Well, the Boston Red Sox are the American League Eastern Division champs for the first time since 1995. They’re tied with the Indians for top seed, and Boston holds the tie-breaker. As it stands now, the Red Sox will host the Angels and the Indians will host the Yankees. Unlike most years, all 4 of these teams could pull it off, so it should be exciting.
What’s interesting is that none of the National League teams have clinched, with only 2 or 3 games left. There are 7 teams in contention on the final weekend of the year. I don’t remember one league being clinched and almost done seeding while the other league has nothing.
Baseball Prospectus, one of the more popular sabermetric, websites, has a Red Sox/Cubs World Series in this prediction, based on power pitching, defense, and closer stature. This doesn’t have the apocalyptic feeling that such a series would have had before 2004, but I think that would be a fantastic series. Both teams have a huge national fanbase, and could drive the highest World Series ratings in recent memory.