MLB Playoff Picture Overview and Postseason Analysis

When thinking about the MLB regular season thus far, four words sum it up pretty well: the Dodgers are dominating. As of Monday the 12^th, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the only team in the league with over 90 wins. In fact, they are all the way at 98 wins. The next closest team in the league is the Houston Astros with 92 wins. In addition to this, after their game on September 12^th, the Dodgers are now the first team to clinch a playoff spot. The Dodgers are now the NL West Champions for the ninth time in 10 years. This is also their 10th consecutive post-season appearance. The only issue is that among these, none of them have resulted in a World Series title, but they will most certainly be hoping to change that this year. As far as the rest of the MLB is concerned, there are six divisions, three in each league (American and National). If the season was to end today, the leaders in each would move on to the playoffs. For the American league, these would be the Yankees for the AL East, the Guardians for the AL Central, and the Astros for the AL West. As for the National league, the Mets lead the NL East, the Cardinals for the NL Central, and the Dodgers for the NL West. In addition to the division leaders, there is also another way to the playoffs for some teams. These are called the wildcard spots. There are three of these per league, making it six teams total each league sends to the playoffs. The wildcards are a bit more of a complicated topic with many teams in each league vying for these coveted spots. Looking at the current division standings, the Astros are most likely to clinch next, followed by the Mets and the Yankees in no particular order. However, these predictions are still up in the air as much of the NL and the AL East in particular are still quite contested. With that all in mind, the playoff scene this year is larger than last, with 12 teams now in play versus the old 10, this being due to the addition of an extra wildcard spot for each respective league. Taking my bias somewhat into account here, the Yankees will be looking for their first World Series win since 2009. The issue with the Yankees at the moment is that they have sort of fallen into a phase of injury. Injured players include Anthony Rizzo and D.J LeMahieu, who were integral parts of the teams successes mid season. Now, of course, injuries are in way “par for the course” throughout the long season that is the MLB regular season, but when it comes to the post-season teams such as the Yankees will want to have their top players back to 100%. The saving grace that they have, though, is Aaron Judge. He is now up to 59 home runs on the season as of yesterday, and he only continues to look like he will continue that trend of dominance at the plate. Team biases aside, what will be interesting to see is if teams such as the Dodgers and/or the Yankees of whom have a historic record of making the playoffs can win a world series championship. The only issue is that these two teams, among others, have just never been able to put it together enough in order to win a Championship. Will this be one of those teams years? We’ll just have to wait and see as the postseason progresses.