The All-Star Break is over and it’s time to get back to the grind that is a Major League Baseball season.
With 90-plus games out of a 162-game season under our belts it appears that we are headed full-steam ahead into a 2022 World Series that will feature a classic showdown between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Or, are we?
At first glance it seems like the answer would be a resounding yes. The Yankees have the best record in baseball at this point with a 62-28 record and a winning percentage of an amazing .696 and they stand atop the AL East by 13 games over the Tampa Bay Rays. The amazing thing is that all five teams in the AL East had a record of .500 or better headed into the All-Star break.
Over in the National League the Dodgers have won two-thirds of their games and come out fo the break with a 60-30 record including a 30-13 mark at home.
But you must remember, there is a lot of seasons to be played and once we get into the playoffs nothing is a lock.
On the AL side of things, the Astros appear to be the biggest challenger to the Yanks. Houston, 59-32, is the only American League team other than NY to be above .600 (.648) at this point in the season. It seems like Houston and the Yankees will meet in the AL Championships Series.
There are six playoff spots in both leagues, so if we pencil in New York and Houston in two of those spots, that leaves seven teams with reasonable shots at the other four AL playoff positions.
One of those spots will come out of the American League Central. The Twins currently lead at 50-44, with Cleveland at 46-44 and the White Sox at 46-46. Whichever of those teams gets hot will win the division, but it is highly unlikely that any of the three Wild Card Spots will come out of the Central.
The Seattle Mariners is at 51-42 and sailed into the All-Star break on a 10-game winning streak. It seems reasonable that the M’s will be able to do what it takes to earn one of the three remaining spots.
That basically leaves the teams, other than the Yankees, in the powerful AL East battling it out for the other two spots. The only team that seems unlikely to make it is Baltimore, at 46-46 and having to face the rest of the AL East multiple times down the stretch dampens their chances.
Currently Tampa is 51-41, followed by Toronto at 50-43 and the Red Sox at 48-45. While it is possible all three of these teams will rise above the Mariners, Seattle’s schedule is easier than the teams in the AL East.
Tampa and Toronto have been treading water as of late, while Boston has been slumping.
Your AL Division winners will be New York, Houston, and Chicago, with the Mariners, Rays, and Red Sox taking the Wild Card Spots. The Yankees and the Astros will play for the AL title, with the Yanks earning a spot in the World Series.
In the National League the only division that appears to be a sure thing is the Dodgers winning the West. They have a 10-game lead over the Padres, who are 52-42.
Both the NL Central and NL East will likely be competitive all the way to the end.
It seems likely that both the New York Mets, who have a 58-35 record with a .624 winning percentage, and the Atlanta Braves, who are 56-38 with a .596, will both make the playoffs. The drama will be surrounding which team will win the division and which will make the playoffs via the Wild Card route.
With the history of the Braves winning the NL East and the Mets having shown the tendency to run out of gas down the stretch, it would be hard to go against Atlanta winning the East.
The Brewers and the Cards are in a dog fight in the Central, with Milwaukee standing at 50-43 and St. Louis at 50-44. While I believe in the St. Louis legacy, the Brewers have the edge win this division because they will play nine more home games over the last part of the season than the Cardinals.
The NL Division winners will be the Braves, Brewers, and Dodgers. That leaves the Mets as a Wild Card team to be joined by two of the following: Philadelphia (49-43), Cardinals, Padres (52-42) and Giants (48-43). While the Phillies, Padres, and perhaps even the Giants might be better than St. Louis, the fact that the Cardinals will be closing out their season with multiple series with the Pirates, Cubs, and Reds give them an edge.
Your NL Wild Card teams will be New York, St. Louis and San Francisco, with a surprise match-up in the NL Championship Series. The Dodgers have shown they can get beat in the playoff series leading up to the World Series, no matter how good they are, leading to a match-up between the Braves and the Mets for the NL Championship. The Braves will top the Mets once again to set up a World Series match-up between the Yankees and the Braves.
My heart says Atlanta will win back-to-back World Series, but reality, history, and my eyeballs say the Yankees will win the World Series in either five or six games.
Do I have all of this right? That’s very unlikely, but you just never know.
Austin Bishop, AKA The Old Sports Dude, has been covering high school, college, amateur, and professional sports since 1975. He is currently pastor of Great Commission Assembly of God in Philadelphia, Miss. He may be contacted by email at starsportsboss@yahoo.com or by phone at 601-938-2471.
