If you have been following baseball at all this year, you would know that we’ve seen some crazy things. Things began with the Chicago Cubs provided goosebumps to every Chicagoan when they raised their championship banner and walked out the right field garage with the championship trophy while “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If you Wanna Rock and Roll)” by AC/DC played in the background. Now, things are ending with the defending AL champion Cleveland Indians breaking MLB records by going on a 22 game win streak. In addition to that, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were projected to break regular season records, are getting strangled by teams already eliminated from postseason contention. Lastly, the Minnesota Twins, who lost a whopping 102 games last season, are now entrenched in an epic AL Wild Card race with the Los Angeles Angels that has baseball analysts scratching their heads. Keep in mind we have not even reached October yet. Here is what to expect in what will be a wild MLB postseason.

Chicago Cubs:

The Chicago Cubs winning the World Series last season was a memory that not just Cubs fans, but baseball fans in general, will never forget. Even after the Cubs dealt quality closer Aroldis Chapman and center-fielder Dexter Fowler, people were still saying that the current Cubs team would blossom into a dynasty. As the 2017 MLB season kicked off, the Cubs didn’t look anything like a World Series contender. In fact, up until August, the Milwaukee Brewers, who just like the Minnesota Twins, shocked a lot of people this season, had the division lead. As of September 20th, the Cubs have a 3.5 game lead over the Brewers, which isn’t something to be completely nervous about if you bleed Cubbie blue, but a lot can change over the course of twelve games. Once the Cubs finish their series today against the Tampa Bay Rays, they will head to Milwaukee for a pivotal four game series. The Cubs will need to win at the very least two of those games to remain confident about making the postseason.

If the Cubs make it, I believe they have the talent to make a run in October. This year we have seen stars emerge, such as Ian Happ, who the Cubs called up from triple A Iowa earlier this season. The Cubs also added ex-White Sox ace Jose Quintana before the trade deadline to provide an addition to an already stacked rotation. In the Cubs last 30 games, Albert Almora Jr., Jason Heyward and Anthony Rizzo are all hitting over .300 and have been the reason why the Cubs are riding a current seven game win streak. The Cubs definitely have the chance to go back-to-back, but they need stars such as Kris Bryant, Ben Zobrist, Kyle Schwarber, etc. to play at their full potential. If the season was to end today, the Cubs would face the Washington Nationals as a three seed. The Chicago Cubs have never been easy to predict–especially this year–but as I mentioned earlier they are on a promising seven game win streak and could be dangerous if they were to stay hot entering postseason play.

Cleveland Indians:

We all remember last year. Cleveland was set to make baseball history. With a 3-1 series lead over the Chicago Cubs, it seemed like the Tribe would become the 2016 MLB champions, but the baseball gods had another idea. The Cubs came back and won game seven in extra innings, defeating the Indians and sending the city of Cleveland into a state of shock. One year later, the Indians are back, this time proving they are better than ever. Cleveland made baseball history a little less than a week ago after winning 22 straight games, the most since the MLB expansion.

Whenever you try and predict who will win the World Series, you never pay attention to the seeding. You look at what team is coming in at the hottest clip. Cleveland is playing the best baseball in the league. In the last 30 days the majority of their starting lineup is batting over the .250 mark, not to mention some of them are hitting .300+. \

Francisco Lindor has been a key part of the Indians’ success, batting .354 in his last 28 games. On top of that he has had a great glove at shortstop which is making it tough for balls to sneak by on the left side of the dirt. Pitching has also been a great attribute of this Indians ball-club, especially in the bullpen. In his last 14 appearances, Cody Allen has only given up a single run. Aside from that, starting pitchers Corey Kluber and Mike Clevenger have posted ERA’s lower than 1.75 in the month of September. That is only a portion of the talent Cleveland holds claim to. As of now, they are who I think has the best chance of winning the World Series.

Los Angeles Dodgers:

The Los Angeles Dodgers have had one wacky year. Nearing the end of August every baseball fan was raving about this team. I was hearing things like: “this team is going to break regular season records,” and “This is what a super team in the MLB looks like.” Well this is baseball, and I can assure you that the term ‘super team’ will never be used properly in the MLB referring to a single team in either league. This is not the NBA where you don’t even have to watch a minute of basketball to know the Golden State Warriors will play the Cleveland Cavaliers in the championship.

