Cleveland Indians: A look at the final standings in the AL Central

The Cleveland Indians coasted to yet another American League Central title. Here is how the entire division ended up in 2018.

Those who Cleveland Indians fans call “haters” like to point out the fact that the team won an incredibly weak American League Central division.

Just how weak was the group?

Well, it certainly wasn’t a strong division in any sense. The Indians dominated all season long, but here is what the final standings look like after 162 games:

• Indians: 91-71
• Twins: 78-84, 13 GB
• Tigers: 64-98, 27 GB
• White Sox: 62-100, 29 GB
• Royals: 58-104, 33 GB

The AL Central contained two of the three MLB teams that lost at least 100 games, with the Tigers being a close third team, and was the only division in baseball with only one team above the .500 mark. The National League East was close as the Washington Nationals finished 82-80 in second place behind the Atlanta Braves.

It doesn’t matter what the rest of the division does as long as the Indians win. The front office spent years building the team to get to this point. It is not the organization’s fault that the other four teams are in rebuilding stages right now.

The weak division does take the drama out of the regular season, but there is plenty of drama to be had in the postseason. Cruising to a division title is much better than winning it on the final day and tiring out the team in the process.

The only thing that matters from those standings is that the Indians finished at the top. The postseason is its own animal and seeding goes out the window once it all begins. We all saw what 102 wins meant a season ago once October baseball began.