1. St. Louis Cardinals (93-56, Last Week-1): Their lead dwindled down to two games, but a good week has gotten them back to a comfortable four-game lead.
2. Pittsburgh Pirates (89-60, Last Week-3): The downfall for the Pirates could be their play in their division (29-38) as the wild card game and, if they win the wild card game, the division series will be against NL Central teams.
3. Toronto Blue Jays (85-64, Last Week-2): They can put away the division by Wednesday if they take advantage and beat the Yankees in their last series head-to-head. They could also be in second place if they get swept.
4. Chicago Cubs (87-62, Last Week-7): The Cubs won 3 of 4 from Pittsburgh and 2 of 3 from St. Louis this week. So, unlike the Pirates, they could advance to the NLCS due to their strong play (37-27) within their division.
5. Los Angeles Dodgers (85-63, Last Week-5): With the division pretty much won, the only race they have is for home-field advantage in the division series against the Mets. In order for this to happen, they must win all Greinke and Kershaw starts, which they did not against the Pirates when Kershaw lost on Saturday against Liriano.
6. Kansas City Royals (87-62, Last Week-4): Johnny Cueto finally turned in a good start for the Royals on Friday. In fact, it was his first quality start since August 15th.
7. New York Mets (84-65, Last Week-6): All of a sudden, Cespedes has gone cold going 2 for his 23 at the plate. Hopefully for the Mets this is just a blip in what has been a great second half for him.
8. New York Yankees (82-66, Last Week-8): Unfortunately for the Yankees, they lose Tanaka for at least one start (at Toronto) due to a hamstring strain suffered against the Mets. Bad timing for the Yankees.
9. Texas Rangers (80-69, Last Week-10): The Rangers took over first place by sweeping the Astros in four games at home and it looks like they have the pitching to hold the Astros off.
10. Houston Astros (79-71, Last Week-9): Their road woes finally caught up to them after they fell out of first place because of a 2-8 road trip. They’ll have an opportunity to climb back into first this weekend when they play Texas at home.
11. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (76-63, Last Week-13): Big series win for them in Minnesota, but it is do or die for them with the biggest series of the season starting tonight at Houston. It won’t be easy as Keuchel is set to face them in the first game.
12. Minnesota Twins (76-73, Last Week-11): Had the opportunity to climb ahead of the Astros for the final wild card spot, but they went on a losing streak of their own and are now on the fringes of falling out of the race. A tough series against Cleveland is next.
13. San Francisco Giants (78-71, Last Week-12): This season won’t bring playoff baseball to San Francisco, but the team is in good shape for the future with Matt Duffy, Brandon Crawford, Joe Panik, and Brandon Belt anchoring down the infield for years to come.
14. Washington Nationals (78-71, Last Week-14): September has been great for Strasburg who has a 1.61 ERA, 0.67 WHIP and 37 strikeouts in 22.1 innings.
15. Cleveland Indians (74-74, Last Week-15): It will be nearly impossible for the Indians to make it to the playoffs, but their shortstop Lindor is legit. He has a slash line of .316/.353/.478 as a 21-year old.
16. Baltimore Orioles (73-76, Last Week-18): Wei-Yin Chen has been one of the few positives for the Orioles, pitching the best he’s ever done in his career.
17. Boston Red Sox (71-77, Last Week-17): Boston has been a much better team over the last month and a half and that is partly due to the emergence of Jackie Bradley Jr. and improved pitching.
18. Seattle Mariners (73-77, Last Week-19): They have a legitimate chance to reach .500 for the season, which would be an accomplishment because they hovered around 8 to 10 games below most of the season.
19. Tampa Bay Rays (72-77, Last Week-16): Logan Forsythe has had a career year with a slash line of .283/.361/.449 compared to a career slash line of .252/.323/.379.
20. Arizona Diamondbacks (71-78, Last Week-20): Paul Goldschmidt is struggling to hit for average over his last 30 games hitting just .241, but his OBP has been fine at .379 over the same time period.
21. Chicago White Sox (70-78, Last Week-21): Chris Sale has not been the same during the month of September with an ERA of 5.40.
22. San Diego Padres (70-80, Last Week-22): Derek Norris has been a disappointment this season with an OBP below .300 and an OPS below .700.
23. Detroit Tigers (69-79, Last Week-23): Even though it’s been a bad season, shortstop Jose Iglesias has improved greatly, hitting .300 on the season.
24. Oakland A’s (64-86, Last Week-25): Barry Zito is back! It would be pretty cool if Oakland allowed him to pitch against Tim Hudson this weekend against the Giants.
25. Milwaukee Brewers (63-86, Last Week-24): They hired Astros assistant GM David Stearns, which is a good hire as he uses and understands saber metrics and has an extensive MLB background at only 30.
26. Miami Marlins (64-86, Last Week-26): Christian Yelich has turned his season around after a horrible start and is now hitting .291/.354/.400.
27. Cincinnati Reds (63-85, Last Week-27): A big plus for them is that they have been able to give Anthony DeSclafani almost 180 innings this season. This has allowed him to develop as a pitcher and potentially become a solid starter next season.
28. Colorado Rockies (63-86, Last Week-28): Not one of their starters this season with at least 10 starts has an ERA under 4.00.
29. Atlanta Braves (60-90, Last Week-30): The Braves have been on fire as of late going 4-6 in their last 10 games. Hey, a .400 winning percentage is hot for them.
30. Philadelphia Phillies (56-94, Last Week-29): They have started to get separation in the race for the #1 pick. With a four game lead, it will be hard for them to lose (win?) it.
Sources:
MLB.com
http://www.scrippsmedia.com/wtmj/shows/wisconsins-morning-news/Prince-Fiedler-bobble-head-doll-day-259778331.html