Figured i'd start the one for this forum, since i'm the baseball fan of the bunch.

The Sthanding as of Wednesday August 22 are as follows.  (i will only show contending teams here btw)

American League East Race:

Boston Red Sox leading the New York Yankees by 6 games currently. NY is the only team n the division with a shot at catching my Sox. The 2 teams have 6 more games to play before the end of the season.  The Boston Red Sox are headed up by Josh Beckett, a 15 game winner,  Dice-K, who currently sits on 14 wins and Tim Wakefiled who also has 15 wins. They also have a dominant closer in Papelbon who now has 30 saves on the seaon. The schecdule does favor the Sox now. They have a ton of games with sub-par teams coming up, as well as their own division, in which they've gone 30-16. Conversly NY's schedule is a bit more difficult. Their record against the East is 22-25. 

American League Central Race:

This one is up for grabs. Cleveland has a half game lead on the defending American League Champs, the Detroit Tigers. Yes i said the Tigers  This could go right down to the wire. 2 good hitting teams with great young pitching staffs and alot of confidence probably makes this the race to watch in the Armerican League. Keep an eye on the Minnesota Twins who could creep in if Cleveland and Detroit beat on eachother enough. They are only 6 back right now. Central Division like the rest will play eachother alot in the month of September.

Amerrican League West Race:

The LA Angels are holding a 2.5 game lead over the surging Seattle Mariners. Angels have been consistently good this year, all around. A well-balanced team headed up by 15 game winner John Lackey, and by great hitting led by Guerrero and Garret Williams. But the Mariners could be trouble. A hungry young team with good young pitchiing and alot of confidence.

American League Wild Card(best team whose not a division leader)

Seattle is up 2 over NY and 3.5 over Detroit. This will probably go down to the wire.

(i'm not even bothering to sort out the National League, the American League is all that concrens me at the moment.

There are 4 playoff spots open, and 7 teams with a legit chance.

The way the playoffs work in MLB is this way.

The team with the best record of the division winners plays the wild card, unless the wild card is in the same division as the best record holders. In that case the wild card plays next best team.  For example:

If both New York and Boston got in, and Boston currently has the best record, they would not play eachother even though the Yankees have the wild card.  They could play eachother in the second round but not the first.

As istands right now, the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, Detriot Tigers, LA Angels, Seattle Mariners and possibly the Minnesota Twins are the teams that are truly contending at the moment. Only 4 could go in. The month of Septemember will sort them out.