MLB Power Rankings: With the playoffs taking shape

In Major League Baseball’s current format, 10 teams will reach the postseason. With five days left in the 2014 regular season, seven of those 10 playoff spots are already spoken for. The final three are in the respective Wild Card races, with teams looking to have a strangle hold on a playoff berth pending a meltdown in the season’s final days.

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With that in mind, a set of MLB Power Rankings should hopefully serve two purposes. On the one hand, it should speculate as to which teams are considered the favorites to win it all among the 10 that will compete in the playoffs. As for the rest of the teams in baseball, it should attempt to project which teams are best positioned for success in the near future, having missed the postseason in 2014.

In the American League, the Los Angeles Angels continue to look like the most formidable team despite some dings to their starting rotation. They are trying to hold off the Baltimore Orioles for the right to home field advantage in the American League Championship Series. Teams like the Detroit Tigers, Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals are still dangerous because of the aces they have in their respective rotations, but they have to officially reach the postseason first, and none has done that just yet.

As for the National League, the Washington Nationals appear to be the team building the most momentum for a deep playoff run. They are also two games clear of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the right to home field in the National League Championship Series. The St. Louis Cardinals technically haven’t held off the Pittsburgh Pirates for the National League Central; you overlook either one of those teams at your own risk.

Here are the MLB Power Rankings, with the final weekend of regular season baseball upcoming.