Rankings/List

With the MLB playoff picture finally taking shape in the last week of the regular season, three teams are getting hot at just the right time. The Oakland Athletics have won their past five games, and have locked up the AL West. The Tampa Bay Rays are fresh off a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles, and the Cincinnati Reds have won seven of their past nine games.  

Baseball season is fast approaching its 162nd game and regular season conclusion. For the second year, though, four teams will be playing game 163. Since being implemented last season, much has been said about the incongruity of a one-game playoff after a 162-game marathon, and the debate will likely continue as long as it exists. For now, though, 90-plus wins may only be good for one extra game.

Congratulations to the 11 MLB teams that entered play on Monday with at least a 25 percent chance of making the playoffs, but only five of them are actually contenders to win the 2013 World Series.

Not all World Series champions are created equal, but recent winners have a handful of things in common that suggest a possible formula for identifying the true candidates to win it all.

Baseball's playoff races are scorching in both leagues with less than a week left in the 2013 MLB regular season.

There are still a pair of divisions up for grabs and one game separating three teams for two AL wild-card berths.

Some of those teams have reached this point by riding the backs of players on tremendous hot streaks, while other contenders have hung in despite key players struggling.

Clutch can go both ways.

Last week, we looked at the most clutch hitters in Major League Baseball, and this time around, we'll do the same for pitchers. After all, with playoff berths, positioning on the line and the postseason itself looming, this is when clutch really counts.

There are still games to be played, some very meaningful, but there's no question that front offices for all 30 teams have already started preparing their offseason game plans.

Which free agents will they target? Which of their own free agents will they try and retain? Which players should they target in a trade, and which of their own players are expendable? How much money will be available to spend? Which of their minor league players are ready to make an impact at the big league level.

At 93-61, the Boston Red Sox are steamrolling the American League, guaranteed a spot in the postseason and likely headed for the top seed in the league.

When October arrives, expect Boston to take on the winner of the six-team wild-card bonanza currently taking place in the American League. Assuming Boston does hold on to the top spot in eh AL, it will be taking on an opponent that expended energy throughout September just to reach the Division Series.

The Cincinnati Reds have had their fair share of ups and downs this season. Many sportswriters (including me) had them taking the NL Central for the second-straight year.

However, this season has been nothing short of a dramatic uphill climb. The best part is that there are still nine extremely important games left as the Reds now sit only two games back of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Cincinnati Reds fans are getting a glimpse of one of the team's top prospects, but most of the team's top prospects are still a few years away from making an impact with the team.

A few recent draft picks have shot up the team's prospect rankings. The team has a lot of talented arms in the system, so fans should be excited as the pitchers work their way through the system.

Boston’s dismal 2012 season at the major league level overshadowed the organization’s enormous progress made on the farm.

This year, many of the prospects that took a step forward last season have played a role in the team’s overwhelming success, as they enter Tuesday’s game with an MLB-best 92-59 record and are on the verge of clinching a postseason berth.