The month of September has been brutal to Los Angeles. After winning their first game of the ninth month they went on an eleven game losing streak, giving the Washington Nationals a chance to take over the number one seed in the National League. The season is far from over. If they continue to play like this, don’t expect them to make it past the National League Divisional Series. Despite their struggles this month they still maintain the best record in baseball. Clayton Kershaw, trade deadline addition Yu Darvish, and ex-Cub Rich Hill have been stellar this year for the Dodgers. Kershaw has had some problems with injuries this season, but when healthy, he’s been lethal. Rich Hill, on the other hand, has had some extremely impressive games–like when he flirted with a perfect game earlier this season against the Pittsburgh Pirates–but has also struggled at times. Yu Darvish has not had the best season of his career in the MLB, but nonetheless will be one of head coach Dave Roberts’ go-to pitchers in the postseason.

The Dodgers have benefited from plenty of offensive power thus far. Corey Seager and rookie phenom Cody Bellinger have tore it up at the plate this season. Seager is currently sitting on a .300 average and Bellinger is .025 below that. It doesn’t just stop there for the Dodgers. Yasiel Puig hasn’t been poor at the plate and has been a source of power for Los Angeles. All-Star Justin Turner has improved significantly from last year, holding the highest batting average on the Dodgers at .323. If the Los Angeles Dodgers want to win their first World Series since 1988 they will need to start playing like they did a couple months ago as opposed to September, the month preceding MLB’s playoffs.

Minnesota Twins:

The Twins are a team I closely follow every single year. Last year was awful. It was difficult to watch their games, even at the ballpark. None of their young talent was panning out, they had a -167 run differential, and pitching was brutal. Over the offseason the Twins didn’t do a whole lot in adding talent and had trouble trading anyone. Therefore on opening day they had a pretty similar roster.

About a month into a young season, however, Minnesota had the division lead. What did baseball fans and analysts say? “It’s a feel good story for them, they are a fluke.” Right after the All-Star break, they started to fall apart on a west coast road trip, ultimately convincing Twins GMs Rob Antony and Thad Lavine to trade away their closer and one starting pitcher. That seemed like the point where the Twins had given up. They fell back in the rankings and people began to forget about them. That is until early August when they went on a wild win streak.

Before you knew it, the Twins were back in the hunt and are now 1.5  games up in the AL wild card race over the Angels. The question is: With twelve games left in the season, will they choke? My answer is no, but given their inexperience it is entirely possible.

The Twins have to play the Yankees one more time this season (today) and the blazing hot Cleveland Indians three times before the season ends. Other than that they play the Detroit Tigers, who are in a complete rebuild, a whopping seven more times. The Twins offense has been unexpectedly phenomenal in the second half with players like Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario, Gregory Polanco and even veteran Joe Mauer tearing it up at the plate. On defense the Twins have one of the best outfields in the business and have a stable infield as well. Pitching may be their only weakness. In fact, they don’t have anyone in the rotation behind Bartolo Colon, who has been impressive. Out of all the teams to watch down the stretch, this is the team I would really keep your eye on.

Houston Astros:

The hottest team at the beginning of the year was not the Dodgers, or the Cubs, or even the Indians. Rather, it was a team that did not even make the playoffs a season ago. At the midway point of the year the Houston Astros reached 60 wins and had a 16 ½ lead over the second place Angles in their division. At that point, with Cleveland playing sub-par baseball and the closest team to them being the Boston Red Sox with 50 wins, they seemed like the overwhelming favorite to make it to the World Series. But as the year progressed, Houston seemed to make the headlines increasingly less while other teams caught up.

Houston is now in second in the AL, but come October, that may no longer be the case. Granted, they have the talent to be a World Series caliber team as the ball club recently added now ex-Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander to an already stacked starting pitching rotation that includes Dallas Keuchel and Charlie Morton. Offensively, the Astros are just as dangerous.  In the last 30 games, Josh Reddick has been tearing it up at the plate. He is hitting .423 along with a .473 OBP (on base percentage). That’s only a portion of their talented offense, though. Carlos Correa, George Springer, and Jose Altuve have all had stellar years at the plate, all hitting over .290. Houston will likely face off against Boston in the ALDS in what should be a thrilling series. One of my only concerns with this Astros ball club is their inexperience. Otherwise they could be dangerous in October.

Most MLB teams have just over ten games left this season, which makes for less than two weeks left until the postseason. A lot can change when those games are said and done.

Will the Minnesota Twins still maintain their second place wild card spot? Can the Chicago Cubs extend their win streak? Who will have the #1 seed in the NL and AL? So many unanswered questions will be answered in the next two weeks. One thing is for certain: History will be made.