The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays lead the betting in the American League.

The post-season positions in the American League are far from settled, however with just over a month to go in the Major League Baseball regular season there are definitely some teams that are more favored than others.

New York and Tampa Bay are the frontrunners to win the ALCS as they appear to have a safe cushion to make the post-season even though they are tied with one another in the standings for the AL East.

The second place finisher in that division will likely get the American League Wild Card although Boston can't quite be written off in either races.....yet.

Boston are currently 5.5 games back of New York and Tampa Bay in the standings and Boston could be further back after this weekend as they have to travel to Tampa Bay for a tough road series.  The Rays are 39-24 at home this year and that means Boston could find themselves buried deeper in the standings after this weekend.

Currently there are only 8 teams who have betting lines open to win the ALCS with many sportsbooks as some times are considered to be too far gone to have much hope:

New York Yankees +162 (SkyBet)
Tampa Bay Rays +275 (Stan James)
Texas Rangers +333 (Stan James)
Minnesota Twins +650 (bet365)
Boston Red Sox +2500 (William Hill)
Chicago White Sox +3300 (William Hill)
Oakland Athletics +20000 (Stan James)
Los Angeles Angels +20000 (Stan James)

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The top 4 teams in the futures market are certainly looking like the playoff teams.  Texas have a sizeable lead in the AL West and are very unlikely to lose their playoff bid.  Perhaps Minnesota can be caught by Chicago but the Twins finished strong last season and they can be counted on to finish this season strong, despite the current problems in Texas.

The problem with backing either Minnesota or Texas at this point is that those two teams have weak road records and even if one of them makes the ALCS, that team would likely be facing a very tough road series against either New York or Tampa Bay.

New York and Tampa Bay cannot face one another in the ALDS due to a rule preventing members of the same division facing one another in that round and with those two American League East teams looking like the best teams this year, you have to like the prospects of a Yankees vs Rays ALCS.

Tampa Bay have the longer odds at the moment and that should be swaying value bettors.  There is no reason not to pick them over New York as both teams have the same winning percentage of .614 with simmilar home and away records.

Our recommendation is to back Tampa Bay to win the ALCS with Stan James as +275 has to be considered valuable with the Yankees being overrated.