Who will claim the final AL Wild Card spot?
Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jake Mintz and sportscaster for the Baltimore Orioles and ESPN Kevin Brown discuss which team they think will make the push to claim the final American League Wild Card spot. Hear the full conversation on the "Baseball Bar-B-Cast" podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
On today, Monday, August 17th, who gets the last AL wild card spot?
I think this is a very simple answer, actually.
Seven-way tie, seven teams at 81 and 81.
And we let them all in.
It would be a tiebreaking scenario.
We let them all in.
They're all in.
Yeah.
They each get an inning.
Open borders.
Against the, Houston Astros.
Everyone in.
Yeah.
Come on.
And whoever's, whoever impressed most in their inning gets to play the eighth and the ninth against Houston.
Who is the team that you believe in the least?
I think Minnesota.
Okay.
I think for me it's Texas, and the, the Cleveland strength of schedule thing is really compelling.
Like, that to me is a big part of the story.
The Cleveland strength of schedule thing is so soft, and I can't get, I genuinely can't get, like, #guardsball last September out of my head.
Yeah.
And I, and I, I've seen Foster Griffin pitch this year, and my God is that guy nasty.
So- So- I'm probably a, a little ti- teeny, tiny lean toward Cleveland in that respect.
The two easiest schedules, I'll also say the three easiest schedules in the sport left, are the Blue Jays, the Mariners, and the Guardians.
The Blue Jays' opponent winning percentage, like remaining opponent winning percentage, is 480.
The Mariners are 471, and the Guardians are 452.
Like, it is not a little worse.
It is worse by a factor of, I guess, you know, 19 percentage points.
For that reason, today, on this morning, I'm gonna pick the Guardians.
This strength of schedule thing is like, that's a lot of games against a lot of bad teams that aren't really trying to win, that traded away guys at the deadline, and if the Guardians could just get their stuff together, I think they have the easiest path to a spot.
