The American League -Two Months to go!

Division Playoff Scenarios

There are two months to go in the season and the American League is already pretty much set in terms of playoffs, and has been since early June. The AL Central is a joke, with only the Indians, who are up by 10 games over Minnesota making the Playoffs and are set as the Third seed. Cory Kluber (2.79 ERA) has won 13 so far and is a true Ace. The rest of this division is woeful, from 40 games under Kansas City to the weak ass Tigers and White Sox.

The World Series Champion Houston Astros are headed toward 100 games won and are penciled into the 2^nd Seed with a 5 or so game lead over the surprising Oakland A’s and the fading Mariners. The Astros rotation of Verlander (2.24 ERA), Charlie Morton 12-2 (2.90 ERA) and Cole (2.55 ERA) is again solid enough to breeze through this Division and into the second round of the Playoffs. Oakland and Seattle will fight for the last spot, the 5 seed, to compete in the ridiculous one-game playoff against presumably the Yankees or the Red Sox (if they fall apart). The Angels, after losing Otani and the Texas Rangers are nowhere in the picture.

Disparity

A very likely and unique situation exists this year for the first time in history where three teams in the AL could lose 100 games and three teams could win 100 games. Along with the Royals and the White Sox, Baltimore is sinking fast toward 100 losses, if not 110. They sold off half their players before the trade deadline. Machado to L.A., Britton to the Yanks, etc. The Haves and Have Nots, Disparity, in more ways than one!

The Astros, Yankees and Red Sox are all storming to 100 wins or more and the Yankees and Red Sox fighting it out for the Division is going to be a blast going down to the wire, as long as the Yankees don’t drift any lower. Injuries to Sanchez and Judge and a lack of reliable starting pitching have challenged Aaron Boone lately in coming up with a decent lineup and rotation.

The Red Sox, having played an easy schedule so far, will have to step it up against teams with a winning record, against which, they are only playing .500 ball. Their lineup has been unstoppable with Betts and Martinez and throw in Chris Sale starting every five days and you have the making of a Championship team. New York has relied on Severino and Tanaka and a strong bullpen along with young stars Aaron Hicks, Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres to propel them to a record of 30 games over. 500. Stanton and Gregorius have been productive enough but the overall strikeouts are a concern. Living and dying by the HR can jump up and bite you!

If the Yankees can keep it to within 3 games of the Sox heading into the last series of the year (NYY @ BOS) then late September in Fenway will be a madhouse. Unfortunately, the loser of the division, winner of over 100 games, will be the 4 seed and have to face (at home at least) either the 90 game winning A’s or Seattle in a one-game winner take all game.

The One Game Playoff

This Bullshit one game playoff is where the HUGE problem lies. First off it’s ridiculous for one game to decide who plays in the ALDS, at least two out of three makes sense. Anything can happen in one baseball game and after playing 162 games and being 10 games better than the other team, it’s not even close to fair that one shitty game can kill off a team with 100 wins!

Additionally, suppose the division winner/ one game Wild Card scenario comes down to the last game of the season. The Yankees can’t save Severino and the Red Sox can’t protect Sale so they’ll have to use their best pitcher to try to win the division. That means that the loser won’t be able to use their best pitcher for the one-game playoff, and maybe the A’s or Mariners will have to do so. C.C. Sabathia or Tanaka is just not the same as Luis Severino. Same goes for Porcello and Rodriguez.

So the AL is six teams for five spots and the Yankees/ Red Sox and the A’s/ Mariners is the only drama.

Again, MLB has to get their shit together on this one game play in bullshit, this isn’t the NCAA Tournament game between the 66^th and 67^th seed!

-HB