Also note that they have beaten the Tigers into submission, completing an 18-1 drubbing of them in the season series last night. That means they’ve had trouble against… pretty much everyone else.
The Rays have an unpredictable Red Sox club, 2 games with the Yankees, then finish with the Blue Jays.
Nothing in those 2 schedules is ‘for sure’, but the Rays should have enough to get the privilege of flying from Toronto to Oakland for a 1-game do-or-die playoff game.
Meanwhile, Oakland should more-or-less cruise through the Rangers, Angels, and Mariners.
I expect the A’s to host and to win the Wild Card game… and then get manhandled by the Astros. Likewise, the Yankees should bludgeon the Twins unmercifully.