I was about to post something agreeing with the "mediocre competition" sentiment in this thread, but, after looking into it a little more deeply, I think some of you might be underestimating these other teams? Cleveland in particular - on paper at least - looks better than some of you are suggesting, they have a similar pythag to the Twins' (pending today's game, obv), they have some competent hitters surrounding Ramirez in the lineup, and they've always got good starting pitching. Chicago has had a rough go with injuries, but they'll probably be better once some of those players start coming back. Texas is hovering just below .500 despite underperformance from their big fancy FA acquisition, so they might have some untapped upside. And Seattle has dealt with both injuries (Lewis, Haniger)
and underperformance (Ray, Winker), yet they're not that far out of it and they've won three consecutive series after I buried them in
my AaT thread. And as alluded to above, a run from one of those teams might punt the Twins or (way less likely) Houston in the WC race. I'm inclined to think the Red Sox are still
probably better than most of those other teams, but I'm not willing to make any declarations yet.
The Angels, though, are frauds until they prove otherwise.