If you like a good divisional race (and what baseball fan doesn’t) then you have to be loving what’s happening in baseball right now. As I’ve mentioned a few times now, there are no less than 5 great divisional races going on right now. And the greatest of all the races - at least at this very moment - is in the National league East.

The New York Mets held on for the win on Wednesday night. That win over the Philadelphia Phillies pulled the Mets into a first place tie with the very same Phillies. These two teams will go at it one more time on Thursday afternoon. The winner of that game will be in first place while the loser will drop into second place, and they might just have company.

You see, this isn’t just a two team race. It’s not like you have two teams at the top and then a third team a little further back (like in the AL East and the AL Central). No, the Florida Marlins are sitting just a game back as they prepare to play another game against the Chicago Cubs on Thursday night.

This is a race with three very good teams. Honestly, I could see the Marlisn dropping off but the Phillies and the Mets will probably battle to the bitter end. And let’s not forget about the Atlanta Braves either. They are just six games back - one decent winning streak from being in the thick of things too.

It’s not even August yet and already we’ve seen a lot of great baseball and a lot of great races. If it stays this way through September then this will have to go down as one of the greatest baseball seasons ever.

This year in Major league baseball is promising to come down to the wire in just about every division. As I mentioned a couple posts ago, it looks like the American league West is decided but every other division has at least two - and sometimes four - teams vying to take the division crown. It’s unbelievable how close all the divisions have become.

The American league Central is another division that didn’t look like they had even one good team and now they suddenly have three good teams. After struggling going into the All-Star Break, the Detroit Tigers have come out and won four of six. They split with the Oriloes in Baltimore and now they’ve taken the first two games in Kansas City. On Wednesday afternoon the Tigers will go for the sweep.

Meanwhile the second place team in the AL Central, the Minnesota Twins, have lost three straight games. They now trail the Chicago White Sox by a game and a half for first place and they are just four games ahead of the Tigers.

The Chicago White Sox have been in first place for a while now. They will be there for a couple more days at least. But this weekend they go to Detroit for a big series. If they can win that three games set then they’ll push the Tigers back down. But if the Tigers win the series then it’ll be “game on”.

The Tigers will gain at least one more game in the standings and they’ll have the confidence that they can win the division. Let’s not forget that the Tigers are coming from being 12 games back just a little over a month ago. If the Tigers win on Wednesday afternoon then they’ll reach 3 games over .500 for the first time all season.

The AL Central promises to be a great division race all season. The White Sox, the Twins, or the Tigers are all very capable of winning the division. And watching who comes out ahead will be a lot of fun.

There are some great races taking place in each league in the Eastern Divisions. Both the AL East and the NL East have three teams competing to win the division. And all six of these teams are very good.

The American league East is currently led by the Tampa Bay Rays. After losing 7 straight games going into the All Star Break, the Rays have come out of the Break looking solid once again. The Rays have won three of four. Meanwhile, the Red Sox came out of the Break and promptly got swept by the Angels. The Red Sox rebounded with a win on Monday but they still sit a game and a half behind the Rays. Then at four a half games back then New York Yankees are playing great ball right now. They’re currently riding a four game winning streak.

If the Rays and the Red Sox make the mistake of thinking this is a 2 team race then the Yankees might just sneak up and rip this division away from both of them. And the Yankees are doing all of this without their #1 pitcher, Chien Ming Wang.

Over in the NL East, while the teams might not be as good, the race is even better. The New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies sit atop the division while the Florida Marlins sit just a game back. The Mets have been on fire for about two weeks and if not for their late season collapse last year, they might be the heavy favorite to win the division. But anything can happen and this division could be won by any of these three teams, or even the Atlanta Braves who are just six games back.

The races in the East are hot and only getting hotter. It promises to be an exciting August and September.

As I look around all the divisions in Major league baseball, almost every one of them is getting more and more contentious. In fact, the AL West is the only division that is slowly becoming a run away. The Anaheim Angels are running away with the division and though I think Texas is a good team I don’t think they’ll even finish just 9 games back, which is where they stand right now. The Angels are too good and they will have that division solidly wrapped-up by mid-August.

