With the two league championship series starting this week and the expanded playoffs whittled down from 16 teams to four, it’s becoming clear who the class of baseball is. For the most part, these teams have been all season.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves paced the National League all year, while the Tampa Bay Rays held that distinction after scuffling early in the season in Baltimore. Only the Houston Astros, who responded to their cheating scandal by going 29-31, are the exception.
Each team, however, has an attribute that a team in the Orioles' position could do well to emulate.