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Ranking Top 7 MLB Contenders by Who's Best Built for the Playoffs

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:

  • Projected rotation: Pitching wins championships, and it carried the most weight here. For a team to be a serious contender, it really needs to have an ace it can lean on atop the staff, two more plus starters and a passable No. 4 who is capable of turning in a quality start.
  • Late-inning relief: Teams generally lean heavily on three or four bullpen arms once the playoffs roll around, so while a team does not necessarily have to have a phenomenal bullpen top to bottom, it does need a handful of arms it can count on.
  • Offensive firepower: A team can get by with an average offense if it has strong pitching and is capable of coming up with clutch hits. Again, pitching wins championships, but having a high-powered offense certainly doesn't hurt any.

Those three factors were examined for each team considered to be a contender at this point in the season, and the following is a ranking of the seven teams best built for playoff success.

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Poll

Best of the American League
Tampa Bay
19%
Boston
19%
Chicago
7%
Minnesota
10%
Los Angeles
17%
Texas
27%
Total votes: 270

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