MLB Playoff Picture

American League

AL East: The Boston Red Sox, aka “Beast of the East”, with their soaring offense led by their offseason acquisition of JD Martinez, who is leading nearly all of the three Triple Crown categories. JD is leading in RBI’s with 115 and is tied with teammate Mookie Betts in the batting average category with .335.  JD Is also one HR shy of tying the Oakland A’s right fielder Khris Davis who has 39.  With the power of Martinez and Betts the Sox have the 2^nd most home runs as a team in all of baseball, next to Cleveland, and are on pace to a 115-win season which will be the most ever in franchise history.

AL East: The New York Yankees are second in the East 9.5GB of the Boston Red Sox, but are in good position to make the playoffs via the “Wild Card Game” and they sit at the top spot +3.5 on the Oakland A’s. Even though they had higher expectations going into the season with the raining rookie of the year Aaron Judge (who is on the DL) and offseason acquisition of Giancarlo Stanton from the Marlins, which the Yankees are going to pay him $325million for 13 years, and he’s only hitting .270 with 33HRs.  Some might say he is having a down year from last when he hit 59HRs.  Although despite Judge being out and Stanton’s perceived struggles at the plate, the Yankees did find a diamond in the rough in their rookie 2B Gleyber Torres who has 22 HRs, 66 RBIs and is hitting .277.  He is one of many rookies who is in the “Rookie of the Year” conversation.

AL Central: The Cleveland Indians meanwhile are well on their way into the playoffs. With the help of third basemen Jose Ramirez, who leads the team in home runs with 37 and 96 RBI’s,       the Tribe has a 20.0 game lead over the second place Minnesota Twins. In addition, Trevor Bauer who has 12 wins and a 2.22 ERA leads the starting pitching (lowest on Indians).  This will be the third consecutive year that the Indians will be the winners of the AL Central lead by their manager Terry Francona.  One thing that is definite is that Indians fans DO NOT want to see them get knocked out of the playoffs in the first round like last year’s 3-1 ALDS series loss to the Yankees.

AL West: The defending World Series Champions Houston Astros who are tied in the West with Oakland for the top spot. It has been obvious that this year has not been like last year for the Astros in terms of winning the division.  Last year the Astros soared up the West standings finishing with a 101-win season.  However, this year winning the West has been far from a cakewalk.  It has been a dogfight since mid to late July when the Oakland A’s were starting to sneak up on the Astros for the top spot.  The Astros have had some early season magic by their three of their five starting pitchers all having an ERA under 2.00 in the month of April.

AL Central: The Cleveland Indians are well on their way into the playoff with a 20.0 game lead over the second place Minnesota Twins. However, it could not be possible without their Third Basemen Jose Ramirez who leads the team in home runs with 37 and 96 RBIs and the Starting Pitcher Trevor Bauer who has 12 wins and a 2.22 ERA (lowest on Indians).  One thing that is definite is that Indians fans DO NOT want to see them get knocked out of the playoffs in the first round like last year’s 3-1 ALDS series loss to Yankees.

Stats updated as of

9/9 & 9/10