The teams that will contest the 2012 Major League Baseball playoffs are nearly all known. The American League will feature the New York Yankees, the Detroit Tigers, the Texas Rangers, the Oakland Athletics, and the Baltimore Orioles. The National League will feature the Washington Nationals, the Cincinnati Reds, the San Francisco Giants, and the Atlanta Braves. Still to be decided in the NL is one of the wild card spots, a race between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

If the playoffs started on Tuesday you would have the following:

American League

Divisional series: Tigers vs Rangers
Divisional series: Yankees vs Wild Card Showdown winner
Wild Card Showdown: Athletics vs Baltimore

National League

Divisional series: Reds vs Giants
Divisional series: Washington vs Wild Card Showdown winner
Wild Card Showdown: Braves vs Cardinals

The only question that remains in the NL is whether the Dodgers can somehow get to the post-season. They've won six straight but their elimination number is just one, meaning that they need four events to go in their favor on Tuesday and Wednesday combined: in order for LA to make the Wild Card Showdown the Cardinals must lose both of their remaining games while the Dodgers would have to win both of their's. If you assumed that each game was a 50-50 proposition, the probability of LA catching the Cards would only be 6.25% (1/16). It's certainly not impossible (and the games aren't 50/50 propositions) but keep in mind that even if the Dodgers defy the odds, it would do nothing except force a tiebreaker situation.

In the AL neither the East nor the West are settled. The Orioles are just one game back of the Yanks while the Athletics are just one game back of Texas. Both teams in pursuit would love to avoid the Wild Card Showdown and winning their divisions are the only way they can do that. The Athletics are in full control of their own destiny since both of their remaining games are against the team they are chasing. Baltimore, on the other hand, need to gain a game on the Yanks in hopes of avoiding the Wild Card Showdown and they'll need help from the Boston Red Sox for that, the team facing the Yanks.

While the leads in the various races that are not settled are slight, with just two games left for all teams slight leads actually provide huge advantages. Baltimore's hopes are dampened by the fact that, according to MLB.com's probable starters, they will face James Shields (15-9, 3.62) on Tuesday. Oakland are at home but Travis Blackley (5-4, 4.25) is their scheduled starter and, on paper, he looks outmatched by Matt Harrison (18-10, 3.26) of Texas.

The races could all be decided by Tuesday's end which would give the managers of the playoff bound teams an extra day to set up their rotation in anticipation of the playoff games ahead. Things as they are, many teams - even ones that are in the playoffs - still don't know if they can look ahead to the divisional series or if they have will need to waste their best available pitcher in the do-or-die Wild Card Showdown games, both of which are scheduled for Friday.