Three-Quarter Point MLB Review

We're at the point in the baseball season where every team has 40 games or less to go, so I wanted to look at the league as a whole, before I start looking in-depth at St. Louis (which I'll post later today).

So Boston is up six games on the Yankees, which has my friend Ken pretty disgusted. I'd feel bad for him, but I don't want both the Red Sox and the Yankees in the postseason, so I'm not too troubled by it. The Tigers and the Indians keep trading off the Al Central division lead, as neither one seems to able to play well enough to knock the other one out. Meanwhile, the Angels can't quite shake the Mariners, as Seattle sits two games back, and in control of the wild card. I like it when the playoffs introduce me to teams I haven't seen much of like (like the Raptors in the NBA playoffs this last spring), so I'd like to see Seattle hang on to the wild card, with Anaheim, Cleveland, and either the Red Sox or the Yankees (I'd like for Ken to be able to root for the Yankees, but if Boston blew their divisional lead, the rest of the country would never hear the end of their bitching and self-flagellating.

In the National League, you've got the Mets continuing to hold, apparently out of a rough patch I thought they were having a while back. The Diamondbacks continue to hold the NL West lead, despite all predictions that they'll fall back to earth, but I have to wonder who would catch them? San Diego can't hit, about half the Dodgers are on the DL, and the Rockies are, well, the Rockies. I have a hard time believing in them (which should probably be true of Arizona as well, but they've got the lead, so their job is easier). And then there's the NL Central, where the Cards are in it, in large part because Milwaukee and Chicago couldn't be bothered to play well the last month or so. Despite their being in third, the Cards aren't all that bad off. Nobody really expects them to win the division (except terrified Brewer and Cub fans). Meanwhile, the Brewers have to deal with talk of them choking their huge divisional lead away (they were on pace for 94 wins after 81 games; after 122 they were only on pace for 82), and the Cubs have to grapple with the fact they really are the most talented team in the division, so why aren't they running away with the Central again?

Playoff picks:

AL: Boston, Cleveland, Anaheim, Seattle (wild card)
NL: New York, St. Louis (what the hell, why not?), Arizona, Colorado (wild card)