But in the NL West the Dodgers and the D-Backs are tied atop the division. They’re both 2 games below .500. Insert digusted comment here.

The AL East is looking like a great race. The Tampa Bay Rays opened up a game and a half lead over the Boston Red Sox and the Yankees have pulled within four and half games of the division lead.

The AL Central is being led by the White Sox. But the Twins are just a half game back. The Tigers clawed their way up a half game over the weekend and now sit six and half back.

The Twins and the Yankees are about to kickoff a huge series in Yankees Stadium.

The NL East has been taken over by the New York Mets. Okay, they’re actually tied with the Phillies while the Florida Marlins sit just a half game back. The Phillies and the Mets are about to battle each other at Shea Stadium.

Finally, the NL Central should be won by the Chicago Cubs but the St Louis Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers are holding on and are only two and three games back respectively.

So the races are really heating up and this is getting to be even more fun to watch.

There are a lot of great races going on right now. Perhaps the best one is the battle for first betwen the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays. After regaining a half a game lead over the Rays the Red Sox lost that lead in their first game back. The Red Sox lost to the Anaheim Angels while the Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays.

It’s amazing how good the Red Sox are at home and how bad they are on the road. Their inability to win on the road may be their downfall before everything is said and done. Meanwhile, the Rays can really help themselves out by stringing a few wins together here. They went into the All-Star Break feeling badly about themselves because they had lost a handful of games in a row. Now they can quickly turn things around. If they can win a few in a row the Odds are that the Red Sox will lose at least a couple and the Rays should be able to build more than a game lead in the AL East.

Meanwhile in the National league West, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers are battling it out for first place. The Dodgers squeeked out an 8-7 win on Firday night and pulled even with the D-Backs. So after a blistering start, the D-backs have been caught. And they both sit two games below .500. It’s too bad there’s not some mercy rule in the Majors that would just stop every team in that division from playing. Because if it wasn’t for the teams in the NL West playing each other they would all be about 20 games under .500.

Yet it’s still a good race in the NL West. And it’s a very good race in the AL East. This weekend is an important one for the Red Sox, the Rays, the Dodgers, and the Diamondbacks.

Now that we’ve gotten past the All-Star Break, teams will begin their second half marches to what they all hope is a playoff series. But some teams are already out of it and some teams have a great shot at making the playoffs. So let’s first take a look at which team fits into which category.

First let’s take a look at the teams that we can stick a fork in. These teams include the Indians, the Mariners, the Nationals, the Reds, the Astros, and the Pirates.

The Padres lead off the teams who are just about dead in the water. They should be done already but the NL West is so horrible that I can’t count any team out yet. On this list is also the Orioles, the Blue Jays (I don’t see them passing the Red Sox, Yankees, or Rays), the Royals, the Rockies, and the Giants.

Now come the teams that have a chance to make the playoffs but they’ll need a good run: the Yankees, the Tigers, the A’s, the Rangers, the Braves, the Marlins, and the Brewers.

That leave’s us with these teams who have a good shot: the Red Sox, the Rays, the Twins, the White Sox, the Angels, the Mets, the Phillies, the Cardinals, the Cubs, the Dodgers, and the Diamondbacks.

Now here is how I see it:

The Red Sox will win the AL East, the Angels will win the AL West, and the Cubs will win the NL Central. These are given in my mind.

Then I think the Rays are good enough to hang on for the Wild Card. I think the Tigers have more pitching than people think and they’ll win the AL Central. The Mets will take the NL East. The Dodgers will win the NL West thanks to Joe Torre. The Wild Card in the NL will go to the Cards.

Then we’ll see the Cubs and the Mets in the NL Championship and the Tigers and Red Sox in the Al Championship. That will be followed by a World Series of the Red Sox against the Cubs. I like the Cubs to finally win it all. But that’s just me.