The battle for the AL West title between the Rangers and Astros remains closely contested. Texas currently has a 1.5 game lead on their in-state rival, while Houston is 2.5 games up on the Angels and Twins for the second AL Wild Card. Fun fact – the Astros and Rangers have made the Postseason in the same year just twice, 1998 and 1999. They were both eliminated in the Division Series in each year.
But this really isn’t about the Astros or the Rangers – it’s about the AL West as a whole, and just how awful this division has been in the Postseason since realignment. Since 1995, the AL West has won a total of three AL pennants and one World Series (though the Astros did win a pennant in 2005 when they were still in the NL Central). No other division in baseball has won fewer pennants than the AL West’s three, and only the AL Central has claimed just a single World Series. Furthermore, the AL West has been bad at claiming Wild Card berths too – before the expansion to two Wild Cards, only three AL West teams made the playoffs as a Wild Card (though again – the Astros won two in the National League). The only division in baseball with less is, once again, the AL Central – which only saw the 2006 Tigers win the Wild Card.
Recently, AL West teams (aside from the Rangers) have been laughably bad in MLB’s Postseason. The Astros haven’t been to the playoffs since 2005 (a drought which could end this year), and the Mariners haven’t been there since 2001. The only team with a longer current streak of non-playoff seasons than the Marners is the Toronto Blue Jays, who are poised to win the AL East this season. The only teams with longer droughts than the Astros? The aforementioned Blue Jays and Mariners, along with the Miami Marlins. That’s not good.
To continue reading this article by Joe Lucia at Bloguin, click here.
