Baseball Playoffs Lineup Nearly Set

The final Major League Baseball standings are just about set for postseason play. Even though it's only Sept. 3, the eight teams are nearly set for the playoffs. The typical divisional battles to end the regular season are just about nonexistent and might be down to just the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees to decide which team wins the American League East and which becomes the wild card team.

Taking a hard look at the standings, outside of the AL East, the closest second place team is 4 1/2 games out of first. That's taking place in the West, where the Texas Rangers are trying to hold off the Los Angeles Angels. The teams will play each other three times to end the regular season, so it's possible that it could be a series to help decide the West. That is contingent upon the Angels winning a bunch of ballgames before then though.

In the AL Central, the Detroit Tigers are 5 1/2 games ahead of a Cleveland Indians team that appears to be destined to not make a real challenge. The Indians can't seem to put a good win streak together, and that has allowed the Tigers (now 76-62) to begin padding a divisional lead.

Out in the National League, things are starting to almost look set in stone as well. The Milwaukee Brewers lead the Central by 8 1/2 games and the Philadelphia Phillies lead the East by 8 1/2 games. The Atlanta Braves are the wild card leaders and are ahead by eight games. The only race that is somewhat close is between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants in the West. That battle is separated by five games, but the Giants can't seem to find a real offense to get a win streak going.

It's highly possible that the eight teams controlling the playoff spots today will be the same eight that make it into the playoffs. It would be quite a turnaround for the Diamondbacks because this is a team that finished last in the West during the 2010 season. Everything else could have been pretty predictable at the beginning of the season; especially Boston and New York posting the two best records in the American League.