MLB

As September nears, the Wild Card races are getting down to the wire.  After a blockbuster trade deadline, there are new contenders in both the American and National League.

Who can we expect to see at the top come October?

Ron Darling, Cal Ripken Jr., and Brian Anderson give us their thoughts on these races.

Let us know who you think will be on top in the comments below.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

On August 15, Reds Nation stands at the intersection of desperation and dismissal. After losing to the Colorado Rockies and dropping now four of their last five games, all to teams beneath .500, the Reds have fallen back to beneath .500 for the first time since July 30.

The Boston Red Sox have started the proverbial "turning of the page," as the team looks forward to its chances in the 2015 MLB season.

Boasting one of the deepest and most promising farm systems in all of baseball, the Red Sox can look forward to a bright future. It's made up largely of home-grown talent developed in recent years thanks to the excellent coaching staffs within Boston's minor league affiliates.

It won't be long until MLB lists the elimination number for each team in the standings.

It also won't be long until that number is zero for the Chicago Cubs. Not that it's a huge surprise for fans of the Cubs.

This year was penned as a rebuilding and development year long before Opening Day. However, what has gotten fans through a difficult 2014 is not the play at Wrigley Field but rather the future of the team fielded at the Friendly Confines.

Driving to work is the worst.

Spending hours of your life shoving a vehicle through traffic is tantamount to torture, but not knowing exactly how to get to your destination makes it that much worse.

This is Jon Lester’s daily grind, and he's using technology to help make his adjustment to life with the Oakland A’s easier.

The July 31 MLB non-waiver trade deadline is in the past, meaning that clubs can only improve their rosters through an August waiver trade. That severely limits the options on both sides of the equation.

And while the waiver wire is littered with players of all talent levels, what are the odds that the biggest names to have cleared waivers will actually end up switching teams?

Yoenis Cespedes has wasted no time making his presence felt as a member of the Boston Red Sox.

It's no secret the Atlanta Braves have played their worst baseball of the season the past few weeks.

The Atlanta Braves are 3-9 in August and have lost 17 of 26 games since the All-Star break.

The recent skid has put the Braves six games behind the Washington Nationals in the National League East and three games back for a wild-card spot.

Because they inhabit a playoff position at the moment, the St. Louis Cardinals are postseason contenders. But for most of 2014, the club hasn't played up to preseason hopes and expectations that included visions of a second straight World Series run. The prime culprit? The lineup.

With the New York Mets not doing particularly well this season, many fans are probably looking forward to the 2015 season by now. The Mets have a lot of young pitching in particular, which makes the future for the team look very bright.