Talkin' Teams - American League

I rip through all 15 teams in the American League, looking at their trade deadlines and seeing how they shape up for the playoff push.

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Check it out on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

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Just going to give the predictions here without the details, listen to the pod for the full information!

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AL East

1. Yankees (Division)

2. Orioles (Wild Card)

3. Red Sox (Wild Card)

4. Rays

5. Blue Jays

I think the Yankees hold off the O’s, I like their rotation depth better and Soto/Judge/Jazz is so tough.

There’s clearly at least two playoff teams here, and possibly three if the Red Sox can keep it going. They’ll get Casas back as well, so they could be a pretty strong team with Pivetta + Crawford + Houck.

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AL Central

1. Guardians (Division)

2. Twins (Wild Card)

3. Royals

4. Tigers

5. White Sox

There are no teams here that blow you away. The Guardians are in good enough shape to hold off the division, but I’m not sure who the best team is here. The Royals seemingly are pitching over their heads, so I’ll take the Twins to beat them out with Royce Lewis healthy and a nice 1-2-3 in the rotation.

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AL West

1. Mariners (Division)

2. Astros (Wild Card)

3. Rangers

4. Angels

5. Athletics

It’s too bad that the Rangers are where they are; they could have been a really tough out in the playoffs with deGrom + Eovaldi + Scherzer, and still some impact bats. But they are eight games out of the Wild Card, so I don’t think they’ll get there.

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Playoff Prediction

1. Yankees (Division)

2. Guardians (Division)

3. Mariners (Division)

4. Orioles (Wild Card)

5. Red Sox (Wild Card)

6. Astros (Wild Card)

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Personally, if I can’t have the Pirates, I would love to see a Yankees vs. Dodgers World Series. I can’t believe I’d even say that as a small-market fan, but man that would be fun.

Thanks for checking out this mini-series!