Rankings/List

October is about pitching. 

It's about front-line starters like Jon Lester and Clayton Kershaw and airtight bullpens like those of the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Mariners. Since teams are consistently facing off against the best pitching in baseball, October is also the time of year when lineups have to scratch out runs by any means necessary. Clubs have to be capable of scoring in a variety of ways, from clutch home runs to perfectly executed small ball. 

The door to The Show opened for some of baseball’s top prospects Monday with the expansion of the active roster from 25 to 40 players.

The Los Angeles Dodgers wasted no time promoting outfielder Joc Pederson, as the team purchased his contract from Triple-A Albuquerque before Monday’s game.

The Blue Jays and Royals took advantage of the expanded rosters by each calling up a pair of non-roster prospects.

Only in Major League Baseball do the rosters magically multiply during the most important month of the season. While some teams simply let their September call-ups tag along to watch a postseason race unfold in person, others clear the farm system and give their prospects their first taste of MLB action.

An odd rule, yes, but one that provides fans with an exciting sneak preview of the future. 

Regular-season success and postseason success are often two different things in Major League Baseball, as some teams are simply better built for postseason success.

The article ahead offers an in-depth look at the seven teams best built to win in October.

The following areas carried the most weight when it came to ranking the teams:

The 2014 season has seen a number of notable prospects receive call-ups to the major leagues. With the final month and the corresponding roster expansion approaching, there will be more to come—and soon.

September brings with it 40-man rosters, so Monday should be filled with prospects getting promoted.

During the past week or so, Jorge Soler and Daniel Corcino debuted, among a handful of others.

Thanks to the endless stream of MLB whispers, news and speculation, it is a fine time to be a fan of the game.

From watching the waiver wire to see who's cleared and is eligible to be traded to keeping up with the latest rookie call-ups and analyzing the postseason picture, there is always something to grab your attention. 

So what new bits of gossip that made their way around MLB over the last seven days are there for us to dissect?

MLB roster expansions are nearly upon us, and the Boston Red Sox certainly have no shortage of intriguing players they can call up once the calendar turns to September 1.

This is already a team loaded with young talent, to be sure.

With rosters set to expand from 25 to 40 players on Monday, September call-up fever is officially in the air.

With just over three quarters of the MLB season complete, it is a good time to take a look at some records that are on the verge of being broken during the rest of the 2014 campaign.

True, the marks we are going to discuss don’t necessarily carry legendary weight. No one is on the precipice of breaking Barry Bonds’ single-season home run record, for example, or of topping the 233 strikeouts Mark Reynolds amassed in 2009.

These will be a bit more obscure.

The 2013 playoff races were defined by strong rookie performances.

There was Michael Wacha, who went from first-round draft pick in 2012 to No. 2 starter for the St. Louis Cardinals down the stretch and well into the postseason. Gerrit Cole and Sonny Gray had similar impacts on their respective teams, as both right-handers reached the major leagues in the middle of the season and ultimately shined in their first tastes of playoff baseball.